#i get the desire for your vote to mean something REAL

[tendercoretroglodyke]

queen did you forget that the biden "apple" we picked is very much also killing people. like literally thousands of people. currently and actively??

[ominouspositivity-or-else]

so much of a 21st century woman that i legitimately had to have a guy in my YA lit class explain to me how men's emotions work because i've only ever heard about it from idiotic women speaking for men or super macho guys who think any form of emotion is utter weakness for my entire life

[headspace-hotel]

so, in regards to your recent posts on kane-tucky and usa food industry, do you / how do you keep active hope and not slip in into apathy and "looking out for my own" get out of dodge mentality? im having a hard time articulating this, but what makes you not curl up into a shaking mess in anger resentment and a deep desire for change that likely, if ever, wont happen in our lifetime.... any advice is appreciated

The short answer is "getting out and doing stuff in the real world, educating, volunteering, whatever is within your ability"

I will add that "looking out for your own" is not...bad. Like I don't know precisely what you mean by this phrase, but it's actually very important to come to terms with the fact that your impact is strongest where your feet touch the ground, and you have a responsibility and relationship to the people immediately around you, the place immediately around you.

This has not been a popular opinion of mine in the past, but...you can't and shouldn't care about literally everything on the planet. There is of course huge global disparity with access to resources and aid networks, and the largest communities we belong to are: all of Earth and the whole human species.

However: your level of agency is so low with issues that are happening on the other side of the world from you, compared with issues that are happening in your home town. And we're seeing people just get completely burned out from compassion fatigue without ever doing shit because the global responsibility is pushed on us and the local responsibility is not.

I hated my hometown for a decade. In high school I wanted so badly to leave. It's one of those desolate-feeling towns that's developed enough for a shopping center and big chain retailers but not enough to have a sense of community or a single bookstore. I've never been able to place myself precisely along the urban-rural spectrum because I feel isolated from even isolation: there's nowhere to go that doesn't feel razed by human development, where you can't hear the noise of traffic on roads, but it's all cattle pastures, sprawling storage facilities, auto parts stores, big, empty churches. One wrong turn will put you in a dark valley where there are rotting, derelict trailers on cinder blocks hidden back in the woods, and this place has that same feeling of "nowhere to go."

And I felt paralyzed by everything bad happening around the world and the fact that I was just one person, and I had gotten the horrible impression that the only thing I could do about anything was vote and donate money to links I saw online. The worst lie the internet taught me was that in saving the world, nothing matters except Power, Money, and an unclear third category that involves throwing bricks at cops.

But I touched grass. And the weeds taught me something. Do you see the parking lots, the harsh pavement and gravel and brick? I saw. I was surrounded by this landscape of brutal, totalitarian surfaces, impermeable concrete locking the soil away. But in the cracks in the surfaces, dandelions, purslane, and spurge were thriving.

I observed that the spurge stretched out like a shaggy rug and padded the concrete surfaces. The old leaves of the dandelions, as they withered, caught bits of dirt as it flowed into drainage ditches after rains. Soil was forming, and the sprawling structure of the early weeds seemed specially adapted for the task. In older cracks, more plants moved in; I found a wild ruellia blooming in a paved road, an evening primrose. And in some places, seedling trees.

Have you seen what happens when a sidewalk is left unmaintained for years? It disappears. The roots slowly buckle and break it into pieces, and it vanishes beneath lush leaves and moss. A tree growing in a crack in concrete will slowly pry the slab apart.

This is how my IRL rewilding project got started—just pulling plants from the pavement cracks, raising them in pots. I was surprised and awed at the resilience of the plants. I found little trees in concrete with at least two years' growth on them, that had survived being mowed down multiple times.

The weeds changed my viewpoint on the world forever. Up until that point, certain facts about power and politics and money had seemed like law, but I'd suddenly seen that there was a deeper magic.

The dandelions' survival made it possible for others to survive, which in turn made even more life flourish. They could not demolish and remove the concrete and pavement, but they could overcome it by refusing to be destroyed, because the power to take care of each other is in their nature.

People have made fun of me for telling others to go plant a tree. I think culturally we have this ingrained dismissal of things like that due to the twee, cutesy associations of "tree hugging" environmentalists, except in this instance it's because planting a tree is pointless in light of something something systemic issues, not because climate change isn't real, or...whatever reason people have for finding environmentalists cringe. (That is kinda sus now that I think about it.)

And I'm not saying planting a tree will fix climate change. I'm saying that something in my brain had broken and planting a tree unbroke it.

Go outside. Touch grass. Do the work in the immediate community you belong to, in the place you are in, where you have the best and most impact. We have the power to take care of each other, and that power grows stronger the more we are cared for.

The internet is a good place to share information, but that's fucking it. The real stuff, the stuff you can touch with your hands, the stuff that will heal despair, is out there in the real, touchable world. You need to see and feel what you are doing. Don't just give help—accept it. The power to take care of each other is in our nature, and by nature we can give more when we thrive as a result of others' care.

I hope this helps.

[blond-jerk-tourney]

Champagne Bracket: Round 3, Poll 1

Propaganda from submitters Under Cut

Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu

He’s a bitch and a hate (love) him. I will now quote him below: "Sigh... I don't do the whole sweating thing, Neku." "Very impressive, Neku. Show those fifth graders who's boss." "Who needs other people's values? It's easier to just live by your own rules." "Oh! I can't say I'm particularly interested, but... I'll go ahead and ask, for the sake of convenience. Do you have a name?"

Smug asshole. Always playing mind games with the player character. Has many secrets but never shares them. Also did a bunch of spoilery shit.

Byakuya Togami

Very elitist, constantly calls others "commoners", talks about how he is gonna kill someone and get out of the killing game, hangs up a corpse and writes a message with their blood on the wall because he already knows the murderer but wants to see who is smart, complains the other students left him out even though he made sure to tell them every time that he wants nothing to do with them, pretty sure he screams in the 4 chapter " How can you know something I don't know?!", the only reason he doesn't qualify as a villain is cus he doesnt kill someone and in the end works with the rest of the survivors. He also constantly wants the protagonist to tell the rest what he knows

he's mean and self-centered and sees himself as above everyone else.

such a cunt 😭 doesnt eat breakfast w everyone and spends all his time in the library. (also he tampered with a crime scene but spoilers)

His title is literally, get this, "ultimate affluent progeny" Fucking look at him /hj Treats everyone as inferior in every way, even when they're trying to solve a murder he goes "how did YOUUU figure this out before MEEE???? >:0" Constantly has an "Me vs. Them" mentality about everything so he feels the need to prove himself to be superior - Messes with crime scenes because it would "make them more interesting" (purposefully incriminating someone else, who he didn't like) Actual quotes by him: "I'm only here to get breakfast. I have neither need nor desire to talk to you. Now withdraw." "You're like a child lost in the woods, you know that? A total waste of space." "You know, I still just can't believe it... That an uneducated, brain-dead, useless piece of garbage like you has survived this long." "You have only yourself to blame—you came to me with your tragic little story. I didn't ask you to. This is the real world, not some romantic fantasy fairytale."

