#its not one specific thing its an ongoing multiple things

[bookwyrminspiration]

quil fee free to answer this in private i'm just curious but what the FUCK is going on in the kotlc fandom because i'm looking through the tags and either i've blocked exactly the right ppl or it's all a lot of wind for nothing?? i'm confused and nosy

Ah yeah, looking through the tag isn't a great sample of what I was commenting on, because it's more an ongoing thing the past few months.

Essentially, keepblr has gotten a recent influx of people, which as always, means an adjustment period. This one is just taking its sweet time to work out, which is going a little rougher because some keefe/fitz and love triangle drama has started to seep into the fandom along with it. it's exacerbated in part by confession blogs and unraveled's existence

There's just been consistent things popping up like clockwork every time it feels like we get past another. There's ongoing keefe/fitz arguments, sokeefe/sophitz arguments, keefe taking over the narrative, some spamming, disagreement about ship names (which is quite ridiculous in my opinion. so much so im not even gonna bother anymore), a few convos about race here and there, etc.

Just an overall trend towards negativity that's been going on for a while. And at first its like yeah, bumps in the road, it happens. but it's been long enough i'm a little like. are we seriously still on this. we are NOT letting this be our new normal this SUCKS. you know?

[simplyhughes]

A Hughes Summer: The Arrival

Synopsis: A Hughes Summer is an ongoing series about a HughesSister!Reader x Connor Bedard! This will follow multiple scenarios of their summer together spent at the infamous Hughes Lake House! If there are any specific scenarios you’d like to see, please let me know! Thanks for reading!

Content Warning: none!

Pairing: Connor Bedard x Hughes!Reader

Part One

wc: 1k

Navigating dating the best rookie in the league while being surrounded by three brothers, all notable players themselves has been extremely chaotic, to say the least. Hockey has permeated all corners of my life, not that I necessarily mind, but being born into a hockey family has definitely altered my taste in men. Connor, my boyfriend, and my trio of brothers have clashed on the ice before, obscured by layers of gear, battling fiercely for the puck. But today marks the moment of formal introduction, and I can't deny the flutter of nerves within me. My brothers are intense; Quinn has this odd maternal instinct toward me, Jack is just downright wild... and with Luke, I'm actually not too concerned, as long as I keep him supplied with a snack to gnaw on.

As the 2024 hockey season drew to a close, Connor and I made the spontaneous decision to embark on a road trip from Chicago to Michigan, where I planned to introduce him to the beloved Hughes summer lake house tradition. Every summer for as long as I can remember, my family has spent the majority of the summer in Michigan, lounging at the lake house. With every mile closer to our destination, my heart quickened its pace, anticipation mingled with nerves as the moment of collision between my two worlds drew near. Yet, amidst my own jitters, I couldn't help but notice the anxiety radiating from the driver's seat beside me, where Connor sat, his nerves seemingly even more pronounced than mine.

It seemed like he was on a timer; every couple of minutes, he dragged his palms against his thighs, wiping his sweat to keep his grip on the wheel. In between that, he’d run his hands through his hair and check his reflection in the rearview mirror. After watching him do this a few times, I couldn't help but chuckle. Connor glanced over at me before turning back to the road and smiled. “What?” he chuckled back at me.

“You are just cute, that's all,” I replied, still with a smile plastered on my face.

“Oh yeah?”

“For Sure”

The car fell into silence for a minute. It was a comfortable silence, but you couldn't help but feel bad that he was nervous. “Connie, they are gonna love you. I promise.”

“I really hope so, y/n.”

“I know they don't know you yet, but I do know they already admire your skill and drive. But they are gonna love you, promise.”

Connor looked at me, his eyes softened and gave me his signature lopsided smile. I stretched my arm out to the car's console and turned up the radio's volume.

The car rumbled along the graveled, mud-plastered driveway, flanked by towering trees that resembled skyscrapers, the only resemblance to the city we had just departed. Finally, the vehicle came to a halt. Connor shifted the gear to park and wiped his palms once more. He unbuckled his seatbelt, popped the trunk, and went to retrieve some of our luggage from the back. Before handling our belongings, Connor opened my door and offered me a hand. I grasped his hand, stepping out of the car.

“Thank you, Con. Chivalry isn't dead, I suppose. But you gotta do something about the sweat, baby,” I teased.

His eyes rolled, and he bumped me jokingly with his hip. Together, we made our way to the trunk. As I started to gather my things, Connor swiftly snatched the bags from me.

