#idk i just thought id put it out there in case people wanted it

[ikarakie]

hey uhh… here’s the playlist i made last year featuring songs i think would be played in steve harrington’s beemer. (all period accurate)(or close to it)

[relevant-wikipedia-articles]

merry christmas!!!!!

This may seem weird, but I do this all of the time and I'm so glad I'm not the only one. I'm not sure if this is your first time or not, so I'm going to explain your situation just in case, as well as how I tend to go about dealing with it

It's a fairly uncommon issue, so hopefully others who see this post will learn how to identify when this happens and how to support people in this situation while they work through it

Anyways, there's no easy way to put this so I'm just going to say it outright: you've accidentally time travelled. I recommend taking at least a few seconds to sit with that thought

Now, just trust me on this, you'll want to go back to your original time. You may think it'll be fun to be in the past/future, but time is no joke. It takes A Lot of energy to stay outside of your time, and there's so many other downsides to not being in the right time that you'll just want to trust me when I tell you that you'll want to go back to your own time. You'll see what I mean as you try to sort all of this out

With that out of the way, you're probably thinking something along the lines of "how on earth did I time travel at all, let alone without even realising it‽", and, unfortunately, there's no simple answer to that

Every so often, there'll be something that you do that makes you travel through time. It can be either forwards or backwards, but it'll always be in the same direction each "season". The amount that you travel can vary though. For me, it's usually anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of days. To get back to your own time, you're going to have to identify this action, and, whenever you do it, simply do it again but swap when you inhale and exhale. It sounds silly, but it's the best way I've found to fix it. Idk why it works, but if there's a better way to go about fixing this then I don't know about it

Actually fixing it is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what you're doing that causes you to time travel, since it can pretty much be anything. I do this by keeping a journal of what I do each day, as well as a list of days that I notice I've travelled farther away from my own time. Then I'll compare the two every so often and work my way towards narrowing down the exact action. This can sometimes take a Very Long Time, so the best advice I can give you is to just take life one day at a time

Now, you'll notice I didn't tell you *how* to tell when you've gotten farther from your own time, and that's because it's yet another tricky thing to pin down. Usually, I'll be able to tell from inconsistencies between my memory and my journal. Maybe I don't remember answering this ask, but I wrote in my journal that I did. Maybe Alice is complaining I never texted her back, even though I literally have screenshots of me texting her back in my journal (said screenshots have since irrecoverably corrupted). *Maybe* my phone's battery percentage doesn't line up with how quickly my phone charges and the time my journal says I plugged in my phone

Yeah. Like I said, this is the hardest part. Once you get out of "action id hell" though, getting back to your own time is a fairly straightforward process (though you will feel like an idiot while doing it): you just gotta alternate doing that action, followed by doing that action with the inhaling and exhaling swapped. I think doing the action triggers the time shift or whatever, and then doing it again with the breaths swapped reverses the direction, but, again, I have No Clue how or why this works

Some other things to note:

While you're going back to your own time, don't worry about the people from the time you're leaving. There's an uncountably infinite number of yous all going through the same process right now, and the you from the time you're leaving will replace you when it's all over

You probably won't get the action right on your first try. In fact, it'll probably take a few attempts to get it right. Just remember to be patient and take things one day at a time

Don't worry too much about being out of the loop when you get back to your own time. In a few days, the memories from the you that made it to your time will come back to you and it'll be like it never happened

Now, if this has never happened to you, and you want to know how you can help those going through this, my biggest piece of advice is to just be patient. You can offer your own theories as to what the action they're looking for is, but be respectful if they aren't comfortable talking about it. For some people, it can be a very personal thing

One thing you can do is offer to help them with everyday tasks. Like I said, being outside of your own time takes A Lot of extra energy, so taking some of their work upon yourself is a great way to help them through this. Don't overwork yourself though. They'll find consistency much more comforting than sudden bursts of help (also, overworking yourself is generally a bad idea)

Above all though, just be patient. It's going to take a while for them to sort this out, and I'm sure they're just as annoyed at it all as you are

[tonydaddingham]

so i had the bright idea of rewatching s1 today whilst im working from home, now knowing what i know about s2, and so i can ruminate a little more on s1 with the additional context. ive barely made it past five minutes

im pretty sure ive gotten most of the frames accurate from this bit, and im sure it might just be a bit of demonstrative cinematography (which ya know, *chefs kiss*) but at the same time i love going into full year 9 english teacher mode about this shit, and i think there is something to comment on (which someone already might have done but w/e). in any case, this bit of dialogue is very noticeably layered with shots of crowley and aziraphale, but intercut with the shots of adam facing down the lion:

like, i can't help but feel that there is some symmetry in this and either other people have spotted it and im very behind, OR we havent spotted it and s2 spoilers have helped unlock it✨

so who is meant to be who here? for my money it would be that adam is mirroring aziraphale, and eve is mirroring crowley - in so much that at a really shallow level, aziraphale is a platoon leader, a guardian, fought in the war etc. crowley, regardless of his rank, is a starmaker, and let's face it the boy has the structural integrity of a strand of dried linguine. so we could look at it on that level (ignore the lion for the moment ill sort of explain that if it isn't already obvious)

but also we now know that this scene is not their first meeting, and that aziraphale and crowley do in fact remember each other and know that they have met, and in aziraphale's case is probably the teeniest bit shy bc damn heart eyes as an angel, heart eyes as a demon 🥵 but my point is that this is after the fall. after (as far as crowley tells it) crowley fell for 'just ask[ing] questions", and "just hung around the wrong people".

