#for those of you who make posts like this on the regular

[uraniathegypsy]

To be Hero X Agencies

So I've been thinking alot after Ep. 4 (for....reasons 🥲) but opened up and brought attention of somethings.

One of them being that we get to see more of other Hero Agencies, glimpses of how they operate, and what each of their "brand" is for the Hero Commission.I'd like to dedicated this post on the info that we know and my on personal theories on them.

TREEMAN

First off, we have the Treeman Group whose CEO is Mr. Shand. For their employed Hero/Villain rooster so far has featured:

Nice

Moon

Wreck

Firm Man

Blankster

Lin Ling ( new recruit )

Translated desc.- "a hero agency that makes good use of marketing to shape the hero's personality" (@tbhx_officialCN)

From what we've seen, the mangers and staff take in precaution on how their heroes are depicted on stage, their meet-ups with fans, as well as crafting a boosting narrative for their heroes trust values to grow in the eyes of the fans. They are not above bribery, coercion, and stunt casting in order to push their quota ( as seen by the actions of Miss.J )

Also from what I've seen and gathered, it seems that Treeman possibly owns much of the real estate and city development in this world cause much of their promo features a lot of residential areas and shopping districts with their brand on them.

So maybe them hiring people to play the part of villains is because they are the ones who are able to rebuild plus reshape how fans live and consume.

FOMO

Up next is FOMO, which literally stands for "Fear of Missing Out". Their CEO seems to be this young guy named Zac. Their rooster so far consists of:

Loli

Ahu

Translated desc.- "provides ordinary people with opportunities to speak out and become famous" (@tbhx_officialCN)

So from their general description they seem like the mostly are in tune with what regular people are doing, and finding out what's new and fresh.

From the look of their office space, FOMO it's the most colorful and lively of the 4 agencies. It gives off what a lot of start-up tech, social media, and web HQs like Google and Youtube.

It's possible that most, if not all, of their heroes started out as Influencers or people that became heroes through viral moments on the web. Maybe their dark side is that their heroes have to keep coming up with more new, and exciting acts or content to please their fans to keep raking in Trust Value.

It could be more possible that FOMO has the same guide lines like YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch. ( Which would be pretty bleak ^^')

MIGHTY GLORY

Third, we have Mighty Glory whose CEO is the mystery guy right here. Their rooster, as far as we know, consist of:

E-Soul

Ghostblade

Dragon Boy

Translated desc.- "The ace hero organization Mighty Glory has successfully cultivated many high-ranking heroes" (@tbhx_officialCN)

Just looking at the main heroes they have, this agency mainly focuses on acquiring heroes that have a wide-ranged of fighting and physical skills.

They also seem to have morally gray code and ethics. Some not against pummeling or killing those that they deemed "deserve it".

My theories on the CEO is that he is collects and sees their heroes how a Roman Emperor does with Gladiators. They are valued solely on their combatant attributes and merciless displays, but are kept in line behind the scenes like wild animals or slaves.

DOS

And lastly, we have DOS. I have yet to find what it the abbreviation means, but this is their CEO, Mickey. Their hero rooster, so far in the show, consists of:

Queen

Lucky Cyan

The Johnnies

Translated desc. - "DOS pursues high efficiency by acquiring a large number of small hero companies to grow stronger." (@tbhx_officialCN)

So it seems like they are the largest AND most powerful agency out of the collective 4. It has a very...Disney way of acquiring more heroes to cultivate it's company.

They have means to tap into different markets of branding for their heroes.

On one brand, you can appeal to animal lovers and sell marketable mascot plushies, and on the other, you can appeal to pop star and music fans who want to see their favorite idol to succeed.

Not to mention they hold one of the strongest powerhouses to take the title of X.

O_O!!

Disney Evil! This company is willing to obtain and cultivate their heroes so it can become the most controlling Hero IP out in the world (This CEO is Steve Jobs and Bob Iger rolled into one).

So if their was ever a chance or motive for these agencies claim to dominance. it's DOS.

So I hope you enjoyed my on-the spot, collective analysis and ramblings on the agencies so far. I'm still holding on to some other theories and little details I spot that I want to post soon (hopefully a shorter one ^^')

[namgiville]

The Pitt characters as service industry employees since two people interacted with my last post about it

Robby is the general manager who cares a bit too much about his staff and a bit too little about the customers. Gloria, the owner, gets one too many complaints emailed to her a day, so Robby has a habit of randomly deciding to write employees up before throwing them away at the end of every quarter because he doesn’t want to deal with hiring new employees & he can tolerate everyone most of the time. Abbot is the other general manager who does not give a single fuck what anyone looks like or acts like. He just wants his staff to show up at this point

Collins and Dana go hand-in-hand as FOH managers. Collins sticks to the rule book but lets her favorites off with small warnings and says she’ll “deal with Robby.”Dana WILL make the crew go home and change when they’re out of uniform but lets them stay on the clock because Robby hasn’t checked over time sheets in a while since Abbot said he’d take that over