This rich mf… He spends the entire game being a snobby, condescending, uncaring asshole. He becomes relatively nicer by the end but never stops being a dick. He also desecrated a corpse once for funsies. He’s also stupid but he doesn’t know that. I both like and hate him. It’s complicated.

He's an heir to a wealthy family corporation and he sure does act the part. He acts like he's better than everyone else and thinks they're not worth his time. He's just a huge asshole. (SPOILERS) He tampers with a murder scene just for fun and outs another student's secret alter, knowing full well it was irrelevant to the case. He also has a small breakdown about being wrong in another trial. By the end, he becomes a bit more likeable and kinda a tsundere that pretends like he doesn't care about the other survivors (but he totally does). Still very much an asshole though. He's a fucked up lil guy and something about him draws me to him. I would kick his rich bastard shins IRL given the chance, however.

He is emotionally detached from his classmates…

why you should vote byakuya "tell em naegi" thanks for watching like and subscribe

[frau-kali]

On Self Awareness and Cognitive Dissonance

So @jaynovz made this really interesting and excellent post about Silver's crazy decision to go to Charlestown at the end of S2. I thought I'd toss out my two cents as to why he might have done it. And also discuss some related stuff. Buckle up, folks!

So first, let's begin with THE SCENE:

Silver: I've had my fill of adapting lately, doing your bidding, keeping the crew in line for you. Flint: I wasn't the only one who benefited from that. Silver: It certainly seemed that way.

Here Flint refers to Silver's position among the crew, which Flint sees as a benefit to both of them. As we see:

Flint: I need your help. They need your help. Silver: Oh please. Don't try to convince me to do it for the sake of their futures. Flint: For the sake of your own. Those men listen to you, they care about what you think, what you want them to think. Where else in the world is that true? Where else would you wake up in the morning and matter?

I could talk endlessly about this whole scene, particularly about Silver's incredibly amazing lie and how he acts during it and his bitterness toward Flint, but that's beyond the scope of this. Instead I wanna focus on self awareness.

With these few words, Flint basically drags Silver kicking and screaming to self awareness land. He is suddenly exposed to the fact that he actually means something here. And by his reaction, I think it's fair to assume this is one the few times, if not perhaps the first time, he's been in a position like this. Based on his past actions and his desire to remain anonymous (see refusing to show his face during the schedule thing, it’s safer to be anonymous), I think his previous modus operandi has been to position himself behind some powerful figure and work in the background to help them achieve their shared goals of getting lots of money. Said people were also probably not as smart as him so he could easily manipulate them as well. We see him do this with Flint a bunch, too, working in the background to help him. And that's what his position on the Walrus crew starts out as.

But then he becomes the centre of attention. They start to like him, which he didn't even necessarily expect when he started his gossip monger plan, he just wanted them to need him, despite his proclaiming that he’s a hard man not to like. But no, they get attached to him. And he, unbeknownst to himself, becomes attached right back.

Now, it's entirely possible that he's been in similar situations in the past just like this one, but because he is very good at repression and lying to himself, he was able to walk away without any real trouble. Maybe he realized afterwards that he actually liked those people but it didn't matter because he'd already left and he tells himself it’s for the best anyway. Silver is likely carrying around some heavy trauma related to emotional attachments to other people, given how he tells Muldoon that “we’ll take care of you” is the most terrifying part of everything that’s happened after losing his leg. And, considering everything else, that sure is saying something.

But here, he has hitched his wagon to James Flint, a man after his own heart. Flint is a lot like Silver, a brilliant liar and excellent manipulator, able to bend people to his will and look damn good while doing it.

Then he does it to Silver, too. And it's all while Silver is in the middle of pulling off his own master class in lying, some of his best work, by being outraged and angry that the gold he actually stole is gone and trying to extricate himself from Flint and the crew. Except Flint won't let him.

Flint's request for Silver's help doesn't, I don't think, extend merely to the lovely speech Silver gives to swing the vote in his favour, either. During the voyage to Charlestown, Silver continues working to convince the men of the dangers that lie ahead, presumably at Flint's behest. Scott does indicate to Billy that Silver is using his storytelling powers to “help the captain” when Silver is addressing the crew.

So Silver stays because he has come to value his position on the crew. However he doesn't yet realize how attached to them he's actually become. Jay is right, he could’ve easily deserted after the vote, run off to hide somewhere until Flint is gone, but he doesn’t. And he's still lying to himself about why. He thinks “yeah ok, Flint, you won this round. I'll stay and go on the voyage so as not to arouse suspicion from you and everyone else, and I’ll take the scouts along because I don’t trust them not to fuck this up, but I am leaving after that.” The real reason he stays is because he values his position, he actually likes that he matters, but he is still convinced he’s going to leave because he also wants the money. I think he probably would’ve left, too, but he’s trying not to think too hard about the newly exposed self awareness and continuously telling himself he doesn’t need this and he sure as fuck doesn’t actually care about these people, even as he stays. It’s like he’s torn between how he wants to be and how he actually is and he cannot bring himself to go no matter how much he wants to.

That’s also not even going into how, during the voyage, he is exposed to how much power he actually has over the men on the crew when he gives the scout a fucking look and said scout kills their co-conspirator because of it. And then that same scout tells Silver that all the men know he cares about their best interests and Silver is just fucking taken aback by the level of regard these people have for him. This is on display again when they all stand up in his defence after Vane’s men come to grab him.

When Vane’s men attack the ship, Silver could swim to shore with the remaining scout and if they kept their heads down, they'd probably be ok. They could likely swim far enough away to not get caught, especially at night. Silver surely knows this, too.

Instead, he cuts the forestay and saves the crew. And then he refuses to give up a list of names, once again saving the crew. He has, against all his own cognitive dissonance, become attached to them enough that he endures torture and risks death for them. Now, I don’t think that he ever thought that he would lose his leg, I don’t think that he made space in his mind for the possibility of being tortured either, he knew that one of the men had grabbed the keys during the scuffle when they took him away and he thought that he could stall long enough until they broke in and saved him because he’s good at talking his way out of trouble. I also have to say that it is such a nice moment when he says this to Vane’s man: “The question you should be asking yourself is, where are his keys and has he seen them since he took me away from my men?” They are his men now, his brothers, whereas before he always set himself apart from them.

And it's all because Flint made him see that he valued his position enough to stay and go on the journey to Charlestown in the first place. Silver even gives Flint credit for this in 305 - “Such a waste, it seems to me, knowing that it doesn't have to be this way. That the man who talked me into giving a shit about this crew, he could talk those people out there into anything. If he wanted to.”

Or that’s how I read it anyway. The way Silver’s attachment to the Walrus crew is developed over the course of season 2 and the final culmination of him refusing to betray them is one of my favourite things about his story and I have a lot of feelings about it. I could be wrong in my interpretation, of course, but thank you all for coming to my Ted Talk :)

[meteor752]

Total drama traffic series AU

I’m mixing my two obsessions together

The hosts are still Chris and Chef cause I can’t for the life of me imagine anything Total drama without them (This is a callout to the ridonculus race)

So it’s the third life people, simply because I will be following those story beats. Sorry Pearl, Mumbo, and Lizzie.

