#i am having the time of my life in this area only

[markrosewater]

I want to speak out against the whole push towards DEI. I feel that ever since you made the push to make identity the forefront of a character it has hurt the stories you tell. Captain Sisay's race was never the focus of her character and she was a complete badass! And I fear if you did it over again Gerrard would be trans, black and disabled just because. It also cheapens the stories of world devastation when characters worry more about their gender than Bolas destroying everything.

The reason I started this blog is so we can have frank conversations about things, so please let’s talk about this.

Imagine if every time you turned on the TV or watched a movie, no one looked like you. For some of us, that’s never happened. We see ourselves constantly, so it’s hard to truly understand what not seeing yourself represented in media is like.

I do have a personal window to this experience. While I am white and male, there’s an area where I am the minority - my religion. Jews are just under two and a half percent of the US population. I have had many experiences where I’ve been in situations where everything is geared towards a group I do not belong to, and zero consideration is given that not everyone at that event is part of the majority.

You just feel invisible and like an outsider. It’s not a great feeling. And I just experience it a tiny portion of time, only things that are geared specifically towards something religious. Most minorities have this feeling all the time, whenever they’re outside their personal community.

Now imagine, after years of not seeing yourself ever, you finally see someone that looks like you, but nothing about the character rings remotely true. They don’t sound like you, they don’t act like you, the facts about their day-to-day life are just wrong. It’s clear whoever wrote the character didn’t truly understand the lived experience of the character, so the character feels fake.

You bring up Sisay. Michael Ryan and I didn’t technically create Sisay (she played a small role in the Mirage story), but we did do a lot to flesh out her character as the creators of the Weatherlight Saga. We turned her from a minor character into a major one.

And while I’m proud, in general, of our work on the Weatherlight Saga, I don’t think we did justice to Sisay as a character. Neither Michael nor I have any knowledge of what it’s like to be a black woman. Nor did we ever talk to someone who did.

And if you’re someone like us that has no knowledge of that experience, you probably didn’t notice. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.

Imagine if we made a movie about your life, and we just made everything up. We invented people you never knew, we gave you a job you never had, and we had you say things you’d never say. The movie might even be a good movie, but your response would be, but that’s not my life - that’s not me.

Now imagine we put the movie out, and people that never met you assumed that was what you were like. When people met you for the first time, they assumed things, because, you know, they’d seen the movie.

That’s what misrepresenting people does. It not only makes them feel not seen, it falsely represents them, spreading lies, often stereotypes, making people believe things about them that aren’t true.

Our move towards diversity is just us trying to better reflect the world and the people in it. We’re trying to do to everyone else what a certain portion of people get every day without ever having to think about it.

But why are we “making it the forefront of their character”? We’re not. We’re making it a part of their character. But in a world where you’re not used to ever seeing it, it feels louder than it is. Things that are a natural part of the world that you’re used to feel like the background of the story because you understand the context to it.

If a man kisses his wife before going off to a battle, that’s not a big deal. It’s just a thing a husband might do to his wife when he leaves. It’s not the forefront of his character. It’s just part of his life. But you’ve seen it hundreds of times, so it feels normal.

When someone does something that isn’t your lived experience it pulls focus. It seems like a big deal, but only because it’s new to you. It’s just as mundane a thing to that character as the man kissing his wife is to him.

Even the turn “pushing” implies that it’s unnaturally here, that we’re forcing something that naturally shouldn’t be. But why? That thing exists naturally in the real world, and it doesn’t make the real world any less. Maybe you’re less aware of it, but is making you aware of how others live their life “pushing” something on you?

How you live your life is represented constantly, everywhere. Why isn’t over-representing your experience at the expense of everyone else’s “pushing” it? Why is media only being the experience of those in power the “proper way”?

Having more depth and variety doesn’t lessen stories. It makes them deeper, more rich, more nuanced. In short, it makes them better stories. In my former life, I was a professional writer. I took a lot of writing classes. One of the truism of writing is “speaking truth leads to better stories”.

There’s another famous quote: “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” You’re used to being over-represented, so being a little less over-represented feels like something has been taken from you. But really it hasn’t. Having a better sense of the rest of the world comes with a lot of benefits.

I’ll use food as an example. Let’s say all you were ever exposed to was the food of your heritage. Yeah, that food is really good, but sometimes isn’t it nice to eat foods of other nationalities? Isn’t your life better that you have a choice? Isn’t your exposure and access to the food of other nationalities a positive in your life?