Langdon is literally a service worker to a T. He still has his benzo addiction but it’s the food industry so no one bats an eye and no one actually cares. He’s high as a kite working behind the bar but the old ladies love to flirt with him, and the barely-21-year-olds giggle when he says he’ll make them a shot that’ll go down easy – then he gives them a fire and ice because he’s a little mean. He walks out with $400 every shift and takes one too many smoke breaks. Robby loves him for business but could strangle him in the back office at least once a shift

Mohan is day shifts angel. The old couples eat her up because she listens to their stories and request her to serve them on their once-a-week lunch outing. Parents will hand her their kids to take care of and she DOES. Collins has to remind her kids can’t come behind the bar because she’ll keep them on her hip all day if the parents let. She knows every regular’s name and orders. Half the positive reviews are about her; the other half complain that they sat for 10 minutes without a refill because she was listening to an old man talk about his late wife. She sits at the tables to take orders

McKay works behind the bar but gives a shit-ton of discounts with Abbot’s manager code. Mom buying food for her 4 kids? 20% discount. Girl with a shitty boyfriend who doesnt let her order a burger? McKay puts in the burger and says the kitchen messed up on another order and “would you like this on the house? Those salads never fill me up.”

Mel hosts because Robby thinks she’s a good face to see first. She runs the rotation like the navy and kindly tells people they can’t have a booth because it’s Mohan’s turn and she has all-chairs. No one really gets mad at her. Langdon brings fries to the host stand when he’s supposed to be making drinks & lets her help with liquor orders. She shadows as a bar back on busy nights because she’s very good at her counts & never under or over pours. Someone tells her the old fashion she made was too strong and she (kindly but bluntly) tells them exactly how an old fashion is made. She’s never late for her shifts and clocks in exactly on time

Santos comes in late repeatedly but she’s fast as hell at everything she does. She used to serve but would deliberately give bad service to men she thought were rude or off-putting. She gets moved to expo and no order is ever sent out wrong if she can help it. Plating looks immaculate every time. Sometimes she bartends on weekends when the college kids overtake the local bars & restaurants & pushes Langdon out the way at least once an hour, literally. They’ve gotten into screaming matches in front of everyone & it gets recorded once. Robby doesn’t schedule them together if he can help it. Santos hits her JUUL in the walk-in when she has to change kegs because Landon claims it messes with his back when he has to lift them. She thinks he’s a loser

Whitaker is the newest hire along with Javadi. He constantly spills drinks and drops food in front of guests. He’s really really good at closing side-work though and does all of the girls silverware rolls because they call him cute.

Javadi hosts with Mel during the week and works alone on weekends up front. People get mad at her because she doesn’t really seem to “care” that she can’t sit their party of 40, and no, they didn’t call ahead to reserve. She plays favorites with rotations. Mateo gets tables with auto-grat. Mohan gets families with kids. Whitaker gets the old ladies who smell like stale cigarettes and Chanel No. 5 because it’s fun to watch him squirm. She exclusively tells cranky old men that Langdon will turn the news on for them if they sit at the bar. Sometimes she gets singled-out by the crew because her mom is a co-owner but they realize she just wants to make her money and go so they start inviting her for drinks after shift

Princess and Perlah are regulars who sit at the bar, know all the employee drama, & talk shit about Langdon because it’s funny to watch him argue with the old men who want to change the TVs

[furiousflowerdestiny]

Hey, why are you so filled with hate and annoyance at everything? Genuine question

I decided to take a look at your blog, thinking maybe this is a one time thing but no, you're whole blog is filled with complaints.

Is it a rage bait thing? Or something. I hope so cause it can not be healthy to be angry at everything all the time.

Fandom is supposed to be a fun thing but you don't seem to be enjoying it here. Do you need to talk or rant about something? Let off some steam?

I'm not trying to sound like rude or anything I'm like genuinely worried but of course you can just ignore me. I'm still a little hyped up on my emotions rn sorry

will you genuinely accept the answer i give you or will you dig your heels in and refuse to see that batfam fans are actively making it impossible for fans of other dc characters to enjoy their time here and make friends?

i came into the dc fandom admittedly from non-comic sources, panda redd on tiktok! it was a lot of fun and i also do still enjoy his videos from time to time. i also read wayne family adventures and those were fun too but then i decided to read the actual comics and i started noticing something

panda redd was a liar and wayne family adventures gutted the entire batfam into something that was totally unrecognizable. i also started to notice how batfam fandom just behaves in general and it really left a bad taste in my mouth because i found i really liked other characters!

like the fandom likes to portray the batfam as more intelligent than everyone else in dc, that they have total power of everyone, batman is a fascist that hates metas and somehow can kick people out of gotham, they all can destroy all other characters easily, they all have 'backup plans' and everyone else in dc is just a support character with no personality other than to make the bats look better somehow

green lanterns for some reason in particular compared to the bats are just people there to be annoying and to get punched. supers are only relevant if they are a love interest, and they are so stupid they can't solve mysteries when clark is an investigative reporter and kon is a genius. amazons can't do anything at all and need a bat to teach them how to 'behave like humans' when diana is a diplomat. speedsters are just hyper adhd poster children who also are too stupid to solve anything on their own and can't tell the difference between robins when every single one of them is very very smart, like barry who is a scientist

and it is everywhere

you cannot escape it

it's not a 'don't like don't read' sort of thing because it is unavoidable

imagine seeing your favorite character's tag constantly filled with posts that say they suck, and if you say 'hey wait!' you're suddenly called a 'mean gatekeeper who hates fun!'

