#is this preachy?

[vaticinatrix]

in light of sam's recent announcement, i have something i'd like to say;

if you're able to safely, and have access to it

GET YOUR FUCKING HPV VACCINE

the hpv vaccine is a highly effective, extremely safe, LIFESAVING cancer prevention medicine. i don't care what your mom's facebook friends said. 90% of HPV related cancers, like what sam had, can be prevented with the HPV vaccine. this includes other forms of cancer like anal, penile, and cervical cancer, the last of which is highly highly highly aggressive. please get the vaccine.

[some-assholes-familiar]

Can we talk about the fact that so many people in older generations kind of have this habit of just expecting children to magically manifest the skills they themselves were taught how to do? and then shaming them for not knowing how to do the same things they should have been teaching their children?

Like, as I’m entering the adult world I’m learning more and more about necessary faulting skills I should have but don’t because no one ever taught me, and when I ask for help or don’t know how to do something like, say, oiling my car or navigating university systems (seriously, I still barely understand what the hell the credit system is) i just get a bunch of the older adults in my life laughing at how our generation doesn’t even know how to do the basics.

And it’s like, yeah, we’ve got google to help us in a pinch theoretically, but my little brother doesn’t know how to scrub a pan (despite literally teaching himself how to cook and make paper sculptures on his own) and he just gets called stupid for not doing it right when no one ever taught him what the hell brushes he was supposed to use.

There’s this whole game of parents telling their children to do a task they’ve spent years doing every day as second nature, because they’ve forgotten that they had to learn how to do it in the first place.

It’s like yelling at a baby for not being able to walk. Sure almost everyone we know does it every day without thinking, but none of that changes the fact that right now, the baby doesn’t know how!

I don’t know, I’ve been sitting on this thought for a while, but the amount of frustration I get from encountering a new problem I’ve never seen before, and asking someone for help only for them to either a) do it for me or b) tell me to figure it out on my own and then get angry when I don’t do it their way… it weighs on you. Especially when you know this is a skill that will help you and are more than willing to learn.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just one more thing for me to get pissed at boomers at. They complain so much about kids not knowing how to do stuff for themselves into adulthood when they were the ones who never bothered to teach them how.

[murmurlilies]

amidst the flood of excited screaming over the sudden tonal shift in episode 11 of Dungeon Meshi, I have seen a few anime-only viewers who are a bit... put off by it?? some feeling that they were lied to, or accusing the story of abandoning its premise and feel-good vibes.

all I can say to those people without spoiling things is this: TRUST THE PROCESS. this tonal shift didn't come out of nowhere, and it wasn't put in merely for shock value. Dungeon Meshi is a carefully crafted work with themes that carry from its opening moments all the way through to its conclusion. as the story unfolds, those themes are expanded upon and explored in truly remarkable and unexpected ways. it is, when viewed in its entirety, one of the most cohesive and beautifully told narratives in the anime/manga space.

as for those feel-good vibes?? they never truly leave, in fact imho they only grow stronger as the story progresses in spite of its increasingly dark moments. and there WILL be dark moments. man oh man, y'all have seen NOTHING yet. but again: TRUST THE PROCESS. believe in these characters, in their tenacity, in their love for each other. no matter how dire things get, believe that there will always be a warm campfire and a delicious meal waiting for them at the end.

[potatoes-tomatoes]

I’ve had this exchange in my head far longer than I’d like to admit

[hedgehog-moss]

Forgive me for making yet another post about the French Revolution but one small detail that makes me laugh is when, as things started to go seriously wrong, one of Louis XVI's advisers tried to persuade him & Marie-Antoinette to get away from Paris and wait for things to calm down (the idea was "if you lay low and wait, the newly-created National Assembly will vote something stupid and lose popular support" which was a solid plan honestly.) But he was also like "whatever you do, DO NOT go East or South or people will think you'll get help from other monarchies to restore your power and that won't calm things down"

So the King was advised to flee to Normandy, which... is just a short ferry ride away from another monarchy. But that's completely different since it's England. To be fair to the English, the French monarchy had basically bankrupted itself a few years back to send millions in support of the American revolutionaries because it would be a shame not to take advantage of "perhaps the best opportunity for centuries to come to put England in its place" (actual quote by France's minister of Foreign Affairs in 1777)

