#in DMS. because I don't want this to be a public topic because its very clearly a personal one for both us

[starlightshore]

Thanks for the Measured Response™. Unfortunately the character limit doesn't allow for much nuance in asks. My issue isn't so much with the character's actions as the way their conflict is framed. It always feels like we're supposed to judge Asriel way harsher - for ghosting the person responsible for their trauma - than Chara, who is actively trying to hurt them. I know you don't want to trivialize abuse, but the story still botches the subject pretty badly. Still, good luck with the rewrite.

(sighs) please anon, while I do appreciate the effort to acknowledge the lack of nuance in the previous ask, I would much rather you approach me more reasonably. I don't appreciate you coming to me, a complete stranger to both of us, with this attitude of already guilty. can you please learn to talk to people more reasonably? like, I'm living my life out here and you come and accuse me in a really rude way of promoting abuse or whatever the far-fetched conclusion that ask could come across as.

I am more than happy to accept fault over my writing and do my best to improve, but I want to do so on friendly, acceptable terms. please withhold condemnation and explain how and why you feel the story was mishandled. You do so really nicely in the second ask and I appreciate that.

Ultimately, regardless of my intent, my story didn't convey the message and that's, at the very least, mostly my fault. I can try to explain why I'd argue I didn't fuck up as badly as you paint me as, but I will accept that the story I wrote was not emotionally paced well made it weigh more towards cruelty without the hope and understanding I wanted the story to be read as.

I want to stress that I take abuse deadly seriously. I'm a victim of emotional abuse myself and this is something I am desperate to portray in all of its ugly, dirty detail and I want to do it without hurting people. I obviously failed when I first wrote this and I want to say thank you for coming to me about it, even if I feel there is still some friction here I want to express that gratitude. But also please be aware of how you approach people. (referring to the OG ask here).

Anyway

i wanna defend myself here a little and say I think you're missing the bigger picture of the framing of that scene. I feel you forgot the context of that scene and where it's placed in the story. It's this post.

Previously, that entire chapter had Chara idolizing the Asriel they knew as a child. Their timetravel ability being removed meant they longed for that power to control the narrative and live in the past. its like, metaphorical shit for how when growing up its hard to move on from the past and accept that you're aging.

That scene was the point where Chara realized that Asriel wasn't perfect -and has never been. The story is framed by Chara's POV exclusively and navigates Chara's feelings about their separation from Asriel. The "abuse" of that scene is the feeling of an older sibling telling them to "fuck off" and "stop acting like a victim" which are like... like devoid of the context of Asriel's perspective (which we didn't have at this point in the story) is a very hurtful and emotionally damaging thing to say to someone. I can see how someone reading that, who could have been through a similar situation, would react very badly to seeing that in the comic. Thus the content warning. I honestly don't know if "abuse" is the right word here, but what is someone going to have blacklisted for this? Like I said, my goal is to avoid hurting so I'm not going to not tag it. It's an issue of vocabulary vs. accessibility. I still wouldn't know what to tag this tbh.

the overall narrative of the comic is that Chara's perspective of Asriel was holding themself back. they were wallowing over a perfect picture that never existed -which reflected how they hate themselves for not living up to the perfect angelic ideal that they obviously could never have lived up to.

Chara condemning Asriel for being Flowey and being a jerk is the first step towards chara acknowledging their own blame in the equation. pretending the problem doesn't exist and that you're inherently awful doesn't fix things. Immediately after tossing out Flowey, they realize they are a flower as well. (literally becoming the thing they just condemned Asriel)

Once The two reconcile with the help of Actual Adults in the situation, the story changes POV to Asriel. It's then we're given context to Asriel's perspective and to show, that yeah, both of them Suck as people. That both are capable of majorly fucking up. And that's because the tools they're given a life of trauma and being reborn into a world that doesn't understand your damage is in itself traumatizing.

so idk man. the framework here serves a purpose and while I plan on showing a more nuanced and balanced pace -I really need to show the characters having more things going on than their larger conflict + be happier with each other. (the problem with writing for an askblog is that its very reactive and its easier to lean into tension and relationship drama than focus on the lighter but necessary moments. I know for sure the redraw will be better at this)

But yeah the framework, as it stands, feels good to me. Maybe in the details of how it's shown I'll be able to handle the nuances more gracefully but with the larger goal in mind, I'm not sure how I can change that? I would really love to hear your thoughts on that.

[tadpoles-and-daydreams]

A witchcraft basics doc; update, resource call, interest check, and a possible second doc

Bet most of you didn't even know I was working on this >:D

Yes this is a huge post. It's a lot of things.

So, one of my first posts ever on this blog was me mentioning that a friend of mine had NO clue what they were signing up for when asking for the basics of witchcraft. The google doc I wrote took on a life of its own, and the post did as well when people started asking for it. I still plan to tag said people when I post it, assuming they haven't deactivated. The thing is, this doc had become a proper project, and it took a long time for me to have the motivation to work on it again. Now, though, it seems to me like a damn good way to reconnect to my craft after a rut! (which, by the way, is why I've been offline.)

So, my first post back is for a couple of reasons. For one, if you have any resources you'd think would be useful for beginner witches, feel free to shoot me an ask, DM, or comment/reblog on this post! I'll have a list of things I'm putting in the doc (taking recommendations there as well) at the bottom of this post.

The other thing is that I might end up making a second doc, one that's a little less "101" in vibe. It would have a MAJOR MAJOR UPG warning on it, first off, and I'm not sure whether or not I would be marking any UPG either since this would essentially be a second Grimoire/Book of Shadows for me that would be public to others for the sake of sharing information! I can't say I'd call it "advanced witchcraft" by any means, I'm not very fancy lol, but I don't want the basics doc to get too overwhelming. I do, however, want to scream about random witchcraft topics that interest me. So this is also a bit of an interest check for that, as well as the basics doc.