you cannot talk reason to people perpetuating this because 'it's just a JOKE' but some people actually legitimately believe these things

i had someone tell me to my face that wonder woman cannot handle a serial killer and batman needs to help her and it was not a joke they genuinely believed this. they believed wonder woman could not handle a regular serial killer with no powers

i have had people tell me that jason todd can just shoot bart allen at his top speed and beat him

it's not just a joke anymore when people are using these tropes and ideas to put down other characters to make bats look better

why do you need to do this? are the bats not cool enough on their own? you don't need to perpetuate this fandom trend to enjoy bats. you don't need to dumb-down characters and you don't need to make batman a fascist unironically as a 'joke'

im not filled with hate and annoyance at everything, just 'fans' making the fandom space hostile to every other family than the bats

sure if you love bats none of this is a problem bc they aren't getting mocked all the time and everyone loves it

how can i possibly argue against this when so many people find nothing wrong with it because the batfam fandom is so huge it makes all other fans so small comparatively?

it is like fighting people using ai and i am so tired of defending the truth, it's not that great

[thesoftgirlguide]

A Guide To Guarding Your Mind 𐙚⋆°🦢｡⋆♡

Protecting Your Energy from Outside Limiting Beliefs

Hey loves, it’s been a while…

Life got a little loud, and I had to take a step back to realign, recharge, and reconnect. But I missed you. And I’m so happy to say: we’re back to regular programming.

If you’ve been waiting for another chapter in A Soft Girl’s Guide to Life, thank you for your patience. Today’s post is one that I’ve been thinking about for a while now. So let’s get into it.

────୨ৎ──── ────୨ৎ──── ────୨ৎ───

I always thought the hardest part of rejecting limiting beliefs was fighting the ones inside me. You know, those sneaky thoughts that try to convince you you’re not worthy of the life you want? But lately, I’ve been realizing there’s another layer no one really talks about. What do you do when the limiting beliefs are coming from someone and something else? And worse, when they’re being pushed on you?

Last week, I found myself in a conversation that honestly left me stunned. A coworker asked me what advice I’d give someone if their husband cheated. Without thinking twice, I said, “Leave. A cheating man is undeserving of her.”

Apparently, that was the wrong answer. He berated me, telling me that meant I was against love, that women should fight for their marriages, and that if it was “that easy” to walk away, then it clearly wasn’t love to begin with.

But I couldn’t help but ask: Why should the same love that didn’t stop him from cheating be the reason she has to fight? Why didn’t he fight his urges? Why is the burden always on women to forgive and “make it work?”

Another coworker—a woman this time—jumped in. She’s married. And she was so convinced that cheating is “normal.” She’s already accepted that she will never be “enough,” that at some point, her husband will get bored and go looking for whatever she lacks. And for some reason, she really thought I should adopt that same mindset.

She wasn’t just sharing her experience. She was trying to push her limiting beliefs onto me. She wanted me to settle for less because she already has.

⋆˚࿔ To you, dear reader 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

Just because someone else has accepted a belief as truth doesn’t mean you have to. Not every opinion is meant for your spirit. Not every mindset belongs in your mind.

We talk a lot about mindset work as something that starts and ends within us. But let’s not forget, new beliefs are often born from what we allow ourselves to absorb. If someone keeps repeating that you’re not enough… that relationships must come with pain… that dreams are unrealistic… and you don’t actively reject it, those words start to take root.

This is how other people’s limiting beliefs slowly become your own.

And that’s why you have to be intentional. Intentional about what you accept. Intentional about the people you spend time with. Intentional about what conversations you allow to take up space in your day, and more importantly, your energy.

It’s okay to step away. It’s okay to go quiet in a room that no longer feels safe for your spirit. It’s okay to not explain yourself. You do not have to argue. You do not have to convince someone who’s already settled for less that more is possible.

Protecting your mind is part of manifestation.

You can’t build your dream life while entertaining voices that don’t believe it’s even possible.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

If you’ve ever felt like the only one refusing to settle… the only one protecting your peace… the only one rewriting what love, life, and worthiness look like—just know, you’re not alone anymore.

I created a community for women just like you: women who feel deeply, love intentionally, and are done letting the world harden them. Join us now.

[eri-pl]

@edennill I was thinking more about what you said about Valarin grammar, and of course you were very right!

Of course it would be very irregular, because complexity of meaning.

The relationship between "see" and "have seen" is maybe same enough as "hear" and "have heard", but very different from, say, "forge" and "have forged". They'd have a lot of tenses, some existing only for one or a few verbs. The elven scholars would group them into larger groups like "past simple", "past perfect" etc just with irregular forms, but the Ainur would say "No! No! those are different!"

And for other verb grammar it's even stranger: there would be no clear table of [person x number x maybe gender x honorific? x tense x...]

