#i don't know if we have an equivalent in our country.

[haarute]

for the record as an American, candy corn is not only real but HIGHLY controversial as a candy. Most people either love it or hate it, but half the people who love it also admit that it’s terrible. It has a slightly strange texture and it mostly tastes like sugar. (I’m a love it but it sucks person and I’ll eat a giant bag of it and hate myself for doing so because it’s objectively horrible!) I don’t know if you have any similar candy where even the people who love it also hate it, but there you go. the candy corn lore. hope the “it’s objectively awful” knowledge helps with homestuck lore

oh yeah i've come to learn in the years since that it is in fact real and incredibly mediocre apparently. i'm guessing it's controversial because it's like the leftovers candy that you might be given against your will forcing you to have an opinion on them? but i don't know if i read that somewhere or just assumed that it was the case anyway thank you for your input! i too love unhealthy and objectively awful trash, so i would be delighted to try them out if i ever visit the US alongside a bunch of shitty sodas probably. i'm VERY curious about this texture thing you mentioned now honestly.

[waytootiredstudent]

Okay alright sorry for all the sudden German politics influx but lemme explain what happened so far and why Germans are losing it a bit:

The tldr? Our government is getting a divorce and it's turning messy with elections being called early and now being called even earlier.

The longer version?

Okay so, groundwork first:

in Germany there is a coalition currently in power called the Ampel(traffic lights) bc the colours of the party are red, yellow and green (or not anymore or for much longer??). They're centrist slightly more left leaning than right leaning. (You could argue about that I am aware). There has been infighting for as long as this coalition has been going on. It is also the first three party coalition since y know, the Last Time.

So. Enough groundwork. The yellow party (FDP) has a finance minister (Christiane Lindner) it's this guy

You will see him in memes I am sure. We don't like him. He's an asshole and has blocked every meaningful change that the coalition had been trying to accomplish. He also got his finance plan blocked by our highest court because parts were against our Constitution.

(.... I am oversimplifying hard here it's actually more complicated than that and not fully his fault, but it's also not the focus)

What WAS the fault though of him and the FDP was that they had a strong position of "saving money at all costs" which made bigger and bigger rifts with the two other coalition partners who were more leaftleaning. The war in Ukraine, Infrastructure, climate change - there were many places that needed more money and Lidner was like naaahhhhh for no fucking reason other than "oh we need to save money!!"

Long story short there have been arguing all the fucking time and therefore have started to lose approval. Drastically lose approval. As on for the first time since the Last Time there is a far right party in charge for part of the country that is also being investigated for being Nazis. (Oversimplifying again).

Which is. Worrying. You know. Especially with Trump now being elected. It has us all a little skittish.

The finance minister has also now been fired.

You see. We were all still trying to stomach Trump winning the US election, when Scholz, in the same fucking evening, fired Lindner.

And not in a polite way. Nah. Olaf fucking Scholz our Chancellor, notorious for saying literally nothing, and with a running joke that he regularly stops existing bc that man Does Not Take Stances, a spine of wet cardboard, delivered this yesterday evening:

(English subtitles by me you already got this far watch it I spent too much time on this lol)

And it is insane alright. For his standards and German politic standards thats the equivalent of calling Lindner a egomaniacal bitch that has only his self interest at heart and can not be trusted.

Lindner and his party have been pulverised in all recent elections. Which means that after he was fired, the FDP completely withdrew from the coalition and all minister from the FDP resigned.

....well all but one who apparently stayed in his positions because he's leaving the FDP over this. What sort of shitty backstabbing kindergarten fight is this. (Jokes aside hes the minister of transportation and says he needs to stay in office in important projects. Which. True. Having minister resigning en mass is not good)

Alright cool cool cool cool. Current situation yesterday is the following:

So. Trump is president. Fuck.

Lindner got fired! Yaaay!

Wait my goverment is now also falling apart! Fuck.

Which all lead to new elections being called in Germany.

Mind you, that's not usual ok. I know other countries have systems where they can call an election whenever but that is not a thing that normally happens here. We have a schedule alright. (Insert obligatory "Germans and their plans and structure" joke)

So new elections are called for spring, nearly a year early. Cool cool cool. With a right wing rising in Germany and deeply unpopular current leadership. On the eve of motherfucking trump getting elected.

Habeck, leader of the green party and one of the few policians in germany I think is vaguely liked by ppl (the general attitude in German politics is less "I like this guy" and more "you are the least shitty choice I guess") has appearently also nearly started crying after the news broke. So. Yeah.

Now. Let's make this shitshow complete,alright?

There is this party. CDU. They had been in charge for a very long time in Germany. Centrist, right leaning, with the afd on the rising even more right leaning than before. Their current leader is Friedrich Merz, as unpleasant as human beings can go.

He has now called for the new election to be not in a few months but like. To be called next week.

In the current climate.

So yeah. if you're German mutuals and friends are currently going through their own stages of grief - this is why.

[dotster001]

For Tuna; General End

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three

Choose another ending

A/N: as always, add your votes for the next end here. Also, this end is going to be...familiar at first, but that's just what happens when you jump dimensions.

"So, the end has arrived."

Grim pushed his lens-less glasses down his nose and stared at Silver and Lilia, both of whom were sitting on the other side of a desk.

"I'll be honest, neither of you two is the richest here. That title belongs to Malleus and Leona, respectively. But Malleus will prioritize his country over me, I mean Y/N, and Leona, well let's face it, it's only a matter of time before he disgraces himself and is off the kingdom's payroll."

Grim waved around a sheet of paper.

"Which puts both of you in third place. Oddly enough, your finance situation is nearly identical. So it comes down to who I think would be a better dad. I know this will come as a shock to you both, but Y/N isn't actually my henchhuman. They're my parent."

Lilia gasped in mock shock as Silver just stared.

Grim sighed heavily, leaning back in his seat. “An anonymous source has told me that Lilia is the type of dad to leave his son's alone in the woods to fend for themselves. So Silver, congratulations, I guess.”

Lilia jumped out of his seat, excitedly hugging Silver.

“My boy! Congratulations! We shall have a splendid wedding!”

“Father,” Silver said sternly, gently pushing Lilia away. “We don't have to do this anymore.”

Lilia quirked an eyebrow in confusion, as Grim just stared.

“I know I'll always be your little boy to you, but I'm not a child anymore. You don't have to always put me first.”

Lilia stiffened, but attempted to cover it up with a smile.

“I know, but-”

“Y/N and I don't love each other. Our relationship is purely platonic,” Silver said firmly. “I never wanted to do this, especially knowing how in love with them you are, but now that I've beaten you at something, I can tell you to man up, and confess your feelings.”

Lilia 's jaw dropped. Silver felt the urge to retreat, but stood his ground. He couldn't let his father live with regret. So he played one more card.

“It would be a nice way to complete our family. Y/N would be the perfect step parent for me. I just know it.”

Lilia 's expression softened. “Silver…”

“A true warrior doesn't hesitate in battle! Go!” Silver said with uncharacteristic firmness, making Lilia actually jump and begin to run to the door, before stopping himself with a laugh.

“I've raised the perfect little general,” he giggled.

“Go!” Silver shouted. And Lilia went.

“What the heck was that?” Grim shouted at Silver.

“I'm your big brother now, that's what that was,” Silver grinned, with a mischievous look that could have only come from his father.

….

There was a knock on the front door. Grim was out for the night, promising there would be no bill. So you were just enjoying a quiet night in. You had no doubt that if you opened that door right now, it would be someone who would cause chaos. Probably Ace. Definitely Ace.

One of the ghosts moved to open the door, but you pressed a finger to your lips. He gave a quiet snicker and a nod, and went back upstairs, ignoring the knock.

The knock stopped after a moment, and the room was silent again.

“Who are you hiding from?” A voice whispered right next to your ear, and you screamed.

You grabbed a pillow to defend yourself, and jumped off the couch, turning to face your attacker. Lilia was doing the equivalent of laying on his stomach, and kicking his legs up, except in midair. He was giggling excitedly, and you gave him a nasty glare.

“What the hell, Lilia!” You screamed. “How did you get in?”

He just giggled again, ignoring the question.

“I heard you were all alone tonight. I didn't want you to be lonely,” he hummed.

“I- I'm not lonely!” You shouted. “I have half a mind to kick you out!”

“You won't.”

“I most certainly will.”

“You won't.”