now i have my thoughts on why crowley fell: tldr because it would require another post - both reasons he gave above are bullshit and obvs conflict with each other, so i think that he doesn't actually know why he fell and has just guessed his transgressions so he can rationalise it, that god actually never had an issue with him asking questions, and instead it was actually god's plan to make him fall so he could represent the 'evil' side of free will on earth, as aziraphale's counterpart, and essentially ensure that humankind stays eternally 'in balance'

ANYWAY so the fact that in the lion sequence, 'crowley' is being shielded by 'aziraphale' against an unknown entity; but does this mirror a flashback, or is it foreshadowing? again, id put my bets on the former visually, but the latter... lyrically? idk the word but regardless take the dialogue:

"What if I did the right thing;

with the whole 'eat the apple business'?

A demon can get into a lot of trouble;

for doing the right thing."

so let's rephrase this:

"Was it the right decision to fall;

was I right to choose this for myself?

to choose the right to choose?

Because i feel like i could live to regret it."

so is crowley in essence already asking if aziraphale is on his side? is he asking if falling was the right thing, the good thing, to do (regardless of whether god gave him any choice in the matter)? But was he given the choice, first true free will? did aziraphale try to protect him during the fall, so crowley could get out in time (but ultimately fail? or at least bought Crowley enough time to find a back staircase and fall gently and peacefully, 'saunter vaguely downwards'?), and then get assigned to earth to be the 'good' side of the coin for humanity?

and is crowley asking if aziraphale will continue to be with him? in whatever romantic, platonic, acquaintance context you want - is he asking aziraphale if aziraphale will fight for him again, for them both? aziraphale made his decision, enacted his free will, in giving the humans a sword, and thus brought the concept of war and horror to earth, even if that was never his intention - so now swordless, and now only condemned to watch humanity as it strides out on its own (or was this the plan all along?👀), is aziraphale willing to do it? does he have the power, the strength, the will? would he stretch his finger over the line to fight on their side?

maybe im asking the wrong kind of questions, but all ill say is that in the above sequence? at the end of the dialogue? adam kills the lion.

i think 'their side' began in the job minisode, yes maybe, but also maybe the idea of it, the understanding of it, was planted here.

[klug]

do you recommend puzzle pop? i keep really wanting to play it but i do not want to get apple arcade just for that. but i dont know of any other way to get it... so i keep waffling back and forth. i guess im mostly wondering if you think its worth it, i know youve been posting about it but i blocked spoilers so idk what your thoughts are fully

Hi anon :) This is a very good question and gives me a chance to talk about the game

So for starters: You can technically get a free trial of Apple Arcade for a month and this is honestly enough time to just play through for the story modes. I think there are free Apple Arcade trials offered through Best Buy and stuff if you've already used a trial though. If you have an Apple device I feel like it's good to just go for it and try it out?

My short answer is: Yes if you want to play for story and collectibles! Especially if you're mostly interested in the Fever characters! But no if you are more focused on online multiplayer or the Madou characters. The suzuran group actually get a decent amount of content in this game, especially Ecolo in their main story.

I can't really say if I recommend it because everyone in the fandom has really different tastes honestly? Like, if you care mostly about the Madou Monogatari characters, I don't know if you'll like it because the story focus is heavy on Sig and Amitie…and it raises more questions than anything. So I'll just put a personal pros/cons list.

Pros:

The game looks really nice for an Apple Arcade game. Yeah the models are reused, but they use the expressions/motions to their full potential and the cel-shading is great. I also love the environment design. It also isn't live service so you can play it without an internet connection.

The main story, overall, is really good. There are a few standout side stories too IMO! My favorites are Feli, Witch's, Risukuma's, Ally's and Rafisol's.

So many collectibles. The Puyo Card feature, a customizable ID card you can unlock stuff for, is probably the most fun thing they've added to this game.

There's not a lot of new songs but the new ones are very good.

The inclusion of Nazo Puyo-style puzzles in story mode is a lot of fun, but they're skippable if you're bad at them.

Photo mode is fun. Basically you have a diorama where you can pose the characters however you want, but I haven't used it much.

Cons:

Yes the models and animations are reused, most other stuff in the game is new though!

The main story starts out really strong but does feel a bit anticlimactic in the last act. If you have already read the novel Sig's Secret you most likely won't get anything out of the story, which was the case for me. I've known a lot of people who haven't and cried at the ending though.

Some of the side stories for certain characters are really whatever to me but this is subjective.

The translation can be really weird in places -- I think Suketoudara's side story is where it was at its worst, but there are random errors scattered throughout the English translation...

The music selection is a bit weird to me. Like, Rafisol's theme isn't in the game but the Color Tower theme is? It's just a weird selection.

The challenge dungeons for unlockables can feel really tedious since you're not guaranteed to get characters' special items. If you have a grind mindset and really enjoy Puyo Puyo gameplay though, this is probably fine.

The online is terrible and nonexistent. This kind of renders the Puyo Card moot if you really care about showing it off.

You will need a controller for some of the harder stages. The touch controls are fine if you just want to get through the story, but you'll need a bluetooth controller for more precise inputs.

I basically do think it was well-constructed at the start, but most likely Yoshino (the writer) ran out of space or time for the last story in the game.