Exposure to variety is a positive. It allows you to learn about things you didn’t know, experience things things you’ve never experienced, and get a better sense of understanding of your friends and neighbors.

Our actions are not to harm anyone, and if you think that’s what we’re doing, please take a minute to actually absorb what I’m saying. You’ve spent your whole life metaphorically eating one type of food, and we’re just trying to show you how much you’ve missed out on.

And while this might not impact you directly, we’re making a whole bunch of people felt seen. We’re bringing joy. Think of it this way. We make a lot of cards. Not every card is for you. But if it makes someone else happy, if they get to include it in a deck, and it makes Magic better for them, how is it harming you that we include it? You have so many cards that you can play.

To this poster or people that share their viewpoint, the narrative that a gain for someone else is an attack on you is just not true. As I just pointed out above, you play a game all about personal choice, about players getting to choose how they play and enjoy the game. Why should life be any different than Magic?

Thanks for reading.

[crescenthistory]

hello carinaaaa !!!!! happy 2k :) u are one of the sole reasons for the resurfacing of my love for the marauders and i owe you my life for that truly…

could i request an argue for b5 with marlene mckinnon x reader? been thinking about bartender marlene far too often oh my lord… do you see my vision… reader who comes in once and marlene is teasing them all over the place and reader is like oh ok. i guess i am never drinking anywhere else ever again !!

one of the sole reasons?? baby that makes me so happy to hear, thank you so much for sharing<33 i most certainly see your vision and i'm in love with her

✶・•・✦・•・��・✶・•・✦・•・✶

i will ARGUE for prompt 5 "bar au" with marlene mckinnon

carina's 2k celebration

✶・•・✦・•・✶・✶・•・✦・•・✶

cw: fem!reader, use of y/n, alcohol (all characters of age), modern muggle au, flirty!marlene, somewhat shy!reader, background pandalily

wc: 1.2k

You could quite honestly kiss Lily for suggesting going to this place instead of the regular pub at the end of your neighbourhood.

It was quite typical that an all-girls bar would open up in your area and you wouldn't hear of it before months had passed, but alas, you were grateful to finally be in the know. Lily had stressed that it wasn't a sapphic bar officially, but that was often what developed once no men were allowed in.

Safe to say, you were giddy.

When you walked in with Mary, Lily and her girlfriend Pandora, who you were enjoying getting to know at last, you were expecting a fun night filled with giggles and perhaps a bit of flirtation. You were mostly just hoping to spend time with your dear friends and let loose in a safe environment that wasn’t one of your crammed flats. 

Which was exactly what you got, until it was your turn to head up to the bar. Pandora had gone for all three of you the first two rounds, whispering something in Lily’s ear afterwards, and when they turned to you with wide smiles asking you to head up, you honestly just thought it was the usual rotation. It’s only fair to share the burden of shouldering in through past all the tipsy girls strewn across the bar. 

Lily waved goodbye to you as you walked away with your list of orders in your phone, turning to giggle into Pandora’s side. You chalked it up to the first few rounds of pornstar martinis getting to your notorious lightweight of a friend.

You turned away from Lily with a smile on your face – and immediately collided into a solid yet soft surface. You almost stumbled at the impact, but two warm hands came up to stabalise your upper arms. 

“Whoa, hey there pretty girl.” In any other bar, the collison and that sentence might have instilled fear in you, but now you just looked up to be met with a wicked grin on the most beautiful blonde girl you had ever seen. She was close enough that the baby pink streaks in her hair splayed across your own shoulder, almost tickling you. She only smiled wider when she saw you staring. “You in a rush or something?”

“I’m so sorry, I was just on my way to the bar, but was looking at my friend over there instead and I–” 

You were rambling, cheeks increasingly heating up as the woman hadn’t stepped away from you. She looked over your shoulder where you had pointed and let go of one of your arms in favour of waving. “Your friend over there, Lily?”

Through any embarrassment and confusion, you perked up. “You know Lily?” 

“Yeah, we shared some classes in uni.” She looked back to you, smile taking on a lopsided quality. “That would make you the best friend, Y/N, right?”

You had to swallow your reaction at hearing her say your name. “That’s me,” you breathed out. Before you could continue with anything, she squeezed your arm and let go of you, stepping backwards.

“Well, princess, I’m Marlene. You wanted something from the bar?”

