#cos he just thinks he's a homeless human

[apocalypsegay]

the way disco elysium plays with and ultimately shatters the concept of "camaraderie" in the police and the military truly is So. Good.

it introduces you to kim who is this ideal of the Brother in Arms - you meet him and you know. he'd lay it all down for you.

you then proceed to realize this is a kim thing, not a cop thing, despite the skill that informs you about it being The Cop Camaraderie skill

the rest of the cops are not just unhelpful, they're cruel. they're a boys' club of toxic masculinity, homophobia and joking about how they abuse their power, like when jean stole mustard from a homeless man. if harry begs them for help, the greatest kindness the operator can do for him is pretend he didn't hear and cut the connection to save harry's pride. the more you put into this skill, the more the rancid underbelly of policing and policemen as individuals in this system comes to light.

and that's before we get into the plot-relevant stuff, how martinaise was abandoned by jean and co because jean was too damn busy trying to make a point to harry than do his fucking job.

then there's the bond between the paramilitary squad. unlike the cops, they're tight, a family to each other, and it makes them completely immune to reason the moment the Head of their hierarchy gets murdered. and this head of theirs, the most rational, most charismatic of them all, their leader, still was a monster who, for His Men and their Morale, saw kidnapping some poor girl and offering her like a human sacrifice to the pit of animals that was his squadron as a Rational course of action.

maybe there's love there, in a way, but it's the kind of love that wholly depends on seeing your circle as the only people deserving of life, and the rest of the world as insects.

and i think abt how so many other stories that try to be cop or military critical still fall into that trap of believing that the people in these environs are a Family doing their Best, that they got each others back and thats all that they need to get through this!(whatever plot event is happening)

and not that its like. a cesspool of keeping each other in Check or maintaining that Family only by Othering the rest of the world

[eir-trixa]

WOTTG SPOILERS AFTER THE CUT

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Can you believe Rick is validating me in my Percy-is-the-most-empathic-character take? I have legal basis but boi does it feel nice to have canon confirmation.

Second that book was short af I got the gist of it all while reading for like an hour.

Third, we addressed everyone else’s trauma. Percy’s still the group therapist LMAO 😭😭😭

Fourth, my son is such a good kid yall, this is why I lose five years of my life when someone insults or when he insults himself jfc my child.

Im honestly still processing and I have to reread the ending. Did it address Percy’s issues? Im going to go with “a bit” and call it a night. I mean, I guess it did? Percy got to unload and help Gale and Hecuba. We got an insight to how he’s managing to stay up and fighting and good despite all the shit he’s put into. Honestly the fact that he saw the humanity in Gale and Hecuba, that he saw their pain and grief and thats what made them trust him, that is so good. And the way he related to them. Goodness. And it highlights again how good a person he is, how much he feels and cares. I mean, he cried cause he had to send Mrs O Leary away, I cant with this kid-

I supposed what Im left unsatisfied with is how he still perceives himself as dumb? Baby, you survived San Fran for two months as a homeless kid without memories and pursued by different monsters who cant die. Youre the furthest thing from dumb.

He cant see this of course and while it was slightly addressed(?) by Annabeth telling him to his face that she doesnt give him enough credit, that he’s pretty smart, I dont think thats enough for addressing this particular issue. There was a time in the middle that he almost snapped because he thought Annabeth probably thinks him too dumb to know what to do next. Which I understand is frustrating to him. But to be fair this book made him look at Annabeth for a solution a lot. Theres also little comments about how when he cant think of anything - which is every 60 seconds apparently according to him- he looks at Annabeth. This doesnt help the co dependent allegations LMAO. Idk, I will die on the Hill that Percy is one of the smartest people in the series, not just emotionally but also in strategy. And theres, of course, nothing wrong with looking at the genius strategist for answers. Ive mixed feelings because definitely this is more of a Percy-insecurity issue than an Annabeth-being-bossy issue. But okay. One more book, heres to hoping we get more heart to heart on that front because Im 999998% sure she doesnt mean to make him feel stupid, Percy’s just got a lot of demons to fight but this in particular they need to figure out together. Still, its obvious how much they care for each other still. If only Dave and Hana did not piss me off at the start Id probably be a little more lenient about this.

Annabeth’s fatal flaw also makes a comeback, we love to see it.

And Sally Estelle Jackson. Now we have to find out wth is Percy’s middle name cause if Sally has one odds are she gave her son too. Trust me. Im Filipino. Iykyk.

Lastly, while I will forever and ever and ever support the trio from pjotv (theyre perfect and have done nothing wrong ever) I can see Rick’s injecting their personalities into the books. Im not sure if he does this on purpose or just subconsciously LMAO. Some of Grover’s dialogue is definitely inspired by Aryan. Percy being Lanky? Walker through and through, especially with his growth spurt lmao, and Annabeth’s confidence? All Leah. I can see what Rick’s trying to do. Ive no opinion on this, just pointing it out. I do love love love the live action. Just. I can see you Rick. You aint slick.

So there. I probably would need to reread the book properly at some point.

[mariacallous]

‘I don’t like it when a comedian just spouts his own political views and relies on the audience agreeing with him to get a round of applause,’ announces Ricky Gervais in his new Netflix Special Armageddon. For 60-minutes Gervais, clad in his usual black t-shirt and jeans get-up, tells jokes about dwarfs, gay people, ‘disabled creatures’, African babies with AIDs, Chinese people eating dogs, people pretending to be asylum seekers, people pretending to have ADHD, students taking micky mouse degrees, Greta Thunberg, homeless people (‘fucking horrible’) and the fragile and narcissistic ‘woke’ youth. Which is to say that Gervais just spouts his own political views and relies on the audience agreeing with him to get a round of applause.

Gervais’s portrayal of David Brent in mockumentary The Office (2002) was a work of comic genius. Brent, a hapless white-collar middle manager who desperately wants to be popular, cuts a pathetic but ultimately sympathetic figure. The viewer didn’t so much hate Brent as feel sorry for him; he was an uncalibrated fool but a well meaning one, hence the happy ending written for him in the Christmas Specials that brought the curtain down on the story in 2003. Gervais foolishly resurrected Brent in 2016 for a feature length spin-off, Life on the Road (2016), this time without the grounding influence of his original co-writer on The Office Stephen Merchant. All of a sudden the charm had gone out of the franchise and Brent had morphed into something genuinely tragic and repulsive, trucking in boring jokes about gays and fat people.

Expressing any form of reservation or note of disapproval about anti-woke comedy nowadays is to get oneself marked down as an invertebrate. For those of us who possess a strong enough constitution to sit through jokes that poke fun at the shibboleths of political correctness - provided they are actually funny - retorts like this don’t hold much water. But I’ve come to realise that such humour is increasingly sustained by a section of the audience being reliably ‘offended’ by it and kicking off. How else to keep the lucrative conceit going which says that rich middle aged white men telling rollicking jokes about asylum seekers are heroic truth-tellers saying the unsayable? These days Gervais’s adoring fanbase seem more enthusiastic at the prospect of upsetting their political opponents than about the material itself. And who could blame them: most of the jokes in Armageddon are hackneyed and stale - ‘Doctor, Doctor, I keep thinking I’m a pair of curtains’; ‘You are then’. Heady stuff that is indeed guaranteed to ‘annoy all the right people’.