“And why, oh wise Lilia, won't I kick you out of my house?”

He grinned, and floated closer to you.

“Because you, radiant Y/N, are absolutely mad for me.”

You choked on your own spit, your face instantly growing hot.

“Egh ugh, nuh uh!”

“How eloquent!” He burst into laughter. “But a falsehood, I am certain.”

He slipped even closer to you. You took one step back, but after that froze. He gently wrapped his arms around your neck, looking into your eyes, his own burning passionately.

“Urgh, nuh uh,” you whispered.

“Nuh uh?” He smiled slyly.

“Nuh uh,” you said half heartedly.

“Hm,” he hummed. “Then prove it. Kiss me.”

You choked on your spit again.

“Huh!”

“If you can kiss me, and then tell me you really don't love me, I'll believe you and never bring it up again.”

You couldn't do that. You absolutely couldn't kiss him. Because when he was proved right, you'd definitely want to punch the smug smile off his face.

“Time's up!” He shouted, before pressing his lips to yours. 

You hated how good he was at kissing. Even if you didn't love him, you wouldn't have been able to think straight after this, and would accidentally send him the wrong message. But you did love him, which meant you didn't want to stop kissing him.

But Lilia knew that. And he liked to play with his prey. He pulled away, licking his lips as he grinned.

“Well? Still ‘nuh uh’?”

“Nuh uh,” you whispered.

“Mhm. That's what I thought. Anything you want to say?”

You yanked him back in, threading your fingers through his hair, and kissing him as hard as you could. You could feel the vibrations of his triumphant giggle. 

You pulled your pillow holding arm slowly back to hit him, but he quickly separated, gently twisting your arm behind your back, and forcing you to drop the pillow. He giggled and pressed his mouth to your neck.

“I see we'll never get bored together,” he whispered. “You're absolutely amazing.”

“Ha ha,” you said snarkily. He grazed his canines against your neck, and you froze. You knew some of your classmates said he was a vampire but…

"You just smell so delicious," he purred.

“Kidding! Let's make out some more,” before you could glare at him again, and say something snarky, he yanked you to the couch and started kissing you again.

You could get back at him tomorrow. 

Damn.

He was way too good at kissing.

....

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[babyblueetbaemonster]

有人提到臺灣嗎??? ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ

Taiwan mentioned let's gooooooo!!!!

This is our Doofenshmirtz Evil Crystal Tower (a.k.a. evil White-Gold Tower bc it's black and blue)

Casting evil Altmer spells at you lots

Oh no it's exploding! Devastated!

Haha just kidding. I don't believe Summerset Isles would be Taiwan XD

I'm pretty sure we were just entering metal age during Europe's medieval era. Other countries starting to occupy our land after the Age of Discovery. After that Chinese moved in with their cool 5000 years old culture around 1600 A.D.. We were also occupied by Japan before WWII but that's neither here nor there.

But yeah, overall we're too new to participate in medieval fantasy.

Or are we talking about If the Summerset Isles were a real and modern day country? If so I'm also not sure why we're up there either XD

I don't have Summerset dlc in eso. I've only visit Auridon, but the architecture there looks so Europe. We don't have white stone walls and pointed towers. We have some red bricks house and apartments, yeah... They have a Queen! That's very Europe, too. Even before we have presidents, we don't do royalty well either. We only had sad government guys who's only here bc he got exiled from China. The emperor at that time didn't care about this land. And where are the fruits?! We're great at fruits! We hybrid the original green mango with apple and invented classic red mango 🥭(愛文芒果). We also hybrid it with banana and make a mango three times bigger than average (金煌芒果)!

And we can grow avocado, too! They're huge and delicious!!! (I only include this bc I love avocado)

But, um. Taiwanese seems to be the tallest among our fellow Asians (according to my mom who read it somewhere), as Altmer to other mers. And Phaer kinda make me feel close to (only a little) because they have flooded terraced fields of saltrice. We have that kind of rice fields, too, ㄇㄉㄈㄎ(mthrfckr). We have too many mountains in our tiny island. We ran out of space really quick. I look into UESP, and the lore page said "The oldest, and most isolated, of all ruins there are made of coral, which must have been carried many, many, miles away from the sea." We have coral, too, and our land raised from the sea as well. (wait... i just re-read it. only the coral moved away from the sea and not the land? ah! my reading comprehension! i thought the ruin- well, taiwan have sea creature fossil on some mountain. now you know that)

Seriously though, why is Taiwan in the options? And to the 25 people voted before me, why are you guys voting Taiwan? Is there something obviously I'm not aware of? Did the Altmer invented bubble tea when I'm not looking? Is the Altmer famous of being Reddit user?

What is the first thing you think of when talk about Taiwan? What is the similarity between Summerset Isles and Taiwan? I'm so curious :D

[parasolladyansy]

hello! i've liked ansy's adventure for a while, and i noticed how you play on japanese names for the pokemon, especially for mizumi's and sasmu's. what do you think of the languages in the pokemon world? i can guess hisuian equals japanese, but does sinnohan/kantonese also translate into japanese? or the four japanese-based regions are adapted into english ( or unovan?) i don't know if i'm explaining myself, but how do you view the pkmn languages and their equivalents in our world?

こんばんは! Good evening! Thank you for following along ^o^/

Class is in session lol! Professor Laventon seems to be most comfortable writing in his native Galarian, though he also has various notes in traditional “Japanese”, written vertically & read right to left.

So, language is a very interesting thing in fiction, & the Pokeverse is no exception! Through the games (& especially the latest ones, Scarlet / Violet) we’ve had a number of characters who spoke in different languages. I remember a couple of NPC’s in BW Unova, there’s Fantina in Sinnoh who peppers her speech with Kalosian (French), & a Hiker on Galar’s Route 6 who spoke what I’m guessing was Paldean (Spanish) rather than Galarian (English). Then in SV, we have Mr. Salvatore who teaches (& uses) many languages (off the top of my head, I remember him teaching how to say “thank you” in Spanish, French, Chinese, & German).

It does get tricky when it comes to the “Japanese” regions of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh / Hisui, & Kitakami, as those regions otherwise make up one country in our world, but this has yet to have been canonically established (which is why I always put “Japan” / “Japanese” in quotes, as there currently isn’t a name for that one country, same with “America”). I do believe they share the same language - at the very least Hisui & Kitakami have the same written script, & I feel pretty confident that if they were to retcon it, they would have the other “Japanese” regions use it, too (before Legends Arceus, they just used random shapes that didn’t seem to spell anything, which I interpreted to just be placeholder characters).

If there is a common language in their world (& I think is, from characters from different regions being able to talk to each other no problem), I personally would guess it to be “Japanese” - as we look at the other regions, we can see a sort of Japanese flavor that would otherwise not be there (though they clearly did their homework on the various parts of the world these regions reflect!). Of course, Pokémon is from Japan, so it would make sense that they would add some of their own culture to this world they created. For a possible in-universe explanation, the Pokeverse seemed to have started in Japan (specifically in Sinnoh as we learned in Legends Arceus, so I guess their universe actually is geocentric like old astronomers used to think ours was?).

I think that’s about it. In DxP REWRITE, while my own language is American-English (& beginner-level Japanese lol) so I read the characters to be speaking American-English, they are actually speaking “Japanese” while in Sinnoh (which is why I haven’t really been peppering Ansy’s dialogue with Japanese). I have tried to write in the “Japanese” or Galarian scripts for signs & things a couple times:

The sign just says “Gear Station”

Here I (tried to lol) translate Mizumi’s letter to Japanese then wrote it out in in-game characters (in the modern horizontal, as Mizumi is from the modern era writing to someone in the modern era).

Thanks for reading yet another post of me geeking out lol. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments! じゃあ、またね! Until next time! ^o^/

—

PS: For funsies, here’s the (non-canonical, as these were made by fans) references I’ve been using when writing in either Galarian or “Japanese” in DxP REWRITE:

I personally was confused by the “Japanese” script also being alphabetical rather than phonetic like hiragana / katakana (two common scripts in Japan, the first being mostly used to spell Japanese words while katakana is used to spell foreign words - the third script, kanji, is used to write whole words). If that is the case (which is how I wrote it in Mizumi’s letter), “Japanese” is written in what’s called “romanji”, where they write out words in the Latin (aka Roman) alphabet rather than phonetically: “ありがとうございます” becomes “arigatō-gozaimasu” (“thank you very much”).