[aeirithgainsborough]

i'm curious, do you know why or have and theories on why they make cloti kiss but clerith only hug/hold hands? I was thinking that clerith is more pure and their love is slowly blossoming aka slowburn which I find cute and very fitting for them but the clerith shipper in me is angry bc I would have loved to see them kiss LOL what are your thoughts?

I’ll be real with you, I don’t think either ship should have had a kiss yet and im astonished CT did and how it happened, i think its spoiled all the build up having it there when they’ve been arguing a lot and that it would have been so much more poignant after the LS sequence but now the moment is gone on a poorly framed kiss they’re never going to talk about again bcus it has no relevance to the plot. Thats why they have them agree not to talk about it. I think it’s a shame for people who have waited for 27yrs for that moment. And then after it no matter what they all have to play as Cloud has many non optional romantic moments with Aerith in ch 13 + 14. Reviews have mentioned how off and disjoined it is. I think that’s why they made sure to emphasise before the game came out that the dates were meant to be fun but don’t impact the story. But id be pissed if id waited that long for a kiss and that’s how i got it. and especially that in one route cloud looks like a dick but in another he doesn’t; that should really tell them something about the story. Why they gave them one idk, but I kinda wonder if it was getting them on the hook for p3 cus the last 2 chapters made CT fans real mad (even if they’re pretending otherwise on main, ppl have seen their discord and they’re not happy).

I think CA don’t kiss for a few reasons:

Cloud has remembered Zack, albeit incorrectly, much earlier. Through the game he has instances of jealousy towards him and that becomes more uncomfortable and confusing once he’s remembered they were friends. This has just happed before the dates and why when they get on skywheel he’s a bit awkward and won’t sit beside her! Of course that doesn’t last long; it was either nojima or nomura but one of them said in remake that cloud tries to keep distance between him and Aerith but he can’t do it 🥰🥰 but Zack definitely makes him more reluctant and unsure. Even when he reaches to take her hand it’s slow and cautious bcus he doesn’t know if it’s okay. And of course it is!

Aerith is fully aware Cloud is not himself. On his GS date she tells him she’s trying so hard to find him but in case you missed that as you did a different date, she also says it again in the sleeping forest; that cloud should focus on the real him she’s been looking for and leave Sephiroth to her. She knows there’s something up and kissing him knowing that is not something I think Aerith would do.

CA are the love that could never be ship. In the trailer for the 97 game, that was what they were described as. Part of the tragedy of clerith is that they have these budding feelings but before they have a chance to go anywhere Aerith is murdered. In the original cloud realises the depth of his feelings too late: at the end he says ‘I think I understand now’ and then expresses his desire to meet Aerith in the promised land. And all crossover material he’s in emphasises that he’s always looking for her. They are a star crossed lovers ship. And cloud is also dense and emotionally a mess; yes he likes her clearly, he shows jealousy for Zack, he goes on dates with her, he holds her hand and looks so happy to do so, but he can’t put all those feelings he has and come up with the right answer. In the church she confesses and he doesn’t quite get it and she, linking to her resolution imo (don’t fall in love with me) drops it and apologises and hugs him instead. This is all in line with the OG, that he’ll be hit with the full force of his feelings and what she meant in p3. Remember he’s just said he wants to go on more dates to create more ‘our spots’ with her. She looks happy and then sad when he says this because yay he likes her he wants to do this again, but of course she knows what he doesn’t: that they are about to run out of time.

So that is why I think they don’t kiss. I think it makes sense they didn’t! But I do think they’ll kiss in p3 for sure.

[xpoisoned-stardustx]

THE SHOWS ARE HOLDING BACK!!!

Tw: mentions of sewer-slide, mentions of mental illness, mentions of trauma (I’m just putting this here for cautions)

And by that I mean holding back on angst

I’m not just talking about TSAMS or TLAES, I’m talkin’ ALL SHOWS (granted, i haven’t watched all of the recent show things but I do know they haven’t been to angst)

Now, you might think, “oh stardust, but we’ve had lots of angst! I mean think of Cassie on TRWAGS-“

Yeah, Cassie, the only one who has recently had a lot of angst, and it was only really her being mad her phone wasn’t working and talking a bit about her dad (im not including The Musical btw). I also feel like we should’ve had a lot more Gregory angst after Rocky’s death. I mean Gregory blamed himself for that, it wouldn’t just go away. And Circus Baby should be had more angst after Gregory almost frickin died!!! The characters recover so quickly and just go back to their goofy normal lives. Obviously I won’t cover everything for these shows but some of my main thoughts.

“uh but what about Glamrock Chica on TFFAGCS?”

Not. Enough. Glamrock Chica was easily back to normal after blaming herself for their whole issue because of stuff out of her control, having an exstistential crisis after being kicked out of the PizzaPlex, getting a message from her parents she doesn’t remember and so on. Also if ANYONE is getting angst it should be Funtime Foxy and his brother. Funtime Foxy almost drowned when he was around 10, Fexy (the brother) tried to stab FT.Foxy while screaming “THIS IS MY BODY, I WANT IT BACK” because they were in the same body at some point, he and his brother burned their house down because when FT.Foxy was running away from his brother they knocked over candles, then his brother literally tried to commit s—-ide by not leaving the burning building and saying “if I can’t have this I’d rather die” so FT.Foxy had to drag him out the house, then Fexy got sent to a mental hospital/asylum/psych ward (idk which one exactly) and lots of other things. And we haven’t seen ANY Lolbit angst whatsoever. Don’t even get me started on Mangle or Ray. (You can just tell this is my favourite show, can’t you?)