Netflix describes Armageddon as ‘controversial takes on political correctness and oversensitivity in a taboo-busting comedy special about the end of humanity’. Yet those on the receiving end of Gervais’s barbs are hardly considered off limits by the wider culture: illegal immigrants, the homeless and transgender people are all regularly subjected to invective from government politicians and Britain’s overwhelmingly right-wing media. By all means make an off-colour joke about those groups if you wish: I’m a big boy and I know how to use the remote control. But you won’t convince me that publicly flogging these tabloid bête noires makes one a gutsy truth teller. It’s true that a disability charity condemned Armageddon before it was released on Christmas Day for a joke Gervais makes about terminally ill children. But it’s also true that Gervais is still on Netflix telling the joke, which perhaps gives a good indication of just how risqué this style of humour really is.

One of the biggest cheers from the audience during Gervais’s performance in Armageddon erupts in response to a fatuous joke about mobs pulling down statues originally put up to honour slave traders - another example of woke hypocrisy apparently. ‘He was a slave trader, pull down the fucking statue.’ ‘He built the hospital, should we pull that down too?’ ‘No, leave the hospital’. It’s certainly true that wealthy people have historically (and not just historically) tried to launder their reputations through philanthropy (and on this note Gervais enjoys boasting about how wealthy he is and how much money he donates to animals, who he prefers to humans). But you needn’t take a course in critical race theory to recognise that those who became uncontrollably rich from the slave trade might have set aside some of their tainted money for similar ends. ‘Pride and vanity have built more hospitals than all the virtues together,’ wrote the Dutch physician Bernard de Mandeville in The Fable of the Bees, his eighteenth century polemic against philanthropic hypocrisy.

It isn’t for me to tell a comedian who the ‘correct’ target of his humour ought to be - comedy is subjective after all. But then Gervais’s current shtick is of a piece with right-wing populism more generally, characterised as it is by a servility to the very power it ostensibly rails against. I’m no more required to accept Gervais’s assessment of himself as a brave heretic saying the unsayable than I am obliged to join in with the hysterical blue pencil-wielding critics who really do want to see him cancelled. As to who is currently coming out on top, Armageddon is apparently the highest grossing single stand-up performance ever, bringing in £1,410,000 for a recent show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Cancel culture indeed.

At one time conservatives and reactionaries would doggedly stand athwart history yelling Stop. Nowadays they need constant reassurance that they are still the plucky countercultural underdogs they imagined themselves to be in the halcyon days of their youth. Which is understandable I suppose. Nobody wants to be the angry young man whose waistband has inexorably expanded along with his list of blimpish grievances. ‘I think I am woke, but I think that word has changed,’ says Gervais. In other words it’s not him, it’s us. ‘No-one likes a white middle aged man anymore,’ laments Gervais at another point in the show. I’ve heard that one before too.

I used to enjoy Ricky Gervais but when I think of him today I always imagine some braying face demanding to know how ‘triggered’ I am by something puerile he’s said. This ‘type’ is seemingly ubiquitous at the moment: everything is geared toward getting a rise out of the libs and sticking it to the man in a way that doesn’t threaten one’s status as a servant of power (am I still allowed to say “man”? hehe - you get the gist).

The role of humour according to Gervais is ‘to laugh at bad shit to get us through it’. Which isn’t a terrible definition, though I suppose it depends on what one considers the ‘bad shit’ to be. I found much of the material in Armageddon indistinguishable from the endless bleating we hear in some quarters about the country going to the dawgs because of foreigners and queers and the young with their trendy ailments and political correctness et cetera. I can’t say I feel hysterical or offended by jokes about that stuff - soporific is more the word that springs to mind. Perhaps I should just be grateful that Gervais didn’t make an ‘Orange man bad’ joke. Maybe he’s saving those gags for his next Netflix Special when Donald Trump is President of the United States again. Important to laugh at the truly bad shit first though right.

[acourtofthought]

Somewhere SJM claimed that Lucien and Dorian would be friends if they knew each other and that’s always kept me hopeful. Dorian is one of the most interesting characters in TOG for me and he is also surprisingly slow to find love, even though he’s a rake and he enjoys the company of women. His experience with Sorscha is the same as Lucien and Jesminda (losing their loved one and witnessing their brutal deaths at the hands of their fathers). Both characters are fair and good despite everything else going on around them, they enjoy reading and knowledge, they are ready to sacrifice themselves, they are both excellent candidates to lead due to their innate sense of goodness and fairness. And even their cheeky personality is similar in many ways. Dorian’s access to his own powers was manifesting slowly in TOG and it kept trickling in with each book and I feel like we’re going down that path with Lucien too. We learned in ACOWAR that he sees magical work with his golden eye, we learned that he can track this magic very well. We also learned about his spell cleaving abilities that even he seemingly didn’t know (or hid from others) and we know from his time in autumn that his brothers felt threatened by the power they could sense in him from the beginning. I think Lucien might go through a similar arc to Dorian as he comes into his full powers and that really makes me think about how he actually might become high king. I love Rhys but Rhys is first and foremost for his own people and he is so attached to just the Night Court that I don’t think he would do well with representing everyone. Lucien is essentially homeless in Prythian, he belongs to so many courts and has connection to so many that I can see him do well with such a big title.

Add Elain to this mix. Her powers could be very useful for someone in her position if she ends up high queen with Lucien. They are basically an unstoppable safety net for each court. Elain might see visions of conflict and trouble coming their way, she could aid in decisions about anything, especially if she masters her powers and could look into the future for various outcomes. Her love of nature and travel would definitely come in handy. She would want to protect those courts. Not to mention her love for social events and her ability to charm people. Could you imagine her helping smooth things over between high lords just with her wit and charms? I know a lot of people think she’s going to become a spy but for me she is always more of a politician/courtier and her qualities would shine in such a situation.

I agree and it gives me hope too. Not only did she say Dorian and Lucien would be good friends but Lucien would be someone she could see herself co-writing a book with because of his cleverness. Dorian would be someone she could see herself going to the opera with, who wouldn't mind if she took a long time to get ready (and we know Lucien takes care in how he dresses). Dorian was a human with unknown powers and he ended up having unlimited raw magic that could be shaped in whatever way he wanted. She's also set up Lucien to be someone with unknown powers, a future HL as Dorian was King. I do think there are differences between Lucien and Dorian but those seemed to come into focus after he finally was rid of his valg collar. I think a little bit of that darkness seeped into him and he became well matched for Manon whereas Lucien and Elain both individually and as a pairing embody light. My vision of Elain matches yours as well, where Elain will make a difference, not sneaking around in the shadows spying in the quiet but out in the open, influencing others with her loving, kind and wise personality.

[hibiscesque]

Fanfic Writer Interview

@chuuyaspinkmotorcycle16 tagged me (<3) and I almost tagged her wrong here because she has the audacity to use a different username than on Twt.