Whether it is actually written out that way in game though…? At a glance of the signs I saw in Hisui & Kitakami, it does look like it’s more like hiragana & kanji instead, but this chart is all I got for now. Any Japanese folks or fluent Japanese-readers who can tell me if there’s anything out there in the Japanese fandom about this, please lemme know so I can do right by it into future - as of writing this, I haven’t seen much else among the English-speaking fandom 8u8;

As for the Galarian script, it’s clearly based on the Latin alphabet that much of the Western world uses for our various languages - we see it in Paldea as well as Galar, & according to the trailer in Pokemon ZA, they retconned it to be used in Kalos as well. In universe, I wonder if they were at all influenced by the Unown, being based on the Latin alphabet themselves. Again, who knows? (though I question the accuracy of this particular font / chart: if it is, the first thing Laventon’s chalkboard says “REXBOQ” lol XD)

[doberbutts]

(Some other guy entirely here) I do think there's not much of a reason to be so against the terms tma/tme though, and I don't really understand why some people are? Like, in the same way we want a word to describe our experiences so do transfems, and while I do believe that all trans people are affected by transphobia and misogyny, it's obviously also true that we're affected by it differently depending on how we present, cause otherwise we'd all be satisfied with just the term transphobia (not saying anything new here so far)

So, since it just so happened that the term transmisogyny was coined to mean specifically the oppression transfems face (regardless of what anyone might feel on the matter, that is what it means in practice), what's really so wrong with having terminology to specify whether you're affected by it or not in online discussions of specifically transmisogyny? I'd think that would be relevant enough information, and you're not obligated to share it unless you want to.

I think what's really bothering a lot of people is that these terms exist for half of our community but there's no acceptable equivalent for the other half, and there's constant backlash against attempts to fill that void in the language. But that's not the fault of anyone who advocates for the use of tme/tma, or rather, they are separate issues that I don't believe should be conflated even if the proponents of tme/tma are the same people who are against specific terms for transmasc oppression.

When we do this, from the pov of trans women we are the ones rejecting their terminology and trying to silence them when they talk about their discrimination, and since we know exactly how that feels, I think we as a community should take a step back on the matter and just let it be.

Just because we feel dismissed when it comes to a similar matter doesn't mean we should dismiss in turn.

Not that anyone needs my permission or anything for this but:

I don't really have any problem with the words transmisogyny or trans-misogyny, as I think they are valuable labels to discuss a specific intersection of transphobia and misogyny.

I am not sure I necessarily have a problem with the terms TMA or TME themselves, outside of that I think it is not possible to be exempt from oppression because it will apply to you even if the label itself is wrong. This is also how hate crime and discrimination law works in this country- it is both your label and what the offender thinks of you, not just one or the other.

In other words, the guy who screamed at me about how I'm a Mexican is incorrect because I'm not Mexican, but it is still considered to be discrimination against Mexicans because it was his hatred of Mexicans that fueled the attack. It doesn't mean that actual Mexicans aren't the actual targets or this, but it does mean that it's not possible for me to be exempt from anti-Mexican sentiment. It doesn't mean that hatred of Mexicans doesn't exist, it does mean that if I want to stop getting screamed at for saying non-English words while visibly brown (I said pate, which is FRENCH and not Spanish, in reference to a can of dog food he was buying), then I need to ally myself with Mexicans and see what I can do to help decrease this hatred of Mexicans within my country.

What I do have a problem with is how these words are used and applied.

Caster Semenya is a "TME" intersex woman who was caught by transmisogynist Olympic rulings intended to hurt trans women, and to this day is still not recognized as a woman. How is this exempt from transmisogyny? She is literally being affected by transmisogyny- and interphobia, and misogynoir, and lesbophobia. And there are more examples than that, but this will already be a long enough post.

Moreover, I'm finding a lot of hypocrisy in the theory itself, labeling certain instances of oppression as things only TMA people experience and then refusing to listen when TME people say that they experience it too. I don't really care what or how people talk about their own experiences, but I do think it's a little ridiculous to be told that someone else who is not me can tell me what I experience better than I can. And then refuse to listen when I say that I have felt the hurts they're saying don't apply to me.

If TMA/TME had stayed within the limits you've set, being about descriptors of your own personal experience rather than trying to apply theory to entire demographics in a way that very little other theorycrafting does, I wouldn't have cared. Unfortunately that's not how it's being used and I don't like that.

[darqx]

Some BP/HH/General asks

That mood when you want to share all the things but also want to keep it under wraps for the actual thing haha! Thanks very much anon!

As for your questions, I can't actually be specific cos there's no definitive number I have in mind for either. Basically there are a number of sectors (you can consider them their equivalent of countries - they have less than what we do though), and a number of species of demon of which I've designed about seven of. The ones I've shown before are these guys (and do you think I could find this pic again? No, I had to recreate it cos for the life of me I couldn't remember what ask I'd previously stuck it in lol):

One day when i have enough species and stuff out there I want to make a proper field guide \o/

Thank you very much for the interest! ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ I would actually love to for BP, but before I jump the gun there I have to get the comic out first lol. That being said I have made mini-games before featuring the HH versions and some other characs alas they are all lost at the moment to the sands of Flash becoming obsolete 😩

Me and Gato do still collab sometimes (and send each other Xmas presents)! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

I have been working on one off and on for a while actually! Hopefully I'll have some pages to post next year or so*, I've been doing a bit of thumbnailing recently :D

*that is the plan but i also don't know where people find the time to do anything with a full time job lol.

Hullo! Glad you are enjoying the snippets of BP I've got here and there :D Here is an older ref on Izm back when i first got the idea (at that time i didn't really plan to do anything with it, it was just an AU. Now it's my main project haha. Anyway the ref is a little bit out of date in that regard.)

I used to have a "field guide" which was also made quite a while ago, unfortunately the death of Flash kinda killed it. Here's a screenshot of some relevant info from it though.

That's an interesting one as it's questionable how sentient souls are after removal 🤔 In my mind its only form is the smoke light, it can "see" to some degree and MIGHT be able to talk (but in a very no one can hear them sort of way, a la i have no mouth and i must scream. So i guess it can think "aloud"). The more time passes the less sentience it has.

It could try, though it wouldn't really get anywhere if it's in Rire's collection. He might just eat it lol.

.D: Good with kids, will be fine in all aspects.

Izm: The fun dad however needs a partner that knows what they're doing to ensure the child safety during shenanigans.

Marcus and Zeke: Also would be good parents though might be more helicopter out of protectiveness/worry when first starting out.

Ren: Geek parent very good for homework help. Some Asian parent tendencies eg "ah see, i told you not to do that right? Now you see what happened."

They are similar to our known society for this! So basically, there are some good families out there (eg Zeke - who is a demon - is from a pretty average loving family), and there are some bad families out there who only care about power or having an heir or whatever.

HH Rire is a human. I differentiate between him and Demon Rire because they are two different characters...even though they are also technically the same character lol. You can consider them as alternate universe iterations of a base "Rire" concept.

I actually half jested this in an old comic lol

I am sorry to inform you that a HH webcomic doesn't actually exist 😅 I did a lot of art, animations and one shots (such as the HHJ comics) with them, but nothing actually planned or serialised or anything. Whatever's currently on my DA or here is basically what exists.

Bringing this image back cos it's relevant lol.

You spelled it correct there though! XD

[monty-glasses-roxy]

I don't know how many she'd get along with but I know she'd like at least one. I like to call that Freddy, Zags and if you were to get all the Pizzaplex Freddy's in a group photo they'd all look like math teachers except him. Everyone looks smart and friendly, all polite and good, then there's Zags in the middle that went to Hot Topic right before this, giving the camera the middle finger.

Sewerhell Smonday Roxy spraypainting 'No Freddy's Allowed' on the walls of the ruined Plex lobby and when she meets some of the older Freddy models she changes it to 'ONE Freddy Allowed' and then 'TWO Freddy Allowed' and so on and so forth for every Freddy she gets along with from Sewerhell.

[germiyahu]

The way in which people on this site and others unironically with not a shred of self reflection, will say things like "I'm America's biggest hater until a Brit starts speaking!" Like, they understand intrinsically what it's like for an outsider to make blanket judgments about the only culture they've ever lived in and ever known and they immediately decide that their feelings about that are true and valid.