“…uhhh TFAFFS??”

Tbh I don’t watch that one alot but FT.Freddy Deffinetly has abondonment issues, as far as I know we never find out where that came from, Shadow Freddy had a bit of angst, Freddy is doing loads of things that I’m not bothered to say and ‘The Evil Gang’ or whatever their name is are another case of ‘comic relief villains’ I think.

“TLAES or TSAMS?????”

I already posted about this by rebloggin soemthing but ‘Sun gets Therapy’ was so disappointing, Lunar acts like things are normal, I feel like Solar should be seeing things after killing his Moon because as the Old Moon said “when you kill someone, they’re not there, but you can see them” or something like that, Moon just screams and gets mad at people for angst and he did apologise to Monty and have that whole “I’m a loser blah blah blah” but that’s it, Sun is hiding ALOT and other things.

“but TMGAFS has alot of angst”

which is why it’s my second favourite show. I’m just sad Foxy said him and Monty are more acquaintances than friends :(… I respect that show. If anyone else wants to criticise the angst there, be my guest.

Anyways I’m just rambling here. I’m gonna go listen to the entire C.C.C.C. album again, toodles.

[maschotch]

If you could write a backstory episode for Hotch, what would it look like?

ah.. the age old question

truthfully im not much of a writer, so id have a hard time condensing everything id want out of his backstory into a 40 min episode (or a 2 part special). i think the simplest way would be something similar to profiler profiled where they take a case close to hotch’s home and he knows the people involved but doesnt want to admit it

tbh i think itd be difficult enough to set up a case like that. jj might have to bring it in—maybe she was surprised when hotch turned down her suggestion to consult and got passionate about it. (hotch can claim to be by-the-book, but when it comes to something he cares about, he caves pretty fast, so i think he’d be too concerned about avoiding reliving decades old trauma maintaining his composure around the team to let them dig around too deep). but jj goes behind his back (well intentioned, not well thought out) to assign the team this case anyway

ive given it a lot of thought and i think itd be funniest for hotch to just pretend not to recognize anyone. he likely hasnt been back since before boarding school, so he’s probably relying on no one recognizing him either. but some of the older folks at the precinct cant help but think of that hotchner fellow when they see the name. hotch does relatively well, but the team begins to notice he’s more tense than usual. theyre not really sure what to think until the sheriff (or someone idk) tells the story of the lawyer hotchner (spittin image of this fbi guy!) and his troublemaker son, and they start putting the pieces together

i think itd be fun to have the team forcibly dig around into hotch’s life. for one thing, it seems like the only way they’d get anything out of him about his past. and two, even if none of them are consciously aware of their own spiteful vindictiveness, it’s lowkey payback for all the times hotch has crossed their own personal boundaries “for the sake of the case.” anyway they find out about what went down in the hotchner household, and suddenly all the pieces come together: all the red flags theyve kinda just ignored until now form an ugly picture of abuse.

god forbid anyone gets closure on this fucking show. inevitably they dont really talk about it and after the case is over its basically never brought up again (unless morgan is mad about something or reid is losing an argument). itd probably end with hotch looking at a picture of his son or some cheesy shit like that. in true criminal minds fashion: hotch gets his trauma dragged up for no reason and then they never deal with or acknowledge it ever

[dnpbeats]

part of the reason i feel like a tour wouldn’t sell as well these days isn’t just because their audience is smaller, but also because their audience is older. when their viewers were teenagers, the people buying tickets for the most part weren’t also paying rent and buying food and paying off loans. but now that the majority people who would buy tickets are broke people in their 20s, fewer people have the disposable income to buy tickets (due to The Economy™️). idk im not an expert but the reason im not on the tour hill is just that i feel like it would be a really bad investment for them and they know that

also another weirder reason the older/smaller audience makes me feel that tickets wouldn’t sell is that i wonder if people just have fewer people to go with too… back during tatinof i had a bunch of phannie friends irl because we were all 14 so we all went to the show together, but now if they toured id have to go alone and i feel like that would deter a lot of casual fans. i think wad was different because it was just dan so it was like a singular comedy performance that the audience didn’t need any context for, but a dan and phil show would be a Dan And Phil Experience and i can’t really imagine people who don’t care much about dan and phil deciding to go

anyways i don’t really have a point to this i’ve just been thinking about it and wanted to put my thoughts somewhere sorry lol

good point!! I had the same thoughts abt a tour and everyone being adults now (like that ppl now have jobs and have to actually budget and stuff lmao), but then I couldn’t really figure out how that fit in with wad. But you make a good point about how wad would’ve been more accessible to casual fans (and potentially ppl who don’t know who Dan is?? Though idk if that was actually the case) whereas this would really only interest their core audience. It’s def a catch 22 bc on the one hand ppl aren’t reliant on their parents to go anymore but on the other hand a lot of ppl can’t just drop $200 on tickets (plus travel/accommodations if need be) whereas before u could just beg your parents 💀

[edwad]

i don't think marx was a communist by the end of his life; idk if you've seen this but a lot of recent scholarship is of the view that marx viewed there would be a state in "communism", for example david leopold and michael lebowitz say this. engels even said that he regretted naming it "the communist manifesto" and that it should have been "the socialist manifesto" because of labor vouchers. do you have any thoughts on this?