“Hey!” I yelped.

“Chivalry,” he smirked.

Connor, busy with all the bags, let out a huff as he unloaded his arms on the front porch. I rammed my finger into the doorbell multiple times, rapid-fire style, just to annoy my brothers.

“HOLY SHIT MAKE IT STOP!” I heard one of my brothers yell, muffled by the walls. The door swung open revealing the shortest of the three brothers. “QUINNIFER!” I shouted, jumping into his arms. “Hey, Peanut!” he shouted back. We shuffled back into the house where I was then greeted by the other two. After almost being squeezed to death, the attention shifted to the awkward blonde standing alongside the bags. I cleared my throat, “Guys, this is Connor!”

“Hey man, it’s nice to finally meet you,” Quinn said, giving him a handshake. Luke followed suit while Jack just stayed back. The middle brother narrowed his eyes, watching his other brothers greet the new guy. “Jack quit being a dickhead and say hello.

“I’m just busting his chops y/n, don't worry,” Jack smirked. “What's up?” He finally spoke, shaking Connor's hand.

“Quinny, can you please handle our bags while I give Connor the grand tour?”

“Whatever, anything for my favorite sibling,” he replied, immediately getting hassled by the other two.

I managed to grab Connor's hand and sneak him around the brawl leading him into the living room. His eyes trailed along the pictures that decorated the mantle; pictures that told the Hughes’ past summers, the quilt that was draped against the couch; the quilt that was ripped and resewn back together, it held too many memories to throw out. He soaked in the room, observing all the details laid before him. I plopped down onto the couch, also soaking everything in. “What do ya think?” I questioned.

“I think that you were adorable,” Connor gushed while picking up a framed picture from almost 14 years ago. He looked it over for another minute, then put it back down in its spot. I smiled watching Connor, seeing him in this house that meant so much to me. He fit in so perfectly, it’s like he's been here all this time. My smile only grew thinking about the events this summer longs to unfold, how this will be his first summer in Michigan with many more to follow.

[aardvaark]

Throughout leverage we see multiple different people driving the team/groups. Parker with the "I was taught to run from the cops", Sophie with the "taxi driver in Istanbul (citation needed)", Eliot with "I am getting us there in 5 minutes or less"... So what is your headcanon for how they decide who drives? Does Nate have a specific set of criteria where he picks who drives? Do they argue about who drives?

well, a lot of places they go, they need minimum two vehicles: hardison's van for tech (i think its only got two actual seats, though im sure people have had to sit in the back & get thrown around lol) and at least one car for other people/general driving. hardison tends to drive lucille so thats one down. if eliot's around to drive, he's probably driving the second car. if not, then nate, then sophie, then parker*. when hardison isn't driving lucille, he's probably as likely to drive as nate or sophie. and when tara's there, i doubt she has driving privileges lol.

in s1, i doubt they're carpooling much. like, they'd drive from their homes to the hq to the job themselves, and only go in the same car to do some quick task. later, they treat nate's apartment as home base and are frequently there for very little reason lmao, so thats when they actually have to plan more about who drives. obviously it heavily depends on how many cars are required and who's doing what. but. it seems like it's often nate driving with sophie as passenger, eliot driving himself or with parker as passenger, and hardison driving himself or with parker as passenger.

*detailed explanation of their individual driving under the cut:

parker is a genuinely great getaway driver, so her skills are useful in that type of situation... but i think 99% of the time, when they're not requiring a quick getaway, she is BANNED from driving. sophie even said so somewhere in s3, i dont remember exactly. canonically she can drive perfectly normally too (eg her driving with tara in the s2 finale) to be fair. she just doesnt want to lol. the stuff she has in her own car (both useful items and "decoration") is somewhat disturbing and very confusing. a lot of it is sharp. or a chemical hazard.

sophie drives sometimes but her driving can be... questionable, occasionally (ie big bang job). the (alleged) fact she learnt to drive from a taxi driver in istanbul seems to imply she didn't learnt to drive later than most, when she was traveling a lot? her attitude of "if i'm doing my job right, the mark just turns off the alarm for me" makes me think she'd apply the same logic here and would've done more hitchhiking & public transport than driving when she was first starting out, but over time got herself a car and learnt to drive because its kinda a safety thing in her line of work (need a getaway). all this to say, she can drive and she might have a nice car but its not her priority, you know?