FINAL NOTE: I fully plan on posting this basics doc before it's done. Some sections will be unwritten or unfinished, because if I wait until I find it "finished" I'll never post it. It's going to be added onto whenever I can, but I feel as though getting it out is the best course of action.

A list of stuff in the doc that I'd take resources on (AKA everything planned in it) with * by anything that will be left unwritten/unfinished on purpose until I know more. I will take resources and recommendations on EVERYTHING though. This is in no particular order:

grounding and centering

VOCAB (intention, intuition, UPG/SPG/VPG, appropriation. probably others I'm forgetting.

candle, plant, crystals and safety* (as well as any other tools one might need safety tips for. This is left completely unwritten as I use very few tools of this type.)

deity work* (the whole debate surrounding when to start, as well as information about it. Will include smth about house rules/boundaries. My work is very casual, I'd love to see different POV's of this! This is by nature left unfinished because deity work is so unique to the witch.)

grimoire/book of shadows

tools of the craft* (common tools and how to use them consumerism in witchcraft, etc.)

cleansing

appropriation* (I don't know near enough about this, I just check what's in my own practice. I would like this to include a list of commonly appropriated closed practices, a definition of appropriation and why it shouldn't be done, open pantheons, and common open practices.)

spellwork*

meditation

where someone could go from here* (including sigils, tarot, crystals bc my friend likes rocks lol, maybe astrology but oh god I have nothing about that it makes my brain hurt just looking at an astrology chart /pos. I will probably make a list of stuff that I could add in this section.)

casual/daily/quick/low energy practices and witchcraft

paganism and witchcraft; overlap, what they are individually, why one might be for you rather than the other, etc.*

there'd be a credit section for anyone who wants to be credited for links/resources at the end! If you send me resources plz specify if you want to be included in that or not.

Things I might include in the second doc if I make it:

the craft and mental health and my experiences with it

things commonly touched on in the community (your deities don't hate you, cycles of inactivity and burnout, other things I'm forgetting rn)

deity-specific things, more specific topics of the craft, etc. yet another reminder that this would all include UPG, possibly unmarked, because it would basically be primarily used to give me motivation to research more.

[tattoed-and-toothless]

There are a few things about all this situation that I wanted to bring up that I haven't seen other people mentioning. (This is long, so feel free to scroll away if you're tired of it all, i don't blame you)

I'm not sure if anyone else has said this, but I think the Seattle social media team could have handled their response to this A LOT better. First, they promoted a seemingly toxic situation that seems like it didnt really have a good place to end. What? They just stop making booktok content and people get upset that they took a 180° turn. Like how people are upset that they did that now, after the Wennberg's spoke up. Maybe posting something like, "hey, its been brought to our attention that members of the Kraken organization felt uncomfortable with certain posts so we have chosen to take them down." I don't think they should have posted a lot of those videos in the first place (some of them were pg and wholesome).

But I don't think they should have just gone no-comment and dropped all their booktok content and unfollowed Kierra either. They could have messaged her and explained themselves a bit more and parted ways amicably. After all, they did invite her to a playoff game and gave her a jersey very publicly on their account as well. Both accounts gained a following around it.

Quite frankly, I think their social media team ran with the trend because it was popular and it was getting them more views. But they probably should have consulted with the people in the videos before posting them. Imagine your workplace posting thirst traps of you doing your job, without asking if they could post it. I know a lot of that might be in their contracts, something about media and it may not specify types of media, i dont know. But human decency is the whole topic here people.

I also think that the social media team for the kraken may be a bit young, and not as experienced at posting things for athletes or teams specifically. They may be experienced at social media managing as a whole, but not necessarily managing for something of this caliber, with this magnitude of publicity. it seems like they jumped the gun on this stuff.

A whole other thing that i've noticed is that with every new video, every new comment about the situation, Kierra Lewis has seemed to make this whole thing about herself. Every video she posts seems to inflate the drama more and it doesn't need to be this big of a deal to me. Kierra talks about how they called her out and blamed her specifically.

Felicia DID write her first message over screenshots of her video. But she didn't name Kierra specifically, even though she very easily could have. It was a fairly straightforward statement Felicia posted about how she knows that her husband is attractive and she isn't mad at people appreciating that. She just asked the entirety of booktok, and anyone else who sees the post, to be more respectful of what they say, how they say it, and who they say it to. And then put that text over some comments she had screenshotted and hit post.

Felicia wasn't trying to make an issue of anything, she's just asking people to respect her husband and other public figures of either gender. It was simple. She didn't point fingers. She didn't name names. She asked that EVERYONE be respectful and mindful of what the say in comments, DMs, videos, etc... which is something we should already be doing.

As soon as she didn't get a DM back from Felicia, Kierra went off on everyone. She was so apologetic and nice in the messages she sent Felicia, offering to take down any videos they wanted and saying that she didnt mean to offend anyone. And then she turned it around and blamed everyone else. I feel like this could have been over with so quickly, but she keeps posting more videos about it and adding fuel to a fire that could have been put out.

Her videos keep drawing more attention and not the good kind. I feel like she drew a lot of conclusions based on assumptions of people's intentions without knowing their real intentions. In this world, when you assume the worst of everyone, you get the worst of everyone. It's not a fun world to be in.

I think it was wrong the way the kraken social media team communicated things and I think it's wrong the Kierra seems to be inflating the situation with every toxic video she posts. But as a whole, everyone out here coming after the Wennberg's and their family when all they asked for was respect? That shows more about your own character than it does theirs.