How many works do you have on AO3?

Nineteen visible, five hidden! Hoping to get a few more in before 2025 pray 4 me.

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

Just gonna do the SKK ones because no one on here follows me for DC Comics or THG.

Post-Coital Miss (4,237 words) Oneshot, M - A (nonexplicit) fic where Dazai is That Dormmate who keeps the rest of the ADA up with his loud sex shenanigans with Chuuya and Atsushi contemplates the merits of taking after his mentor and jumping into the river after being chosen to confront him.

Less Like You (22,909 words) Twoshot, E - My scar sex fic—both of their scars, not just Dazai's. I don't really know how to encapsulate it in a blurb but it's actually not about the sex at all it's all a front for the feelings. So many feelings. (Too many feelings). Transzai because I love Twitter user ardenistired.

Supersonic Boom (67,502) Multichap, T, Complete - High school AU except Chuuya is the dedicated "good girl" student and Dazai is a delinquent "bad boy" truant instead of the other way around because you can pry that iteration of them from my dead, cold hands. Featuring Dazai's dastardly schemes, ultimate badgood romcom wingman Albatross, homeless Chuuya, and illiterate-but-also-smarter-than-the-teachers Dazai.

Places of Worship (8,250 words) Oneshot, E - Praise kink but it's also lowkey trust kink because Dazai enacts a dastardly plan to get Chuuya to break up with him because he realizes he's falling in love with him. Once again the sexytimes are incidental (but also very steamy).

nothing, the wind, the sky (64,790 words) Multichap, M, Ongoing - Started writing this at a lowkey dark time in my life. It's really heavy and honestly I'm not sure I recommend it? It deals with themes of suicidality, CSA, empathy fatigue, suicide survivor (the loved one, not the suicidal person) trauma, financial trauma, human experimentation/medical trauma, trauma bonds, codependent relationships, forced mental health care, and that's just what I can remember. It was originally supposed to be four(?) chapters but it has a plot now that's actually related to the events in BSD.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! They make me so happy and I want to express my gratitude.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I actually don't usually write angsty endings. There's only one up that's not hidden right now, Deliver Us From Ev—. It's exactly what it says on the tin. A traumatized Dazai with no concept of healthy boundaries and consent manipulates Oda into having sex with him on his 18th birthday. It's non-explicit, non-sexy, lowkey kinda brutal, and I've been told by commenters that it left them genuinely upset and a little disturbed.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Supersonic Boom. It was SO soft and cheesy I didn't know if I was cringing or melting as I wrote it.

Do you write crossovers?

Anyone who thinks they can write a crossover after Magic and Mystery dropped is just kidding themselves. /lhj

(No, I don't haha).

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No real hate! One nasty comment once, though.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. Porn as a vessel for complicated emotions to the point the porn is the tangential part. Next question.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

OMG Malaika reminded me about the thief website crisis of summer 2024 that was wild. So yes.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

She has a private Twitter account so I don't know if she'd want me sharing it, but a lovely individual translated my The More You Grow series of teen SKK shorts into Russian on Ficbook. Link to the original here and the translation here. <3

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I've done trades!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

The controversial trenchcoat man and the redhead he's definitely not in love with.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Right now, all of them. 🗿🗿🗿

What are your writing strengths?

I wasn't quite sure how to answer this one. I just write by applying what I learned through the osmosis of a childhood of reading books for 4+ hours every day in ways that make the brain termites happy lol there is no craft involved. I went back through some comments on my fics to see if there were any trends and the most common kind things people have said were "I like how you write the SKK relationship dynamic" and "I like your writing style".

What are your writing weaknesses?

Including enough description. I am a very, very dialogue and character-heavy writer because that's the part of writing I enjoy and honestly a lot of the time I forget I even have to set the scene.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I'm not opposed to it but I never feel confident in doing that unless it's a language I know myself. When reading other people's fics, I enjoy it when the writer is doing it on purpose to emphasize the lack of information or confusion their character is garnering from the words, but to be honest I get frustrated sometimes when there's a really emotional conversation going on between two characters and suddenly I can't understand what one of them is saying.

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Don't laugh. Shenny The Big Bang Theory.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

No ❤️

Tags: @moonsmessyart, @monkey-banana41, @chupenguin, @oswinaltava, @neontoad

[monotonous-minutia]

final thoughts i guess

you just walk into this production thinking it's weird and kind of silly. but then it just works? and it's funny how well it works. and you keep thinking well, eventually it's going to stop working. this opera is so Out There and this concept is so involved.

but it just. stays. good.

it doesn't run out of steam after act 3, like so many productions of this opera do. it fully embraces the weirdness of Giulietta's act. I mean Kayes' version of this act is like a fever dream anyway. why not run with it?

one of the things about it that really gets me is how it shows us Hoffmann's struggle with addiction and how it affects the people around him, particularly those he's closest to, in this case Nicklausse and Stella.

from the start it's clear these two have a rivalry. they both love Hoffmann and neither wants the other to be the center of his attention. but they're professionals and co-workers. they put pettiness aside. at one point Stella even helps the Muse write one of their songs. and when it comes down to it, when Hoffmann has hit rock bottom, the only thing to them that matters is his health and safety. they join forces to try and get him back to reality.

Nicklausse has been with Hoffmann in this from the beginning. he's there when Hoffmann takes his first illicit drug and watches as that one mistake slowly starts to pick Hoffmann's life apart. Hoffmann was young and naive and didn't know what he was doing. Nicklausse watched and rolled his eyes. he didn't stop it. now he has to watch as Hoffmann starts to crumble.

Nicklausse follows Hoffmann throughout his career. they work side by side as Hoffmann's success grows. as his relationship with Stella grows. Nicklausse watches. he doesn't interfere. he's jealous and heartsick but he doesn't know how to reach out, how to show Hoffmann this love and devotion he's had before either of them even knew. he tries, but Hoffmann doesn't see.

he waits. and he watches as Hoffmann's addiction grows. he's there the moment it tears his life apart. he sees the end of Hoffmann's relationship with Stella and the end of his career. Hoffmann falls and Nicklausse catches. he didn't stop it before so all he can do now is be there and love and protect.

but it's hard. Hoffmann is hard.

Hoffmann is ruined. he loses his job and the love of his life. he's homeless, bereft, and isolated. but Nicklausse follows. he follows as Hoffmann sinks deeper and deeper down. Hoffmann drowns himself in drinks and drugs until he doesn't know what's real anymore. Nicklausse tries to pull him out, over and over again. no matter how many times he's hurt. no matter how many times Hoffmann hurts him. because he loves him. he needs to be there. nothing is more important to him.

Stella tries too. She may not forgive Hoffmann for his earlier actions, but she still cares about him and she's a good human being. She taps in when Nicklausse is near his own breaking point. She tries to bring him back, tries to help Hoffmann step back into reality, realize that it isn't all over, this isn't the way to cope. people care about him and want him to be okay.

but he's too far gone, and she can't keep trying anymore. her health and safety is at risk now too, and she can't help someone who's refusing to help himself.

Nicklausse stays.