Sure, for some there would be. The categories that incarnates have would mostly have the table structure (person x genders x number x tense), but surely there are future tenses that Elves can do and Men can't (...let's not even begin on all the more transcendental tenses, but Men also have a tense of "finished for good" that's likely never used for Elves, but maybe Feanor...).

But most of the language is less regular-ish:

There is a number/gender for a married couple as a whole in particular.

Each Vala has their separate honorific, because each has such a different relationship with their Maiar. Of course you can't have those forms in plural, or, for example, Aulë's honorific verb forms in feminine grammatical gender.

Inclusive "we", exclusive "we", "I'd love you to be included if you want"-"we",… A ton of them. And the uncertain/wishful forms are obviously only for future tenses, because in the past it's either inclusive, exclusive, or probably "You too, but in a different way" and some others… [the XKCD geologists post came to my mind]

And many, many other things like this. And don't even get me started on the stranger parts.

And I still (even more than before) hold to the HC that Mairon wanted to make it regular at some point.

But now it's clear to me that it was late, it was when he was already falling. Because when you have a language that's irregular and complex to match the complexities of it all, and someone wants to force it into tables, and that's bad... Oh, it fits so well! It fits with Tolkien's attitude of "who pulls a thing apart in order to understand it, is dumb".

He would try to do hyper-regular grammar in Black Speech.

And I agree, Fefe learned to use the more normal parts well.

Fingolfin just spoke Quenya, not willing to do another thing in which he was inferior to his (half!) brother. Finarfin learned to use the normal parts not as well as Feanor, but still well, and then ignored it for most of the time anyway, and just said things in whichever way felt right, resulting in a (rock-opera-style) wild mix of brilliant ideas (that reinforced the Valar's belief that the Elves know things well and need no explanations) and absolute trash (mostly politely ignored).

BTW you'd think, maybe, that it was like: Manwë made the words for air-related things, Ulmo for water etc, but no. Everyone else made words for various kinds of wind and Manwë was like "But those two are very different, you can't out them in the same category!" and similarly for the other Valar.

The more someone knows a thing, the more difficult it is to put it into categories— no, that's not fully true, either. Categories and words do have merit, because they allow for narratives and parables and literary devices and many things like that.

But also, language is a simplification of the world, not the world itself, so the closer someone is to comprehending a part of the word, the less language-based it would be, or at least the more nuanced and bigger the language, I think.

Somehow, those both are true.

…still, I do think that Manwë complained about doubted the words for winds, and Ulmo for various water phenomenons.

[pale-opal]

Hear Me Out:

I know that image and what I'm about to say has a chance of being incredibly niche, because I have no idea how much overlap there is between the Homestuck and Mega Man fandoms. But if there's anything I've learned from the internet, it's that no matter what fandom you're in, it's almost guaranteed that someone in said fandom has read Homestuck before. So I think someone out there will understand the rant I'm about to go on. But for everyone who hasn't read Homestuck before, here's a quick explanation: Homestuck is a webcomic that was written and published by a man named Andrew Hussie. It ran from 2009-2016. It follows the misadventures of four kids as they play a game called Sburb with the help of twelve other kids known as "trolls." Together, they go on a quest to complete the game, as the initiation of it has caused the world to end (so even if they wanted to quit, they couldn't. Whoops). It is currently available to read on mspaintadventures.com, however I do NOT recommend reading it if you are a minor, or if you have sensitivity to content that contains violence, strong language, etc. - There were also two (technically one?) epilogues produced afterward, as well as a sequel called "Homestuck^2". - The disclaimer above applies to those works as well.

Okay. Now that I've explained what Homestuck is, let's get into why I put these four Doctors in the squares that I did.

Dr. Cossack: Has read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - He just seems like the kind of man who casually knows a lot about a lot of things. - A "nerd," if you will. - I can see him reading this in college and subsequently getting totally invested. - He relates to John Egbert (one of the four kids I mentioned earlier) on a personal level. - He did not like the epilogues. - He likes Homestuck^2, though. Dr. Light: Has Read Homestuck, Doesn't Know What Homestuck Is - I imagine that Light was introduced to Homestuck through Cossack while they were in college. - Like, what if Light got sick at some point, and Cossack came over and showed him this random webcomic he found in an attempt to make him feel better, only for Light to wake up the next day, convinced the whole thing was a fever dream? - Cut to many years later, after the birth of Proto Man. - Light and Cossack are having a conversation on the phone: - Cossack: "Hey, Thomas. Do you remember Homestuck?" - Light: "...Homestuck?" - Cossack: "You know, that webcomic I showed you when you got the flu back in college?" - Light: "I'm not sure I-" - Cossack: "The one with the little gray people?" - Light: "Little gray- wait. Wait, that was real?!" - He has not read the epilogues or Homestuck^2. Dr. LaLinde: Has Not Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - I think that Dr. Cossack would go on many coffee-fueled 2 a.m. rants to her during last-minute attempts to finish projects on time when the two of them were in college. - LaLinde would always listen respectfully, and as a result knows the entire lore behind Homestuck despite never reading it. - One day, she decided to give it a go. Here's how that went: - LaLinde: "Okay, let's see here- what? Eight thousand (8000) pages? Where am I going to find the time to read all of that?" - And so, she has to this day never read the darn thing. Dr. Wily: Has Not Read Homestuck, Does Not Know What Homestuck Is - The reasoning behind this is simple: he just couldn't get into it. - Dr. Cossack tried several times while they were in college to convince him to read it, but it sounded really convoluted to him. - Dr. Light tried to get him to read it before the whole "Dr. Wily becomes evil and takes over the world" thing after he remembered what it was. - That didn't work either. - Plus, the whole thing just seemed too long. - He eventually just forgot it existed once Light stopped trying to get him to read it. But here's something else about the Doctors: they all had kids. Kids who all grew up with different levels of parental involvement. Kids who would've probably heard their parents talk about this strange little webcomic at one time or another. Which brings me to my next point:

