#it's just the facts of the matter

[luxlightly]

There's a question at the heart of philosophical debate for centuries which is "is it more important that people do not die, or that I do not feel I have a hand in killing them?"

It's the basis of the trolley problem. Do I choose to let 4 people die just so that I could say I didn't personally kill one person? Which is more important? Their lives or my conscience?

From an outside perspective, we feel the answer should be obvious: that in choosing not to act, we are still acting. We are still choosing to allow 4 people to die. But, in the moment itself, it's hard to see, and we recognize that. The idea of being in any way supporting a single death is more than most people's conscience will allow. It's easier to let go of the switch and distance ourselves from the responsibility of the result.

But when the price of inaction becomes hundreds of thousands of lives, the gap of morality grows. When you have seen hundreds of thousands die already and you know hundreds of thousands more will, the idea of putting one's own personal sense of moral purity above those lives becomes harder for me to understand or defend. Especially in a case where, if one doesn't act, everyone on both sets of tracks dies.

Conceptually I do, of course. It's not like morality is a simple issue, especially in the face of mass atrocities. There's a reason the tolley problem exists, after all. But in practically, I will always have a fundamental difference in morality as people who think like that, when it reaches the scale it has.

It's still my choice, regardless if I choose not to act and I won't ever allow more blood to be spilled just to say my own hands are clean of it. To me, nothing seems more performative than that.

[vivitalks]

best types of brennan NPC

autism haver

stoner

frat bro who has unlearned hypermasculinity so hard that he's gone 100% the opposite direction about it

anticapitalist proletarian

the most insane person you've ever met

[starii-void]

going to chb must be crazy like imagine sharing a camp with

-one of the strongest demigods ever who's saved the world like at least 3 times, fought multiple gods & titans and WON (and is a tartarus survivor)

-the literal main architect of OLYMPUS who's also saved the world multiple times (also tartarus survivor)

-THE lord of the wild who's also close friends with the first two (and has helped save the world multiple times)

-an emo kid from the 1930s who again helped save the world and is also a tartarus survivor (TWICE)

-a son of apollo who survived tartarus with nothing but cargo shorts and sheer will (pun intended)

-the main designer and builder for the argo II, also the first hephaestus kid to have fire powers since hundreds of years ago (did i mention killed gaea? no? yeah he did that too)

-a girl who somehow charmspeak-ed gaea into falling back asleep (also side note daughter of super famous actor because why not)

-pretty much everybody is a two-time war veteran

-THE GOD APOLLO who just sometimes comes down to visit in the form of a teenage boy

-did i mention dionysus, god of wine madness and theatre

-also chiron, trainer of pretty much every greek hero ever

[maxgicalgirl]

Being a “Fun Fact !” kind of autistic is all fun and games until you get halfway through sharing an interesting tidbit and realize that it probably wasn’t appropriate to share in polite company and now you have to deal with the consequences :(

[reasonsforhope]

Literally begging anyone who can vote in US elections to vote, and to vote against Trump. Which means voting for Harris, not abstaining or voting third party.

My family actually did move here from an authoritarian country, where voting literally didn't matter, they literally did throw out your vote, and they literally did assassinate citizens who spoke out against them.

We would all very much like to keep living in a country where those things are not the case!

You know, the same things that Trump and his stooges have openly said they want to do. And two of the main propaganda lines for why people in the US shouldn't vote, which is a lie.

Voting matters. The parties are not the same.

And make sure to vote in down-ballot races!!!

And like. The fact that voting matters in the US is a very real reason for hope. It is something you should genuinely appreciate. We can make a difference.

And a lot of people risked their lives or even died to earn that right, and it's a right not everyone has.

[akanemnon]

I don't like this place. It's turning everyone edgy and sad.

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[cosmicredcadet]

Soulmates are inherently amatonormative and it's so wild how many people refuse to acknowledge that and instead go around trying to "make it more inclusive" which mostly just leads to then forcing aspec characters into a amatonormative narrative.

[technically-human]

Valentine's Day!!

The boys finally get a happy moment after going through the canon events

This was a commission for @i-am-as-normal-as-you-are so thank them for the cuteness!