To your horror, when she steps away you see her wearing a bar shirt uniform, one of the tight black ones with the logo embroidered over your heart. She swept up some empty glasses on the way, looking over her shoulder to beckon you to follow after her. 

She had to know what she was doing to you as she floated away with you on a leash like this, but your head was too cloudy and heart beating too fast to care all that much to resist it. You just followed with a dazed smile, leaning on the bar as she slipped behind it. 

There were people lined up all around the bar, but when Marlene ducked behind it and put the glasses aside, she only looked at you.

“What can I get you then, beautiful?” 

She had this ability to look right into your sould and you had to bite your lip to keep your smile from exploding too obviously. Still, you had teh decency to look side to side a bit shyly. “Is there not a line I should be getting into?”

Marlene leaned in closer to you, giving you a conspiratory smile. “I’ll excuse it this once. Payment for knocking into you.”

You murmured something under your breath about “I think I was the one who bumped into you”, but you read the “humour me” plea in her eyes. You could probably read her every last thought with how close she was, and you couldn’t find it in you to mind.

“Lily and Dora wanted some pitchers for the table. Blue Lagoon and Purple Summer?” 

Marlene wrote the order down on a little notepad on the bar before her without ever taking her eyes off of you. It did funny things to your stomach. 

“And you, darling?”

“Could I get one of the house cocktails? The Midnight Princess?” You had no idea where this shyness in you was coming from, but for once it didn’t feel so awkward. It almost gave you some sort of rush.

Marlene grinned at you. “A princess for a princess coming right up.”

It was a marvel to watch how she moved about behind the bar, grabbing all the ingredients and mixing them together as she went. Expertly avoiding her colleagues as she snuck around, it was almost like watching a figure skater in her element. If her biceps flexed beneath her shirt as she shook the mixers, you didn’t take notice of course.

When Marlene placed your drink on the bar, she kept the two pitchers in her hands. Without a word, she pushed the bar open with her hip and passed through it to come over to you.

“Oh, Marlene you really don’t have to–”

She cut you off with a laugh, clearly endeared by your protests. “Oh but I want to. Believe it or not, it’s not every day I meet a girl as pretty as you.”

With warm cheeks and a dry throat, you made your way over to your table where you saw Lily and Pandora grinning widely at you already. Marlene followed close by, you could feel the warmth radiating off her body and heard the swooshing of the pitchers she held.

“Lils, Panda,” Marlene greeted as she placed the pitchers down on the table. She had stopped right beside you, almost as close as when you ran into her earlier. “Here’s your pitchers. You’ve got great taste.” She winked at Lily in a way that felt knowing, conspiratory.

Marlene then turned to you with a pleased smile. “Lovely meeting you, princess. Come up to the bar anytime you need me.”

With a quick press of her lips to your cheek, she was off. You stared after her for a second before letting your fingertips come up to ghost over your cheek.

When you turned to Lily’s hopeful smile, you were placing some pieces together. “That wasn’t normal service now, was it?”

Lily shrugged, as if she had no idea what she was talking about. “Told you you’d like it here.”

[wolfertinger]

Hello. Update.

So one of the very mentally unwell kids Majora used against me about a year ago (named AxoVrity) was a former fan, and has been obsessing over me for nearly a year due to Majoras bogus ass claims. They have been recruiting a bunch of gross nasty edge lord kids from the FNF MML/Naxicord community to try and dox, blackmail and extort me and it's gotten to the point where these kids are now threatening to call in fake school shooting/bomb threats at schools in my area under my legal name and they want to end my career and there's even been mentions of these kids wanting me killed. These kids have also extorted other kids to self harm themselves and take pictures of it as blackmail btw.

All because of Majoras fake ass claims, I have to deal with this shit.

I have already been in contact with the feds 4 times and local police 4 times.

And Majora? I'm gonna file a new report on you too. To my knowledge, 3 other reports (not done by me) have already been made.

This is the kind of shit that happens when you make false claims out of malice. All that's happened to you were ppl bringing up shit and evidence on you that you are actually guilty of. That you continue to lie about.

Because of you, I am being threatened by mentally unwell kids who make it a habit to push minorities to suicide and extort and blackmail ppl and swat ppl for "fun".

But yeah no. This is the kind of person Salem wants to befriend and platform?

Oh and don't say I'm making this up because I have a whole folder of evidence, screen shots, video of ppl making the threats, etc on hand that I had to give to police. And by God I ain't afraid to post the evidence for everyone to see what your lies have caused. But you're a victim right? Do us all a favor and log off for good.