Blues: Has Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - I imagine that he heard the aforementioned phone call between Light and Cossack, and asked Dr. Light about what they were talking about. - Light straight up tells him that he's not allowed to read it. - Blues accepts this. - Cut to Blues' life after he runs away from home. He's at the library. - He's also in the midst of his "I hate my dad" arc, and as a result is more than willing to go and read this comic Dr. Light told him was off-limits. - He spends a whole day reading the webcomic, its epilogues, and its sequel. - He is there from the time the library opens to the time it closes. - And once everything is said and done, he is a changed man. - His favorite character is Dave Strider. - He also used to like Dirk Strider and Jane Crocker, but then he read the epilogues. Bass: Has Read Homestuck, Doesn't Know What Homestuck is - Bass was just minding his business, until he finds Proto Man broke into his house... again. - I like to think Blues breaks into Wily Fortress sometimes, just because he can. As a treat. - And to visit any Wilybots he's friends with. - He goes to confront Blues, only to find him in the midst of his third reread of Homestuck. - He asks what he's doing. - Blues tells him to pull up a chair. - He starts the reread over so that Bass can understand what's going on. - Bass, too, ends up a changed man. Even if he has no idea what he just read. - His favorite character is Karkat Vantas. - He made a trollsona (basically a troll OC), but has never told a living soul about it. - Also, he will never admit it, but "[S] Game Over" messed him up on an emotional level (if you don't know what "[S] Game Over" is, don't worry about it. Don't look it up. It's okay. Just forget I said anything). Tempo: Has Not Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - Quake Woman has not read Homestuck for the same reason her mother hasn't read it: She's simply too busy. - Blues tries to convince her to read it, though. - But here's the thing: Vesper Woman HAS read it... but she just thought it was just alright. This leads to conversation like this happening: - Vesper: "Don't listen to him, Tempo. It's okay at best." - Blues: "..." - Blues: "...would you like to elaborate on that?" - They get into arguments about different aspects of the plot a LOT. - Tempo just listens quietly while she works. - Out of curiosity, she ended up looking it up one day when she had free time, and ended up stumbling across Hiveswap instead. - Hiveswap is a spin-off game that takes place in Homestuck's universe. The first Act was released in 2017, and the second was released in 2020. - I will admit that I haven't played Hiveswap, so I'm not sure if the disclaimer I provided for Homestuck applies here. Kalinka Cossack: Has Never Read Homestuck, Does Not Know What Homestuck Is - My reasoning behind this is even more simple than Dr. Wily's: - Dr. Cossack does not let her know that Homestuck exists in an effort to keep her innocence in tact. - That's it. That's the reasoning. You can all go home n-. - ...wait. Is that ANOTHER image down there?

You see, there's one more set of characters that I want to discuss in this long, long post. Characters that wouldn't be influenced by their parents, meaning that whether or not they've read Homestuck would be more up to happenstance:

...I can explain.

Zero: Has Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - Part of the reason I put him here is because he ended up being the opposite of what Wily wanted him to be. He wanted a ruthless killing machine, and instead he got someone who helps save the world on multiple occasions. So why not have him be the opposite of his creator in Homestuck knowledge as well? - (Although if you think about it, Zero is technically a ruthless killing machine, but that's not what we're here to talk about). - Another other part of the reasoning is that I thought it was funny. - Zero had trouble getting invested until Act 5. - After he reached that point, he was locked in. - He sees a little bit of himself in Rose Lalonde and Dirk Strider. - He has never read the epilogues, or the sequel. Once he saw the Snapchat bonus content, he thought that was it. - Zero successfully got Iris into the comic as well. - Her favorite character was also Rose. - I like to think he and Layer also became friends after realizing they were both Homestuck fans.