nate drives sophie, some mix of her thinking its chivalrous and him having some ingrained ideas about male gender roles, but also just personal preferences. and a little bit because hes seen some of her questionable driving choices. once they're together, this changes to a more even split. also nate is def a backseat driver (like, regardless of who's driving/their skill level) and has been kicked out of a car at least once.

hardison is also mostly fine to drive or not drive like sophie. he'll bicker with eliot about who drives but mostly that's just an extension of their ongoing bickering saga. every time one of his lucilles gets exploded or whatever, he has a period of mourning and takes a couple weeks before he'll let other people drive the next incarnation of lucille - and to be fair thats usually because one of them was responsible for killing lucille.

eliot doesn't let other people drive his car (unless its absolutely necessary for a con - see: the boost job). he only begrudgingly lets people IN his car because SOMEONE spilled slushie all over it one time and yes he will continue to bring that up a decade later, hardison. i think being around the team has made him become one of those people who has strict rules for being in his car lol - no food/drink, no leaving anything in the car that doesnt have to be there. obviously the team break these rules all the time.

and the definition of what is a "necessity" and can therefore stay in the car is a BIG ongoing debate. some items of interest on the "necessity" list: gift wrapping paper, one (1) shiny thing, a gaming console, chloroform, a neatly packed bag of spare clothes, at least one dress hanging up with a dust cover, 3-5 CDs (which must be individually approved before being added to the car and only one of which can be christmas-related), spare reading glasses, cables that eliot annoyingly can't veto because he doesn't understand that stuff enough to argue, aluminium foil, and a pack of hair ties.

some things that have been BANNED: food & drink, glitter (there was an incident), nail polish (there was more than one incident), most tech stuff ("that's why you have lucille!"), secret money stashes, anything considered priceless by art experts, "surprises", and live animals.

i would love a road trip episode where most/all of them are taking turns driving and are stuck together in a vehicle for ages. also i now have the urge to go through the series and actually chart who drives.

lol thank you very much for the ask and ik the length is crazy but i hope this is a good answer haha.

[windvexer]

Lowering Wards: Steps for new and established spells

"Lowering" a ward means to temporarily pause some or all of its protective effects, usually to make way for other magical actions or divination; "lowering the draw-bridge." Here, a ward is any protective spell.

Although these steps will work for just about any spell. An alternate title for this post is, basic spell administration: managing your spells after they've been cast.

The whole caboodle is deceptively easy. No need to over think it.

Lowering any wards, even for spells not established with convenient lowering in mind

SELECT WHICH EFFECTS SHOULD BE PAUSED. Hypothetically, a ward with multiple effects can have some effects paused, while others are ongoing (*this is highly variable and really depends on how the spell was built).

But technically, if you have a ward that's A) no magic can come into my house, and B) no energies of ill-will can come into my house, you may be able to allow magic to come into your house while a friend sends a positive spell your way, while still filtering out ill-will.

In my experience, protection loopholes are a bit of a beast, and if your magic starts behaving weirdly, or won't work, or friends can't magic on you like they can for others, check out to see if you've sealed yourself in a labyrinth of protective measures.

Sometimes you'll want to pause all effects - that's fine too. Just have in mind what you want to have happen.

IMO, an excellent way to deal with this step is to just state what it is you want the ward to allow for.

"Let this Discord friend do a reading for me."

"Make way for this spirit to leave the house."

Etc.

TAKE ANY BASIC STEP TO MANAGE YOUR MAGIC.

Enter, or at least brush up against, magical mindspace.

Find the spell - this is easier if its attached to a physical object, which just means finding the object.

While in magical mindspace and interacting with the reality that your spell exists, do any of the following:

Just tell it what you'd like it to temporarily do

Put a black cloth over the spell vessel with intent that it be paused

Hide it away in a drawer, or turn it so that it's "facing" a corner

Draw some sort of stopping symbol on top of it (pentagram or an X work well)

Put the ward close to an energy battery and have it take a break and go out for lunch

Any action that, for you, makes sense to represent a "pause, time-out" instruction

WHEN READY, PUT THE WARD BACK UP. Take away the black cloth, put the ward back in its proper position, "wipe away" the blocking symbol. Especially communicate through magical speech, thought, writing, signing, etc., that the ward is to resume its normal mode of behavior.

For those curious about sorcerous theory, reading on a ward before and after you raise and lower it can offer helpful feedback

Of course, that stuff might not work well, so making a ward with an eye for pausing it is a good idea

Spellcrafting can get complex and there could be any number of reasons why a ward created to be a permanent wall doesn't have convenient, easily-workable drawbridges.