i guess i'd ask you to point me in the direction of some of this stuff more directly. if all that's meant by "state" is some sort of republican "administration of things" then this isn't all that hot of a take (although, im not really in favor of it). and i think some of lebowitz' criticisms of marx re: capital are basically non-problems unless you want to dispense with immanent critique (which maybe you do! but then at least own the originality of it rather than treat it as something marx was "missing" on his own terms, as if he intended to get around to it), but admittedly i haven't read much of his stuff so if this is a separate piece/claim then i wouldn't know all that much about it. although, im not sure how much of his work would qualify as "recent scholarship" anyway, considering he died last year and hadn't really been putting out scholarly work on marx for decades from what i can tell. i haven't read leopold at all, but my sense of his output is roughly similar in that most people are talking about his book on the young marx which is nearly 20 years old at this point. if you have something else in mind, let me know!

beyond that, id also just want to make sure to drive the proper wedge between marx and engels, because i don't think engels quotes necessarily elucidate marx's own views (and this includes the administration of things stuff). but in the case of the "socialist manifesto" thing, which, assuming you're referring to his prefaces from the CM, this isn't engels' claim. it isn't a regret for not calling it the socialist manifesto, it's an explanation for why it specifically needed to be called the communist manifesto contra the socialism on the continent and what it meant/stood for, which the communists were opposed to. so unless you're thinking of something else, i don't think that claim is doing the work you want it to tbh, because he actually explicitly says the exact opposite:

anyway, i guess i'd probably say that marx was simply a bad communist a lot. i wouldn't go so far as to say he wasn't a communist (although maybe one could make that case defensibly), but that's mostly because i don't really care to wield label-shaped weapons. i think in his later years he was laying the groundwork for a really powerful communist case against capitalism while also basically undermining it every step of the way. these things are hard to square, but i don't think these shortcomings can simply be reduced to him losing his communism.

[thebasilbuffet]

i kinda wanna join in on the making a omori buffet themed account (since i noticed i think that theres. no account for omori character yet! and i like omori character so :]) but idk how i should. rlly go abt it yknow? dont know how id handle it ig. could u give some advice?

Oh man this is a question alright. This was purely a passion project for me so right off the bat I gotta say: have fun with it! If you need to take breaks don't be afraid to do so, your customers will understand completely! Feel free to be a little silly and break out of character if you want, just make something you're proud of. Secondly, you gotta set up a menu that fits the character in question, in your case, Omori! Maybe some onigiri because it's canonically his favorite food, or maybe even put in-game food items that have a positive note in their descriptions (example: the item watermelon juice is referred to as heavenly nectar, so Omori/Sunny's gotta like it at least a little, right?) The menu must be at least a little predetermined because, well, what good is a restaurant without any food items? Once you make your intro post, answering orders is pretty easy. People will ask for something via the askbox and then Omori can give them their order! Easy peasy! I'm not the best at giving general instructions, so if you misunderstand anything I said then feel free to examine the Basil Buffet until you get the gist of what you have/want to do. Or! You could also put your own creative spin on it that I haven't thought of yet! But uh I think that's all the advice I can give you. Good luck, go make yourself happy, my friend!

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

theres a lot of different ways people have illustrated the greed and evil of billionaires from visual portrayals of how big a billion actually is to comparing their philanthropy and how much money they have to highlighting the sufferings of those theyve exploited, and theyre all great demonstrations in of themselves.

but one i dont see quite as often is comparing the charitable works of every day people to that of billionaires. i think part of it is that a billionaire can donate more money to charity in one click of a finger than i can in my entire life, but i think another part is a combination of not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth while also not wanting to rock the boat.

a great example of that is the fact that you cant criticise mr beast/jimmy donaldson without people pushing it aside with the notion of "hes helping people" or "the guy could cure cancer and youd find something to criticise about it", which are endlessly frustrating and engaging with your criticism in bad faith.

but outside of him, youll see versions of it across the board for any philanthropic rich person. people automatically assume your criticism is coming from a cynical point of view, and often that you dont ever take part in charitable acts yourself.

and it is endlessly frustrating to run into that attitude every damn time like youre a dog running into that same glass door. because there is very valid criticism to be made about it.

because most of the time, these people could use that money to make lasting structural changes. i mean, the UN estimates you could end world hunger with $6billion, but no billionaires attempted to. on a smaller scale, you can build shelters or youth hubs or rehab facilities, or you could invest in ongoing work to help people out of poverty or improve local education or help people get better healthcare. or even just put your money where your mouth is and financially back the people trying to make these structural changes.

but these so-called philanthropists dont because systematic changes arent what they actually want. theyre this rich because of the system.

and their philanthropy is a form of propaganda; they want you to think the system is unchangeable and that your only options for improving your life is working yourself to the bone or for some kindly rich person to take pity on you and just hand you the money you need. the system is fucked, but the rich are good people who just want to help. this isnt some hot take, ro ramdin made a great video about mr beast specifically regarding this sort of thing. müne cat also has a video about it which is basically a 30 minute rant from her stream.

i know why you dont see the comparison of billionaire philanthropy to every day charity that often, and its because you have to preface the entire thing with the explanation that i just had to make, because most people dont want to think further than "give money to charity is good". i think part of that is people not realising everything is political, but thats a discussion for a different post.

originally, i started writing this just to get something out of my head. two days ago, i asked my mom if she still had the trumpet i accidentally stole from school (long short story) because id been thinking about the fact like, i could flog that for £200 and £200s a good bit of money. during the conversation, it came up that one of our neighbours had bought an empty guitar case from a charity shop for a fancy dress party, and all thoughts of flogging it were suddenly gone from my mind.