And the response is not even "Well you're one to talk about our problems!" or "Um sweaty things here are far more complex than you understand so maybe leave the criticism to Americans," it's usually just "Rah rah bald eagle screeching go America fourth of July beans on toast OI BRUV!" or some other equivalent mockery of a European (or Canadian/Australian) stereotype.

Even if this is just silly joking, they are performing jingoistic nationalism at the slightest prickling of other Western (usually white) people daring to criticize America, even when it's accurate or in good faith. These Europeans (et al.) aren't even calling for the destruction of America, declaring Americans a dirty evil people who deserve nothing but pain and suffering and any calls to wipe them out are justified and any resistance to that is oppressive. They're just making fun of American aphorisms and the response is unquestioned patriotism. And no other super woke Leftie Americans look at this behavior and say "That's actually problematic." They're in on it.

But these same people couldn't possibly conceive of applying this thought process to an Israeli. That's just a non-starter to them. Like there are based Israelis on this site who are patriotic, who make dank memes and all, that much is true. But I'd say for the average Jew (Israeli or not) to react with extreme jingoism at the gentlest ribbing is just unthinkable. They know the optics of that. But Americans can throw a tantrum about being called out as the hegemonic power in the world and expect everyone to think that's actually really funny and cool.

An American can make jokes about "discovering oil" (the subtext being invasion and devastation) when someone from another country says "Wow Americans don't have electric kettles," but an Israeli can't even politely say "I don't think we all deserve to die because our Prime Minister is a corrupt racist shithead." No that's propaganda and genocide apologia. American privilege is real, I think.

[tokiro07]

Ichi the Witch ch.11 thoughts

[WitchCon 2024]

(Topics: praise - comedy, narrative progression, world building, thematic analysis - freedom vs. order, predictions)

Make 'Em Laugh

Y'know, for a chapter that was like...90% political dialogue and exposition, this still managed to end up being one of the funnier chapters so far: Desscaras' report being a comic book that makes her look like the hero and Shirabedonna just throwing it away, Ichi straight up leaving the Zoom call to get food, Togeice goofing up her dramatic entrance; and that's not even every funny bit from this chapter

Handled wrong, this could have come off as a super dry and meandering chapter, but for the sake of setting up the conflict of revealing Ichi's existence to the world, I think an in-depth analysis of both sides of the argument was necessary

Better to Ask Permission than Forgiveness

While I agree with Togeice that Shirabedonna's conclusions are being made on too few datapoints (one grateful village and three unusually quick hunts in only two weeks), I'm also inclined to agree with Shirabedonna that this is a tricky situation to maintain

The longer Mantinel tries to hide Ichi, the more contradictions and public distrust are bound to pile up. Coming up with excuses later to explain every little detail will just make discussing it more difficult, and Mantinel will only look more suspicious. On the other hand, coming clean now less than a month in should be fairly understandable given the implications of Ichi being a male Witch that acquired Uroro - some people will be mad, sure, but most people would probably be forgiving of the caution exercised

More than that, though, Mantinel's acquisition of the first male Witch would do wonders for their reputation, as that's a historic discovery. Even if he ends up being dangerous, the narrative wouldn't be too hard to spin in Mantinel's favor, as no one could have predicted how a male Witch would behave

The fun thing about this argument to me, though, is the acknowledgment of other Witch organizations

Frog in the Well

We haven't been shown a world map or anything yet, so we don't really have any sense of scale to this world, but I wouldn't have been too surprised either way if either Mantinel had a monopoly on Witch administration or if they were just one of many such organizations

The acknowledgment of an equivalent of Japan last week was a good clue that there was more to this world than...whatever this one country is called, but we still know nothing about this fantasy-Japan's society other than that they still have sashimi

Do they have their own Witches Association? Do they even have Magiks there in the first place, or are they endemic to the current focus country?

Black Clover kept expanding to reveal that other nations had different relationships with magic, while JJK revealed that Curses pretty much only exist in Japan for...some reason. I would imagine that this is more like the former, but the realization that one nation is hoarding the concept of magic would be pretty wild, wouldn't it?

Then there's the fact that ch.1 told us that there's only a 0.001% chance of a man being able to acquire magic even if he did have the capacity to pass a trial and physically handle casting spells. That seems like a low number, but...it's one in a thousand

For every thousand men, one of them has the capacity to acquire magic. Presumably this number is compounded by the ability to use it, since the narration said there were so many other factors that had to line up perfectly first, but that just means that the chances of finding another man with the potential to overcome those factors aren't actually all that slim

EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that I goofed the math and this is one in a hundred thousand, but my point stands! I thought it was going to be like one in a million or even a billion, and it ended up being a lot more generous than I anticipated! In our world, that would still be 40,000 men with the capacity for magic!

In other words, it's only a matter of time until another male Witch is found

From there, the method for cultivating male Witches will likely start to become more widespread, and eventually the proportion of female to male Witches should approach an equilibrium

That's probably looking too far ahead, though. That's the kind of thing that would probably take several generations to pass, so while we may have like...a dozen male Witches by the end, they probably won't be a normal part of Witch society until a far-flung epilogue

For now, I'd like to focus on the worldbuilding that we actually received this chapter: that Ichi's acquisition rate is ridiculous

Gotta Go Fast

Ichi has three Magiks under his belt in less than two weeks, and Shirabedonna tells us that one week is on the fast end for a hunt. That seems especially strange to me, since one of the first trials we're ever told of was only set for an hour, but I suppose that figure is based on the number of attempts and the prep-time? It's easy to assume "oh, they got it one," but this statement gives the impression that almost no one acquires a Magik on their first try

I do think it kind of skews our perceptions to tell us the upper and lower limits of one week and ten years without also giving us an average or at least a mean. All she says is "some take X amount of time," like that means anything statistically...

It also doesn't help that the first hunt we actually saw would have been over almost immediately had it not been for the circumstances: Desscaras immediately stabbed Uroro's heart, and only failed to pierce it because she was a woman. Now, Desscaras is likely an outlier herself because she's ostensibly the strongest living Witch, but sub-10 minutes is nowhere near a full week!

Again, it's entirely possible that the hunt for Uroro was on a constant timer since Mantinel first started trying, so that would be an extreme circumstance no matter what. I suppose in a sense that would mean Ichi has the record for clearing both the shortest and longest hunts?

But just being fast or lucky doesn't make Ichi an expert, and it's only a matter of time until he hits a wall where his unique perspective fails to compensate for his lack of experience in the field he's so suddenly found himself in

Rising to the Level of Your Incompetence

Togeice is being presented as morally incorrect here, with her talk of reforming Ichi into a "proper Witch" being accompanied by a vision of all of Ichi's best qualities being sanded down to a bland scholarly appearance, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't have a point

Ichi's lack of experience makes him something akin to an outsider artist, which is what allows him to discover unconventional methods within the field, but it also means that he's not familiar with the pitfalls of the profession. Ichi took Hisame's challenge in a different direction than what was intended by the rules; it worked out, but if Hisame hadn't been impressed with this loophole, then that gamble would've gotten everyone present killed. Since she expressed that she wanted to attack another village as a palette cleanser, it's entirely possible that she could have taken this approach as an insult and gone on an even worse rampage after the fact

In fact, Ichi going straight for attacking Hisame could have resulted in her not even bothering to issue her trial, which would have effectively made her invincible in the resulting combat encounter. Perhaps Magiks don't work that way and they have to share their trial in order to maintain their power, but there's no precedent for that yet, so Ichi's ignorant and rash behavior could have sabotaged the entire mission

There's also the possibility that Ichi will continue to acquire stronger and stronger spells that he's less and less equipped to control and will cause some kind of huge disaster. He already used Parthion to create an entire new ecosystem on Druid Mountain, which could well have untold consequences on the local wildlife and nearby settlements, so what's to stop him from naively trying to save a desert village with Poltata and just washing them all away?