I'm trying to fix my life, work on myself and do better. Fuck you. May you never know peace again in your life. And fuck your friends, too, you weird ass predator.

"Oh, and to add to my last submission, these kids are dead set on the idea I'm a pedo groomer and everything in between and that I deserve what's happening. And yet, there's no evidence of this being true at all. 🤔🤔🤔 Wonder where they all got that idea from? Gee, I wonder.

Sorry, one last thing I forgot to mention; this was confirmed to come back to Majora because one of my former fans, who's only 14 and was guilty of harassing me on Majoras behalf actually came forward to admit all that she knew because she started getting scared she would be targetted too.

Absolutely disgusting.

Oh and I'll publicly give info on this too: yes she did. She doxxed her ex gf that she still slightly obsesses over to this day and even stole her sona design and supposedly drew art/had art made of the sona being violently harmed. And I believe that last part because after I cut that loser off, she commissioned someone to draw cringe ass art of her sona biting a roaches head off with the lyrics to my song "Roaches" in the bg, but slightly altered. I don't have it on hand, but ask Ono. They'll have it saved. This mf is pathetic. It was the most embarrassing attempt at threatening me and being edgy that I'd ever seen."

jesus christ. i am so sorry. thank you again, for clearing this up. and i am sorry for the stress and abuse, majora has caused you.

[itstimeforstarwars]

New guy got a haircut that makes him look like a very butch lesbian and I am the one who is training the new guy and tbh the Desperately Confused Looks we have gotten from customers and vendors today are the only good thing about this fucking job.

[pixie77x2001]

Here are my answers :D

Giacomo: Giacomo isn’t only my favorite character but also my comfort character Giacomo has helped me mentally when I was having a difficult time of my life due to personal reasons (won’t explain it btw) but if I could speak to Giacomo personally like ever I would thank him for making my days a lot brighter when I was going through a lot and since 2023 back in November I started simping for him since he makes me so happy

Giacomo: (yes again lol) I liked him the first time I saw him and I know his first battle with him is quick but I always enjoyed seeing him and pretty much the same reason why I favorite him as my favorite team star member

Teal Mask DLC: i honestly enjoyed the area and the music too I find it very relaxing yet fun to play and do on there and also got to meet Kieran for the first time and yes my all time favorite character from the DLC

Drayton: I would say Drayton not only he immediately became my all time favorite elite four member but also straight up hilarious and I love his lay back vibe and honestly I don’t see him as a “Jerk” to me he’s just a chill guy after all

Here’s my opinion on the area zero crew: (note: don’t hate on me for my humble opinion) (Penny: I really love her character a lot and I honestly see my younger self in her and yet she reminds me so much of myself probably the most relatable character I relate to my favorite poke girl by far) (Nemona: I do like her character too I especially love her love for Pokémon battles and especially her bubbly personality not my most favorite character but I like her better then other characters) (Arven: I’m not crazy about Arven I do like him quite funny and all but one thing that makes me angry that he literally spams the “rock polish” a while I’m doing all the heavy work like it always makes me so angry I know defensive is good but it can’t completely save you but other then that I do like him not enough to be a love or be a favorite though)

Here’s my opinion on the sibling relationship between Kieran & Carmine: honestly I prefer Kieran over Carmine because not only she treats him horribly and was horrible to him in general but make us lie to Kieran! I won’t ever forgive Carmine for that and no one can make me like her like at all

Here’s my opinion on the BB league members: I find them a fun yet relatable friend group and I love each and every one of them sm

Slither Wing: my god what a cutie I love how fluffy it is and it’s probably my all time favorite and I may use it sometime whenever I replay the game :O

Revavroom: I would say Revavroom not only it’s a cool Pokémon and it’s both my favorite steel and poison type it honestly has the best shiny form I ever seen like a GOLDEN CAR like come on! You can’t tell me that isn’t one of the most prettiest shinys ever and true story I also lost a shiny Revavroom that disappeared before I could get to it I was is upset and still am :’/

Starfall Street: I love the story behind team star and the quest itself not only because I get to see my two favorites Giacomo and Atticus But the story of team star had my attention the most in the game i love coming up with theories about them as for team star’s bullies…whoever they were I’m not forgiving them especially when they hurt my boi Giacomo (may do a post of my theories on team star’s bullies in the future) was such a emotional yet heart warming story and overall probably the most relatable back story because I was bullied as well back in school so if I knew Team star’s sooner I could give them a call lol

Here are my thoughts: I do hope to see a sequel because not only I wanna see who team star bullies were since there off screen characters at the moment but to see flashbacks that we didn’t get to see like see team star’s bullies from there view and figure out where they been all that time after leaving the academy and also see what team star from is up too but like I said I will make a future post on my theory on them soon so stay tuned for that)

Please don’t hate on my opinion on the things I listed

Pokemon Scarvio themed reblog/tag game!