Building a ward with drawbridges is easy. First, decide how you want the drawbridge to work.

You can design a ward where one effect ("no ill-energy") is always active, while another is meant to be raised and lowered ("no outside magic.")

You can design a ward with a skeleton key, where all of the doorways are unlocked at once

You can design wards in such a way that outsiders may be able to obtain the key and unlock them (like, a passcode and energy signature you share with others), or you can design them in such a way that only you can unlock them (like, requiring you yourself to draw a symbol over them in the physical realm)

Etc.

One example of an unlocking action is tapping on the spell vessel three times and saying, "stand down until sunset* so [specific thing the ward is blocking] can occur."

*For the forgetful, giving the spell a timeframe is useful.

When casting the spell, whenever the time feels right, go into a portion where you 'teach' the spell how to listen for your instructions to lower defenses, and how it should operate when this occurs. ("Never stay unlocked beyond the next twilight; the guards named No Bane are eternal, but the guards named No Spying sometimes lie down to rest.")

You can always go back and "open up" old spells to modify loopholes and improve unlocking mechanisms

My paradigm allows for certain things:

Most spells are not so much mindless machines but rather are more like garden plots, or animals. They may be bad at performing a certain thing the first time you ask them to, but over multiple lessons, even a very stubborn spell might learn a new trick.

Therefore, it can take time to teach a spell how to do something new that it wasn't designed to do.

Learning can be improved by holding a formal class. This is the equivalent of taking the spell back into spellcasting space and partially re-casting new magic on top of the old base.

The gist of re-forging an old spell is to carefully outline what you want to change, remove, and add. Using your preferred spellcasting or ritual format, connect with the spell and provide new parameters.

I find this process to be different than casting an entirely new spell, so I think it's normal if it all seems a bit different.

Provide the spell with more energy, tie off the ritual as normal, and deploy the spell immediately or give it a little time to firm up, as you prefer.

[firesnap]

i have a genuine question. i promise i am not at all trying to defend him. ive dropped him entirely, literally deleted everything i had of him and unliked his songs.

ive just been wondering like considering that he has been in therapy, and also considering how if he does take a year off and then comes back, why cant it be redeemable? like cant people change? cant we give them second chances? he is 27. is he just doomed to be an abuser forever?

its just scary and im asking as like a younger person who is in my very early 20s. i know ive made mistakes. i know ive not been a good partner or friend sometimes. (and yes i was also abusive to a past partner...im not proud of it and ive learned from it. i have never ever touched anyone in that way after that. it took awhile but my current relationship isnt toxic and i would never hurt anyone or hit them again yknow?) and it scares me that people keep insinuating that he is irredeemable. like cant abusers change and become better? dont they get second chances? if shelby has grown and healed in 10 months wouldn't it be fair to say the same for wilbur?

im just genuinely asking because based on everything i believe you are older than me and im looking for guidance and just...idk im scared. growing up on the internet has made me so scared of making mistakes and doing anything wrong because when it happens to others i look up to, its always treated as something they'll never be able to change or improve. makes me feel like imma just be a horrible person forever because i made mistakes in the past.

This is a really complicated question that multiple answers can validly fit.

I don't think, personally, that anyone is irredeemable. I think everyone is on a journey of forgiveness and some of us may need more grace than others.

This is tw// abuse even more than the current topic, but my mom was incredibly abusive. We lived in a very rural area and she had a lot of undiagnosed problems and trauma of her own that created a pressure pot of issues. After I was born, she suffered through full on post-partum psychosis that nearly ended about as well as that sentence implies it could have. She was incredibly violent, controlling, and cruel for years. My sister went no-contact with her the second she turned 18. A significant event occurred that eventually spurned her into seeking real treatment that lasted for years. It's still ongoing.

My sister is also still no contact and I support her decision 100%. Those are her wounds and what she needed to do to get peace should be respected. I decided I wanted a relationship with the person who came out of all that work and, even then, it's been hard. I don't know if she's redeemed herself, and my god do we still have bumps in the road, but I support her for trying.

With Wilbur, how he responds to this is going to really impact a lot of things. I mean, I know no matter how he responds I won't be going on whatever journey of redemption and healing he has to go through. I'm tired and I feel hurt enough. I would think, if he wanted to show he was sincere, admitting what happened would be a great sense of closure for a lot of people who put time and energy and faith into this guy for years.