—still I love the realistic approach of the King's adviser telling him, Sire you can't go near any of our borders rn, it'll escalate the situation, Parisians will know you're trying to get another country to help. Obviously you can go set up camp right across the sea from England though, that's fine since everyone knows the English wouldn't piss on us if we were on fire¹

¹ Perfidious Albion was like "aw no France is in turmoil and possibly weakened :) a shame :)" exactly like France re: them at the start of the US independence war ² they also thought well these backward french are finally following our glorious example and entering civilisation (parliamentary monarchy) ³ and only when the Girondins started being like "let's spread the French Revolution to the whole universe!!! or at least Belgium" did England finally decide "it's been a while since we last declared war on France actually" (but it was too late for Louis XVI) ⁴ That's not how footnotes work sorry. Trying to make my post look fancier

[idolomantises]

when developing Lili's job as a sex worker, I had a comic planned where Sera and Lili do talk about her job and Sera offers to "save" Lili, but Lili tells her she doesn't want to be saved and doesn't want her job to be viewed as this burden that ruined her life. She likes it, and thats all there is to it.

But, as someone who is not a sex worker himself (despite doing some research and even asking sex workers for feedback), I felt like it came off too preachy and soapbox-y. I also notice that whenever the topic of sex work gets mentioned in my work, a lot people get really upset at the topic. I'll never forget being told that Sera and Lili's relationship was "less wholesome" after finding out that Lili is a sex worker. And the last thing I want is for my reply section to turn into a warzone.

At the same time, I still want to represent sex work as a normal thing. Not just for hell denizens but in general. The fact that sex work is still a poorly represented profession in media, and that I have people assume Lili was "forced" to do her job because that's just assumed at this point is disappointing. I hope the dialogue can make it clear that its normal, and its fine. And please stop saying "poor Sera" she literally summoned Lili, she knows what she got into.

[yb-cringe]

i think whats always made me the most emotional about qsmp characters and players alike leaving is that it feels so much more. personal. a bit more gutting when it comes to the way qsmp functions.

the reason this server was made in the first place was to make connections between players that CANT happen anywhere else. or rather, are very difficult to maintain.

it's hard to consistently stay in contact with people who don't speak the same language as you. qsmp made a point to force those people to interact and everything else was just.. trying to soften the harder edges of communicating that don't happen elsewhere.

and its simultaneously beautiful and horribly horribly painful. because the world outside of qsmp isn't very accommodating. and often, as these are content creators with Lives, they don't have time to really maintain every friendship they ever make.

It's why maxo and jaiden and richas and pomme and dapper etc-- its why every death or absence from the server is so gutting. because you know when they leave, that this just /cant/ happen again.

i'm not saying this to be. doomposty. i know that's kinda what it sounds like. i think pepito said it great already; that new memories can be made and we can love the old ones.

i think what im getting at is that clawing back to a time that's passed won't make us happy, it won't take us back there. you gotta just keep moving forward. qsmp is changing a lot. it wont ever be like it was last year. that doesn't mean it can't be good later.

we're going to lose creators and characters and things that remind us VERY heavily of the times where we had friends that we drifted from or lost because of one thing or another.

but you gotta remember there will be more people who you will love too. new people, who won't fill that space but occupy something new because fun fact you don't ever run out of space for that sort of thing.

be sad theyre gone be happy they're doing well remember the memories fondly but keep moving. unfortunately a lot of qsmp has ended up being about letting things go.

its like the. 'its going to be okay. but its going to be different.' and. skdfjds idk i hope thats a hopeful enough note to make things better.

[evilwizard]

I do want to say, my views on AI “art” have changed somewhat. It was wrong of me to claim that it’s not wrong to use it in shitposts… there definitely is some degree of something problematic there.

Personally I feel like it’s one of those problems that’s best solved via lawmaking—specifically, AI generations shouldn’t be copywrite-able, and AI companies should be fined for art theft and “plagiarism”… even though it’s not directly plagiarism in the current legal sense. We definitely need ethical philosophers and lawmakers to spend some time defining exactly what is going on here.