So we’ve two teams, red’s and green’s.

Theres Grian, Scott, Martyn, Cleo, BigB, Impulse, Joel VS Scar, Jimmy, Ren, Skizz, Tango, Bdubs, Etho

I imagine that the first challenge it was team-less, and so everyone sorta formed their own lil groups. Scar and Grian became buds, Scott and Jimmy, Martyn and Ren, BDubs and Cleo, Etho Tango and Impulse etc. Grian won the challenge, a stay awake challenge, and he gets an immunity totem as a price.

The second challenge is Red Light Green Light, which will determine the teams. The seven people who first loses will be Reds, and the seven people who win will be the greens. Greens will be given the better food, better housing, and an advantage in all future challenges. Very desirable team.

Jimmy falls on his face, so he’s the first red. Grian trips Scar as a joke and accidentally makes him lose, and he feels really bad about it. Bdubs falls on Etho which is how he ends up in red. Tango trips. Skizz does as well. Ren moves on purpose however, later saying in confessional that being on red gives him more of a challenge, plus it’s more dramatic.

Some alliances stay intact though. Grian promises that he’ll get Scar to the final two with him to make up for the “prank”, and if it stood between the two of them Grian will sacrifice himself. Scar has to try and keep him in the game though. They call it the desert alliance, for no real reason.

Martyn is annoyed at Ren for moving on purpose so they’re on different teams, but the man just waves him off, saying that they can still work together, he’s still “The hand of the king” (Whatever that means).

Etho has it out for Bdubs for getting him on the worse team, so Cleo is kinda forced to protect him, mostly cause he’s hiding behind her almost 27/7 (He says he’s not, he’s protecting her back)

Scott laughs a whole lot at Jimmy, but they remain somewhat allies. To be honest Scott just kinda likes the pathetic man, plus he gave him a flower, so there’s that.

I’d say there’s two award challenges before the first elimination challenge.

“Retrieve a piece of paper from a room that slowly fills up with lava, and then get it back without either the paper or you setting on fire. If you touch the lava or burn yourself then you have to go back and tag the next member of your team. First team to get their paper back safely wins immunity”

Team green’s advantage is that they get a turn to try before any reds do, but Joel sorta screws it up immediately.

In the end, Jimmy once again trips when trying to get back from retrieving the paper (giving him some small burns from the lava), and Martyn uses his body as a bridge to avoid walking on the hot floor, giving team green the win.

Jimmy is the one sent home, with a vote from everyone except himself and Etho, who voted Bdubs (Something he will keep on doing)

The next elimination challenge, I have no ideas for. Cleo is the one sent home, but like her deaths give me nothing to work with here. Sadge. Bdubs is now very scared, cause he lost his protection. Tango is his new safe haven, and the guy doesn’t mind it really.

Next challenge, both teams have to defuse a bomb. Green team’s advantage is two extra minutes on the clock. Skizz ends up cutting the wrong wire that blows up their bomb, so he’s voted off.

Next, the teams have to tame three dogs each to fight, and then pit them against one another. Green’s advantage is that they get three pitbulls, while team red get three chihuahuas. Joel spends all their training time cuddling the dogs though, making them his pals, while Ren has a way with dogs so he can get the little pups properly riled up.

When the two dog squads are pitted against one another, Team Green’s are nothing but friendly while Team Red’s are ready to kill.

Joel gets voted off.

I’m at a loss for Scott’s booting too, sorry lads

Next challenge is a kind of, protect the fort challenge, except it’s a tree instead. Team red must protect a great oak tree, while team green try and cut it down. Their advantage is a chainsaw.

This is where the Desert alliance starts to come into play, as Grian manages to break the chainsaw. Scar, knowing that if team green lost then Grian would get the boot, decides to wait until the rest of team red are off chasing away the greens, then burns the tree down.

Etho manages to catch him in the act and accuses him of helping the other team, but Scar being Scar twists the scenario in his favor, making it seem like Etho was the one who burnt the tree. Since the tree is technically cut down, team green wins and Etho is booted.

(Bdubs also manages to see this happen, but swears not to tell any of the others, but Scar does owe him one)

The challenge after that is a cow herding one. Cows are released into a forest, and the team who manages to get the most into their pen wins. Green’s get the advantage of horses, while Red have to use goats.

Tango has had ranch experience in the past, so he does a really good job herding cows. His one flaw is that he doesn’t bring them back to the red pen, instead riding around with them to flaunt. This makes it easy for the greens to steal them, making the reds loose the challenge. Tango gets the boot.

This is where the merge happens. The remaining players are Ren, Martyn, Impulse, Grian, Scar, BigB, and Bdubs.

Their first merge challenge is a paintball hide and seek one. Chef will hunt the contestants for two hours, and then one with the most paint on them at then end of it has to go home.

Ren ends up sacrificing himself for Martyn, hopping in front of him to protect him from a direct hit. He ends up soaked in paint, and is out. Martyn smooches him as a thank you though, promising to win for both of them.

Next challenge is a cooking one. The remaining are paired up randomly, and are forced to cook the most disgusting meals they can to feed to the other. First to make their opponent throw up is safe from elimination.

Martyn gets paired up with Scar, BigB with Bdubs, and Impulse with Grian. While most of them make pretty awful things (Bdubs and Impulse were the ones who threw up in their respective match ups), Scar ends up actually poisoning Martyn, to the point where he can no longer compete. Tragic end.

Five left.

Next we have a treasure hunt. All five of them are told to find one of four things, the person who doesn’t find their treasure is eliminated.

Scar and Grian team up to find the Llama and banner respectively, landing them in first and second place. BigB finds the sword on his own. Impulse and Bdubs were teamed up, until Bdubs spots the last item (a golden clock), and pushes Impulse out of the way to get it. Impulse comes in last, and goes home.

Four left. Objective, steal a cookie. Sounds easy enough? Well, you have to steal a cookie from chef, who does not like when people steal from his kitchen.

Lucky for Grian, Scar has been stealing cookies during the duration of the entire show, so the two get first and second once more. Bdubs cashes in on his favor here, forcing Scar to tell him how to steal the cookie. BigB looses, because of forces out of his control.

Final three, Scar, Bdubs, and Grian.

Grian thinks that this is a safe way to the finale, since the Desert alliance is still in motion. But in a surprising twist, Scar turns on Grian and teams up with Bdubs.

I don’t know what the challenge is yet, but I do know that Scar wins, Bdubs second, and Grian comes in last. But, to everyone’s surprise, Grian pulls out the immunity totem he’s been saving for all this time, that everyone had forgotten about, including Chris!

So Grian is safe, and Bdubs is off.

The final challenge is similar to the finale in Revenge of the Isle, it being an arena battle with a bunch of misc items being used as weapons.

All previous contestants are Brought back, Bdubs taking extra protection behind Cleo cause now Impulse and BigB are upset with him too, Martyn still feeling a little iffy and leaning heavily on Ren, and Scott and Jimmy having matching poppies in their hair.