Togeice's desire to force her vision of order onto Ichi is obviously wrong and potentially detrimental to Ichi's value, but she is right that he's not capable of wielding his powers effectively or responsibly. Even if Ichi is a perfectly moral and upstanding Witch, if his trump card will only result in him being rendered unconscious for three days, then he's only going to be a liability when the time comes to use it against a major threat

The goal then should be to cultivate Ichi's sense of freedom and experience using magic while also giving him a clear sense of the responsibility that he carries. Fortunately, he's already demonstrated the capacity for that with his strict adherence to Death for Death, but unless he can prove to Togeice that he already has the discipline she's looking for, she won't be able to trust such an unknown with her back

Fortunately, the upcoming challenge provides the perfect opportunity for Togeice to get to know Ichi

Just a Little Guy

It was pointed out to me by @wickedsick that because the mushroom Magik isn't a human-hater, it likely doesn't hold any ill intent towards humans and doesn't go out of his way to hurt them, and therefore shouldn't trigger Death for Death. This would likely prevent Ichi from harming it, and in turn give Togeice the opportunity to take the win

The way I see it, there's five ways that this could go

Ichi loses because the mushroom isn't hurting anyone and he can't bring himself to hunt it -> school arc, Ichi learns valuable lessons, though he doesn't fundamentally change the way that Togeice wants him to

Ichi is just hopelessly outclassed and decides he has plenty to learn from Togeice and Mantinel -> same outcome as above

The circumstances of Ichi's refusal to hunt the mushroom somehow prove to Togeice that he's already plenty disciplined -> she wins, but still lets him go free because she doesn't believe she has anything to teach him after all

The nature of the trial doesn't necessitate Death for Death, and Ichi wins solely through his specific skillset -> Togeice realizes that she was not equipped for this specific scenario and different approaches will always be necessary for different circumstances, so she drops her objection

Togeice accidentally goads the mushroom into triggering Death for Death and realizes that it was her irresponsibility that endangered people, not Ichi's -> same outcome as above

For sure, there are more nuanced outcomes available, but those seem like the most likely either for developing the themes of the story or driving the plot in a specific direction. I'm definitely open to whichever route Nishi chooses to take, as I think that the two broadest outcomes of Ichi going or not going to school both provide interesting opportunities for the story going forward. Whichever she chooses, I have faith in Nishi that it'll be a fun time

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[orangepanic]

I'm probably going to regret this later.

I had a good friend say to me recently that she's not reading any more books by white men. Clearly she was looking for congratulations. Instead, all I could feel was sadness.

To me, the point of pushing for diversity and representation in media is exactly that. Diversity, and not just to put points on a scoreboard or get kudos from your socially-minded friends but because you actually care about broadening your mind. For too long, too few people's perspectives and experiences have been overrepresented in history and popular culture, which limits our thinking and perpetuates the kinds of marginalization and discrimination that hurt society as a whole. We need to actively, aggressively correct that. But to me that means a process that is additive, not subtractive.

Add books to your reading list by people from different backgrounds and cultures, or that center characters who aren't like you. And "aren't like you" should be broad. Read a different genre than you'd normally pick up. Read about somebody older or younger than you, someone whose brain works differently, or someone who grew up in a different part of the country, even if they might look like you on the outside. Do this, but don't only do this to the point that reading becomes a chore or a performative action, or to the point where you're now cutting out other perspectives entirely. I hear so many sad stories these days about how little people read, and I think part of that is because there's been a push for reading as a requirement, as education, and that only certain kinds of books are okay to read because they contribute to this goal. That's such crap. Read what you want because it is fun! But then also add to that experience with new, different books. You never know what else you might like (looking at you, native Hawaiian vampire story). Growing your reading pie isn't about "no more of this" but "yes, more of that."

And the same can be said for fandom. Fandom has always been as space for people to explore different kinds of characterizations and relationships that aren't heavily reflected in popular culture. That's largely why we have transformative works. But lately I see this almost puritanical push in fandom for everything to check certain boxes when the whole point of fandom and fan creations is to make shit up. Don't see enough hairy-chested mlm werewolves on screen? Draw your favs as hairy gay werewolves who kiss! And if you've never thought about your OTP as werewolves, be open-minded enough to explore it, or to read someone else exploring it just to see how it is and stretch your brain a bit. Maybe you'll like it, or learn about werewolves. Maybe you'll hate it. Either way, support each other.

And like the books, this process should be additive. Push yourself to be open to more ships and interpretations of characters and canon. Also, curate your fandom experience, and if you explore something and it isn't for you, that's okay. It's for somebody else. And the fact that it contains no werewolves doesn't make it wrong, or boring, or toxic, or anti-werewolf, or something you need to tell the creator not to make anymore because you want to be seen in online spaces as coming out against what is unpopular so that you, by reflection, will look popular. If you do this you're looking for the fandom equivalent of kudos for saying you'll never read a book by a white man, leaving everything from Neil Gaiman to Tolkien on the table and thinking that makes you look progressive instead of sad and small and like you're trying desperately to sit at the right table in middle school. In short, fandom isn't a zero sum game any more than reading is. And real diversity in fandom means adding in the content and perspectives and characters we're missing, both on and off-screen, (and not just the ones you like, but the ones you might not) as well as not weeding out the ones that we already have. We can have more together, not less.

[weemietime]

Why the FUCK are you bringing up the Iraq war to defend Israel

That's like saying "oh you think ISIS is bad? Did you know America dropped agent orange on Vietnamese?"

Nigga we think both of those things are fucking terrible

Why the FUCK are you bringing up the Iraq war to defend Israel

Read my pinned post, for it explains in excruciating detail why it is important to treat every person and every country on Earth with equity and dignity. It is that fucking simple.

we think both of those things are fucking terrible

The problem is that you don't, actually.

Because you treat equivalent situations (actually, the Iraq war was far worse) with different standards. Which means that you don't actually have a problem with the situation, but rather with the parties involved.

It is not my fault that you are unable to read and comprehend the very plain and clear explanations that I have already laid out for you. But just in case you didn't get the memo, here are some posts I have made in my private friend group that elucidate it clearly to you fucking imbeciles.

Honestly it's an emotional thing for me because I've seen a lot of the unrwa materials for schools in Gaza that actively teach kids to cheer for dead Jews, sinwar was found with a unrwa employee tag, unrwa members participated in Oct 7th, the UN is being very quiet about condemning the sexual abuse that happened during this pogrom. They did finally say they found it credible but this was instantly buried and is never brought up by any UN officials any longer, the UN first didn't even admit to complicity and now are saying they want immunity for their unrwa employees who were complicit, countries like Russia and China are using their seats at the UN to push the narrative of genocide with no evidence and zero pushback while the UN platforms their voices and refuses to condemn their genocidal actions and it just feels like, you know, part of the intergenerational trauma of the Holocaust is that the international community at the time, the league of nations, was also very lackluster about condemning the genocide against us and did indeed have many member states who openly supported and participated. I mean this was an attack that was planned for 15 years by people who pretended for generations to be the friends of these peace activists and shit. It's just a theme of betrayal and the feeling that we Jews are alone. Because the loudest voices from every country are shouting from the river to the sea lol. Is it a totally factual statement, is it a cognitive distortion, probably. But there is a real sentiment behind the words that is born from pain, not just shit posting

Of course it's a lot. Even one is too much. But every time these dipshits talk they say "Israel killed 40,000 children." No, the official number given by Hamas and the UN is 7,797. Plus 4,959 women. That's 12,756 civilians. Out of a 40,000 death toll, that is 27,244 Hamas combatants killed meaning the ratio of combatants to civilians dying is 2.25:1. This is an INSANELY good C/C ratio and is the numbers that Hamas has given. The normal C/C ratio is 9:1, the USA C/C ratio in Iraq was 4.46:1 out of 174,000 meaning a 77% civilian casualty rate. And look at how people talk about the war in Iraq and Iraq war veterans and Americans and tell me that matches how people are discussing Israel. You know? I'm not blaming people for being antiwar. For being horrified. For not wanting to send ammunition or weapons. For being appalled at Israel's use of Lavender. But the double standard is very devastating because when 9/11 happened the world mourned with the USA. When Oct 7th happened, a literal pogrom, people literally spit in our faces, shut down universities, scream at us on the streets, fire bomb our synagogues, gang rape our children for being Jewish (happened in France), cheer gas the Jews, you will not replace us, Zionists are rats, kicking us out of cafes, interrogation us to see if we're a "good Jew". Like you don't understand how the atmosphere has changed in North America and how virulently antisemitic its gotten. Our memorials for our dead have to be held in secret. Because people deface them, vandalize them, and show up to protest screaming through a megaphone that we are baby killers while we are crying over our babies being killed. And eighteen year olds are being sent to fight in war in our behalf because every country around our homeland has declared they wish to exterminate us. And that taps into the very real intergenerational pain of the Holocaust.