He stays and watches over him. he catches him when he falls and holds him when he breaks. he helps pick the pieces back up.

Hoffmann sees him.

He sees him but he doesn't know what to do. this has been his life for so long. he doesn't know who he is anymore and how to cope without the crutch he's carried so long.

but every time he reaches out Nicklausse is there. and he will not let go.

Hoffmann has hit rock bottom and there's nowhere left to go. but there's someone here beside him who's always been there. the person who's stuck with him through it all, who's loved him and protected him and never asked for anything in return. who stayed no matter how many times Hoffmann turned away.

Hoffmann has been fighting for his life. when he lets go of his ghosts, he can breath. and Nicklausse is there. he will always be there.

Hoffmann is ready to start again. he goes back to what he used to love. writing and creating. making stories. sharing his creativity with the world.

it's not going to be easy and he knows that. but he has someone who will always be at his side.

Stella is there too. She may forgive him, but she won't truly open up to him again. She wants to see him succeed, but she's chosen her own path. it's her own story. the part she plays in his isn't over, but it's not as big.

But Nicklausse is there and will always be there. he will stay through the fights, through the doubt, the pain, the anger, the withdrawals, the relapses, the effort, the successes, the joy, the triumph.

maybe Hoffmann isn't ready to love him yet. but the day will come. they know it will.

but the important thing is that Hoffmann is ready to live again.

and Nicklausse will always be there.

[brasteryakintosh]

So I recently played a decent chunk of Snoot Game because of how many people I saw who claimed it's the best VN ever and the fact it was made by 4channers to spite Goodbye Volcano High for having fair working conditions and queer representation totally doesn't taint it at all. I can confirm that those caveats definitely taint the game A LOT more than those fans make it sound. It's a good game if you're a teenager who thinks Family Guy is funny and has never played a VN that wasn't a boring slice of life dating sim where the goal is to click the right dialogue to get the sexy CGs with the hottest waifu. However, if you have any criteria for tastes higher than that bar, you probably won't enjoy it.

The entire game exists purely to be able to say it's possible to make a good VN in one and a half years without doing a bunch of delays, but Snoot Game is a straightforward VN made in the easy to use Ren'Py engine while GVH is being developed in the much more complicated Unity engine as a pseudo-VN/rhythm/adventure game with a large branching storyline. It's really not comparable. Even so, it's just a weak point to criticize a game for taking a long time to come out. Delays are frustrating in the moment, but once a game is released, it usually ceases to be relevant. On top of that, the point is kinda negated by the mere fact Snoot Game is bad. The early parts are downright repulsive and it only starts to become tolerable around the point most decent players just adapt to its shittiness.

On top of that, even from what we know about GVH, it's clear its story is more ambitious overall. GVH is about a group of high school students going to school while knowing a meteor is coming that will kill them all. Adults are making them go along like nothing is wrong while the central cast use the opportunity to grow up in the ways they wouldn't really get the chance to if they had any futures to think about. It's a really great premise with a lot of promise.

But Snoot Game? A human goes to a high school of dinosaurs and falls in love with a classmate. The twist? The human is a 4channer and his love interest is a non-binary "girl" who he tries to convince to detransition for him and if they don't, they become a homeless drug addict or a school shooter. And in case you are wondering, you can donate to the development team using Crypto. Oh and the meteor from GVH just doesn't factor into the story. Granted I haven't played through all of it, but even if it does factor in, the fact it doesn't come up at all for as long as I was playing is a seriously bad indictment of the game that it thinks its most promising narrative device should be taking a backseat to the teacher who looks like that fat dude from Aqua Teen Hunger Force (did I mention this game is extremely unfunny?)

And even for a Ren'Py VN, there's just a lot of better games to play, especially furry VNs. There's Adastra, Echo, Arches, Remember the Flowers, Burrows, the Smoke Room, and Where the Demon Lurks to only name those I've played. I legitimately do not see a single reason why one would enjoy Snoot Game unless they are queerphobic, hate the idea of game developers having good working conditions (because GVH is made by a workers' co-op), or have their sense of humor completely ruined by 4chan, especially for enjoying Snoot Game over the many other far better furry VNs out there. If you're a veteran of furry VNs and want to know how bad Snoot Game is, it's like every single pet peeve about furry VNs stuffed into one game with all of the most obnoxious bigoted jokes and outdated pop culture references caked into it that doesn't even have any furry hunks to thirst over, unless you're really into scrawny scaly dudes drawn in MS Paint

[starbornknight]

//Charity Carpenter was never fit to be a Knight, she would have destroyed the sword just like Murphy.

In fact, I'd argue less qualified to be a Knight than Murphy. She's spiteful, she parentifies her kids and is pretty high up in toxic Christianity and I'd argue it's only Michael's presence that grounds it out. If Nicodemus said he'd stand down and pleaded to be saved, and she thought her kids were threatened, she'd stab Nick several times over. She couldn't wield the sword of love, she'd never be able to wield a Fidelaccius handed over by Harry because she'd never trust Harry or anyone like him.

I like her in her complications, but I think it's wild some folks still think she was more qualified than Butters. Having martial training and knowing Christian Doctrine doesn't make you qualified, as Butcher has demonstrated multiple times in the series including a short story where Harry was targeted for Amoraccius and Michael made an example of the faith having soldier of fortune who did not understand Knighthood.

Butters's arc has continuously been about faith and trust ever since Dead Beat when the foreshadowing for how he'd wind up started (even the RUNNING was foreshadowed then, damn). He got perilously close to losing all faith because of a war and because he had Bob feeding him constant information about how Harry was going to be a bad guy (which Bob staunchly believes as a spirit with hundreds of years of experience knowing Winter Knights are ultimately bad people). So a scared human who felt powerless tried to be the example of a Harry he thought was dead and stepped up.

Made mistakes? Yes. And it got the people around him hurt. But I wouldn't say that he has been given everything on a platter. He's had his soul pulled out of his body, he's been shit kicked and slapped around, he's lived in fear during a war. Now he's taken up a weapon to fight in it instead of being passive, and be a leader instead of acting out impulsively.

And honestly, I think it's wild to me that he is one of like two examples of zero toxic masculinity (don't even come at me with any of that Andi crap, she's a grown woman and a werewolf and he wasn't a knight when he started sleeping with her, she would not have been manipulated, as fucking SHOWN when he was showing kindness to a homeless woman he cared about and Andi slugged her in the face for using the shower. If anything, she'd be manipulating Butters's loneliness) in a book series where people frequently criticize the sexism and toxic masculinity, and he gets objectively more hate whenever I go looking around for stuff.

Like I don't get it. Is it because he's short and conventionally unattractive? Has a dumb name?

Also Harry does kind of deserve to be called out sometimes. Harry's refusal to tell his allies that frequently bleed for him everything that's going on is his downfall. Could he have just explained to Butters he was trapped because of the parasite? YES. YES HE COULD HAVE. The same as he could have told the Wardens he slept with Murphy. EASILY. He could have told Butters "hey I wanted to come home and I missed you guys but remember those migraines we talked about before? I'm dying. I can't stop it. But I might be able to if I do this job."