When the two finalists goes to fight though, Scar surprises everyone by getting down on his knees and surrendering, stating that he betrayed their alliance and doesn’t deserve to win.

Grian, who was fuming and ready to beat the shit out of Scar for betraying him, softens slightly. The previous contestants boo, mostly cause they want a fight, but Scar refuses.

So Grian bonks him on the head, he falls dramatically to the ground and pretends to die for a solid three minutes, and Grian wins 100 000 dollars.

(That is until the price gets upped for a second season. You bet your ass I’m doing a part two)

(Also gladly taking suggestions for Cleo, Scott, and Bdubs elimination challenges)

[for-the-ninth]

It happens like clockwork every election cycle.

Republican gets elected, people rage and foist all the blame onto third party voters or people who didn't vote. They post their hot takes about the brain dead red states who vote against their own interests and claim the only reason any of us are in this mess at all is because people won't "do the work," when their own definition of "the work" really just comes down to voting Democrat every four years, encouraging others to do the same, and resorting to shame when some of them inevitably don't.

These are often, though not always, folks who don't really know what The Work is. They aren't grounded in the struggle. They are comfortable enough that the only thing that really fazes them is someone like Trump getting elected. They aren't participating in community outreach or mutual aid networks. They are comfortable in many ways they probably take for granted, and the reason they want Dems in office is, in part, to protect that comfort.

What they don't realize, and often refuse to realize no matter how many activists of the present and past tell them, is that liberalism and electoral politics was never going to save us. Democrats have long been committed to the status quo. They cosplay as revolutionaries and leaders of the resistance whenever the next Republican dickhead gets voted in. They co-opt the movement despite having no real stake in it, because they are centrists with no genuine desire to propel the country in a radically progressive direction. And when folks too far left of center step up to the plate, like Bernie Sanders, the rest of the party refuses to put their weight behind them.

It's the same sorry set of excuses every time: oh, but we'll lose the swing voters! and we have to try to win over moderate Republicans! the nation isn't ready for someone so radical! When we all know that's bullshit. Anyone who's tired of crying over their grocery bill - and that's damn near everyone - is ready for radical change.

But sure, let's continue blaming people who didn't vote or voted third party for the result of one of many election cycles during which the Dems failed to provide us with a compelling progressive candidate with policies geared toward uplifting the working class and working poor.

By all means, let's continue doing the work of the imperialists for them, cause the more time we spend fighting each other over minor ideological differences (and yes, if your only beef with someone's ideology is that they didn't bother voting, that is a minor difference and not something worth seething over) the less time we'll spend organizing. The more isolated from each other we'll be. If we blame each other then we're less likely to blame them, for putting all of us in this hellscape.

And make no mistake - they know that. There's a reason Democratic politicians are so quick to disparage working class folks in southern states. If we blame them for just being sooooo willfully stupid and deplorable AND we blame everyone else for having the audacity not to vOTe bLue No MaTtRr wHo then there's no blame left to hurl at the Dems. They want so badly for us to believe that people like Obama, Harris, and Biden - who are all centrists, through and through - will save us if enough of us vote for them. And then when they do get voted in there's a million excuses for why they can't push any meaningful legislation through.

I hate watching so many of you buy right into it. Crucifying each other over not voting for the lesser of two evils like it isn't deeply fucked up that they're our only two options to begin with. Touting Harris like she's some sort of saint by comparison when she stood up on a national platform to say she wanted our military to be the most lethal in the world. Amidst calls for a ceasefire and an arms embargo, she said that shit with her whole chest, and y'all think Donald Trump is the only fascist? Get. A. Grip.

Electoral politics are not going to save us. Kamala Harris was never going to save us. We are the only people who can save us and we do that by building a grassroots movement grounded in class solidarity.

If you're still blaming people who voted third party or didn't vote at all, you're not ready for that movement. If you're still denigrating working class voters in red states for falling victim to the propaganda machine because you're Oh So Smart and that could never be you, you're not ready for the movement.

And if the only "work" you do is urging people to vote every 4 years and writing spicy posts after the fact about how you no longer give a shit about the people who "betrayed" you by not relying on electoral politics to save us - many of whom I can promise you are doing real, tangible work to benefit the people in their own communities - do me and everyone else a favor, and get grounded. Get rooted in the struggle. Stop spewing reactionary nonsense and put that energy into your community - including people who didn't fucking vote for Harris. Cause I can promise you, organizers and activists aren't checking anyone's voting record when they serve up meals at the soup kitchen or fund mutual aid requests for rent money. Folks who are "actually doing the work" don't have time for that petty shit.

[2n2n]

Do you think Yashiro has a sad past? I mean we still don't know anything about her childhood. We know even more about the Minamoto family than she does. I have the impression that aida Iro is going to drop some bomb in relation to her past. In my opinion I think that her parents are probably either divorced or argue all the time, maybe that's why she desperately seeks a fairytale love. But I would love to hear your opinion 👍

I am not personally under that impression ....but it's true Nene-chan's youngest childhood is very well hidden from us, and I do think it will be a kind of 'drop' to see young, young Nene-chan.

This is the glimpse we've gotten of her parents:

While it's Not, Like, Impossible A Divorce Happened Before Or After This, or her parents are in some way unsatisfactory..... I do not personally see how that would advance our understanding of Nene-chan's complexes. Unlike Amane, I do not think Nene-chan's cheery attitude in younger life is a facade ... we see plenty of her attitude, anyway, at many ages (though we also see that her only friend seems to be Aoi, and we do not see her BEFORE middle school for more than a single panel).

middle school girlie...

I also think Nene-chan's bedroom and the frivolousness with which she can buy herself some clothes and toys, isn't really particularly signifying struggle.... her parents seem nice to her, and she can enjoy her weirder interests or aesthetics all she pleases. At the same time, it's a small bedroom, and a humble apartment complex.

Here, you can see younger Nene-chans.

I think her biggest fear in Hell of Mirrors is very real, very Nene-chan. You have to take it to heart I think, that the Hell of Mirrors itself is honest. I think if she had something like miserable parents arguing all the time, her fear would be something like getting into a bad relationship, being an unhappy wife, romance betraying her, or something, I don't know … (considering her abusive boyfriend this would be not very good thematically lol.... it is. already happening,,)

(in Japanese she says, "Domestic Violence Boyfriend" lmfao)

but Nene-chan's biggest fear is simply that nobody will ever want her. And given how few friends she has, and how none of her peers will remotely vote her into a nice role in a school play, I think that's Nene-chan's actual, for real, biggest problem! Crushing reality that she's just not hot!!!! Nobody would have you in that way! You'll be alone forever-- so what if your parents 'love you'?