But for civilians, using AI art is bad in the same nebulous sense that buying clothes from H&M or ordering stuff on Amazon is bad… it’s a very spread out, far away kind of badness, which makes it hard to quantify. And there’s no denying that in certain contexts, when applied in certain ways (with actual editing and artistic skill), AI can be a really interesting tool for artists and writers. Which again runs into the copywrite-ability thing. How much distance must be placed between the artist and the AI-generated inspiration in order to allow the artist to say “this work is fully mine?”

I can’t claim to know the answers to these issues. But I will say two things:

Ignoring AI shit isn’t going to make it go away. Our tumblr philosophy is wildly unpopular in the real world and most other places on the internet, and those who do start using AI are unfortunately gonna have a big leg up on those who don’t, especially as it gets better and better at avoiding human detection.

Treating AI as a fundamental, ontological evil is going to prevent us from having these deep conversations which are necessary for us—as a part of society—to figure out the ways to censure AI that are actually helpful to artists. We need strong unions making permanent deals now, we need laws in place that regulate AI use and the replacement of humans, and we need to get this technology out of the hands of huge megacorporations who want nothing more than to profit off our suffering.

I’ve seen the research. I knew AI was going to big years ago, and right now I know that it’s just going to get bigger. Nearly every job is in danger. We need to interact with this issue—sooner rather than later—or we risk losing all of our futures. And unfortunately, just as with many other things under capitalism, for the time being I think we have to allow some concessions. The issue is not 100% black or white. Certainly a dark, stormy grey of some sort.

But please don’t attack middle-aged cat-owners playing around with AI filters. Start a dialogue about the spectrum of morality present in every use of AI—from the good (recognizing cancer cells years in advance, finding awesome new metamaterials) to the bad (megacorporations replacing workers and stealing from artists) to the kinda ambiguous (shitposts, app filter that makes your dog look like a 16th century British royal for some reason).

And if you disagree with me, please don’t be hateful about it. I fully recognize that my current views might be wrong. I’m not a paragon of moral philosophy or anything. I’m just doing my best to live my life in a way that improves the world instead of detracting from it. That’s all any of us can do, in my opinion.

[valtsv]

i think the most important thing i've learned from years of working to recover from trauma and break the cycles of abuse i was both a victim and perpetrator of is that i can't change that i was hurt or that i hurt other people in the past, but i can use that to empower myself to learn from those experiences in order to do better in the present and future. obviously it would have been better if none of it had ever happened, but instead of hand-wringing over what-ifs and if-onlys, i accept that it's done and can't be changed, but i still can. i don't have to let myself be defined by my regrets.

[kindlythevoid]

It’s really beautiful how Tolkien takes the time to honor the dead. After Gandalf’s death, they take the time in Lothlorien to deal with their grief and sing their laments, but as there is no body, that’s all they can do.

But when Boromir dies, even when Aragorn has to make the decision to either pursue Frodo or Merry and Pippin, and both are rapidly growing farther from the three left, they take the time to honor their friend. They don’t leave immediately, even though efficiency would dictate otherwise. No, instead they take the time to decide how to “bury” him (quotations only because it’s not burying in the strictest sense of the word, but rather reverently dealing with Boromir’s body). And then they gather trophies of his last stand and arrange them in the boat with him, taking time to “[comb] his long dark hair and [array] it upon his shoulders.”

How many times have other adventurers dedicated valuable time to honor the bodies of fallen companions, specifically to this extent? More often than not, they have to leave them behind, or only take the time to fold their arms or close their eyes.

Occasionally, they’ll build a pyre or bury them or whatnot, but it’s always after the battle that they set aside a significant chunk of time, or they live up to the term of fantasy (which isn’t a bad thing!) and there is no time wasted in building a cairn or burial or what-have-you.

My point is that time is spent, time that could be used for more “productive” things, such as, I don’t know, pursuing Merry and Pippin whose lives are at stake. And it isn’t framed as a bad thing, because it isn’t! Each life is precious, even when only the body is left. And they take the, well, the time to acknowledge this, in a reasonable and conservative way. (And when I say conservative, I mean that they pick the burial most fitting for their running clock, balancing both their need for a grieving period as well as the haste that the hobbits will require.)