-- ❤️: Favorite character?

-- ⭐️: Favorite Team Star member?

-- 0️⃣: Favorite DLC character?

-- 💥: Favorite Gym leader/Elite four?

-- 📝: Opinion on each of the Zero Crew? (Arven, Penny, Nemona)

-- 🌲: Opinion on the Kitakami siblings?

-- 🫐: Opinion on the BB league members?

-- ⏱️: Favorite Paradox Pokemon?

-- 💛: Favorite Paldean Pokemon?

-- 📖: Favorite storyline? (Ex: Mochi mayhem, Starfall street)

-- 🗣️: Anything you want to say about Scarvio? (Infodump, a rant, or just other thoughts)

Feel free to infodump alongside your answers! Anyone is allowed to reblog :3

[itspileofgoodthings]

had a very nice realization about peace, especially spiritual peace, the other day. (Been brewing for a while.) and it’s just: peace is for the non-peaceful.

[iliveinprocrasti-nationn]

Nazis are a threat to everyone. We know this, we understand this. HOWEVER. Goyim, non-Jewish people, I'm asking you to think before you speak on Elon's actions.

Yes, the people trying to insist it was just a "Roman salute" and meant nothing are infuriating, but I have seen responses to it that do nothing more than encourage neo-Nazis and their sympathizers. I've seen "comebacks" where people say "Go do a "Roman salute" in a crowd", "go do it in front of a Jewish person". I just saw a video of someone saying, "Better yet, find yourself a synagogue, and go do the "Roman salute", and see how that goes... bet you won't."

You are putting Jewish people in danger. You, leftist who thinks you're being so smart and witty with your comeback, are encouraging neo-nazis to threaten Jewish people. "Better yet"? Go find a synagogue? Go find a synagogue, go there to do the Nazi salute, and that's the better option you're suggesting to them? What you're doing is telling a Nazi that they need to actively harm Jewish people to prove their beliefs to you, and I can tell you that encouragement is embraced by them.

Jewish people are already going to be one of the main targets of any Nazi or white supremacist group, but half of you are actively offering us up for your "gotcha" moment. Y'all don't think before you speak, and you need to examine why you would ever think to give specific ideas on how to harm Jewish people to neo-Nazis who have just been emboldened to a level we haven't seen in decades.

[hana-bobo-finch]

spent the evening drawing a little something to commemorate my first time playing hollow knight

just entered greenpath and I LOVE the ambiance of it, i really couldn’t do it justice here

[yellllowstar]

slowly I'm recovering the beauty of discovery

(creature by half•alive)

(textless + timelapse below cut)

[icewindandboringhorror]

currently at That Point which occurs once every few months where one briefly begins pacing around the house teary eyed contemplating selling their own organs or becoming an online scammer or getting on anxiety meds so you can bear the risk taking required to be a hitman or so on and so forth.... why must everything so Expensive... Surely all would be healed in life if only I had one big plate of lasagna and a simple loan of $40,000 ... auoughhh....

[dawnthefluffyduck]

I drew this explanation post for why I was completely inactive for a week, but then felt too anxious and drained to post it, and subsequently disappeared for a second week

Two main blog drawings and one side blog wip later, I remembered I made this and still think it's funny, so even though I stopped being dead (TM) I still wanted to share lol

Brief series of events at work

^^^old, but I'm still taking it easy so posts on both this blog and my alt will continue to be scattered for now

[asfdhgsdkjhgb]

had quite the night drive earlier this evening.

[britneyshakespeare]

My toxic trait is that I like how my incomplete drawings look better than the finished things

[monachopism]

am i autistic or am i just paranoid. level: impossible

[gumm1defloor]

Am *this close* to venturing into the ValVel tags on AO3 just so I can consume content of them interacting. I swear they better have at least one scene together in S2 or so help me God I will actively start to ship them on main instead of VoxVal.

[flowerygn]

ehm so i sat in a strangers car haha