That was all it would have taken. Instead Butters had bad information from him AND Murphy, his trusted fucking friends, and biased information from Bob. Of fucking course he got reckless.

Anyway if Butters doesn't have any fans it's because I'm dead. Leave him alone, he's amazing.

And also don't call him the gross one for the White Knight scene, Harry genuinely considered fucking Molly at the end of Proven Guilty and has popped multiple boners over her. We got to read it in 4k. Butters had one moment of 'oh my god I am so uncomfortable.'

And again, him dating Andi isn't gross. Is he older? Sure. But again, her and Marci are W E R E W O L V E S and are in their thirties. They can eat him if they want. Literally bite his face off. I maintain, Andi could easily have been the manipulative one there.

And if she wasn't, we can conclude with how vain she is (and literally her only defining character trait is Regina George, since she's either sex kitten, mean girl, or fucking full of herself when speaking on page) which just tells me either Butters has the best head game out of anyone in the series or he's packing a massive dick in those scrubs.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[tempestgnostic]

tw: physical assault

so i was walking in the city the other day when this piece of shit came up and grabbed the side of my neck before he kept walking.

we were on a dark-ish street walking opposite ways and he was muttering to himself so i tried to subtly give him a wide berth and didn’t acknowledge him ‘cos i was minding my own business and he literally swerved over to grab my fucking neck and then went on his merry way like nothing happened.

when i say that i advocate for human rights and dignity, i’m including that asshole, too. yeah, my initial adrenaline-fueled reaction was to pray that the next person he fucks with would curb-stomp the guy. and then i stepped back from that thought and realized, this guy—who was certainly on drugs or mentally ill, if not both—has probably been beaten down and tossed aside like trash by this system. this city fucking hates poor people, much less if you take drugs or are mentally ill. and god forbid if you’re homeless in this city, you’re just fucked.

i’m glad i didn’t try and start something with this guy. honestly i think i might get the logic he was running off of, even given the state he was in. here i am, dressed up in my little dress clothes from Target, walking down a gentrified street in one of the poorest parts of the city toward a fancy hotel where they sell $4 chocolate bars at the café and none of the employees can afford a room for even a night. here i am, a young 20-something white guy coming back from a restaurant where they’ve got hundred-dollar entrées, looking like i’m ready to attend an upscale tech seminar, followed by my parents who are dressed to the nines. and this guy knows full well that his neighborhood is being bulldozed so that people with money who look like me can come and eat lobster tacos and talk down to the hotel staff and treat folks like him like they don’t even exist—or worse, like an eyesore that should be purged from public sight.

idk where i was going with this, but basically what i’m trying to say is that my advocacy includes him, too. what he did was fucked up but ultimately i’m not hurt, he didn’t use any pressure and it was over in a second anyways. regardless of his reasons, if he even had any, if i were in his situation and shit had gotten that bad for me, honestly i’d probably reach a point where i’d want to do the same. looking the way we did that night, folks like us are a grim reminder of the reason he’s on the street to begin with.

[sarah-sandwich-writes]

Hi Sarah! Wish you the nicest of days🌸 For your ask game, can I get The Chosen One’s BFF please?👉👈

/it was so ridiculously hard to choose like oh my god. i hope people ask you about everything on this list. or else im gonna do it myself out of insatiable curiosity/

Omg hiiii you're so nice (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ) I got more asks than I thought I would but several are repeats lmao what can you do

The Chosen One's BFF is in the plot bunny stage. It's the standard hero's journey storyline but told from the POV of their best friend. They have to stand by and watch the chosen one be turned into a weapon and a sacrifice. All they can do is make sure the CO is fed and rested and soothed from screaming nightmares--and sometimes they're not even allowed that as the CO is whisked away, forced to trek and train and ration.

It's about the terror they feel every step of the journey, knowing the end, knowing there's nothing they can do to change how the story plays out, and staying by their side anyway. If their friend has to die to save the world, they aren't going to let them die alone.

Until the day the Wise Wizard steals away the CO to complete the journey alone because he thinks the friend is holding them back. They're clinging to comforts of yesterday rather than pushing ahead onto what needs to be done for the good of the world.

And so the friend races off to find them. It's not difficult to follow their trail--their path of destruction. Smoldering towns filled with the corpses of monsters and demons, awed and afraid townsfolk. And well... it's important that they find their friend, but they can't just ignore these people that are hurting.

So they help. They bandage the wounded, they cook for the homeless and hungry, they repair walls and fences and doors, they tend the damaged fields. And they talk. They tell stories about their friend, humanize them to these people who have only seen the raw power that hurt nearly as much as it helped. And they explain the horrible sacrifice they're going to make to save all of these people they weren't allowed to meet.

It's like this that the friend collects an adventuring party of their own--but rather than the wisest and strongest and fiercest, the people that join are the people who care too much to look away. They're people. Just people.

so idk it's going to be like my love letter to humanity i guess. I'll be taking huge inspiration from my humans are good tag.

[shoecrabs]

HoO things I have headcanoned/au'ed for my canon divergent version of the story (most take Percy and Annabeth out of the story lol):

Leo and Piper meeting before the Wilderness School. They became begrudging allies to friends while hanging out in the streets, causing mild vandalism, and shoplifting chocolate. turns out a born-to-be-public speaker with a healthy hatred for authority and a hyperactive homeless kid with an arsenal of scrap metal make an incredible duo against police

They were both worried about going M.I.A since they had no proper way to call eachother before being spontaneously thrown into the Wilderness School. then they got excited that they ended up together! Man, what luck is that :D (it was Hera lmao)

Piper met Aphrodite on Cyprus and finally had a chat one-to-one about everything and her place amongst the team

although Lupa raised Jason like a pup, she wouldn't let him forget just how human he still was. She'd always tell him to straighten up, or to use his hands rather than just teeth. She'd teach him to skin animals by himself with sharp stones. Still, she warned him not to be too human, too mortal. "human weaknesses" such as crying would not be tolerated.

Jason then had to relearn how to be human by trying to copy the members of Camp and interpreted them how Lupa taught him. The demigods didn't help him as much as they would've due to his parentage, so he was always awkwardly trying to fit in and adapt. He spent ages trying to associate names to facial expressions and it made him upset realising he didn't recognise that many anymore

Hazel and Gaia almost always fought for control over the earth. Hazel eventually pried the land out of Gaia's control just long enough for the others to escape a collapsing cavern & teams up with Piper's charmspeak with her power over the Mist

HAZEL CONTROLS OPALISED FOSSILS. I think she should have gotten the chance to summon opalised skeletons, especially since they were by the sea a lot of the time

Frank was always clumsy because his body was always twitching to shapeshift. Once he unlocked his shapeshifting, he'd instinctively transform to continue his stride. when not paying attention or too tired, he'd still stumble and trip

Frank and Hazel took over when Percy and Annabeth (without them it'd probably be Leo) fell into Tartarus. Jason advised them, but was glad at not needing to lead

All of them (again, without percabeth) learnt at least one way of supporting the ship when Leo wasn't available or too exhausted! Jason would send winds into the sails and navigate at air, Piper learnt a few of the controls and which ones opened up to secret storage and etc, Hazel was in charge of retrieving metal and noticing damages to the structure of machines, and Frank was the main strategist that ended up being really good with the ballistae. They still couldn't match up to Leo, but they managed to get the ship stumbling to its destination

Jason doesn't give Frank Praetorship until the final fight against Gaia, where the Romans have a chance to agree or disagree and all that, but he takes the position of team leader after Jason steps down (Hazel is his second in command + co-leader)

more time between books, arching within 2 years at least

also a possibly hot take: the sacrifices should've been Jason and either Piper or Hazel cause they have more thematic weight to them other than "they're the oldest and most annoying" or whatever the original reason was

[beardedmrbean]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Democratic mayor of San Francisco is pushing a pair of controversial public safety proposals on the March 5 ballot, including one that would require single adults on welfare be screened and treated for illegal drug addiction or else lose cash assistance.