The bonus is completely my fault though:

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Your beats make me sick

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[rubysevens]

anyway in the past week the irish government has voted down two motions which would have condemned the genocide in gaza.

i need everyone to stop lionising ireland as if its not also a european government with strong ties to the us. american weapons pass through shannon airport and will continue to, because yesterday the motion to stop that was voted down 83 to 50.

other governments have done much more but somehow people still act as though ireland is the ultimate palestinian ally and exempt from criticism on its handling of palestine bc it was once colonised, even though that past experience clearly isnt being taken into account by the irish government when creating policy.

i live here i know there’s a lot of public support and sympathy for palestine, which is great, but that isnt reflected in government, and i think ireland should be treated like other countries whose governments have done nothing.

[skateboardtotheheart]

there is just something about the difference between edwin's love interests and having the cat king's reaction to edwin in hell being "i'll be waiting when he gets back" vs charles "no version of this where i don't come get you" rowland convincing a powerful trans-dimensional being to open a door to hell just so he could get him back

i am insane

[gravitysoda]

refusing an impossible wish and settling for one last game of chess.

[rhiangalaxy]

Get you someone who looks at you like Luo Binghe looks at Shen Yuan infodumping (ft. a lil bonus under the cut!)

(Piece chosen by this week's poll!)

[ID: A Scum Villain Comic. The first image depicts Plant!Yuan excitedly looking at and holding a book that has his demonic butterfly resting on the edge of it saying "Binghe, have you heard of the Iron-Shelled Muskrats? They're said to have near impenetrable skin and live in the deepest depths of the Abyss-" Image two depicts Luo Binghe resting his head on one of his hands and looking presumably towards Shen Yuan with a soft love struck expression. One of SY's butterflies rests in his hair. SY continues in the background, sort of faded out with text saying "Blah, Blah, Blah, place name...backstory stuff... " End ID]

[ID: A Scum Villain Comic. Characters drawn in chibi style. The top half depicts Plant!Yuan, now with an angry expression, gesturing out with one arm causing his butterfly to move out of the way. He rants "Oh, that reminds me, you will not believe this novel I just read. The writing was so awful-" LBH continues to look at SY the same way as the comic above, with a thought bubble above him saying "I would die for you". The bottom half depicts Shang Qinghua, pausing in surprise before taking on a concerned/dreading expression and saying "Something just happened.... A caption points to him saying "Author of said novel." End ID]

[velvetwyrme]

new oc!!!! my strange creature!! this is Skyskimmer (or just Skim). they're a weird bird-bug-thing.

more on them under the cut because i love them dearly fhskfhdk

Skyskimmer (they/them, loosely Autobot aligned) is independent to a fault, often to the point of isolation. As a sailplane, they can glide for many hours without needing to land for fuel. Skim wants to be liked and valued, which is hard to do when you look and act like a very unsettling bug and are alone for long periods of time.

Their desire for independence is at odds with their inherent reliance on others, as a sailplane, they don't have a way to get off the ground by themselves and thus must rely on being being winched or towed into the air. Alternatively, thrown like a paper airplane. They can hop and glide short distances on their own (like a bird!), but without the requisite height to catch thermals and updrafts, they are they grounded. They do not mind this, as it allows them to spend more time indulging one of their favorite hobbies- observing humans.

Their interest in humans stems from a sort of scientific enthusiasm/"WOW cool bug!!" type of fascination rather than seeing them as people. Because of this, they have a collection of medical journals and texts from around the world, and is skilled field medic... for humans specifically. Skim is absolutely trash at fixing up their fellow bots, do NOT let them try anything, they will weld someones servo to their leg.

Unfortunately their scientific interest in humans means that they have terrible bedside manner and they will explain to you the many ways you can be eviscerated or die horribly, because they think it's REALLY cool.

... Safe to say, they rarely get to use their (human) medical knowledge.

Skim's real, usable(!!) talent lies in observing meteorological phenomena and predicting weather patterns with startling accuracy. Is it an outlier ability? Or just eerily good readings? Skim doesn't know and doesn't care, it's one of the only times they have an excuse to glide without having to ask someone to help them into the sky, so they'll take what they can get.

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

I think you might have been a father to me, once.

You used to be more than just another man who hurt me in my life.

Reference pic!

[marypsue]

Man, it's cool and all if you see a metaphor for marginalisation in the monstrous, and if you want the power fantasy of 'what if you could just eat anybody who threatened you/pissed you off'. Me too.

However, as soon as you start saying 'no, these monsters are a 1:1 on Specific Marginalised Group, and you have to treat them in the fiction like they are directly representative of real human members of the marginalised group', BUT you also, in the fiction, make them hurt/kill/eat humans? And then try to shame me, your audience, for noticing or engaging with the bit where they kill people, because you made them directly representative of a real-world marginalised group? You have lost me, and also, I think, the plot.