In the end, nobody is perfect and mistakes happen, but this has blown up so much more than I'm sure Alex or Felicia ever intended it to. They just wanted respite from the comments and messages they were tired of seeing.

-

-

Feel free to DM me, i'd love to have a genuine conversation with people about this, whether you agree with me or not. But only if you're willing to have a civil conversation

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Do you think that an internet writing community of an old-fashioned sort might be better built up on Dreamwidth than social media these days? Your recent post made me wonder, as you brought up livejournal (and also because of how DW kinda forces a specific type of "interact or this site is useless" environment)

I've never used Dreamwidth, so I honestly have no idea. Someone with more experience with that would have to comment.

I know Critique Circle tries to require engagement, but I don't think it really works well in my experience. The old NaNo site and its forums were good, but they redesigned the site and the forums and lost a lot of it, and I don't like what they did with the place. There was an active writing community on AQC for a while that I was part of, but it's long since died. Absolute Write has one, but I'm fairly certain it's less active than it used to be; the same with the forums on Query Tracker.

Forums just seem less popular than they used to be, and a lot of community building and the kinds of communities it fostered have died with it.

There's some sites even today that have active comment communities--hell, even things like Ask a Manager do. I actually had old-school style comments enabled on my blog for the longest time, but you have to actually go to the blog post to actually access the comment threads, and...no one uses those on Tumblr? So I just stopped bothering and ended up removing it during a blog theme retooling.

I just wanna have a conversation with people, and it's getting so, so hard to find anywhere online that allows for it.

I think what would be good to help foster an older-style writing community would include the necessary requirements:

A place where people can post their own work or about their own work in a categorized way

A place to have public comments that are easily accessible from the work/post itself and easy to thread comment conversations.

A violation of the current temporalness of posts online: things need to sit around and not get locked and still be willing to comment on old things and threads.

DMs enabled

Encouraged posting of multiple topics and multiple formats, not just the works themselves

But I think the real problem is that the internet culture has just...changed. People get anxious talking about their writing and work these days. People get weird about being genuine about things. People get weird commenting on older things or letting things sit. People forget about older stuff. People get weird talking in depth about intellectual things. A lot of writing internet communities have taken a total fandom bent and fandom culture would have to be removed from it.

I don't know that internet culture has taken the steps in the direction to foster the kinds of thing I want. People use fanfic for all of their "silly" writing or practice writing or trying new things and all of their original writing is Serious and Important and Very Secret and quite possibly doesn't actually exist.

Forum culture enabled a way to have users talk about multiple things in an organized way that was neatly archived. It enabled conversations of more than one reply without drowning a "feed." It enabled a different kind of culture than most websites today do.

[andymakesgames]

Designing to be a Shit-Stirrer

[This post adapted from a thread on my twitter]

Skirmish Society, my Discord-embedded wargame is coming out next week!

I talk a lot about how it draws inspiration from classic wargames games like Diplomacy but you may be surprised to hear that it was also influenced by reality shows like The Circle.

Here's a quick post on designing to be a shit-stirrer.

If you've ever played Diplomacy you know that tensions can run high. Lies & deceit are part of the game.

I wanted to bring that vibe to a game played on Discord.

The strategy mechanics are straightforward: moving armies around using support is fun and allows for deep gameplay.

But in such a secretive game, it can feel a little dead in the main channel. When playing these games IRL you see people sneak off for little conversations. The feeling that Things are happening is palpable. If you're not part of those convos, maybe you need to step up your game.

On Discord it's hard to know when other people are DMing. In some early Skirmish tests if felt like the bot was the only one posting.

I realized that the strategy element was largely solved. What I needed to do was create ~drama~. Bring the heat of those DMs out in the open.

This is where game shows come in. I want to give credit to Doug Wilson & Kurt Bieg (of Simple Machine) for turning me on to how brilliant some reality shows are.

As a game designer I was often quick to write off the mechanics in these shows. After all, they tend to be very simple.

But mechanical depth is not the goal. More often than not, the games are there to force social interactions, to pit people against each other who may not have a reason to rock the boat otherwise. They might reward immunities or other prizes, but that's besides the point.

[Side note: if you want brilliant mechanical depth in one of these shows, I cannot recommend De Mol season 8 enough. It's the the Belgium version of The Mole, and every episode had me screaming at my screen because of how clever the games are. It's great.]

While I was working on Skirmish Society, Netflix released The Circle. I love the Circle. Yes, it is very dumb, but it does a fascinating thing with its games. They don't count. Not even a little (at least mechanically). Players do not win immunity or anything else.

Players are sent home via votes and decisions that occur later in the day after any game was played.

But the players are very very bored in their hotel room/prison, so the minor social interaction that comes from personality-quiz-style games is enough to launch massive feuds that make or break alliances.

These public events inspire a lot of activity in private messages as well.

So that was my job with the Skirmish Commissioner bot. I could leave the tactics to the players. The bot's job was to be the television producer who occasionally shakes the jar to see what happens.

I tested a lot & wound up with two methods: Voting events and Discussion topics

Voting Events

Voting events are the obvious one. After a few turns, the bot introduces votes where the players will decide on a rules modification that will last one turn. The catch is that players must vote publicly. This is the only public action performed in the game.

The effects of the vote tend to be fairly minor in practice, but lines get drawn by who votes for what. A lot of politicking happens to sway the vote. It also gives players a bargaining chip when cutting deals ("I'll vote with you if you support me here").

Votes become a space where targets get painted too. "If we vote for X Jenny will be able to do Y. We can't let her!"

When there is some tangible action the group can take to hurt a specific player, other players become more vocal about concerns they may have kept to themselves.