Mayor London Breed also supports a ballot measure that would grant police more crime-fighting powers, such as the use of drones and surveillance cameras. In November, she'll face cranky voters in a competitive reelection bid.

San Francisco is in a struggle to redefine itself after the pandemic left it in economic tatters and highlighted its longstanding problems with homelessness, drugs and property crime. Opponents say both ballot measures are wildly out of step with San Francisco's support for privacy and civil liberties and will only hurt the marginalized communities the city prides itself on helping.

But Breed, the first Black woman to lead San Francisco, said at a January campaign stop that residents from poorer, Black and immigrant neighborhoods are pleading for more police, and recovery advocates are demanding change as more than 800 people died of accidental overdose last year — a record fueled by the abundance of cheap and potent fentanyl.

“They said San Francisco makes it too easy for people to access and to use drugs on the streets of the city and we need to do something a lot more aggressive,” Breed said at Footprint, an athletic apparel and shoe store that has been repeatedly burglarized.

While Breed's name isn't on the presidential primary ballots going out now — San Francisco uses a method where residents rank mayoral candidates by preference a single time in November — the two measures she's pushing are. They serve as an opening salvo for her reelection campaign as she faces off against fellow moderates who say her approach to the city's problems has been weak.

Violent crimes are low in San Francisco, but the city has long struggled with quality-of-life crimes.

Breed said rates of retail theft and auto smash-ins have declined recently, thanks in large part to strategic operations by city police. Similarly, police have stepped up enforcement of drug laws, including by issuing citations to people using drugs in public as a way to disrupt the behavior and an opportunity to persuade the person cited to seek help.

But she said San Francisco needs to do more.

If approved by voters, Proposition F would offer another way to compel treatment, by allowing the city to screen single adults on local welfare for substance abuse. People found to be abusing illegal drugs would be required to enroll in treatment if they want to receive cash assistance from the city, which maxes out at just over $700 a month.

Opponents say coercion doesn't work and homelessness may increase if the measure passes. Drug addicts are not criminals, they say, and there are not enough treatment beds and counseling services as it is.

A crackdown on drugs is reminiscent of the failed war on drugs that disproportionately harmed Black families, said Chris Ballard, co-executive director of Coleman Advocates, which pushes for improvements for Black and Latino youth in San Francisco.

“There are more ethical ways to address the issue aside from punitive measures, and that’s the proper way to take care of a community, to show true support,” he said.

Yet Trent Rhorer, executive director of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, which provides cash assistance and employment services to low-income residents without dependent children, said the current situation is in conflict with the agency's mission: to improve lives.

“To give someone who’s addicted to fentanyl $700 a month, I don’t think it helps improve their lives,” he said. “In fact, I think it does the opposite.”

Compelling treatment has become more acceptable in Democratic California, despite angst over the potential loss of civil liberties, as visible signs of homelessness and mental illness, fentanyl addiction, and unsafe street behavior surge.

Last year, several counties rolled out an alternative mental health court created by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, former mayor of San Francisco, to fast-track people with untreated schizophrenia and related disorders into care, and in March voters will take up a statewide mental health proposition that some say will increase involuntary treatment.

Rhorer said the welfare program for single adults — which serves about 9,000 people per year — already asks applicants about substance abuse, with about 20% self-reporting an issue. A data check with the Department of Public Health revealed that almost one-third of recipients have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder, he said.

The ballot measure would replace that question with a more rigorous screening test that would be verified by an addiction specialist. If substance abuse is found, Rhorer said, the specialist and applicant would agree on treatment options that include residential care, a 12-step program, individual counseling and replacement medication.

There is no requirement that the person be sober, only that they make good-faith efforts to attend their program, with the hope that “at one point a light bulb will go off,” Rhorer said.

The measure calls for the city to pay the rent of those accepted into the program for 30 days or longer to avoid eviction. About 30% of the people who fatally overdosed in 2023 were homeless, and more were living in subsidized city housing.

Besides authorizing drones, cameras and other modern technologies, Proposition E would reduce paperwork so police have more time to patrol. It would also allow police to pursue more suspects by vehicle, and not just in cases of a violent felony or immediate threat to public safety — a policy store owner Michael Hsu learned of the hard way.

Hsu has had his Footprint store broken into multiple times since he took over in 2020, most recently on Jan. 1. Police arrived as the suspects were leaving but could not pursue them because no lives were at risk. Hsu, who lost about $20,000 in merchandise and damage, called that discouraging.

“You’re sending the wrong message to these criminals,” he said.

[eruscreaminginthedistance]

Book recs based on stuff I read in 2023

Nonfiction

Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer (2003) - it's outdated by about 20 years which leads to one hell of a jumpscare at the end, but I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested at all in Mormonism, high control groups, FLDS, and the history of abuse against women and girls in the LDS; it covers everything you need to know about the ways the LDS church has cultivated a paedophile/domestic abuse culture and it's fucking haunting and it's the most upset a book has ever made me

Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufman (2017) - a really fun read; it's a collection of case studies of the real life Africans living or working in England during the Renaissance, with each chapter focusing on a different individual and what we know about them from parish records, legal documents etc. It's also a great primer on England's relationship with the slave trade and African nations from the 16th to 17th centuries. Also I listened to this on audiobook and the lady's voice is super soothing

Problematic gay rep

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (1956) - yeah okay turns out Baldwin is the GOAT of queer lit for a reason. I don't even like 20th century stuff but Baldwin can WRITE man I was sucked in! And David is the BLUEPRINT of problematic gay rep! I loved watching his awful decisions I hope he suffers eternally! It's a short and easy read and a classic for a reason do give it a chance

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite/William Martin (1996) - I'm not sure if I'm deadnaming Martin here because I bought the book earlier this year and it was still being attributed to Poppy Z Brite so I guess it's being treated like an author pseudonym now? I think? Anyway, don't read this book unless you're a disgusting freak like me who enjoys torture porn. This book comes with every content warning under the sun and I had an AMAZING couple of afternoons reading this book. American Psycho, Jeffrey Dahmer and NBC Hannibal had a baby and Martin delivered it; it's a raw, twisted and angry scream into the void about AIDS, homeless queer youth, homophobia and cultural stigma, wrapped up in a bow made of intestines. I went into this book hoping to see people get tortured and came out of it quite melancholic with a lot to think about, and I accidentally got attached to the victim oops!