Axl: Has Read Homestuck, Doesn't Know What Homestuck Is - He found a dub of the series on YouTube on day while watching random videos. - He was invested almost immediately. - Axl would talk about it with the other Red Alert members a lot - especially to Red and Tornado. - But there was one problem: He didn't know the name of it. It just completely slipped his mind at one point, and he wasn't able to get it back. This led to stuff like this: - Axl: "And THEN John and his friends are losing to the Condescence, but-" - Red: "That's nice and all, but what's this webcomic you read called?" - Axl: "Uh... I dunno. I can't remember." - Red: "Are you sure you didn't just make it up?" - Axl: "Wha- Yes! Yes, I'm sure!" - Red: "...sure thing, little buddy." - After joining the Maverick Hunters, Axl casually brings up the plot of this comic he can't remember the name of. Zero soon says this: - Zero: "...are you talking about Homestuck?" - Axl: "That's what it's called?!" - He made a trollsona like Bass did, but is a lot less shy about sharing it. - His favorite character is Roxy Lalonde. - Axl got Palette into it as well. X: Has Not Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - He heard Zero talk about it with Iris a lot, but it sounded a bit too violent for his tastes. - He did play the Pesterquest visual novel, though. - Yes, the disclaimer does apply for this visual novel. - I like to think that at some point in X7, X complains about Zero and Axl's interest in "overly violent media" and asks if Zero has started "corrupting the youth." - He is promptly told to shut up. - X is more open to the idea of reading Homestuck by the time X8 comes around though. But it isn't until Axl is recovering from the game's ending that he actually starts considering it, since he knows it'll make Axl happy. - Speaking of which: will Capcom ever give us X9? - I just want to know if Axl is really okay, or if Lumine messed him up somehow. - It's been almost 20 years since the game released. 20 years is a long time to leave part of a video game franchise on a cliffhanger (but then again, Mega Man Legends fans have been waiting for 24 years...) Sigma: Has Not Read Homestuck, Does Not Know What Homestuck Is - The reason Sigma is in this category is very easy to explain: - He deserves nothing that could give him any semblance of happiness. - Also, I hate him.

Alright, rant over.

The inspiration for this post, as well as the original template, can be found here.

...now you can all go home.

[ribbononline]

i just wanna say im truly obsessed with how you draw archie and maxie!! your art style is so soft and has so much personality, i keep going through your hardenshipping tag to just admire your art!! they’re so cute in your style <3

THANK YOU! I love those two so Very Much and they are going through my mind always. I really need to finish some more stuff with them again, I've just been sketching and sketching lately.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Hey, I don't normally make my own posts about this, but.

Do not argue with an anti on their own terms.

Don't get me wrong, I get it. You see the hypocrisy. You see the way they take aim at your favorite ships or characters or tropes while enjoying something similar. And you think "if I can point out to them just how hypocritical and idiotic they look right now, everyone will see our argument, they'll see that the anti is wrong and a hypocrite, and then maybe more people will stop harassing the people who like my thing. Maybe the anti will see the light and stop being a hypocrite."

But it will not work. It will not work.

There is an extremely high chance one of two things will occur:

They will double down on their argument, and ignore what you've said. (Ex. They might say "This relationship has an age gap. That's p3dophi1ia. That's dangerous." And you might say "well you ship something with the same age gap. Is it not p3dophi1ia and dangerous when you do it?" And they will just double down and say "This ship is dangerous. The shippers are grasping at straws to make their p3d0 ship normal.")

They will agree with you, but in the worst way possible. (Ex. Someone says "Ew your ship are basically siblings because they're childhood friends and grew up together. 1nc3st apologist." And you might respond "And yet we allow our most popular ship in this fandom to be popular? They grew up together as childhood friends and were inseparable. Why is that not inc3st?" because you think they'll gain a sense of perspective here. But then that person responds "People who ship that popular ship are freaks too then." Maybe they believed that before the convo or maybe they didn't, but the point now is that (while not your intention or fault by any means) some people have gone on to harass shippers of a ship that aren't doing anything wrong. What you think will bring clarity ends up raising tensions between shippers instead)

Do not meet them where they're at on their preconceived notions. You will not make them believe that they are wrong or hypocrites. Do not concede to their heavy assertions of abuse, p3dophi1ia, 1nc3st, etc levied against the thing you like for the sake of arguing that they are a hypocrite, or with intent to make them feel dumb for inadvertently labeling 80% of a fandom with said labels. They will not "see the light". The best thing you can do, if you have to say anything, is double down with "I'm not hurting anyone and it's fiction. I can do whatever I want" or "I don't give a shit what harmless things people like as long as it's tagged and I can filter out what I dislike" (especially if this is your stance). Then block and move on.

Antis, like trolls, thrive on engagement. They want you to argue so they can continue to point at you or lie about you or make you look bad.

It is in your best interest to pick your battles, and to try to sus out the difference between a friendly argument or standing up for yourself versus feeding the trolls. You won't make the right choice every time, all of us are human after all, but I promise you that ignoring and blocking bad faith actors, deleting their hate anons, etc, is not the coward's way out. Sometimes you don't need to fight. Sometimes keeping yourself from platforming bad faith actors and giving them nothing to go on will do the job (because there are more antis that are just small blogs with little power to do anything than you think, the kinds of people whose inflammatory posts will die if no one touches them).