I can’t speak to the rest of the deaths in the books as I haven’t caught up and refreshed my memory, but I will touch on another death, this time in the movie, that shares the same theme.

Theodred.

While he certainly hasn’t been totally forgotten by the fandom, I believe it is fair to say that he gets less discussion. Which is fair, considering he gets almost no active dialogue that I can remember and he is unconscious for most, if not all, of his screen time (and book time) before dying shortly after.

And one could say it’s because he’s a prince, one could say it’s because he was the heir, etc., etc. But it honestly makes no sense to dedicate all that time to preparing and putting on a large funeral when Saruman is right at Rohan’s door and there are so many bigger and more impactful decisions to be making now that Theoden has his mind back.

But, again, it isn’t criticized in the movie. It isn’t treated as the wrong decision. The people, included Theoden, needed time to mourn and Theodred deserved to be honored, even in death, even as the great forces of orcs and Uruk-hai were marching across Rohan.

Time is valuable, time is precious, and it should be wasted, especially when you’re trying your hardest to make sure you and yours survive. But time is meaningless if you don’t use it to live and subsequently honor those who have lived.

[stil-lindigo]

the candle.

a comic about rediscovering passion and recovering from burnout.

creative notes:

[lirotation]

Ascended Astarion x Female Tav, one shot exercise.

I don't do Ascended Astarion stuff usually, but I was exchanging emails with my friend, and he said, "I'm sure you let Astarion ascend since you were so in love with him you'd want to do anything to make him happy."

Ummm, end of friendship, hahahaha. No, I was so surprised he would think that. Ascended Astarion is a glaring relationship red flag. If there's one piece of advice I can offer to younger women, it's this: never allow your partner to have complete control over you. Always nurture your own freedom and power.

Keep pursuing your career aspirations. Maintain close ties with family and friends who support you. Develop your own interests and skills. Make sure you can simply get up and leave and that you can support yourself if you do need to leave.

I'm not suggesting you take a cynical or suspicious view of relationships. But entering any partnership as equals, with your own solid ground to stand on, is key. The joy of intimacy relies on mutual care, respect and consent between free individuals.

If you find yourself yielding your autonomy or goals to maintain a relationship, or walking on eggshells to avoid angering someone, those are major red flags. Have the courage to reevaluate any bond that becomes more confining than uplifting.

No matter how tempting the fantasy, an unequal power dynamic will likely turn unhealthy over time. I am sure in the game, Ascended Astarion really loved Tav, but the heart is a fickle thing, and eternity is simply too long.

I used a base from talented SeraphicMayin on Deviantart as reference. Link below.

[cecoeur]

His ass is not reading that book | Drive the Dream

Still: The Slow Home Still is an interiors book that invites readers to take on the philosophy of the SLOW movement. Living Sustainably; Local; Organic; and Whole. It talks not just to the question of the physical structures we choose, but also the surrounding environment, and what effect that can have on general happiness and wellbeing. Still includes about a dozen case studies featuring escape homes and owners who live according to these aforementioned principles, enlightening readers as to why they chose this path and how it has benefitted their lives.

[ittybittyremy]

“Orym’s family was able to heal but he was not. It’s been years but he refuses to move on”

Golly gee I wonder why… It’s almost as if Orym has been willingly cutting open old scars and putting salt in them for months

TLDR: It’s not that he refuses to move on, it’s that he can’t.

People who never watched EXU don’t know that Orym was healing and was moving on. There was a sadness to him but he was healing. His tattoo was a part of that healing. Every day was one foot in front of the other.

This mission is what is taking out years worth of healing. It was bound to happen.

The initial mission of investigating an attack that was similar to the one that killed your husband and father is opening old wounds. Everything else is just putting salt in it.

And Orym is willingly putting salt in those wounds for the sake of there being a tomorrow (C3E77) for Exandria and everyone living on it.

It would be one thing if the rest of his family was with him on this mission but they’re not. The closest person would be Leeta but that is not even close to how deep Orym is in it (as far as we are aware).