[PS: please laugh with me that it's all boys in the portraits mocking her .... even Lemon is here ... that is so sad Nene-chan. The idea even Lemon would not have you. O-or a male Mokke,,]

I think THAT is her struggle, and it sets her apart from characters like Teru or Aoi (well-admired and considered attractive), Akane (who is well-liked broadly by the student body)-- people whos problems are not remotely 'Am I Desirable and Hot?'.

and yet continues the general concept of lonliness and pining we do explore again and again (Teru hides his pain while desperately loving his family, Kou is trusted with nothing important & is not taken seriously, Aoi hides her true self for disdain and mistrust of others, Mitsuba seems to PLATONICALLY pine for company and love, Sakura feebly reads books, hamfistedly attempts at proper socializing, embarrassed to do it wrong)....

I don't personally think a girl needs a 'reason' to be a romantic ... it can be tragic enough that a girl can want something so helplessly and be so bad at it. So beyond fail at it. So inexperienced socially she bombs over and over and over. We OPEN THE MANGA with Nene-chan being ludicrously bad at it....

I think Iro-sensei pities this immensely lol...

Personally? I think the spoiler is that young Nene-chan was very weird, worse than she is now, and perhaps even ... overtly strange and even... boyish?

As the Queen of Hearts, Nene-chan was raised as a boy:

In the Monster Nursery AU, Nene-chan is a very scrappy, rowdy kid:

We know Nene-chan made a conscious choice to become more feminine, when a boy she liked in early middle school, was into feminine girls:

I'm kinda hoping when we see young, young Nene-chan, that she is like, incredibly offputting to her peers, to other girls, to boys ... enjoying her strange scary ghoul plush... loving ghost stories ... rowdy and kinda annoying. Kind of a terrible rat?

an utterly undateable girl, who made her efforts come middle school to try to be a little different... a girl who, I like to think, Aoi saw being rejected, and, didn't want to reject like everyone else (even despite how determined to be alone Aoi typically is!! I think Nene-chan was special!)

It would be cute... if she was just so Tsukasa-like (: I would like Amane... to see her as a younger child, and feel kind of like .... "noooooooooooo... what... no.... why.... what ... this is a picture of a boy, isn't it? This ... can't..... . be. Yashiro... nooooooooo *so horny he's going to black out*" . make him feel weird and funny and kind of terrified by how alike to the rowdy, annoying Tsukasa she is. S-s o cute ... ghh-!

Voted Least Likely to Ever Have a Boyfriend

[aib-au-official]

Introducing: the Mockfest

A Splatfest on Tumblr!

Okay so it's not actually that much of a Splatfest so much as it is for me to write silly banter between idols, draw stuff, and then let y'all vote on pointless questions. But I'm having fun with it, so now it's a thing here.

The Shell-Stoppers

Art gifted by @ratflamt

An up-and-coming trio of octoling siblings who rose up from underground to the streets of Inkopolis Square, and later Splatsville. The band consists of main vocalist Emily ("Hachi"), sound mixer Coral ("DJ Bub-L-Gum"), and instrumentalist Elliot ("MintyFresh"), who— rumor has it— are somehow connected to another pop duo: Off the Hook. While the Shell-Stoppers themselves have never achieved true "idol" status, they have somewhat of a following and host a series of "online Splatfests", or Mockfests, in their spare time; nothing huge (they don't want to take the attention away from Deep Cut and the real splatfests, but playful little polls on generally unimportant topics— complete with funny discussions, as they each defend their choice before opening up the vote.

How this works:

Each poll will be open for 7 days

You may reblog and comment if you have something to add to the discussion, but please keep it civil and relevant to the topic at hand

Team propaganda is allowed if so desired (if that's your thing)

Winning team gets one piece of artwork relating to the theme

Simple, right? You're welcome to organize a group of friends and do some actual splatting for it, too, by all means. I just am not going to organize anything myself.

Also taking suggestions for future Mockfest themes!!!

Now let's waste our time 👍

[ragnarokhound]

your tags on that post you just rb’d (about dc being inconsistent and thus more open to fan interpretation) are so real that’s exactly how i feel about it

haven’t been reading the comics/watching the various animations + films for long but i have noted how differently characters and dynamics are portrayed per source

some of the writers (comics not fanfiction) can be a bit annoying when it’s clear that they don’t like the character they’re writing and it’s directly affecting how they write the character but for the most part it’s honestly kinda refreshing imo that dc has this yesterday does not reflect today sorta vibe when it comes to characterization and how the characters interact

like yeah let them be insane in different but complementary ways throughout the various forms of media <3 it’s a treat

they seem to do this especially with jason todd and like i’m all for it bc it opens up so many different ways fans can interpret his character in fanwork

there’s not really a right or wrong way to go about interpreting dc characters bc chances are, the source material has already portrayed them in that manner years back before scrapping it for a slightly different characterization (that still maintains a few core personality traits that act as the character’s signature)

kinda pick your own adventure in the sense that you can choose which canon version of the character/plot you like the most

(I got excited, wall of text incoming lmao)

Yes!! Exactly, yes - the funniest thing to me about writing fic for comics is that I'm p sure the Official comic artists and writers basically get a set of golden rules on the characters they're going to be writing for (batman must be x, dick grayson cannot do y, gotham must be grungy) but a lot of things are up to them.

While their stuff goes through edits and vets to make sure it will fit the canon...the canon is already one big, ongoing game of telephone. It's why we can sort comics ala the "golden age" vs the "silver age" and why these tonal shifts happen. So when you write fic, you're basically hitching a ride on this grand tradition lol you just don't have any industry standards you have to follow or edits that you have to make

And oh god, yeah, it can be very annoying when you figure out that a writer simply...does not like a character lol. Like, excuse me, DC, could you tag this for character bashing please

But I 100% agree, and i love that way you put it, that 'yesterday does not reflect today' - absolutely the vibe. The desire to be evergreen in comics means that they Will scrap things at a certain point to reintroduce a character so that they can tell a different story with them - which is fun! And very, very close to the nature of reading fanworks!

Every time I open a new fic, I have to reset the characters in my brain because a different author is writing them and will cherrypick the things they like about canon and about the characters. It's like a faster, rawer, and generally hornier version of picking up new source material lol (with many caveats about accuracy, something something industry standards something something "i know them best" but i digress)

"like yeah let them be insane in different but complementary ways throughout the various forms of media <3 it’s a treat" - points at this. yes. YES. YEESSSSS

And Jason. Ough. Jason is such a fascinating character to me, not just because of the whole black sheep of the batfam thing he has going, but because of the absolutely divisive nature of him. (I still reel over the whole 'do you HATE this child? Would you like us to KILL HIM FOR YOU? Vote now and we'll brutally murder a teenager!' thing. Like what!! That happened!!)

You can't get away from how brutal he is (cool backstory, still murder) but there is a wiiiiide range of sympathy to play from. You can figure out a lot about how a person feels about the death penalty based on how they treat Jason Todd lol

But yeah, I kind of love the modular nature of comics - from a writer's standpoint it makes it so much easier to relax about getting it "right" because like. There is no right way and also a hundred right ways, and you're doing fine sweetie <3

[ae-azile]

I really appreciate the voting pools you are doing for every upcoming chapter:D. It gives me a taste of what I can look forward to the next chapter of Progression. I love this story so much. I fear that Korn will make some real trouble now. And hopefully he won't get between KhunArm too much. Because yes, Porsche won't have this ship ruined for him:DD. Also I think that Korn won't like developing VegasKinn ship either (i.e. power cousin combo). If that's something he will try to break (again), Chay won't have it. It's his OTP now and Korn won't ruin it. Your writing is amazing and I can't wait for more.