because it reminded me that i could donate it to a charity shop or find a local musical program aimed towards giving poorer kids a chance to learn how to play an instrument. and like, how could i flog it when i could do just a little bit of good with it.

a similar thing happened with these big marvel pictures i had in my room as a teenager. idk how much money theyd go for but they werent cheap when we bought them. but then my mom found this local charity where you could donate items that theyd then auction off and that money went directly to the local foodbank, and so thats where they went.

and this isnt for me to be like hey how good of a person i am; i do not give a shit about that. its about the fact that this mindset is directly opposed to that of billionaires and to neoliberalism in general.

you cant earn a billion dollars by being a good person, we all know that. but i do think a great illustration of it is to compare those billionaires with the people who run your local food bank or run charity drives or the people who put free period products in public bathrooms or the local deli owner who lets unhoused people eat for free.

[peggy-uwu]

Jumping off of my previous long ass ace vent post

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My very personal experience being ace in the kuro fandom has been a kinda weird one. I’ve seen a ton of ace people in this fandom, but so so so many of them are either antis, or don't ship things at all whatsoever. which is fine, to each their own, obviously. But it can be a little lonely.

Talk about sex and nsfw stuffs under the cut

I id as aegosexual. I’m ace and sex repulsed, but I really enjoy nsfw content, and more specifically, fan-fiction, fan-art, and shipping (of the often problematic variety). Fiction is the only way i can express myself sexually (irl porn can be really off putting).

Sex disgusts me and even talking about it in an irl sense can be really uncomfy for me. like sometimes talking abt it is fine, if its kept abstract, but a lot of the time thats not the case. (LOOKING AT YOU OLDER SISTER)

But i love talking about in a hypothetical, fictional sense. its so much fun, and it gives so much creative freedom. but the thought of having even the most basic vanilla ass sex irl disgusts me

`

from what ive seen from some of the ace people in fandom though, is that they feel the same ways about sex in fiction as they do irl. so i feel like im kinda stuck in this middle ground of 'ace attitude towards sex irl, allo attitude towards sex in fiction' which can get a little lonely with noone to talk to about it.

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I have a question for both the ace and allo kuro-or-other-fandom fans out there:

If the character you horny simp for, magically appeared in ur bed one day, and was down to fuck u, would you hypothetically have sex with them?

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because for all my Sebastian horny simping, if he showed up outta nowhere and offered to have sex, my answer would be ‘No.’. And that goes for ALL the characters i like in fiction. i will scream about how much i wanna fuck Keith Kogane until the motherfucking cows come home but if you put someone who looked, talked, acted like, and for all intents and purposes, WAS Keith, i would not be interested in the slightest.

because i DON'T want to have sex. i love reading it in fiction, literally cant get enough of it, but as soon as it crosses the boundary of fantasy and hypothetical, and starts being related to me and my person personally, its so so so uncomfortable and i hate it. to the point that even some fic depicting women and people with female bodies can be off putting, it hits too close to home for comfort. Thats partly why such a vaaaast majority of the fanwork i consume is m/m. ive never been into a f/f ship anywhere near as obsessively as i can get with m/m ones. i dont enjoy self-shipping for the same reason.

Is this a normal experience for other ace ppl in fandom? do you guys feel like this? or am i just fucking weird. idk

[winderlylandchime]

THE MAN MADE HIMSELF A SHIRT. I REPEAT THE MAN MADE HIMSELF A SHIRT! That was why he took my markers earlier today! And i had the audacity to think he’d be normal and that the mind map paper was the worst of it all. He took a white shirt and wrote with a sharpie ’Team Brian’ on it. He said he even watched youtube videos to learn how to like stitch it in but gave up after he hurt himself with a needle. He made 3 extra shirts, 2 for our parents that he express sent to them and one for me. He wrote a note with the package to our parents that said ‘if you love me, you’ll wear it’ So I cannot wait to see how that goes (fr imagine getting that sent to you, just a shirt and a note.) And the best(?) part of it all is he wore the shirt to the damn doctor check up! I almost forced him out of it but then at the last second thought to myself ‘for the content..gotta let him be dumb for the people on tumblr, they would want me to do it.’ (At this point I’m just going with the drugged up idiot flow) The doctor took one look at him when he walked into the office and sighed. I forgot that they had to deal with him for two days during his new found love, so i have no clue what all he put them through. And he tried to ignore it at first but my brother kept pulling at his shirt and smiling at him so the doctor went ‘(brothers name) i see youre in the arts and crafts part of your obsession..’ and all my brother said was ‘bro…i mean Doctor Bro, you have no clue. I am stressed! I am tired! I stayed up all night thinking. Nobody cares about my feelings. Nobody cares about what I have to say and think, i have no one in my corner. And now the worst of all, he ran off with a kazoo player! Do you know how dumb that is?!’ The second my brother looked away, the doctor looked at me and mouthed ‘kazoo?’ And I mimicked a violin and the guy had to cover up a laugh. I feel like the doctor is cursing at HIPAA cause if i was him, id want everyone to know about this dumbass at my work. I will report back when my parents get the package (should be like two days or so). He asked at the post office if they will receive it in less than a week ‘because it is important, very, very important! Like life or death situation’ and then he panicked that they’d think he is sending something illegal so he went ‘it’s shirts! Like this one’ *shows his shirt* and then idk what went through his head because he went ‘it’s from a show I’m watching. I swear im not just being weird about Brians’

Dear sweet anon, I was settling in with an afternoon coffee on the couch to do some work on my tablet and your message popped up before I turned on my work DND (otherwise every notification I get is like 👀 surely someone reblogging this this is more important that the thing I am literally paid to do, you know how it is). And I’m so glad that I saw this before I “hunkered down” for some paperwork. Blech.