Like no shit Orym is having a hard time healing. I would be too if I was constantly exposed to things related to my husband and father’s death to that level. No matter how long ago it was

Orym could start moving on again once he’s not as exposed to his traumas. He could leave and give up on the mission but he’s not gonna do that. Not while knowing that his husband and father would be on this mission with him if they were alive.

So he really has one option: stop the Ruby Vanguard and Ludinus from releasing Predathos and potentially destroying Exandria and killing (more) people. And maybe then he can start moving on again

[roach-works]

im working on a thought and it’s not all the way roughed out, so bear with me:

i think western society has been so obsessed with the threat of invasion for so long that it’s poisoned all of us and seriously damages progressive moments that need solidarity to survive.

like, it’s a cornerstone of conservative, right-wing, and fascist ideology that the Our People are under a direct, continuous, obvious threat of invasion by Bad Guys who want to come into our space, use up all our resources, hurt our vulnerable members, and replace us entirely if they can. this fear has been repeated so many times we take it for granted. we assume it’s something to take into consideration when we talk about immigration, about welfare, about voting rights/suppression, about gender relations. there are bad guys out there. they want to come into our space and take all our stuff and hurt us. we have to stay alert, suspicious, hard-hearted. we can’t let them in!

men are easily made fearful of dangerous, gold-digging, manipulative, crazy women, which is of course all of them. because if men give them an inch they’ll take all their money and ruin their friendships and leave them broke and ruined.

real women are easily taught to fear treacherous, sneaky, secretly-deadly trans women. because if they’re allowed into bathrooms or women’s groups they’ll rape and pillage and replace all the real women with horrible fakes, ruining everything.

the queer community was easily made fearful and contemptuous of weird, lying, faking-it-for-attention ace people. because if they were allowed into the community, they would use up all the resources and leave the place wide open for further invasion from other fakers, which would obviously ruin everything.

some community moderation is necessary, on a case-by-case basis, to remove genuinely harmful individuals. but it’s really chilling to me to recognize this pattern of thought playing out over and over: we have to hold the line. there is an US and a THEM, there is an INSIDE where we’re safe and an OUTSIDE where the bad guys come from. we have to protect ourselves from invasion, from INFECTION. your kindness and sympathy is how they trick their way in. stay alert. stay aware. stay safe.

but like: this is such bullshit? this is SUCH BULLSHIT. the more US there is, the less THEM there is. bringing people into the circle with kindness, support, affirmation, education, makes the circle bigger. many hands make light work. many voices make a bigger noise. unions work. solidarity works. immigration makes societies healthier and more vibrant. people on welfare go on to boost their local economies. new perspectives can solve old problems.

aren’t you tired of being a pawn in someone else’s culture war? aren’t you tired of flinching, of cowering, of holding back, of toughening up? don’t you want to be a person among people? don’t you want to put your fear down and learn to love the world again?

[peppermintquartz]

I truly don't get the ship hate from the extreme Buddie stans. You want Buck to be with Eddie? Go ahead and write about them, draw about them, imagine them doing the nasty. No one is stopping you. You want to picture Tommy Kinard as a bastard dropped out of a chopper to die by a thousand snakebites? Ok, go ahead.

But insisting other people think and feel what YOU think and feel is completely out of line, ok? We don't control what people feel or think. That's not a normal, healthy thing to want to do.

And then you make a fuss over everything from the show that isn't about your ship, bullying the actors and writers etc who gave you the show in the first place just because, again, you think that YOUR thoughts and YOUR feelings about fictional people are ✨so damn important and special ✨ and no one should go against them?

Not. Normal. Not. Healthy.

The cast and crew do their jobs, for which they're paid, and they have done their parts. We enjoy the product, and we say thank you (or we talk about parts that aren't done well, but in the same way we TAKE criticism, ok? Give only what we can take, and give with grace).

Then we play with the product the way kids play with action figures and dolls in a sandpit. We have our fun, with our stories, making the characters do what we want them to do. End of the day, we put the toys back in the toy chest and go enjoy apple slices and a cup of juice.

That's it.

Find healthier outlets for those emotions if they're so all-consuming. I'm sure some organisation someplace could do with your drive and passion. Maybe your local library, or conservation movement, or pet shelters, or, idk, teen delinquent reform centers. Find something else to love that could do actual good in the world.