I'm glad you enjoy the voting polls! Meant to make this last one have a week limit but forgot to change it. But they are fun to compile and sometimes hold me to keeping certain plot points that I might delay otherwise.

Korn is...ugh. I will say that he loves his sons in his own way, but he values his own perception and control too highly to truly listen to them and adjust his own views and behavior. In this universe, I have Tankhun getting kidnapped at 17 years old. He was highly valued and Korn's pride and joy up until that point, and then was completely traumatized by everything that happened to him during his kidnapping. I think Korn's mixture of guilt and disappointment that he never bounced back from it made it so he distanced himself from his oldest and went lax on the level of support he needed back then. Khun changed so much from the experience, and I think that was not expected. But it also made Korn more controlling and protective of Tankhun in his own way. He has not viewed Tankhun as capable in a long time, and this extends to normal life milestones that Tankhun was robbed of. He has been so brave and productive these last few years, both secretively and not so secretively, and it has gone mostly unnoticed by close to everyone (except for Arm, and maybe Pol). It probably saddens him greatly, but he knows it has been for the best because the good developments might be halted by his father, should he find out. This upcoming chapter, he may be proven right. It's integral that he has everyone else in his corner at this point. His next steps need to be a strange mixture of bold, deliberate, but also very planned.

I mean, after all, he can't let Porsche down. ArmKhun is his OTP! I think if drama occurs with Korn, he is going to be a mixture of pissed off, supportive of his ship, and extremely involved. He wants them to stay together, and being an active player in making sure that happens will be interesting for him lol. As for Chay, I know he doesn't want the relationship between the cousins to be affected by Korn or his decision to step out of retirement.

The reconciliation with the cousins will probably be kept quiet for now, but I don't see Korn liking it much either, not unless he can keep an active eye on Vegas, Macau, Pete, and Fern. He has been comforted by the knowledge that they are busy with new ventures that don't really affect the major family's, and the fact that Vegas and Pete are busy with fatherhood might be a positive in his eyes. They won't risk the baby's welfare by stepping out of line, and the baby can be used as potential leverage if they do. I don't think it will come to that, but I think Vegas has no desire to get involved with Korn again for this reason, as well as the fact that he views Korn as the root of several different traumas.

I do hope to explore some of this in the new chapter! I am behind schedule right now due to two deadlines at work, but I am currently writing an emotionally charged conversation between Kinn and Khun now. It is way overdue and some resentments are coming out, but it will hopefully be good for them and their bond in the scheme of things! Thank you for the ask!

[nobodysdaydreams]

Thank you tmbs fandom for voting in my polls🥰

Happy to announce that based on the results the character names in my fic (since they don't have real ones in canon) will be...

Kate's Mom: Beatrice Wetherall (Apparently none of us in the fandom can agree on what her name is, but this is what won the poll).

Dr. Garrison: Molly Garrison (Apparently this one is already popular in the fandom. Sorry Katie. I will (if I get there) use your head canon for something else).

SQ's Biological Mom: Evelyn Pedalian (There was no poll for this. The name Evelyn means life, mother of life, desired child, island in the water, little bird, and strength. So it's pretty much perfect).

SQ's Biological Dad: Niles Pedalian (There was no poll for this, but one of Niles' name meanings is "People's Victory" which is the same name meaning as Nicholas' name, so...symbolism).

Finally, I have (slowly) begun to comb through SOS chapters to change the names the friends call each other to their first names while referring to them by their commonly known names most of the time to make it easy to keep track of the characters. However, I kept my head canon of Curtain calling his friends by their last names in order to distance himself from them, minus a few choice instances where he slips up and calls them by their first names for angst related reasons. So have fun with those. I also might have missed a few lines, so if you notice I need to edit anything, feel free to message me about it. It's a tedious process, but that's what you get when you procrastinate on character names.

Thanks again everyone, you guys are the best 🥰

[kuiperblog]

The King’s Dilemma is a game about roleplaying

I just played my first game of The King’s Dilemma, which is the most fun I’ve had playing a board game in a long time (and that’s speaking as someone who plays a lot of board games and has a collection that is entirely too big).

This man is suffering, but not from success.

The entire game is about reading cards from a deck that present you (the leaders of the noble houses of the kingdom, who are the the real leaders standing behind the figurehead king) with questions and voting on them (with various consequences, negative or positive).  The things you do affect the kingdom’s military strength, economy, health, morale, and knowledge.

A merchant sold spoiled food to your citizens.  Do you punish the man and make an example of him?  If you do, it will discourage anyone who might try to do the same (improving the health of your kingdom), but it might also have a chilling effect on trade (worsening the economy).  Punishment or no?  Aye or nay?

You’ve discovered a rare metal that might be useful for forging weapons.  Will you use it to bolster your own military, or seek economic benefits through trade?

Each card has printed icons showing some of the immediate consequences...but once you flip the card over and read the prose describing the aftermath of your decision, you’ll often discover that there may be hidden consequences that might have only been vaguely hinted at by the front half of the dilemma card. (This is the part where the game tells you to “open envelope #46, read the story card, then add the rest of the cards from the envelope to the dilemma deck.” The deck is shuffled each time, but the further you progress, the more likely you are to confront the consequences of past votes.)

Every member of the council can commit any number of power tokens from their supply to either an “Aye” or “nay” vote...or take the third option, and abstain.  (Because you stayed home to attend to your house’s affairs instead of attending the vote, choosing to abstain from the vote allows you to accrue a bit of power which you can use for future votes, as well as money, which can’t vote directly, but might be used to bribe other players in future votes.)  In addition to the direct consequences of your actions, new story cards will be added to the deck, presenting you with branching consequences for whichever path the council decided would be best.

However, what’s good for the kingdom may or may not be what is best for your particular noble house. The game begins with everyone secretly drafting a card which defines their own scoring conditions.

Sometimes your secret agenda will oppose someone else’s objectives: for example, the opportunist (who wants the kingdom to be weak) is directly at odds with the person who desires opulence (and wants the kingdom to be strong along every metric).  However, more often than not, your goals are orthogonal to other players: the moderate player wants all of the tracks to be close to the middle, which means that they’ll want to strengthen military efforts if the nation’s borders are looking weak, but they’ll start to do the opposite if the nation’s military starts getting too strong.

This orthogonality of hidden victory conditions around the table leads to natural shifting of alliances throughout the game in a way that’s completely organic, which also leads to great moments of drama and betrayal when the person who you cooperated with on the last 3 votes agrees to help you with another vote, only to reverse course at the last minute.  (Of course, you knew that eventually, your interests would diverge, something that you will surely bear in mind as you curse your former friend’s sudden yet inevitable betrayal.)