I've seen protests that look no different than Nazi Germany protests against the Jews. It is wrenching. Most Jews I know have lost their entire friend groups literally over night. Lost their living arrangements. Have professors fail their work if it's about Jewish history. Teach that Zionism means Jewish supremacy and conquering the middle east because we are all from Poland. It hurts. It hurts. And I know that Palestinians are suffering, too. 12,000 innocent people were killed. And I mourn them as much as I mourn my own people. But no one else is going to mourn our dead but us. The world has shown that they cheer when we die. And that hurts.

If I say "I'm grieving the actual people that I PERSONALLY KNOW WHO DIED IN A POGROM" people turn around and scream at me that I am a pedophile rat Zio Nazi genocidaire baby killer. When this first happened I posted the article "bombs fall in sderot" and joked "haha idk if my friends are safe." well my friend wasn't safe. She fucking died.

Ppl don't understand how small the Jewish community is. Whenever Jews meet up we play Jewish geography and we ALWAYS find someone we know in common. When Pittsburgh happened people in my community bc we are conservative Jews too, knew the victims. Ppl I know post about having to go to a bomb shelter all the time, their friends dying in terrorist attacks, experiencing terrorism as children etc these are innocent people who have nothing to do with fucking ben fucking Gvir

My friend is a gdmn [redacted] she deserves to die???? Okay all Americans deserve death because of Iraq. All Russians deserve death because of Ukraine.

Conscription is wrong and we should be protesting against it but no not every Israeli deserves death just as no Palestinian civilian deserves death even tho many of them are radicalized as children to want Jews dead and to join Hamas and get conscripted as well. THIS SUBJECT IS COMPLICATED. and anyone who reduces it to one side vs the other good vs evil is full of fucking shit.

Like I always say the settler colonial language I feel is misguided in some ways because of the whole Israeli population we have 70% Jews, 61% of that 70% were not migrants during waves of Zionist aliyah they were expelled and murdered and ethnically cleansed from Iraq Afghanistan Iran Ethiopia Yemen (every single Jew in Yemen was expelled to Israel) and they literally have no place to go.

Which is why from the river to the sea, means they will end up being literally pushed into the sea lol. And then 20% aren't even Jewish they are Arab, where will they go if Hamas takes over Israel and tries to enact extremist fundamentalist religion when they're used to living in secular democracy? They go into the sea too. Now 31% are European descent of those, many are from Russia which means they were kicked out and not Zionist oleh as well. But then we get into the west Bank where Israeli Jews are literally living as settlers and literally calling themselves settlers and perpetrating violence. The legal terminology of this all is also twitchy. Technically it isn't apartheid because Palestinians aren't Israeli civilians but we cannot ignore Hebron where Israelis literally dump piss and shit and garbage on their heads so they had to build a fucking net. Okay maybe it's not legal apartheid but it's obvious fucking degrading and they are not free to move or work or have the same rights regardless of who is in charge and we need to fix that. We also can say ok it's not a genocide in Gaza bc the numbers suggest of 40k, 12k were civilians according to Hamas themselves giving a 2:1 civ casualty ratio. The normal ratio is 9:1 so it legally cannot be called genocide. But Lavender is indiscriminate targeting civilians and bombing the place to fucking rubble which is a war crime and the Israeli government must be held accountable for this. Hamas does war crimes too they fired 20k rockets per year for 20 years into Israeli residential zones

[10:38 PM] Anyone who reduces this conflict to one side good one side bad is a fucking idiot. There is harm and suffering and complexity on both sides and both sides must be held accountable and then work for peace and prosperity

In conclusion: if you have nothing constructive to say, you can do everyone a favor and shut the fuck up.

[reformedowo]

Vote Like Lives Depend on It.

The Republican party wants you dead. Trump is calling people who don't openly support him "the enemy within." He has called immigrants "vermin" who are "poisoning the blood of our country." This is straight out of the Nazi playbook and is one of the key steps in enabling a genocide in the eye of the public: dehumanization.

I know this is an intense introduction, and I apologize, but those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, so just take a moment to remember before we look to the present, if you'll indulge me.

Thank you.

Starting on just page 5 of Project 2025, the whopping 900+ page guide about how to dismantle the American democracy and install Donald Trump as the authoritarian emperor with no guardrails, lies the first topic so innocuously titled "PROMISE #1: RESTORE THE FAMILY AS THE CENTERPIECE OF AMERICAN LIFE AND PROTECT OUR CHILDREN", and is all about and explicitly mentions the banning of pornography while continuing on to include "woke," queer, and transgender ideologies within that definition, stating those "who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders." Page 5, as in you literally just opened this thing, skimmed through the table of contents, and it's already calling for the direct and express prohibition and marginalization of the entire LGBTQ+ community, to be placed alongside real criminals while further muddying the waters for justice to be served against actual abusers. Now if you will, jump 549 pages forward. To the death penalty. Yes, the death penalty, where it states under new Republican rule the government should enforce capital punishment against sex offenders. Now, maybe your brain has melted after reading or being passively exposed to 554 pages of intensely racist, dangerous, hateful Fascist rhetoric thus far, but I think the book practically opened with something about that quite intently. Do not be mistaken: this is not a coincidence. This is not poor wording. This is a direct threat, and as it says in the title, it is a promise. The first, #1, most important promise, apparently. I truly insist that you look at it with your own eyes to believe it, if you're willing to be exposed to the political equivalent of toxic waste.

Trans or queer folk, of any kind, as well any vague notion of "immigrants" in particular are a few of the main talking points of the Republican party and their ads this election season for a reason: Fascism needs an enemy, preferably a minority for its followers to target and be whipped into a frenzy over to keep their following alive. If you'll note, this follows the same logic Trump used when making a call to Senate Republicans, while out of office, to kill the bipartisan border bill, a bill that would have solved an issue Trump was planning on running on, while simultaneously expanding access to legal immigration to begin with. That logic being: you can't sell a solution if there's no problem. Now maybe to you this isn't your cup of tea regardless, legislation and whatnot. But that's not what's important to them, what is important is that they want problems. Any non-white, non-straight, non-Christian, non-Trump loving, non-cis-man is always going to be up next on the chopping block to feed the machine of hate. They want you, or your family, or your friends, or your neighbors to be that problem. Where do you draw the line? However, zooming back out for a moment, this is just skipping 5 pages in, plus some forward for full context, and we've seen only one of the many insane, Fascist concepts concealed within the pages of Project 2025, and it's already a beyond thinly veiled call for genocide. Though Trump denies his connection to the project, the document was penned by over 140 people who have previously worked for him, several members confirmed to be returning, has a running mate who penned a foreword to an architect's book, not to mention he already implemented many of the concepts in his first term. With a second Trump term he will make the rest of this doctrine a reality, with the help of the Supreme Court he installed, without any proper government authorization mind you, the same court who stripped women across the country of their rights to life saving medical treatment, and under that reality you or somebody you know can and will be made their next problem.

Now, sidestepping to an extremely important note, there are horrible things happening in Gaza right now as you read this, and I implore you to please send any donations you can afford to the countless families afflicted, and feel free to go and express your right to protest from now until the Palestinian people are free of Israeli occupation. The right to protest and your right to speak against the government is one of the truly undeniable great things about living here, whether you realize it or not. Donald Trump and Project 2025 want to take away those rights. His illegal use of the National Guard against peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters, American people exercising these very rights, during his previous presidency speaks volumes to this regard, amongst others such as his blatant hatred toward non-white Americans having said rights. Now with that I say this: please do not think, even for a second, that Donald Trump is the solution to the conflict in Gaza. This is a man who has openly admitted, himself, to having met Netanyahu multiple times in violation of the Logan Act to kill the Biden administration's ceasefire agreements, the same man who when asked if he was "on board" with the way Israel was “taking the fight to Gaza” responded: “You’ve got to finish the problem." Do not award Trump the presidency for making Palestinians suffer, do not act like willingly sitting this one out in protest gives you the moral high ground, because in actuality it makes you complicit. Netanyahu is counting on disinformation and the suffering of the Palestinian people to convince you to not vote for the people doing everything in their power to end his invasion, and if Trump loses, he has no ground left to stand on. However, if Trump wins, he will allow Netanyahu to continue his genocide and you could very well have no voice left to speak up for the Palestinian people.