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[starboundsingularities]

I NEED TO BE OBNOXIOUS ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVED THAT ACE ATTORNEY LAWBLR SIM YOU MADE BECAUSE OH MY GOD IT MADE ME LOSE MY SHIT. I definitely can tell you put genuine effort into making that silly little thang and I wish that it would have 10,000 notes like right this minute. Hellsite hall of fame if you’re reading this please reblog this person’s ace attorney lawblr sim because it deserves an award

i think this is one of the nicest asks i've ever gotten thank you so so much (I'M RAMBLING IN THE TAGS SO MUCH BTW. if you want insight into the thought process or anything)

[crow-talks-hockey]

yeah i'm eternally disturbed by the connor hate rn. coming from an avs, pens, oilers, canes, leafs, devils, canucks, and more fan. it wasn't rigged. and just because he helped design it does not mean it was automatically going to be him that won. anything can happen, anyone could have won that. he helped design it because he wanted to help make it fun. for the fans AND the players. and he did. him "making" it and winning it are not correlated. he tried hard, as did cale and a lot of others.

we should all know that connor is the best player in the world by now. maybe that's a factor too. makes sense. but you can't just hate him for that... he's a silly, sweet, personable person once you get over how much love broadcasts talk about him. he himself doesn't care for the media as much as we all do as fans. he's just as tired about being practically exalted as we are about him.

and yes, he is the best player. but you could argue nate is too. just because he's the best doesn't mean others are not incredibly close too. he is not perfect. he is human. he deserves a little more love in the real way. not the "great player amazing so good blah blah blah" way. the "he's humble and funny and so haunted by expectations i am kissing his forehead and giving him a hug" way.

tldr it's okay for the guy that actually made the push for the all star skills competition to be more fun to win it. it's not rigged. he just... won. no big deal. also the entire event was fun so do we really care who got an extra million dollars they didn't need? they had a good time and that's what matters.

(also yes i know a lot of the hate is a joke but still. i have a point here..) ((i am also a huge connor fan. so. tooootally not biased lmao))

[catboydan]

fiance got me a kindle for my birthday <3

[4star]

i feel like i have a good portion of my mutuals in law blocked because i had a moment where i just blocked everyone who posted something i thought was annoying in the enstars tag. but it's really nothing personal

[golvio]

Also helpful is reverse-engineering Nonviolent Communication to make reasons for conflict. Emotion-related arguments often start when somebody confuses their emotion-adjective (I’m angry at this person, I’m lonely, etc.) with an emotion-verb (I was betrayed by this person, everyone’s abandoned me, etc.), which externalizes the emotion and causes the person feeling it to look for someone to blame for it. They frame their emotion as an accusation about what the other person is doing to them, which puts the other person on the defensive, which can then escalate into a full-blown fight over something that, to an outside observer, isn’t really worth imploding a relationship over.

The reason why you should learn about communication techniques as a writer is so that you can build a better understanding of how communication can break down. That makes for complex and flawed characters, as well as more realistic conflicts that aren’t just “X character is mean to Y character because they’re an evil mean doo-doo head who’s an ontologically Bad Person who must toil in the Redemption Mines for 27 years to atone for their sins before the readers should even consider forgiving them, lest they also become Bad People for letting a Wicked Sinner off too easily.”

Also, I’ve got a whole other rant about “empathy” being equated to intrinsic moral goodness related to this. People who insist everything should feel like a therapy manual with no mess are often spectacularly prejudiced against low-empathy people (Cluster B personality disorders & other people who, for whatever reason, struggle with affective empathy even if they grasp cognitive empathy), as well as refusing to understand that empathy is a skill, and skills can be learned over time or suffer in performance when their owner is under extreme stress or even just too tired to put in the effort. Someone not being able to read emotions or read the room doesn’t make them evil, or totally incapable of acts of kindness or understanding (even if that understanding looks different from how someone with high affective empathy might express it).

Likewise, sometimes conflicts arise because the “Normal™️ person with Empathy©️” refuses to extend any understanding to the other person. Even 💖Empaths~💖 can struggle with understanding internal experiences that are completely alien to their own internal experience, as neurotypical people are wont to do. These misunderstandings don’t necessarily make either party Evil Bad People, but illustrate the Double-Empathy problem that’s common in neurotypical-to-neurodivergent communication. Sometimes a character who prides themselves on their “empathy” can be astonishingly unempathetic to someone who isn’t just like them/the people they’re already familiar with, and they’re the ones who need to go on a little emotional journey to learn compassion and genuine respect towards others.

That post that's like "stop writing characters who talk like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy" really blew the door wide open for me about how common it's become for a character's emotional intelligence to not be taken into consideration when writing conflict. I remember the first time I went to therapy I had such a hard time even identifying what I was feeling, let alone had the language to explain it to someone else. Of course there are plenty of people who've never been to therapy a day in their life who are in tune to their emotions. But even they would have some trouble expressing themselves sometimes. You have to take into account there are plenty of people who are uncomfortable expressing themselves and people who think they're not allowed to feel certain ways. It also makes for more interesting conflict to have characters with different levels of understanding.

[crystaltoa]

And now for something completely different.

This is the ADHD Teapot. I made it in a ceramics class a few years ago. I use it to explain executive dysfunction to people who haven’t come across the term before (and those who think of ADHD mostly as Hyperactive Eight Year Old Boy Syndrome).