The Charioteer by Mary Renault (1953) - I was gonna make a non-problematic section just for this book but then I remembered all the rampant femmephobia xD and Ralph and Laurie would 100% be bootlicking gays against pride. This book personally isn't for me - it's a lot of love triangle nonsense - but I think the tumblr demographic is particularly primed for gay World War II love triangle stories, and it's a softer, happier love story than my other recs. Would recommend if you can get past the main characters being pick mes.

Manga

No Longer Human by Junji Ito (2019) - this is a story about being a bad person and ruining everyone's lives especially your own lol; I loved the original prose version, but Ito's spin of the story makes everything so much worse and if I hadn't literally read a book about irl paedophilia the month before I think this book would have put me in the angriest and most violent place I've been all year. Love gorgeous art? Love mental illness? Love despicable spineless main characters? Get on this

Other fiction

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980) - it took me a month to read this entire book. It's so self-indulgent and long winded and contrived and the big twist is laughable and I wouldn't have it any other way! It's just some old guy playing in his sand box with his little monk action figures and it's charming af. Plus the concept of a monastic murder mystery involving several orders of monks will never not be fun, and I'm biased towards the book cos my guess at the very start as to whodunnit was right >:) would recommend if you like Sherlock Holmes and long long diatribes about medieval Catholic geopolitics

Garth Marenghi's Terrortome by Garth Marenghi (2022) - this one's just a bit of a laff. The horror comedy ramblings of a man going stir crazy during COVID lockdowns. You don't need to have seen Garth Marenghi's Darkplace to understand the book but it is recommended if you can access it. Content warning for explicit man x typewriter

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962) - it's a modern day (relatively) witch story! Jackson was writing about and for all the weird autistic little girls out there with this one. It's a gothic murder mystery about two co-dependent sisters who are outcasts in their village. It was a great introduction to Jackson's work

[todayisafridaynight]

I should be studying right now, but… do you ever think about how Arakawa didn't have to die?

Not even in the meta sense that it's RGG "tradition" to take faceclaims/father figures/antagonists out of the picture and that traditions should sometimes be broken, or that Aoki would've changed his mind, or that Ishioda or Tendo could've been stopped. But because Jo is the captain (and later second patriarch) of an organization specifically stated to specialize in faking deaths. A practice that originated in the Bubble Era years after Jo had already joined, and that Jo was no doubt intimately familiar with.

Like, isn't that why Arakawa was able to take that risk shooting Ichi? It just feels like things could've gone so much differently had Jo "accepted" Aoki's orders and "confronted" Arakawa with some kind of escape. Perhaps the Ijincho homeless camp would be off-limits, having drawn too much attention recently, but an assassin would surely know how to lay low for a while.

And maybe Aoki, Ishioda, and Tendo would've been undone by their own ambition anyway. And Arakawa could've kept his word and ran the security company with the pillars of the Tojo and Omi, while Jo could've been the chairman of the Tokyo Omi Alliance; light and shadow, opposite to their respective sons. And so many more yakuza wouldn't have been left with nowhere to go.

And hell, maybe none of it would've worked out in the end, maybe it would've all folded like a house of cards, but wasn't it worth a shot? Perhaps it was Yokoyama he who didn't think of it (or couldn't/didn't pursue it even if he did), perhaps it was Jo. But there's something so tragic about being so fundamentally opposed to lifting a finger in violence towards your co-parent and patriarch that you decline the opportunity to save him.

I wonder if the thought has ever occurred to Jo.

I wonder how much he regrets it.

UGH RIGHT IT'S SOOOO....

Like of COURSE I'm upset about Arakawa's death in that we lost a wonderful character and father figure in the franchise, but also it's cause it's just... for all the scheming Arakawa and Jo have been doing behind Aoki's back this entire time, Jo folded on this opportunity to get Arakawa out of Aoki's radar for good this time- or for at least the time being.

It's a testament to the humanity he convinced himself he threw away, and that's why it especially makes me want to scream. From our understanding, Jo is supposed to be very pragmatic and tries to deal with matters as efficiently as possible and generally seems emotionally detached from his work (of course we know that's not the case, but just from a surface-level perspective that's how it appears). So the one time Jo does show an ounce of humanity, it has the greatest consequence.

[cjbolan]

Up to Chapter 14 of Emily Windsnap and the Tides of Time. More thoughts...

Is Emily learning in school about Greco-Roman mythology? Her classmate mentions King Midas...

Aiden: Something about gold. King Midas or something.

Does this mean Emily is learning in school about King Neptune? Being a human school, would they get the facts right about Neptune? After discovering that Shiprock and Neptune are real, would Emily’s school have to change their lessons about Ancient Rome? I’m sure every school has to teach about Ancient Rome at some point, be it through history or English literature class. This also brings to mind my headcanon about Emily being possibly Greek...if she is, would this affect how much she knows about Neptune?

IF ONLY Emily had just waited to talk with Shona first before making her 2nd wish DX .....

I KNEW there was gonna be some catch to things in Shiprock becoming better.

There’s a recurring theme of small run-down playgrounds getting replaced by bigger playgrounds. Make of that what you will. Kinda funny because IRL the reverse is happening, with playgrounds getting downside due to safety/financial reasons.

I giggled at the mention of old mermen with “strong muscled” arms XD. Because it reminds me of this viral shot of JK Simmons:

Did Shona just imply Emily offers sexual favors XD?

Adult Shona: *to adult Emily* How did you get here? Still got that friendly guard on the border?

Millie’s future may be the saddest, if not second saddest, part of the series. Maybe even sadder, because Millie this time is gravely ill without any doctor nearby she could see. Again this also hits home hard: my neighborhood getting rapidly gentrified coincided with rising homelessness, more business closures, and more chain stores getting relocated.

Where’s Mr. Beeston in the 2nd future? Did he die of old age? For some reason I always just assumed he’s really old.

LOVE the bait-and-switch on who Councillor Windsnap is. Just like Emily I thought Mary P. was the mayor of Brightport. Makes sense as she’s known Brightport way longer than Emily would, she has the right persistence and compassion for the job, and Book 4 showed she's capable of bringing a peaceful co-existence between humans and merfolk. Until I was shocked to find out instead Emily became mayor. If Emily became mayor, then why didn’t she get her mom a better place to live than that shabby boat? Did Emily at least try? 

Are humans more feminist than merpeople? I’ve mentioned this before, but Brightport electing a woman mayor brings me back to something I noticed through the series. The last 3 books make me think human women have way more equality and opportunities than mermaids do. In the human world women can be…

Mayors (Emily)

Queens (Pirate Queen)

Captains (again the Pirate Queen)

Goddesses (Terra Mater)

Tribal Leaders (Ella though she’s technically just second-in-command)

Business Owners (Mystic Millie, Mrs. Rushton)

School Principals (Mandy)

Meanwhile teachers are the only mermaid authority figures we ever see . No hate to teachers but, compared to human women…mermaids don’t have many options. Also everyone working for King Neptune is male, does Neptune not allow mermaids in politics? Meanwhile on land Emily just assumed her mom is Mayor, which suggests women politicians are nothing new to humans. I can better see why Mary hated Allpoints Island. She went from a world where women can be anything, to a world where women can be only teachers or stay-home housewives.