Discussion Topics

Votes are important to keep the main channel active, but there is another, more subtle approach that the Commissioner Bot uses: Discussion topics.

Once per day (after all of the relevant info about the turn has been posted) the bot will post a randomized question.

In the first few turns, these questions are frequently ignored by players, but later on they can become big sticking points. Some are direct ("Who is being overlooked?") some are vague ("How's everybody doing?"), but they provide just enough space for players to air concerns.

And of course, this can prompt players (especially those in the lead), to react defensively, possibly tipping their hands.

There is no mechanical weight to these prompts, and players could ignore them entirely.

But they almost never do.

This was a hard to concept for me to wrap my head around as a fairly formalist game designer! But reality shows have been doing it for ages.

A lot of the design of the bot came together for me when I realized this was its real job: just stir the pot.

If you want to create some drama in your Discord, Skirmish Society will be released on Tuesday 1/24 for free!

You can sign up for the mailing list to get a ping when it is available!

And if you're in NYC, come out to Wonderville on 1/24 for the launch party and LIVE game!

Finally thanks to all my collaborators! This was a big project and I could not have done it alone!

Backend Programming by Dustin Long Frontend Programming by Walt Mitchell and Nick Santaniello Icons by Chris Hernandez & Jane Friedhoff for teaching me node & Firebase

Trailer by Trash Panda QC

[yournamelesswriter]

୨୧ Rules and Boundaries ୨୧

We have to lay down some ground rules for how me and my content. As much as I love to interact with everyone, I still want to draw some sort of line so that we understand where we are as individual First and foremost, keep it within the Tumblr guidelines. We don't want to get our accounts to get taken down and lose a bunch of our progresses. My boundaries will be subject to change so it would be nice if you would re-read this post every now and then.

✦ Rules ✦

✰ Don't be a dick

No personal attacks, offensive language, harassment, witch hunting, doxxing, racism, hate speech, or other disruptive behavior of sorts under my posts or works. I absolutely do not tolerate it and will block you.

Refrain from mentioning me in unnecessary topics. Listen, you may see my friends be able to do it but that's my friends and I gave them permission to do so.

If it's not warranted/on topic, please do not overshare/trauma dump under my post. It can be triggering for people and I would prefer to keep my blog a safe space.

Refrain from discussing unsavory topics, please use your common sense.

✦ Personal Boundaries ✦

⋆☀︎. Personal Life .☀︎⋆

I'd prefer to keep my life out of the online sphere. I'd make certain posts about myself, talking about my experiences but I would prefer if it came from me and someone else. I don't particularly like people talking about me like they're close with me. I have trauma-induced Borderline Personality Disorder which lead to really askew sense of self and with my PTSD making it difficult to remember who I was, its really hard for me to keep track of myself. If you do know me personally, I'd prefer if you message me instead and not make public posts or comments about me. I'm really not great with having my information online as well.

If you do end up finding some of my old accounts, please don't dig through my post or my past life in general, especially if it's personal. It's really invasive and creepy.

Do not speak on my behalf. I am my own person and I have my own opinions. People do not need to speak for me.

⋆☀︎. Shipping .☀︎⋆

In the past I've been okay with shipping which lead to some misconstrued communications which did not go great so I would prefer if you don't ship me or my sona. Secondly, I have a partner and she's really the only person you would see me be flirtatious in any artworks. So unless its my partner, then Its okay other than that, big no. And to just reiterate, I do not want NSFW artworks as well.

If I do make content with my friends, especially with my DnD projects, do not ship me with my friends. Not only is it weird, but some of my friends are younger than me and are minors. They are practically my kids. I absolutely do not want to see them shipped with me.

⋆☀︎. Harrassment .☀︎⋆

I do not tolerate any form of harassment. The most obvious examples are death threats, doxxing, spamming negative things, replying for the sake of sending hate to someone, and or anything along those lines.

✦ Art and Writing Boundaries ✦

✰ No comparisons ✰

I don't like people comparing my things. I don't think anyone would especially when you worked a long time on each projects. If you feel the need to tell me the comparisons of my art and writing then my DMs are always open.

✰ No unwarranted critism ✰

I am a human artist who will make errors, if I need people's input I would ask for it. I'm very open to criticism only if I asked for it again, DMs are always open if you really feel the need to tell me this and please make it constructed. If you go tell me "Oh your art style is ugly" or "You draw so bad" without providing any sort of nuance or reason why you would say things as such. I would not entertain you.

✰ Ask Permission ✰

Do not under any circumstance edit, repost, or use my art without permission. I'm not okay with it.

✰ Lastly, No AI ✰

✦ OC Boundaries ✦

✴ Go ahead!

These are things you can draw/write anytime! Please credit/send it to me because I would absolutely love to see your works!

SFW art

Gijinka/Humanized

Non-human designs

Shipping

fanart with different outfit

with other OCs (with your ocs)

These themes are also alright ONLY if it is properly tagged and censored (and within reason):

Horror

Gore

Suggestive/Slight NSFW (I'm fine with artistic nudity)

✴ ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Under no circumstances can you draw my OC with ANY of the following categories.

⚠️If you break ANY of these rules, I will block you and ask to get your work taken down. These are my OCs, you do not get to do these things with them.⚠️

NSFW of anything underage, unconsensual, or fetishes

Also including but not limited to: hateful language, symbolism, politics, and anything I deem uncomfortable and not okay.

✴ EXTRA INFO

If you don't know what catagory your idea falls into, or you'd like to ask anyway, then just ask me! If we're friends, I tend to be softer with my rules ^^

For questions, you can always DM for more information.