So, most people’s brains are like a regular shaped teapot with a single spout. Let’s say that your time, energy, focus etc is the liquid you have in the teapot. Your executive function is the spout, that directs the tea into the specific cup you want to fill-aka the task that you’re meant to be doing. Spills happen occasionally, but generally most of the tea goes in the right cup.

If you have executive dysfunction, (a symptom of ADHD, trauma, autism, schizophrenia etc.) you have multiple spouts going in different directions. You can try pointing one of them at your chosen cup and you will probably get some liquid in there, perhaps you will even fill it right up (finish the task). But meanwhile, tea is also pouring out of several other places and not going where you want it. If you have another container nearby, perhaps some of it will end up in there. But quite a lot of it is going to end up on the floor and accomplish nothing.

And at the end of the day you’ll have filled one or two cups ( or sometimes not even one) compared to the five or six that somebody with the same sized teapot (but only one spout) has filled, and everyone wonders why you’re so bad at getting tea poured, and why you make such a mess in the process.

One day I’d like to spend more time learning pottery and create a really technically good fucked up little adhd teapot. But that’s a long way off since i currently live in the outback and the nearest pottery workshop is some 400km away. But I figure that for now, it might be a useful or interesting metaphor to somebody even in its rough draft form.

This post is the cup I filled instead of cleaning my house btw.

[iknityounot]

(Long post, sorry y'all)

A little more than two years ago now, my grandmother passed away. She and my grandpa had moved down to my home town a few years before so we could take care of them. I brought them groceries once a week, helped them write checks, fixed tvs, and found lost things. I was really close with my grandma.

In addition to her hilarious personality and dry wit, one of my favorite things about her was that she was a painter and a crafter like me! She used to crochet, and I took her to the craft store a couple of times so she could get more yarn and books on crochet. But her arthritis and the shaking in her hands kept getting worse, so she eventually had to stop.

She kept her most recent project, a granny square blanket, safely packed away in a plastic bin. She told all of us she was going to finish it one day.

Her hands never got better, and when she got sick, and we found out it was cancer, she rapidly deteriorated.

After she passed, I went to work helping my mom clean out my grandparents apartment so we could move my grandpa in with her. In our frantic cleaning, I found that bin again:

DOZENS of granny squares, dozens of half used skeins. I asked my mom what she wanted me to do with it, and she said she didn't care. I set it aside and later took it home.

Maybe a month later, that tumblr post about the Loose Ends Project was going around. It felt like a sign--I was never going to learn to crochet in order to finish my grandmother's blanket. But they might be able to help!

So I filled out the interest form. They got back to me SUPER quick. And maybe 2 weeks later, I was paired with volunteer in my state (only 2 hours away!) and the box of yarn, granny squares, and my grandmother's crochet hook were in the mail. That was at the end of January this year.

Over the next couple of months, my "finisher" emailed me regular updates on her progress, and asked me questions on my preferences for how she constructed the final blanket.

At the end of August, the blanket was done!

I had always intended the blanket to be a gift for my mother. So I cleaned it up, put it in the only bag I had big enough to fit it, and drove to my mom's. I gave the blanket to her and she was gobsmacked. I explained to her all about Loose Ends, and how someone volunteered to finish the piece for us. She was speechless. (I was quite pleased with this, because I am not the best at giving gifts, so this was a pretty exciting reaction!)

She said that it was the most thoughtful gift she had ever been given. She said "your grandma would love this". To which I replied, "yeah, I know she really wanted to finish it a couple of years ago". But that was when my mom dropped the bomb of a century on me--she told me that my grandma had started making those granny squares OVER 30 YEARS AGO. She had started the blanket when my grandpa was staying in the hospital, but that was back when my mom was younger than I am now! My grandma had packed them all away, planning on finishing it, when my grandpa was sent home from the hospital. Then it went from house to house, from condo in Chicago to their apartment in my hometown. All that time and my grandma had wanted to finish it, but couldn't. First because she was busy, then because she forgot how to do it, then because of her arthritis, and then because of the cancer. My mom said she had given up on expecting my grandma to finish it. 

She said I brought a piece of her childhood with her mom out of the past.

And really, all of this is to say, if you have seen or heard about the Loose Ends Project and have an uncompleted project or piece from a loved one who has passed away--these are your people. They were so kind and treated my project with such care. That box probably would have been found by my own grandkids one day if I hadn't heard about Loose Ends.

Five stars, absolutely worth it!

(From what I understand, you can sign up to volunteer too! If you have time to share, it might be worth checking out!)

[ayara012]

I have a bunch of taste and textural issues (yes it's probably arfid) and so I tend to order the same food(s) from the same locations any time I visit them. When I was in college, and going to the on-campus dining hall x number of times a week at y time, there was a young woman at the choose-your-own-pasta station who not only learned my order (plain pasta with a whole bunch of cheese melted on), she also taught the other workers how to best make it.

It got to the point where if they saw me come in through the glass, they would already have my order on to heat by the time I had set down my things and made it to the station.

It spread, too -- a new guy later on, who was SUPER friendly, would eventually bring over my pasta and another regular-order-person's pasta if the place was quiet.

Starving to death this morning because ive been to the new local cafe twice this week already and if i go a third time ill look desperate.