Mary Penelope: …look at my life here. What do I do all day?  Sunbathe, comb my hair, maybe go to synchro swim a couple of times a week. This isn’t a life for me, Jake. I want more than this. (Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist)

I wonder how shocked Jake was learning how much more human women are allowed than mermaids. 

SOOO happy this time Mary P. and Jake are still together!!! These 2 really are my OTP for many reasons One of those reasons being the only couple that stays together the entire series. All the other couples either broke up (Emily/Aaron), started dating later (Shona/Seth), or met a tragic fate (Neptune/Aurora, Archie/Millie). And they’re good people unlike the Pirate King&Queen. I might do a later post about just Jake/Mary P.

Are Jake/Mary P. the next Shona/Seth? In this 2nd future they’re still in a relationship, but just don’t spend much time together because one of them is busy working for Neptune.

King Neptune is such a sly cunning bastard. Shortly after releasing Jake from 12 years of imprisonment, he has Jake working for him. In both situations Neptune is keeping close tabs on Jake. I guess to make sure he doesn’t break the law again. Unfortunately this means Jake having to spend long periods of time away from his family, which is especially cruel after he was forcefully separated from them for 12 years. Gotta both admire and loathe Neptune for keeping people in his clutches in such a clever way.

What do y’all think Aaron is like 20 years later? Because this book keeps mentioning him.

Gonna keep reading! If you’ve read this book, what are your thoughts? Always down to talk more about my favorite book series.

[thefiretongue]

A look at politics today

Via https://thefiretongue.com/2025/04/04/a-look-at-politics-today/

It’s a very turbulent world right now with a lot of what is going on. I hope to address a few things that I think our society ought to be focusing on. There is great divisiveness among people in Western culture today as many elections are very close between two opposing parties. I’ve been open to discerning the plights of both sides, but have also recently been seeing a lot of extremism and partisanship coming from both, and the moderate middle is becoming less and less. Living in Canada, I will address some of the issues we have here. As a Canadian I often try to not involve myself too much in American politics, but lately that has been very difficult.

I’ve been seeing MAGA being used as a slur these days. The very phrase ‘Make America Great Again’ is a very positive one, and something I’ve noticed from the left is that they take it as an insult to suggest our countries need improvement. Yet the cost of living is up, homeless camps are growing and buying a home is becoming harder and harder. There needs to be drastic improvements, and suggesting so is not out of line.

The recent violence against Elon Musk is very disturbing. He is a very smart and successful man who co-founded PayPal, has accelerated the EV industry with Tesla and established a space program that recently rescued several astronauts who were stranded for eight months in space. His idea for making government more efficient is something I’ve been wanting to happen for a very long time here in Canada. Government overspending is a constant problem, and now that he and a very impressive team of professionals is getting down to that, many have started to complain and accuse him of just wanting to funnel more money to rich people. That is so truly absurd, and the atrocious things they have found so far and mean to fix will be very good for their country.

On the right there are, among others, the anti-vaxxers, CBC defunders and fake-news decryers. Now I do believe those topics have basis in concerning truth, but the reactions have been a bit overbearing.

Vaccines have been known to cause deaths and very bad side effects, and being forced to take them or lose our job was a very big breach of human rights that the convoy protesters were in the right to be upset about. The illegal activity of some protestors was surely deplorable, and the peaceful people there deserved their voices not only to be heard, but to be responded to respectfully. “We hear you, now go home,” is all they really got, and the matter really was very poorly dealt with by the Trudeau administration. Many people have not forgotten that.

I haven’t been one to see the need of de-funding the CBC or decrying any sort of media as “fake news.” As a former journalism student I have great respect for what the people who work there do. There does seem to be a bias toward Liberal-leaning content, and Conservatives may be at issue with that. As far as its efficiency with government funds, that is definitely something worth looking at, but I’m happy if it could stay around along with the many Canadians who cherish it dearly. This seems like an odd stance by the Conservatives, and their focus I think should be to overhaul it instead of destroy it.

So far as the cultural war issues go, as a Christian, Donald Trump’s recent stance on combating ‘wokism’ is a very needed fresh breath of air for me and many concerned ‘pro-family’ groups.

Let me first address what is actually meant by ‘woke.’ ‘Woke’ seems to have taken on a whole new meaning than its original intention, which I’ve read was coined by the African American community and tied in with general social justice. Many people I know now simply pair it with LGBTQ ideologies, and it has been adopted by much of mainstream society as so. 

Many pro-family groups are against this new concept of what ‘woke’ stands for, and for good reason I think. The liberal left has come to condone and celebrate sexual deviance, while conservative and religious groups prefer to hold sexuality sacred and keep it for its intended purpose (the procreation of every person in existence), and to respect that process with great preparedness through a life-long dedication to raising a family.

In the past, sexually deviant behavior was considered mental illness, but many people have since sought to change that. There are still established institutions, however, that still warn of the health risks associated with those lifestyles. The American College of Pediatricians is still very vocal about those facts. Many others see what is happening to children, having irreversible surgeries done only to deeply regret their decision later in life. Many people simply know that DNA can’t be changed, and claiming to be something that you’re not is the very definition of delusion. It seems closer to a mental illness than a ‘solution’ to me and a great deal of other people too, I’m sure.

Conversion therapy has been banned and anyone who speaks positively of it outcasted. The truth is, though, that people have successfully changed from it, and many religious groups see that as a breakthrough in physical, emotional and spiritual health. There has been a lot of activism to discredit valid reports that prove the negative effects of sexually-deviant lifestyles, and there have very regrettably been some very negative consequences from some who have undergone conversion therapy. The positive testimonies are out there, however, and they are valid. Activists will try to discredit them, but they truly are triumphs in mental health that need to be respected and even praised. That is the hope of the pure and fundamental religious community, and their mission to fight the sin in society that many have come to celebrate. Much of the sexual sin in society leads to abortion, too, and the goal of the religious right is to protect the innocent body born through that sin.

Now we get to the trade wars. Trump is looking to strengthen the US economy, and immediately the rest of the world takes it as a threat. It’s making us as Canadians change, though. We are buying local, strengthening our own economies and mimicking the Trump administration with our retaliatory tariffs. Keeping our trade local is better for the environment, too, with less shipping activity. Aren’t the things associated with globalism what people at the G7 summit are usually protesting about? Now we have someone looking to keep things local, and it’s “elbows up.”

There’s a lot going on, but in the end we must each discern what is right for the world. I see more people speaking up about what is going on than usual, and having constructive conversations about all of these issues is important, but much of it is more-so on social and independent media than the mainstream news networks. We need to bridge the divide that is happening to avoid the rise in violence and hatred that is going on.