Do not think that it is a choice between anyone other than Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. The broken and antiquated electoral college established ensures a two party system, whether we like it or not, and we don't since despite losing the popular vote in 2016 we were still subjected to the first unfortunate Trump term, it is the system. And while that may dissuade or discourage you from voting, even a whisper is better than sitting in silence when it's time to let yourself be heard. Hell, if it makes you feel any better on the matter, vice-president candidate Tim Walz is on the record wanting to abolish the electoral college for any future elections, which would not take place under Project 2025. And while Harris may not be your personal perfect dream candidate, we've worked with and fought through worse than imperfect for over 200 years, and she's miles better than a number of the people we've had in charge then, and an unimaginable degree better and more qualified than a second Trump term. Her website has a list of policies and she has appeared on many news networks talking about her vision for the country, if you're at all inclined or inspired to look, please do, and compared to what Project 2025 has in store for both the American people as well as its disturbing foreign policies, it's a breath of fresh air.

Do not let democracy backslide, do not let years of blood, sweat, and tears be in vain because you took that democracy for granted. It's much easier to make progress one step at a time than trying to course correct in free fall. This is the Republican party's last chance to steal everything from you and the American people, and they've been giving it their all because they know that the mask is off and there's no going back for them. You can no longer say "both sides are the same" to convince yourself it's okay that you're not voting. From the world's richest man openly giving millions of dollars away to bribe voters after announcing his support for Trump to stay out of prison, to complex voting disenfranchising schemes on both the state and federal level, to rampant disinformation being blown out of control by the unregulated use of AI by foreign nations with only yours and others worst interests at heart, even if Harris wins the electoral vote they will do whatever it takes steal the election any other way they can. But if you or anyone you know is not willing to take the first, easiest, most crucial step in fighting to preserve and grow your rights, and the rights of others, can you trust they'll be willing to fight for those rights when things get ugly, when it's time to fight? And if Donald Trump is elected to the White House, it's only a matter of time before things get ugly, and we'll have to fight like Hell.

And to all those who are still not convinced, my last and final plea is simply this: Only one of these people will win. Clench your fist, grit your teeth, hold your breath if you need to, but please vote for Kamala Harris. If not for her, if not for yourself, for everybody else whose lives depend on it. Don't be on the side of history that kills us.

Vote like lives depend on it, because they do. Thank you.

[blorger]

On discrimination in the wizarding world

When coming up with the concept of blood purity JKR who, as a cis white woman from a 1st world country only has a second hand experience of oppression (if one doesn't count the constant yoke of the patriarchy, and she does), managed to create a hybrid term, collating different types of prejudices:

A mudblood is not visibly a mudblood like one is visibly a person of colour but a mudblood is inferior by deterministic reason just like one's race to a racist (you are born a mudblood for reasons beyond your control); one's blood status can be hidden, just like one can hide one's religion and, most importantly for our purposes, one is recognisable for their blood status by virtue of being an outsider, i.e. new to the wizarding world.

There's an obvious element of classism in the concept of blood purity: the established wizarding families are not only rich but generationally rich (save some notable examples) and they are part of the status quo by virtue of just how long they've been an integral part of the wizarding world.

To a pureblood, who is nobility-coded, a half-blood is a bourgeois trying to rise in status while a muggleborn is nothing but a dirty peasant. Historically, the nobility has always been greatly preoccupied with trying to retain its place at the very top of society and a key component of stopping the lower classes from rising in station is convincing them of their innate inferiority. You are part of your social class by virtue of your birth, the thought goes, and as such it is an immutable fact.

To purebloods like the Malfoys, the muggleborn represent a threat when they try to rise above their station, when they don't conform to the Order of Things. A muggleborn, coming from a modern society where social mobility is seen not only as normal but as desirable, does not hold the reverence for purebloods that they feel they're owed; they don't look at purebloods and feel inferior, like they ought to, they just see someone higher in the social hierarchy and a particularly ambitious muggleborn may even think, well, I can do that too.

I see someone like Bellatrix or Walburga as closer to a true racist: the very existence of muggleborns is an affront to them for they befoul the places they enter, they taint bloodlines, they are freaks of nature. To someone like Lucius Malfoy, who derives his self worth from his position at the top of the social hierarchy, muggleborns are just people; they are inferior people, yes, but as long as they know their place they are ultimately harmless.

One could argue that that is just different flavours of racism, and they would be absolutely correct if we were talking about the real world, where thoughts like these enforce well established systems of oppression. In the world jkr created, though, these systems do not exist, I'm not sure wether by design or ignorance (but I can hazard a guess). There is no wizard equivalent of the transatlantic slave trade, wizards don't follow a unified religion that can be easily perverted to justify systemic oppression, the magical world has always had prominent members who didn't follow this world-view and so on and so forth... (jkr herself doesn't seem to understand the concept of intersectionality, which plays a huge part in real-world oppression).

In the fandom we often refer to the ideology of blood purity as wizard racism and, while that is a very succint short-hand, I've always felt like it's not entirely accurate.

I've always felt iffy about treating blood purity as a type of racism because the truth is that real life racism is magnitudes worse. It's a many headed hydra endlessly changing and regenerating, it has a dark and sordid history, it's baked into our society, it's a stain on our collective consciousness. Better authors than jkr have produced more fitting analogies for it in their works whereas what she created, in my opinion, doesn't even come close to the real thing.

By borrowing from her own experience as a lower-middle class woman in a country with a monarchy and a very distinct class system, jkr has managed to create something that to me is closer to classism, except classism doesn't sound bad enough for the type of story she wanted to tell so, when she wanted to escalate the stakes in her story, she added on elements of anti-semitism (the events of book 7 are clearly based on Nazi Germany and WWII in general) and, less successfully, white supremacy.

I think this is partly why, as a fandom, we are able to so successfully rationalise the actions of the harry potter villains: when push comes to shove, their beliefs are but a pale imitation of what we see in the real world.

[unolvrs]

— FAQ AND KEEPING UP!

so, i'm alive, and this is honestly long overdue. here, i'll be answering some frequently asked questions (just five because i barely have time for this) along with some rundown of what had happened to me recently, and why exactly i was inactive. and some of the expectations/things i want to change when it comes to this account and my ao3 account because guysss, i'm 20 years old! that's crazy.

as always, this will be obnoxiously organized. if you know me and you've been following me for a while, i hate messily-organized things. (which is hypocritical of me because my tumblr is a mess. tbf, when i started this, i had no idea what was going on.) some trigger warnings to take note of: there will be mentions of SA, p/dophilia, harassment, ED, and so. you can use this as a warning for whatever college experience you'll have.

— keeping up with uno

YOU CAN SKIP THIS PART AND HEAD OVER TO FAQ!

as many of you know, i'm currently in college and now, i'm a—yey. one of the many reasons why i was inactive is because i'm very grade conscious and my first semester in college didn't go over so well because i was adjusting. anyway, my liver is definitely fucked. unfortunately, i've taken to smoking too but not to excess because i don't like doing anything at all to an excess.

that's a brief what's going on in my life and health updates. now you guys know i'm becoming just like my father 😇 but it's fine because i have, in the gpa equivalent, a 3.8 to 3.9, something along that range. so my academics are doing amazing!

but, as some of you may know, i studied in the same school since i was in elementary to high school in a somewhat 'exclusive' school that handpicked students. college opened me to so many people in a horrible way because in a span of barely a year, men have ruined my friends and i's lives.

let's start with the rough part: i keep on seeing these two guys i was once involved with around the campus, each known to have SA'd someone/attempted to have SA'd someone after we were involved. which fucks me up every time because the other guy is apparently still asking about me. crazy. and i have no idea what to do about that so i will simply rest in peace. (to others who may ask about why someone who SA'd someone would still be in a prestigious college and roaming around, they were apparently forgiven by their victim. allegedly. i don't know much.)

and a lot of the men i became friends with in college are elitists, socially unaware, privileged, and lowkey sexists. i'm just astounded. in shock. of course, i met some of the best guy friends in college too, of which i'm very thankful for.