[chlopieno]

i saw your tags on the fandom and ccs boundaries post and i disagree. sure ccs trying to look too much into the fandom may be a problem but in dream's case that's not it. the problem is the fandom trying to gain validation from the ccs and asking them to set boundaries and therefore not allowing them to be separate from their fandom. like boundaries don't exist for no reason. they exist because people in this fandom are unable to treat ccs with basic human decency a lot of the time and have to be told off or they need to feel superior to other fans for creating fandom content 'correctly'

(I completely derailed from your ask, sorry! The proper response will be under the small text)

I agree with what you're saying while i still stand by my point. I think creators should stay away from fandom spaces BUT ALSO fans should respect it and keep fan stuff at distance. People messaging creators and sending them shippy or nsfw stuff is definitely not okay!

ALSO there was once a great post talking about how 'boundaries' should actually work and that it's not setting rules for other ppl to follow. I dont know who wrote it so sorry that i cant link it up but basically it was about how the creators boundary shouldnt be 'dont make nsfw of me' but instead 'dont put nsfw things on my timeline/fyp/dms/anything like that where i can see it' because the first thing isnt a boundary, its a command, and the secind thing is a boundary related to his comfort. Im not sure if i explained it right, so feel free to tell me what you think :)

You're right about a lot of things! A lot of people, just want to feel like they're better than others and the 'holier than thou' thing seems very strong to me in the mcyt sphere.

But i think the only boundaries that ahould be set are something akin to 'don't engage ME in fandom stuff'. But also i think him saying 'i dont support xxx' is a fine thing to say to a wide public to know hes not the one encouraging fandom.

So i think that the separation should be an effort on both sides, ccs not engaging in fandom stuff, AND fans not dragging the ccs into their spheres.

So overall i think that what Dream said was fine for the public to know, but we as fandom shouldnt see 'i dont support nsfw things about me' as 'youre forbidden from creating this stuff' like. He set his stance on the topic but its not a boundary, its his stand on the topic and i think theyre two different things.

[sag-dab-sar]

I hope you don't mind me reblogging with this (if not shoot me a DM and I'll remove it when I log back in)

How can anyone compare Covid lock down to the Holocaust? For starters, Anne Frank hiding was illegal... us staying home as much as possible, limitations on # of people at events, and closures of many buildings and venues was the gov't's attempt to try and stop a scientifically identifiable virus from killing people.

Whether you think lock down should or shouldn't be government enforceable or it's effectiveness in the pandemic is irrelevant to the comparison because lock down was a public health haphazard scramble..... the Holocaust was industrialized mass murder. Trial and error at first with mobile killing units, then mobile gas vans, plus death through the conditions of a concentration camp, then extermination camps, a very meticulously well organized industry of extermination. And industry that, if you didn't know its purpose, could have looked like any other like construction of vehicles or household items in factories. Many genocides had occurred in history, and concentration camps were nothing new, but the Nazis? They were the Industrial Revolution of Genocide.

The Nazi's transported Anne to Auschwitz-Birkenau and the only reason she wasn't immediately killed upon arrival by Zyklon-B was because she was 15. She assumed her elderly parents surely would have been unsuitable for slave labor and thus murdered upon arrival which according to eye witness left her feeling like she no longer wanted to live. She died a horrific death at Bergen Belsen from disease and starvation— she was there because her very existence was seen as a pestilence that needed to be eradicated.

This comparison is..... frankly obscene.

Think about the transportations from Hungary to Auschwitz in 1944 when the war was turning against them, when the Nazis knew the war was turning against them. They sped up their industry. Starting in May of 1944 they loaded freight trains with 3,000-4,000 Hungarian Jews and transported them from Hungary directly to Auschwitz, around 3-4 trains per day then that figure increased to 6 trains per day, then 10 per day, then by July 5th-9th 18 trains per day. 80% of all Jews on those trains were gassed upon their arrival. The industrial machine was being overworked because people had to wait hours in line to be murdered. The crematoriums literally could not keep up with the amount of corpses being produced per day, they had to burn bodies in open pits. That is the hell Anne Frank arrived too after being taken from her hiding place, the only reason she was not murdered on arrival is because she was 15... had she been 14 she would have been in those gas chambers.

Or think of Treblinka II the second deadliest extermination camp; they set up a fake train station, fake ticket window, fake schedules, fake everything to keep the "process" of getting new arrivals from the trains to the gas chambers as smooth as possible. The commandant of that camp claimed 3,000 people could be killed in a 3 hour period, leading to 12,000-15,000 people murdered in a 14 hour work day. Every. Single. Day.

Sorry but no. No one in lock down was headed for a Zyxlon-B or carbon monoxide gas chamber if they got caught hiding in their homes. No one was tattooed for slave labor with only a few months life expectancy. No one was hiding in neighbors homes in a secret crypt as an act of survival.

This person is not passionate about history. She is an Anne Frank fangirl. Or maybe she is passionate but needs to take some time to actually learn real history and learn how to actually engage in the topics she's interested it. Move past Anne's journal (which is valuable but there is so much more to learn), move past the fictional boy in the striped pajamas movie, move past high school history class (assuming its even taught to you in any decent detail) and learn the full real history.

Here, I'll help, these are some videos I watched recently (yes, this is one of the history topics I can't get enough of when it comes to learning)

▫️"Did the Germans Know About This" from Today I Found Out on YT, this actually also has a really good section on how eugenics was the norm and extremely popular throughout the west not some Nazi concoction they just took the ideas to their logical extremes.

▫️"Surviving the Holocaust" the story from Irene Fogel Weiss from her own words.

Photo of her on the selection platfrom (left) | Her two brothers and mother waiting to be gassed, her sister had been separated (right).