Not every person that causes harm is inherently evil, but there has to be some kind of knowledge that you're aware of the harm you've caused. No one is stuck as anything forever, life is constantly moving, and most people aren't saying his life is just over. You can work on yourself. You can change. And I'm saying that specifically to you, anonymous.

(Saying this, actually, there ARE people who would argue once you've done x you're beyond redemption based entirely on their life experiences as a victim, personal histories and many other factors. Kinda like my sister, that's their choice. And you have to accept that sometimes you fuck up so badly that you will permanently lose some people from your life. But your life isn't over.)

But I do think, regardless of what he says or does about this, his time of controlling a large platform is at an end. He can still do a lot of things in his life after he works on himself -- editing, song producing, directing, writing or whatever -- but being in charge of a large impressionable audience that could enable more destructive behaviors is just not it.

[askagamedev]

So how much $ (in general) does it cost to produce a fully animated/rigged, fully voiced 1-3 minute cutscene in a game that’s in ongoing development (something like SWTOR, where they have a lot of prebuilt assets)? Like just a general low range and high range?

I’m seeing a lot of people complaining about prioritizing content they want, and don’t know enough about the behind the scenes costs to properly communicate they’re being unrealistic with their complaints.

The cost of any content in game dev is directly proportional to how much new stuff needs to be created for that content. In order to create a basic conversation cutscene to put into a game, we would need:

A narrative designer to write the script for the cutscene

A cinematic designer to script out the cinematic - which characters speak, in which order, with what timing, in which location, and what other actions they would take over the course of the cutscene

Animations for the characters to play in those positions

A rig for those characters to play those animations

Character models for the characters involved

Voice recordings for the characters to speak

A tool with which to set all of these parameters and organize the cutscene

A game system that can parse the tool data and assets and construct the cutscene from them

A script system to start playing the cutscene when the proper conditions are met

This doesn't include extra stuff like VFX, music, lighting, environments, props, etc. that might need to be created for certain specific cutscenes. In an ongoing game like SWTOR, element numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were already built long ago and already exist. As long as the designers can create the characters with the in-game character creator and reuse the existing rigs, no new resources need be expended to create them. If you need a completely new custom character model, that takes time from a character artist and a texture artist. If the character needs to animate differently than everyone else (i.e. needs its own rig), that's time from a rigger to create. If the cutscene needs new animations we need to bring on an animator to spend time building the new animations needed for the cutscene.

Using some napkin math, let's consider costs. We usually use the $10,000 per month figure to pay for a developer (salary, benefits, rent, utilities, software licenses, etc.) or approximately $2,500 per development week per person. Let's assume that each task takes a developer a week to complete.

Write the script (Narrative designer)

Script the cinematic (Cinematic Designer)

Record audio (Sound Designer + Voice Actor + studio time)

Rig one new character (Rigger) x however many new characters

Animate one animation (Animator) x however many new animations

Model one new character (Character Artist + Texture Artist) x however many new characters

Track all tasks and keep everyone on schedule (Production)

Test and validate that the cutscene works (QA)

At the very minimum, we need the script, the cinematic, production, and the QA tester, so a very bare bones cutscene that reuses all assets and has no new VO (say it only reuses the alien language) would cost 4x$2,500 = $10,000. If we add voice recording and keep it to one voice actor (let's say she voices both characters in the cutscene), then the cost jumps to 7x$2,500 = $17,500 because we need the sound designer, the voice actor, and the recording studio time. Adding in two new animations (e.g. one character throwing a punch and the second character reacting to getting punched) would add another two weeks of animator time, raising the cost to 9x$2,500 = $22,500. And so on and so forth. Those costs add up very quickly.

There are ways to get a "bulk" discount of course - we hire voice actors for blocks of four or eight hours, so we can record multiple cutscenes during that session and share some of those costs. We can create one new character and reuse her across multiple cutscenes so that we get more value out of her. Things get cheaper if we reuse stuff more, but they still cost a lot up front. The bulk discounts only really work if the things we're paying for can be reused multiple times though - the more specific an asset is (e.g. a kissing animation), the harder it is to reuse and the more expensive it tends to be relative to other assets.