HOWEVER, the worst thing happened a few months ago. my close friend was dating this guy in her college in a rather questionable manner. but that's not the point. anyway, i became close friends with the guy too and we integrated him in our friend group, became really, really close.

but there were red flags, of course. i scolded him often for it. and then my friend began telling me stuff about their relationship and i insisted for her to break up because so many bad things are happening already involving his ex. but she stayed with him still (i won't go to details because they were awful) and then it was revealed right before he moved to another country (they planned to do LDR) that he liked kids. he SA'd his ex multiple times. his alleged 'crazy' ex was a victim. he and his friends are awful human beings. they exchanged cp when they were in high school. large amounts of cp. and you guys don't even wanna know what else happened and for that, i'll keep them to myself.

my friend stayed with him for a month or so, until they broke up; he said she was awful for not realizing he's changed...

anyway, that's the context of my deleted post concerning my friend being a ykw. i have cut him off, blocked him everywhere, and he said he hates me lol. we can't do anything about it as his parents are government and law enforcement-affiliated. another day, another win for the elites.

also, some time before that my ED kicked in again but i'm kind of okay now. i'm mentally healthy atm. i'm doing great in school. i'm going for orgs. i have good friends. 😇 i have cut off smoking and drinking since the 10th of august. i don't think i'm gonna go back to smoking some time soon because my mom has a hound's nose for that. but unfortunately, drinking is part of the experience.

— FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS!

when are you updating frog in a well?

you should've heard the scream i let out just now. i have honestly grown tired of jjk and especially bnha, which i never really got into. jjk sucks now, guys... the constant mischaracterization of the characters by the fans, whatever is going on with sukuna, literally everything. at least nobara is alive.

but i want to finish froggie, honestly. it would be an achievement if i finished froggie and that's only my motivation for it. froggie will be updated whenever. that's basically the answer but i want to finish it, promise.

2. when are you updating rain on my parade?

look, i have 3 chapters on it already. completed. edited. ready to be posted but i just can't. i haven't been writing the past few months and i feel like anything i write is absolutely disgusting and just awful. so i can't post anything and i keep on re-editing everything: the commissions, the other things i've written and are just on stand-by.

3. any wips?

yes, a lot. i have posted a bit of details about them. they will be posted when i stop being insecure about my stuff.

4. what have you been doing recently?

watching lots of movies. i'm a film bro now, a letterboxd type of person. drinking, shopping, contemplating about my future.

5. others.

an advice for you guys in college or going to college, please PLEASE be careful with the people you meet, especially the men. i'm sorry to say but it's better to be careful and use as much connections you have to figure out what kind of person someone is. and just because a person seems nice, doesn't mean they're really nice, guys! the p/do guy called me a SISTER.

anyway, also, i want to change "unolvrs" or "uno". so if you suddenly see my username changing in all platforms, sorry. that's all i have to say. thank you.

i'm very excited to go back to writing. but i have these backlogs:

but i have many completed drafts, including commissions, some done in private and will be posted in private as well. i will no longer be posting any comm on ao3, but will have a gdrive for all of them.

and i'm starting to move past the "i can't update any chapter of other fics unless i update froggie". i've been going through that, which some of you may have noticed as i post chapters in bulks. anyway, that's it, i think.

TLDR;

i went through a lot last year and this year.

i will be changing my username from unolvrs and my penname uno to something else.

some chapters, including comms, will be posted on: OCTOBER 27.

[fluff-and-such]

Since you might be interested (and likely read the Sin War trilogy) based on map and region information, Diablo IV lately hinted at the first novel taking place in Teganze (AKA: Diablo equivalent of African savanna). Thoughts on that?

Here's the thing about The Books.

The Sin War trilogy came out in 2006. Massive chunks of them have already been retconned (The Worldstone is a big one, Rathma being Not Dead is pretty significant. Apparently there was an active volcano somewhere in Estuar), and characters as they are in the books behave drastically different from how they do in the games. The geography was never that well laid out to begin with. At this point, they're more of a vague guide than gospel when it comes to the current series, so take anything you read in them with a grain of salt.

That being said.

If you get creative, and look at things a bit lopsided, and accept that some things just aren't going to perfectly slot together, you can kinda piece together roughly where/how things took place.

I've been thinking that Birthright actually starts up in the Fractured Peaks, and makes its way into and through Hawezar, ending at the very edge of Toraja. They do cross through some scrubland, which could be Teganze, but it's mentioned in one sentence and nothing of note happens there. Scales of the Serpent crosses south west down through Toraja, and eventually curves northwest up into Kehjan as they head for the City, before flipping up to head straight north to the Cathedral of Light. Exactly where Kehjan the city, and the Cathedral of Light are, is a bit of a mystery.

Seram is surrounded by a temperate forest, and Uldyssian and his companions who hale from the area are considered northerners/uplanders. Seram is possibly closer to the Cathedral of Light than any other location in the books, at least laterally. There are two zones in D4 that have temperate forest; the Peaks, and Scosglen. It should be noted that D4 takes place in the winter time, and the Sin War seems to be during the summer, or possibly spring (for being a farmer, Uldyssian makes no mention of when his next harvest might be. They have good weather through the entire series despite being in the 'north' though.)

Seram could be in either one; we don't know conclusively which side of the mountains its on. Being in the southern end of Scosglen would would put Kehjan/jistan immediately south of the town, when it's stated to be more westerly. Kehjan is also noted to be a few days ride-by-caravan to the nearest major seafaring ports, with travelers able to get lost and end up in Seram by accident.

The sea-port could be something on the Twin Seas, or it could be one on the Sea of Light. We don't know, either one could fit. Personally though, I like to think Backwater in Hawezar is our port-town, doing trade with the Western countries over the Sea of Light.

As the group plan to flee Partha in Birthright, Mendeln tells us that Toraja (present-day Nahantu) is still to the Southwest of Kehjan. They're two separate regions. The group plans to hide in the Torajan jungles to escape what Lilith started. Scales of the Serpent takes place entirely within the region of Toraja though. They rampage their way through the Torajian jungles on their mission to root out the Triune.

Kind of fitting that Mephisto's tomb and shenanigans are apparently in the same place as the original Temple of the Triune.

Now, the differences between Toraja and Kehjan are a little...muddy. There are multiple books and games that put them as being two different entitys, one entity, or sometimes even three.

The lands that make up Kehjan become Kehjistan after the conclusion of the Sin War. This was at the beginning of the Age of when the Vizjerei were in control, and they moved the capital from Kehjan the City to Viz-Jun, down in Toraja somewhere. During the Sin War, Kehjan contained parts of Kurast/Toraja/Nahantu, but lost them over time. Nowadays, Kehjistan mainly consists of the dried out borderlands. Big difference from the apparent verdant jungle that it was made up of in the books eh?

It could be that the various magical battles over the ages ruined the lands. That's actually the explanation given for the Desolate Sands; that the area used to be lush, but was blasted flat and ruined by a particularly nasty Mage Clan battle. It's not clear whether or not all the damage Uldyssian and Inarius do to the landscape surrounding the Cathedral is undone or not. One might imagine that such a clash would leave behind some kind of impact, but then, Uldyssian may have gone ahead and fixed everything when he ascended.

Kurast is it's own can of worms. In D2 its treated as a separate entity from Toraja, even though it actually makes up most of Toraja itself. Kehjistan 'owns' it at the time, along with their more northernly territories. After Mephisto thoroughly ruins the capital city of Travincal, the capital is transferred to Caldeum, which prospers.

Until it doesn't.

The most likely explanation here is that a powerful Kehjistan conquered or annexed the Torajian territories through an allyship with the Mage Clans, shortly after the Sin War. After the Mage Clan Wars, Kehjistan began a slow decline in power, and coincidentally a slow receding of land. By present-day Diablo IV, it is nothing more than the burnt out shell of a once-great empire.

Now, the Cathedral. We know it takes about a day and a half for the Edyrem to march from Kehjan to the Cathedral, although they have the benefit of mowing down the forest in their path. So lets say its about two days for a good ol' Pilgrim. Trouble is, we don't know exactly where Kehjan the City was. Maybe it became Caldeum itself, perhaps it is lost in the sands somewhere. Maybe Blizzard has changed all of this, and it is actually down in Nahantu somewhere.

Tbh I feel like Blizzard has shot themselves (and the rest of us) in the foot by not already showing where Kehjan + the Temple of the Triune + The Cathedral were. They're running out of space.

This is more of a side-note, but both Uldyssian and Mendeln make note that the landscape changes biome very abruptly while they travel. Almost like a patchwork quilt. Almost as though someone (or, quite possibly, multiple someones) built and stitched the place together. Or perhaps even like a bunch of video-game levels interconnected with one another.

Anyway. Have a boney-Lilith x Inarius that I never posted and prolly won't finish, since this is my art blog.