▫️Photos from the Auschwitz Album | Short info video on the album

▫️"Holocaust Survivors from Thessaloniki" (In Greek with subtitles) Jewish survivors from Greece. 83-87% of Greece's Jewish population was murdered, the highest in the Balkans and one of the highest in Europe.

Some more:

▫️Yad Vashdem — World Holocaust Remembrance Center and their Youtube Channel

▫️United States Holocaust Memorial Museum & their Youtube Channel

▫️Night by Elie Wiesel on Internet Archive Library

▫️Auschwitz Through the Eyes of the SS — an Album by Nazis at Auschwitz showing happy guards and vacationers. I find this so important because it shows these Nazis are human and thats terrifying; because it means it could easily happen again. We don't want to admit people who do these things are humans just like us, by calling them monsters we get to distance ourselves from the reality. Distancing ourselves allows us to look at Kanye and call his rhetoric "crazy" and pretend its too outlandish and no one would buy it, without realizing that many do buy into it. Or shrug our shoulders at the idea of synagogues needing guards. Don't distance yourself.

▫️Hitler's Holocaust (2000) — Is a 6 episode series. Its made up of many interviews with victims, witnesses, soldiers from various countries, and perpetrators. Combined with a plethora of archival photographs and footage. It is a gold mine for those deeply interested in the Holocaust. But warning it is a very hard watch mentally: the footage in particular, watching victims recount the horror, and having to put up with any excuses by perpetrators. I watched it on Amazon Prime originally but it's unavailable now and extremely difficult to find. Episode 1 and 2. [edited because I can't make playlist]

-not audio proof read-

I saw this girl on tik tok who got two anne frank tattoos (she’s not jewish) and I want to speak on it since I am jewish. I can tell she has a somewhat good passion for history because of anne frank, but the comparison she made between her and anne frank because of the covid lockdown is not only wrong but highly disrespect. what you went through during the covid lockdown is nothing compared to what anne frank and her family had to live through. this glorifying and idolization of anne frank needs to end, she isn’t some kind of idol, she was a child who was murdered by nazis, not someone you get a tattoo of.

[rabdoidal]

ok idm public but its like, A Lot so here goes: Im a pretty new DM, ive only ever done little homebrew things with a few people at a time that havent gone anywhere. Currently, ive taken over as DM from a long running game involving 3 of my friends and my older sister/brother in law (im 22 theyre about 26) and im running The Witch Beyond The Wildlight (a very lighthearted offical dnd adventure). my brother in law was the DM of last campaign and the tone was pretty Brutal (like fighting dragons, surprise gorey moments, bad things happening to good people for no reason ect) i started this adventure off specifally mentioning saftey tools in the frist session because things like excess gore specifically really Dont Do It for me, to which Bro-in-law kind of makes light of the saftey tools (EG. "can we just skip part of the adventure if im uncomfortable with it") generally BiL is pretty chill/not a bad guy or anything but this irked me when i was trying to be serious about this and he was trying to poke holes in the logic of people wanting to not touch on certain topics? (1/2)

(2/2) we've completed chapter 1 which was just a safe sandbox area but now in chapter 2 we get our first fight (weenie enemies bc its lvl 2) and afterwards hes gone in detail wanting ME to describe how he can basically defile the corpses of the highwaymen he killed (theyre rabbit people. but he wanted skin/bones/teeth). which really yucked me out and i tried to set a hard boundary but i dont know if he really gets me there. This whole situation of him not really listening to me as a DM, and then him acting upset when i have to tell him No has made me really frustrated because i feel like he is just fully not on the same page as me on what this campaign is about and doesnt really respect my ruling as DM (arguing with me this session that a bird familar should be able to sign a warlock contract, dumb things like that?) TLDR: He is my brother in law, and i want to be able to play with him and my sister, but i cant get through to him, and he thinks my escapism fairytale campaign is darksouls. do you have any advice?

Sounds like a real bummer, I'm sorry to hear that! I have experience with voiding tone boundaries on both sides, though both more incidental and because of unclear communication - I've definitely pulled back from gorey descriptions in fights because players were uncomfortable, and I've had to tell players to tone it down because it was inappropriate. It's hard especially when the genre of the campaign is different to the last and there are different expectations of violence - I hope the more they explore the feywild the more he understands the tone for the genre.

If you want to go outside the boundaries of the pre-made module, creating non-violent combat encounters can help curb the more gorey aspects of battles - but if you are more comfortable sticking with the written encounters (which is fair when using pre-made modules), I think you just have to be firm with him. It sounds like an annoying situation, where you don't want to kick him out but he also wants to be a kinda shitty player - I really hope he cares enough to listen to you and continue the game without continuing to be a nuisance.

In the example you used especially - if he tries to pull another teeth pulling thing, I think saying in no uncertain terms "I don't want to hear you describe that." or even "I'm uncomfortable with that action so I won't allow it." might be the best way to go - you're the DM and its your world, don't let him dictate how things operate. A slightly less upfront approach could be redirecting the energy: I know that particular module is set in the Feywild, so maybe if he tries to yank teeth, you can describe the bodies turning into light or poofing away into magic dust before he has a chance. You could even have it so that dying for NPCs/enemies isn't a mechanic in the feywild - people disappear or reincarnate or turn into trees or are simply knocked unconscious - or they run away!

My tl;dr is don't let him run the campaign for you - players should contribute to the world and the narrative, but ultimately you are the one running the session. If he won't listen to either your feelings or your alternative narration, he might not be a great suit for the party.

If it helps at all, I usually get players to fill in a checklist (X) to make it clear what's okay and what isn't for everyone at the table. If he still argues about the importance of consent checklists, thats a red flag in and of itself. I hope this helped!