This set of hidden incentives is what undergirds every vote in the game: everyone’s route to victory looks different, and it may or may not coincide with a prosperous kingdom.

The King’s Dilemma is a game that encourages light roleplaying.  Every reviewer who talks about the game says this, and it’s true: a big part of the fun comes from the fact that you’re pretending to be the leader of one of twelve different noble houses, and a lot of the fun happens from picking a house with a philosophy that you get to embody, with each house having a tagline like “Never Break a Deal” (the motto of the merchant house) or “Tranquility In Death” (the house that takes on the unenviable task of defending the southern border, and seems to enjoy war and conflict just a bit too much). It’s exactly the kind of thing that appeals to the sorts of YouTube shows that are “friends sitting around a table, dressed in medieval costumes and playing larger than life characters.”

Funhaus, true to their channel name, clearly had fun with this one.

But the game is also about roleplaying in a different way: there’s a real sense that, within the fiction of the universe that the game inhabits, every single debate that takes place is kind of a LARP.

For example, on the final dilemma of the night, we were presented with the question of whether we should raise taxes on the prosperous and flourishing metalworkers guild for the purpose of feeding the poor.  As the first person to vote, I began with an impassioned speech about how as the nobles who had been tasked with stewardship of the kingdom, it was our responsibility to ensure that all people in the kingdom benefitted from the kingdom’s prosperity, and that passing the tariff would be the best way to ensure this.

However, my true reasons for trying to persuade the table of an “aye” vote were far more cynical: it’s true that I wanted the “community welfare” track to stay high, but this was largely because I had a objective token that meant that my house would be blamed (and thus lose prestige) if the kingdom’s welfare got too low. If we didn’t come up with an immediate short-term solution to the current hunger crisis, my house would lose 3 prestige points!   And so my character, within the fiction of this world, LARPed as someone who was concerned with the welfare of the people, when in fact he was only concerned with the image of his noble house.  How do I know that my character was only cynically LARPing as someone who cared about charity?  Because as soon as someone at the table offered me 12 gold to change my vote, I immediately accepted the offer.

It was one of those perfect moments of ludonarrative harmony, where the game’s mechanics perfectly convey the game’s themes and story.  What better way to tell a story about cynical, self-interested, backstabbing aristocrats who treat politics as nothing more than an exercise in gamesmanship than by presenting us with a set of game mechanics that would guide us to act out those exact scenarios ourselves?

The game was full of moments like this, where the theme just sang.  And what’s best is that these moments will happen, even if you don’t go out of your way to “lean into the fun.”  This isn’t a game where you have to choose between doing the “fun” thing instead of doing the thing that will make you win: the game’s mechanics are structured such that the best moments emerge as a result of everyone at the table ruthlessly pursuing whatever tack will result in them having the largest share of victory points at the end of the game.

Every moment is about doing the thing that will benefit you most, all the while trying to persuade everyone at the table that what you’re doing will actually be beneficial for them, and they should totally support you in the resolution that you’re trying to pass (or block)...while also hinting that, while you are definitely defending your position out of principle, you’re not so principled that you couldn’t be persuaded to change positions if they made the right offer.

The game continues until the king abdicates or -- if the council governs well -- until enough years have passed that the king dies of old age.  Our king lived long enough to die in his bed, surrounded by his loved ones (and us, his council of scheming advisors).  And as I proved more successful in scheming and earning prestige than anyone else at the table, I get to name the king’s heir, who will take the throne for next week’s game. I won tonight’s game, but the campaign has just begun. The king is dead, long live the king.

[gunsli-01]

Okay, you know what I'm gonna say it- I am personally mad about the Haruka verdict this trial like on a very personal level and I'm gonna explain why. I feel like I need to preface this with I don't really like getting personal that often online, but I feel like people won't understand my point on this without me explaining myself.

As no one may know, because I don't get personal often on my blog outside of rare occasions, I had a somewhat similar circumstance to Haruka coming up. During my upbringing I was basically treated as defective from the start. However, even though I recognized this within his first trial song I wasn't like oh vote him innocent. In fact, when I saw Weakness, I believed he should've been voted Guilty, but he was already Innocent at that time. Just because of what Weakness centered around. So, this isn't just a case of oh I relate so I won't be critical. Because the more I relate to something the more critical I am likely to be. Eh-hem Mikoto sorry weird cough there.

So, tragic anime-esque backstory time I suppose which is not tragic or anime-esque since things like this happen all the time and continue to. So, I believe people should really stop this weird belief that abuse such as this can only happen in fiction then balking when they find out oh people just really be out here like this. I'm the youngest and last daughter of an incredibly self-centered woman. Since she had a daughter one year before me, she did not want a second one. She would tell me multiple times in my life that she really wanted a son not another girl. Stating the reason behind that desire was because sons tend to be more loyal to their moms (momma boys) and girls their dads (daddy girls).

Even went out of her way to give me my legal name just to later give me the nickname Lee. This was a failure of a plan because in the US you don't plan a nickname, it either chooses you when you come to age like a rite of passage, people just randomly start calling you something in your family and it sticks, or you actively pick one for yourself. What this did do is actively fuck me over in small social ways repeatedly since my legal name is still not even considered a real name due to its spelling and has zero meaning since if you go back to point one it is not a recognized name. If I looked it up right now google might tell me to fuck myself. I looked it up and Google told me I spelled it wrong. Been alive 27 years and still can't spell my own fucking name right I suppose.

This has caused some of my documents to be wrong cause she just didn't bother to tell me or anyone else for that matter how it was legally spelt until I was out of high school. Don't worry there's a great excuse for this in her own words, she was just taking a "hiatus" from parenting that included dropping off the face of the earth and popping back up randomly to force me to get braces because my teeth were just too crooked, missing every birthday I had but at least calling my sister on most of hers even showing up unannounced a few times for my sister's. Her birthday is a month before mine by the way. So, that was super fun, no way one could take that personally at all. Just to then reemerge when I was sixteen to be a parent again and explain it like she was taking a break from writing a manga. It's incredibly funny cause she just assumed I wouldn't know the meaning of that word, but I'd seen it a lot by that point so lol.

All that to say when I saw Haruka's second trial video it recontextualized a lot. Again, I already thought he should be voted Guilty on Weakness alone. Him being weak didn't really explain to me why he was killing any of the things he clearly did in that video. I just thought he was doing it just because fuck it's Tuesday why not. Like his first mv made it pretty clear he was killing animals and people. Also, that the person could have been a sibling. Like I'd been talking to friends about how he did that for a year now.

So, seeing it shown more blatantly was not like a oh whoa that's horrible because I'd gathered that already. There was nothing new to me in Haruka and Yuno's videos to be honest. I was actually very annoyed with Yuno's mv in a "Okay, tell me something I don't know way!" Like all of this is old news come on. So, really didn't rattle me in my core. I don't really think Mu's will shock me at all either but I'm dying when I love you comes out. I can feel it in my bones Mahiru is gonna be on some shit.