Nobody cares about my feelings. Nobody cares about what I have to say and think, i have no one in my corner. OH BROTHER ANON you have tens of people in your corner. We DO care about your feelings and one day you will know.

The arts and crafts part of his obsession! I die. He’s going to get an etsy or redbubble store before this is over and start selling fanart phone cases (not a jab, I have a fanart phone case!).

So about HIPAA. HIPAA only applies to healthcare information and identifying information. So for therapists, that’s basically everything (although I will frequently say a client recommended a TV show to me because that is not healthcare information [uh your brother’s qaf obsession would be though] and it’s not identifying). And HIPAA doesn’t apply to consulting with other medical professionals without identifying information (so I could say to a fellow therapist “I have a client who ripped his stitches after surgery due to excitement about a TV show, my own bar for how normal this is is a bit fucked, should I be concerned?”) So I can absolutely guarantee that your brother’s doctor is at the very least telling his fellow doctors about your brother. I promises you they are in the break room laughing about this.

IAN PLAYS A KAZOO. Sorry if this shows up in a fic of mine in the future… this is very Brian coded. No offense to kazoo players. I’m sure they are a lovely bunch who do not deserve to be grouped in with Ethan.

[swaggypsyduck]

ramosita, i really don't know if your hair is messy (messi?), but if it is is probably in a beautiful way. this song here is the one i choose for you for the simple fact that, yes, you make me smile. you make everyone smile. and what would be better than having someone who comes here to make people have a good laugh? yet always so on point in your opinions and takes without dropping the sense of humor. <- idk how you do this actually but i appreciate it so damn much!

-🌹-

I don't know why I love you I just know I can't stop thinking of you Oh, wait It's 'cause you make me smile You always make me smile

-🌹-

i don't ever want to see you sad, it's inconceivable to me. but i know that will happen eventually and when it happens, keep in mind i'll be here for whatever you need. you are truly a beautiful person <3

how did u know my hair is a mess rn (i just woke up). ugh again this is so sweet and thoughtful how can i even repay u for this???

when ever i see u and ur absolute devotion to Charles (specifically) one song comes to mind and i think the way you've immortalized every facet of him on your blog, in ur writing, and with ur edits.

Oh pretty baby I wanna carve you out of stone Like they did in ancient Rome That way you'll live forever

and also lines like

And I will write your name in sand Even when the tide, washes it away You said "If I know one thing's for certain Is one day life will close its curtain" And if that's the case Why don't we give them the best show?

and idk why but it always sounds like a song written by u directly for him. it always puts a smile on my face since u always have so much love to share with us (ur mutuals) and the reason i kept delaying answering this was bc each time i saw it id giggle and get distracted from actually answering the ask 🫣🫣

[m1d-45]

ALL OF UR "DERAILS" ARE COMPLETE GOLD IN MY EYES, I LOVE UR THOUGHTS AN IDEAS ABOUT THIS AU DONT EVER APOLOGIZE KING

and omg what u wrote about the corrupted!archons with their limited control and how they hold themself back how their mind and body are disconnected and how they want more of your light but the opacity is down and it feels like their wandering complete darkness with only alternate!creator

I also read this as the alternate creater is reader alternative btw

who do u think in this scenario would help the reader out, if where imagining this as an imposter reader scenario. I like to think that the wanderer or tighnari or maybe Lisa bc id feel like she'd read her books to figure out what's wrong with alternate!creator or why she feels like somethings off (thinking about that maybe alhaitham & cyno too)

speaking about this au, WHAT ABOUT THE TRAVELER AND PAIMON? I mean their the prime vessel so would they be fooled too? or would they help us? is this like a completely worse case scenario with no way out or is their any hope of saving teyvat and it's people?

- 🍄 (I'm sorry if I'm sending too much asks btw, also @ teddy anon sorry for taking ur prompt and running with it, I hope u get back here and talk more with us. also midas your ideas/writings are literally liquid gold their so good pls don't ever apologize for taking inspiration and thinking, I love everything you have brought into this conversation)

1) never apologize for sending asks this is the most fun i’ve had all week 2) rip teddy anon hope you enjoy how we’ve taken it 3) i will always apologize for thinking, it’s kinda my brand /hj

anyway:

i think that, as i said at… some point- that it depends on the fundamentals of the persons faith, at least in this au.

people like cyno, alhaitham, rosaria, candace….. maybe collei but definitely tighnari (don’t ask why there’s so many sumeru characters) are all people i can see praising and praying for the actions of their god. people who pray for the results and not the process, and people i think would be freest of the corruption and most likely to help the reader.

on the flip side, barbara, jean, nahida, and notably keqing would be lore susceptible. they pray for more direct things? almost? idk how to describe it but like- they’re more “please grant us wisdom” or “allow us the strength” or anything that directly relies on the alternate!god, and hence opening their heart to the alternates.

like i… i can’t put it into words quite well, but like- ningguang is one who prays for profits, ganyu is the one who prays for divine guidance, you know? and hence ganyu would fall quicker.

it’s obviously a spectrum, but those closer to the first groups side are more likely to break through and help the reader.

i think…. not solely for plot reasons, but definitely influenced enough by them that i’m mentioning it… kaeya falls solidly in the second group, whilst diluc is firmly in the first.

diluc is the one that prays for a good harvest, for high sales, for the patience to deal with the damned hard in his tavern. kaeya prays for strategic wisdom, for their guidance, for answers when he’s lost and confused and the acting grand master isn’t behaving like she should.