[simularity-sims]

Update on Patreon Changes, Early Access, & EA

I posted this a few moments ago on my Patreon and I think it should be posted here too:

First off, here is the hot topic of the Sims community right now: EA's clarified and stricter EULA about mods and custom content. You can see the official notice here. Might want to have a looksie for yourself not just to understand what I'm doing but what every creator is doing right now which is either complying or getting into legal jeopardy. 

If you read my previous post that I wrote before the ball dropped, which you can find here, you will know that things aren't going to change much here for my patrons because I've always tried my best to follow the EULA. I never was very good at Early Access to be honest, so doing away with it is actually a relief. Patrons will still get access to patron-only polls, see my behind-the-scenes posts, get special Discord roles, make priority requests, and more. (If you have ideas on how I can do better at Patreon, please leave a comment. I value your opinions and I want everyone to be as satisfied with their donations as possible.)

As I stated before:

"No mods or CC will ever be behind a permanent paywall; everything will eventually be made public on the Simularity website. This is done in accordance with the EA EULA and just because it's the right thing to do."

Also,

"Ever wonder what I spend your patron money on? 100% goes to Sims-related purchases whether that be purchasing a new pack so I can mod it for you or keeping the Simularity website going so you can download everything I create for you. I'm not in this to make money; I created this Patreon to just offset my operating costs. Every little bit helps!"

I'm very, very grateful to all present, past, and future patrons/donators and those who don't block my ads (I understand if you do block them since I often do it too, but that ad revenue adds up and is a huge help to me. I hope you'll keep that in mind.) One of the bills for my website is due next month and, thanks to all of you, I'll be able to pay it in full and continue providing my mods and cc on an easy to navigate website! I can now even offer DIRECT DOWNLOADS on my website, so you don't have to mess with a third-party download site. This is thanks to patrons, donations, and the ads shown.

I think that's all I wanted to say. I've been working on a special mod since 4am this morning and it has taken its toll on me. I can actually feel the brain fog. lol

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc. Feel free to leave a comment on this post or DM me here on Patreon or via the contact form on my website.

[whatiwillsay]

Let me start by saying I'm a heterosexual women with a man. I don't believe Kaylor ever happened because I just don't think Karlie swings that way. I have no idea what Taylor identifies as but I do believe she is in a relationship with Joe Alwyn. Honestly trying to label her makes me uncomfortable, but in the way it would make me feel discussing anyones sexuality. My point I think Gaylor and Kaylor are 2 different topics. And I never understand that small percentage of Swifties that think they have to argue with Gaylor. Honestly it cant bother Taylor because if it did I think she would use more precise language to say "I'm straight ". Anyways I promise there is a point lol. I just wanted to explain why TTB offends me on this but I cant figure out why exactly and thought you could help.

When I see TTB just gush over anything LBGTQ related why do I cringe so much? Like I have second hand embarrassment for her and any young person actually reading her thinking she is an LBGTQ super warrior. Like read her post right now on Becca and Haley. It's just so weird to me and so many words come to my head but I can't totally pin point it. Is it like she's appropriating a culture? Is it that she's a straight women being an authority on 2 wealthy white women in a closet, it honestly boarders on fetishism sometimes. Does anyone ever read her when she writes like that, and tries to bring everything back to Kaylor and is just as grossed out as me in the manner in which she treats the subject. Then worries she's actually helping to shape a few young minds and gets even more annoyed by her behavior. Her archaic beliefs. Her absolute disdain for gay men? Am I being to judgemental on the fact I think its weird she's a straight women who's trying to be an expert on a lived experience she clearly knows nothing about?

well for 1 ttb is cringey in general but 2 i think it’s because she is a straight bully who makes herself the center of what should be a queer guided space that makes her “queer commentary” so cringey. the loudest voices here should be queer ones. we don’t need a straight evil woman amplifying only her own voice and running the show.

of course straight allies are very welcome here but they need to be thoughtful about how they speak and defer to queer voices on certain discussions such as what it’s like to be closeted for example or what is queer signaling/coding and what isn’t. for example, because ttb runs the kaylor fandom we have a bunch of people who think that affection between likely platonic besties is actually pda while actual queer people know that if you’re trying to hide a relationship the last thing you do is get overly touchy with your partner in public. straight people in the fandom should also work to support and amplify the voices of queer people while also engaging and having fun with us! like i said, hets are welcome at this party, as long as they remember this party isn’t being thrown for them nor is it about them but they still should join in the fun and have a slice of cake with us! just have the right disposition about it- don’t expect the cake to have a pic of your face on it.

tbh it makes me sick to think how ttb will never understand the pain of hiding, closeting, being outed, being afraid to simply reach for your partner’s hand in public, literally living life as a second class citizen simply for being in love yet she still is happy here to make herself the center of conversation in this fandom all the while being sickeningly homophobic (i personally asked her in dms to delete posts calling josh “the bottom” because it was homophobic and she point blank refused and said she was sick of being persecuted for being straight) toxic, racist, anti semitic, and also fucking stupid to boot. and of course downright evil for outing multiple vulnerable queer people in the fandom to their bosses, coworkers, friends, and families. like fuck her tbh.

like she’s so dumb and horrible it’s embarrassing to share a fandom cul de sac with her and yeah pretty much every post is cringe as fuck.

[xdeep-sea-leviachanx]

ASK BLOG RULES!!!!!