So, with Haruka I was like ah okay yeah, no innocent that's a failure in parenting. He killed a lot of things though hm unfortunate where was his caretaker when he was doing that? Also why is there an isolation room in his home? Like bro I can recognize someone's individual behavior is wrong and then consider the circumstances/environmental factors that may have led to that course of action. That is kind of something everyone is very much capable of doing. I can even just detach myself from my emotional sentiments on the issue as a whole and go, "Well wrong is wrong so not a big deal if he's voted Guilty he did kill someone after all."

However, even doing that I was just like this is still a stupid way to vote. Not just because having Haruka undergo something like this could very well be retraumatizing but as I've said before if his mom using negative reinforcement did not work why would it work here? He seems to actively respond better to positive reinforcement given his protectiveness of Mu and how he's been picking up words more through being patiently taught within Milgram.

However, Milgram isn't about rehabilitation, that's not the purpose but if I have a choice between rehabilitating and demonizing, I think the former should be chosen. Of course, for any progress to be made there are times when people must be told their actions were wrong. I think given Futa's second trial a Guilty verdict the first one was a good choice. I just don't think that sort of firm punishment is necessary in Haruka's case. Since we've gotten a great illustration of how he responds to negative reinforcement in general.

I feel like people greatly underestimate what being in an accepting, positive environment can do for someone mentally and the damage that being in a place the exact opposite of that can cause a person. How it affects their confidence, impacts the lengths they'll go to get attention, and how they view positive and negative attention overall. I hope this verdict doesn't negatively impact Haruka too much but as someone with those sorts of experiences I can see how this might just cause him to regress.

Well, didn't think I'd say this when the second trials started but at least he has Mu still hopefully...

[blond-jerk-tourney]

Champagne Bracket: Round 2, Poll 2

Propaganda from submitters Under Cut

Sakyo Furuichi

He's a 30-something-year-old idiot who's trying to round up 25 other people and keep them in line, but all those people are divded in like four troupes which makes it harder. Gives off tired dad energy but when he snaps, he SNAPS.

He's an asshole (affectionate)

Byakuya Togami

Very elitist, constantly calls others "commoners", talks about how he is gonna kill someone and get out of the killing game, hangs up a corpse and writes a message with their blood on the wall because he already knows the murderer but wants to see who is smart, complains the other students left him out even though he made sure to tell them every time that he wants nothing to do with them, pretty sure he screams in the 4 chapter " How can you know something I don't know?!", the only reason he doesn't qualify as a villain is cus he doesnt kill someone and in the end works with the rest of the survivors. He also constantly wants the protagonist to tell the rest what he knows

he's mean and self-centered and sees himself as above everyone else.

such a cunt 😭 doesnt eat breakfast w everyone and spends all his time in the library. (also he tampered with a crime scene but spoilers)

His title is literally, get this, "ultimate affluent progeny" Fucking look at him /hj Treats everyone as inferior in every way, even when they're trying to solve a murder he goes "how did YOUUU figure this out before MEEE???? >:0" Constantly has an "Me vs. Them" mentality about everything so he feels the need to prove himself to be superior - Messes with crime scenes because it would "make them more interesting" (purposefully incriminating someone else, who he didn't like) Actual quotes by him: "I'm only here to get breakfast. I have neither need nor desire to talk to you. Now withdraw." "You're like a child lost in the woods, you know that? A total waste of space." "You know, I still just can't believe it... That an uneducated, brain-dead, useless piece of garbage like you has survived this long." "You have only yourself to blame—you came to me with your tragic little story. I didn't ask you to. This is the real world, not some romantic fantasy fairytale."

This rich mf… He spends the entire game being a snobby, condescending, uncaring asshole. He becomes relatively nicer by the end but never stops being a dick. He also desecrated a corpse once for funsies. He’s also stupid but he doesn’t know that. I both like and hate him. It’s complicated.

He's an heir to a wealthy family corporation and he sure does act the part. He acts like he's better than everyone else and thinks they're not worth his time. He's just a huge asshole. (SPOILERS) He tampers with a murder scene just for fun and outs another student's secret alter, knowing full well it was irrelevant to the case. He also has a small breakdown about being wrong in another trial. By the end, he becomes a bit more likeable and kinda a tsundere that pretends like he doesn't care about the other survivors (but he totally does). Still very much an asshole though. He's a fucked up lil guy and something about him draws me to him. I would kick his rich bastard shins IRL given the chance, however.

He is emotionally detached from his classmates…

why you should vote byakuya "tell em naegi" thanks for watching like and subscribe

[evolvingshe]

Is the modern dating scene a product of our divided society?

As shocking as this title may sound, there have been multiple studies conducted by psychologists and sociologists about the deterrent effect of modern dating regarding the increase in population. Many may argue that options such as dating apps should be able to help singles find dates and get into relationships. But because of the constant availability of other, or “better” singles out there, the dating scene is met with a ruthless new phenomenon. “Situationships” better known as “delusionships” is the factor that is keeping people away from the dating pool. 

Many people take into account that due to our divided culture, it is harder to set aside differences to find a partner, and with that, I agree. In this post-2016 election dating pool, many singles consider voting decisions, alongside their career, education, salary, and whether or not they own a property before making their decision official. Why is that? Have we succumbed to becoming superficial and narrow-minded? 

I am no sociologist, but I know quick judgments result in lonely nights. As a college student, I understand the desire to be in a monogamous yet non-committal relationship. But that only exists in a world where STDs and constant communication exist, what I mean is this fallacy does not exist. 

As a twenty-something, I have made peace with the fact that my dating pool will be inherently barren until I hit 27, solely because I refuse to be in this constant loop of being like a girlfriend without the title. We as a society all collectively agree that free labor is cruel, and as college students, we would not be caught dead with an unpaid internship, but we allow ourselves to be in “almost relationships”. Due to these harsh conditions, there has been a rise in practicing celibacy, the act of withholding sexual encounters until emotional needs are met. This rise was originally seen as a side effect of the lockdown, but after open conversations on social media, the hashtag celibacy has surpassed more than 1.2 billion views.

 As an observer of these changes, the best way to explain modern dating is to view the change as if it were the real estate market. Back in the day, it was much easier to buy a house since there were fewer restrictions on home-buying, but to purchase a new property one needs a strong credit score, a loan, insurance, and also be able to buy the property in cash. The same could be said about dating, we expect too much in the worst way possible.

As a population, it is hard to admit that we have become blind to what truly defines a person and what makes a good partner. I can guarantee that an individual who is deemed “cool” most definitely lacks character, and is not dating material and we need to stop chasing people for the sake of a better status. Yes go out with someone who shares similar interests, but for the love of god DO NOT and I do mean this, but do not take someone off your roster because they have some differing views. Ask them about their opinions and be reasonable, this intolerance to any differences is not only leaving people alone, but it is creating insane division outside the dating scene. This notion of accepting differences goes a long way, accepting people for their values and their dating goals will not only make the dating pool accessible but also help heal other divided relationships. 

The final issue with modern dating is that we do not want to get attached or else we will get hurt, pain is inevitable, and any venture worth going into will cause pain. If we applied this mentality in all aspects of life, more would be done.