..hopefully that made at least some sense. i’m kinda just wingin it here.

re: the traveller…. i honestly think they’d be treated the same as the archons. if the archons are corrupted, they will be too if the archons are replaced, they will be too. due to the traveller’s relationship with both the archons and the creator, i think the alternate!creator’s hand is a bit forced there. same can be extended to paimon BUT you could have paimon escape since she can pop into a different dimension. and/or they can both live in the teapot as like. vigilantes. idk.

i think that if this were to be written (100% by somebody more knowledgeable about the catalogue than i am) then a pov from one of the archons would be incredibly necessary. either to showcase the sheer power the alternates hold, that they have replaced literal gods, or to shed light on why the archons act as they do, and maybe influence the reader(meta reader, not character reader) and their opinion on them. seeing a blank slate suddenly become full of life at the sight of their savior…. or the archons trapped in some cell, chained down and miserable, lamenting over their mistakes. how foolish they were to trust the one with eyes colder than iron and a grip nearly as strong. how foolish to pray when their soul cried to stop. how foolish, how foolish, how foolish.

and as they sit, maybe one of them begins to pray, unwillingly feeding into the beast that trapped them there.

“o holy creator, maker of light and extinguisher of darkness, the foundation of the earth… please, deliver us from this evil.”

the false god smiles.

WAIT WAIT WAIT ME FROM THE FUTURE HERE:

ADAM DIDNT KNOW HE WAS AN ALTERNATE.

WHAT IF THE FALSE GOD DOESNT KNOW EITHER?

[embraceyourdestiny]

I don't blame Laura myself (she's one of my favorites, after all), I was giving my perception of how it was to Travis. And Travis, "You said no more killing, ma," Hackett isn't likely to stab someone without feeling like they deserve it.

While he might initially view her as young, by trying to (from his perspective) take his life so that she can harm his family, she likely became an adult in his eyes. "Legal adult" is internet terminology in that context, but the core concept of someone old enough to be responsible for their actions is everywhere. Chances are, the Hacketts set the age of responsibility significantly below average in his case, so the number is more malleable in his mind.

Communicating clearly could have avoided a lot of trouble, but can be physically difficult if you grew up having your words used against you and/or dismissed. Travis goes into conversations assuming the person is going to ignore or weaponize everything he says. Obfuscating is safer for him, because he is less likely to be punished for "bad reasoning" and he expects them to do what they want regardless of his concerns. He told Laura about the white wolf, and she decided to kill his brother instead of helping him end the problem at its source and save his family along with her boyfriend, which only confirms to him that honest communication is dangerous.

While the game warns us that he will kill Laura because she shot him, we don't know that he would have done so if she had left his family alone. I.e. if she took a car and tried to put as much distance between herself and North Kill. In that situation, he may have let her live if he caught her, but approached her as a fugitive who deserves to rot in jail. I personally see Kaylee's death as his breaking point, not being shot.

She was his proof that people can be good. If Laura chooses not to hurt him, then she is her own proof. Kaylee may be gone, but he still has hope that humanity is able to be better than what he knows. Without a light to turn to, he succumbs to the darkness he was raised with because being "better" is pointless if all it does is get you hurt.

I don't think he was a "good guy", or making the right choices, I just can understand his perspective.

(Thanks for chatting!)

Here a more in-depth reply continuing a similar conversation with another person

I don’t really have much to say to this because I feel like I covered this in the other post but I will say a lot of the thoughts you bring up are mostly inferences / assumptions / hypotheticals and not anything founded by canon (like the assumption of ‘good communication and consequence’, unless you have evidence which id love to see, or if Laura found a car) so I don’t really wanna touch that because it’s gonna turn into semantics about things that aren’t canon so imo i don’t wanna talk about that when I’m specifically talking about what happens/ can happen, (if you wanna analyze / character study Travis in my inbox tho, go right ahead!) so I hope you’ll understand where I’m coming from with that. Cuz if we wanted to get into the nitty gritty of character motivation and our assumptions and such we absolutely can but that is an entirely separate conversation than the one I was having originally, where the point was that in that specific playthrough the math isn’t mathing for Travis to me. Like I said, feelings are justified, but his actions? Personally, I think no. Because Travis is forgetting Laura is still a victim. He’s a victim too, in some regards, but when it comes to her and max he’s literally their capturer and he WOULD go to jail if anyone found out (and if our system was just 🙃)

Oh and in case you don’t read the other post, the biggest thing is that he kills human Laura after the curse is broken. Werewolf Laura ofc makes sense for various reasons, but killing Laura after everything is over? It’s just petty lmao like idk I have a real shit family life and know how easy it is to get involved in family bullshit but he didn’t see Laura as an innocent because she… angered him? Escaped? I guess you can say she “foiled the plan” but still, is that enough to be determined to murder someone that you stab them multiple times with a broken mirror, and then try to kill another person there who was also a victim?? Maybe something deeper is being hinted at though. The animalistic nature. Because Travis definitely looks crazed when he charges for Ryan. Maybe he metaphorically had a wolf in him the whole time. Who knows.