I just wanna remind everyone of the rules so we can all enjoy the blog together! (Updated May1 2020)

Your question is for Levi. Mun has her own blog and unless its related to something happening on the ask blog please ask me at my main account (I had my shots I swear)

Asks are answered in order I get them most of the time. I can knock them out pretty quickly but still be courteous to me and the other followers and wait between asks (unless there is a conversation)

NSFW asks are allowed! You can ask Levi about his kinks and about how he feels about less extreme fetishes. I will not allow sexual acts to occur but offers can be made and I will reply with Levi's reaction.(An example of some extreme fetishes: watersports, castration, ovipository dont look up any of these)

Dont be asking dirty nsfw shit if you are a minor! Levi isnt a pedophile you will gross him out (mum as well) violating this rule will lead to blocking! If you know someone is a minor and they are interacting with the blog in a lewd manner please tell someone! It's to protect the Mun and her followers who very much don't wanna go to jail

All NSFW ask must be asked off anon! If you are uncomfortable being public or something DM me and I'll get you set up with some horny coupons.

I am not your anime weeb snek husbando! I am a 25 year old happily engaged woman with a green aesthetic who is just really good at pretending to be Levi. We have different personalities and different interests. I don't watch that much anime. I dont listen to kpop I probably won't recognize most anime people come at me in the ask box with. Please keep that in mind when recommending media.

NO MASS LIKING OLD POSTS!!! I get people go through the blog and see all the cool asks and what not. But please... keep my notifications clear by no mass liking. Liking a bunch of posts as I post them is ok. Liking all the post from yesterday cuz you just saw it on your dash is ok. Going back and liking all the posts from "the truth hurts" event not ok

Reblogs are allowed on non-Rp post, Memes, and non-RP asks. Please do not reblog Roleplays. It shows respect towards me and other RPers. When you do reblog an asks and you aren't looking to Rp and you just wanna show it on your blog Please reblog with no text.

You are free to tag the blog in Fanart or fanfic (whether you made it or not) please note I dont approve of any Rp on any of them. If the orginal artist tagged the blog Levi will give his thoughts. I also reblog every tagged reblog I see in the notification box (unless its offensive or disgusting or doesnt focus on him)

I have a life outside the askblog

I do RP through submissions and asks!!! rules here.

Tags for the blog are (also I'm really bad about tagging my things plus I feel like I need to add more tags...)

Family matters: ask blog community tag for when we talks with eachother as demon boys

Levi answers: when levi answers a question

Snek tail: when levi talks about his snake tail and about all the fun stuff about owning one

Fandom Friday: this is every Friday event we gather all the fandom related asks and sit down and we all weeb out! This is so mun can look everything up at once and not have to tab through her phone

Fanart: we have a few artist that leave asks and sometimes draw their asks! You are free to do this as well Levi and Mun love fanart

3 lewd time: ask that are definitely NSFW

3 lewd time sorta: asks that are suggestive but not explicit

Immersa: about my headcanon that Leviathan had a mate and she was killed

Anon tags: reoccurring asks from anons that fit a theme aka mouth anon who wanted to chew on Levi's horns and suck on his tail or hate anon who bullies Levi.

People tags: sometimes we get some people who are asking questions publicly, have a sign off on anon, or roleplay a OC (which is cool we do that here) example is "shy boy asks" or "aiden asks" I normally save these for role players (forgive me if I havent made one for some of you)

Ask blog event: I'm running an event with conditions (ex "the truth hurts" event with Belphie and Levi where they drank a truth serum) there will be a unique tag named after the event for the event each time

Other tags as needed: if season 2 comes out and we learn something about Levi's past or some event that happened in the game or another topic gets asked alot I will add more.

Clovia answers/ Clovia posts: Mun Clovia posting or answering questions in Leviathan's place in most cases it's to explain things or update about the state of the blog. Levi sometimes mentions me if I had to explain a part of human culture to him(I'm faster than google sometimes)

Autistic levi answers: asks answered by Levi while I headcanon him as autistic.

[charmspoint]

Sorry if this seems like it's out of nowhere, and I don't know if you still believe this or not, but not all intersex people want to be excluded out of the lgbtq+ acronym. Intersex people are not a monolith, and for some intersex people, inclusion of the i is very important to them. You can see this explained and discussed in depth in the notes of the 2nd post that comes up from the op firedrake (sorry if it seems weird that I searched through your blog, I was considering joining your Talentless Nana server but I've had a bad experience in another fandom server where discourse over if queer is a slur happened and I just. wanted to make sure that I wouldn't get into something like that again.)

Oh no worries it’s important to check out things to make sure they are safe for you. I couldn’t really remember the post you were talking about so I looked it up and yeah that doesn’t seem like something I’d reblog rn, tho I don’t really remember when I reblogged it or was it long ago but ;;; Well its deleted now anyway I’m glad you came to me with it. Honestly my beliefs about being queer are very open and i’m in no business of policing anyone's identity or biology or whatever. I believe everyone knows themselves best and that different identities should be respected and as you said, different parts of different communities have different opinions on the matter. I honestly don’t know that much about the intersex community so i probably shouldn’t have reblogged that in the first place, but my thoughts on the word queer is that both sides are right and both should be respected. I call myself queer and I make queer jokes but if i knew someone was uncomfortable with that term i would never call them that, because i mean, that would just be rude. But i would also expect them not to get in my face and tell me that calling myself queer is bad, cuz again, thats just plain rude. People have different views and opinions of certain topics, born out of their own unique life experiences and as long as those opinions aren’t being used to hurt others they should be respected. Uhh I hope that answers your ask and makes my position clear! I’m not really sure what else to say so thank you for asking <3

But either way I don’t much like discourse in fandom servers anyway I would probably direct ppl to go to dms with it if it happened hjvhjv. If you are gonna argue don’t do it in public you know :/ that just leads to dogpiling in my experience.