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[flower-boi16]

This is a problem I've never seen any hh/hb critics bring out so...both shows lacks story arcs. There are so many definition for story arcs, but I'm going to explain what I mean by that. Story arcs for me is a certain part in the story that works like pieces focusing different journey or problem for characters in the same story. If both shows have story arcs like if season one of helluva boss focus on the imp doing their job and their beef with cherubs, season two focusing on their beef with dhorks. Season one of hazbin focusing on hotel's clients bonding, and season two how angels think of redemption. Each season can have multiple arcs going on, but given how limited episodes they got on each show, I decided to make each season focus on different arcs, but the writers have no plan how to organize different arcs resulting in many conflicts showing out of no where, and rushed payoff because they don't know what they want to focus. If the hh/hb crews know how to utilize arcs, they can put as many characters as they want as long as they can give enough episodes for their development. Imagine if every harry potter's villain showed up in the same book, that's how I feel about hh/hb.

HH and HB are just structured pretty poorly. They cram multiple seasons worth of plotlines into just 1-2 seasons and messes with the pacing REALLY bad. It all feels so...cluttered and unfocused like the shows don't know what they want to be about.

HB is ESPECIALLY bad at this as I've talked about before. The show completely forgot it's main premise and turned into a soap opera about Stolitz. It has no idea what it even wants to be anymore and it comes to a simple lack of structure.

Season 1 laid the groundwork for a lot of the show's issue and Season 2 would go ahead and make those issues significantly worse.

There's just two many conflicts and recurring plotlines for a show that currently has only 1 completed season, with the second still ongoing. It makes it into kind of a mess. Hazbin is at least better structurally but it still faces a lot of the same issues that HB does when it comes to how it's paced; the first four episodes feel like the first season and the second half feels like the second season because it feels like there's this giant gap in between halves where major things happened, but...we just never saw it.

And for HB, conflicts like the Dhorks plot line and Stolas' family drama are conflicts that are already enough to be the main story's of whole seasons, yet the show crams them into one season and it again, gets unfocused as hell. The seasons of both shows just choose to focus on multiple things at once rather than just having one, maybe two major plot lines per season, one show sets up six plotlines into just it's first season and the other rushes to the stuff that feels like it should be saved for season 2.

I just want to emphasize how unusual it is for a show to have this much stuff in just 1-2 seasons. Most TV shows tend to have one or two main recurring plot lines per season, with some smaller plot lines here and there that are typically plot lines for a specific character relating to their arc. HB in just it's first season set up six major plot lines within its story. Let me repeat that. SIX.

There's just. Too much shit going on in these shows. Plain and simple.

[opal-owl-flight]

Gonna be interrupting the ongoing Neo3 saga for a bit, because something serious needs to be addressed.

Its come to my attention that there have been some serious allegations against me and another member of the Magoverse server. The posts were brought to us by someone in said server and that’s how we all found out.

Im here to provide proof against them.

TLDR: There has been a person lying about some very serious matters. I will discuss and provide proof against their claims below.

A former member of our server, giyagas-strikes-back, has claimed that I have been generally harassing them while they were there. They have stated that they have no proof of their accusations. There is no evidence of this because it did not happen at all.

I did not abuse or harass them. All I did was address the behavior that was making other members of the server uncomfortable. We were not once rude to this individual. We had spoken with them regarding their disruptive behavior multiple times, including their disrespect towards our members when they had asked them to tone things down and failed to regard such wishes.

 Seen below:

For this next series of screenshots, they were involved in an rp involving sudden angst/violence that made members in the server uncomfortable. I was not the one who addressed the concern, but I did agree with the point of the one who did.

Another event where they commented something negative about something and someone else talked to them about it. Again, I was only agreeing with someone else, I did not speak harshly to them at all:

We never held a grudge against them, and only spoke to them in this way when they made someone uncomfortable.

Additionally, they told us that they were at least 13 (minimum age for joining the server) when we talked to them. We all thought we were speaking to an individual who would handle criticism we gave them seriously. We found out later that they were lying about their age:

Because we weren't notified, it only came to our attention much later into their membership, as is shown here. (Edited Discord notifications do not provide an "unread message" tag, and with a massive influx of members coming in at that time, this message was quickly buried.) We do not accept members under the age of 13 in our server. Every member under the age of 18 must inform us that they are a minor (no specific number required, just that they're under 18), and they are given a tag indicating that they are a minor. Additionally, we have multiple guidelines in place regarding minors and VC manners. We all mind our distance. To note: Before we could confront giyagas-strikes-back they left the server. We are unsure if they left because they caught wind we knew about them lying about their age, or if they left because of the multiple times that members of the mod staff had been forced to step in to handle behaviors or statements made by them that made other members uncomfortable.

An extra note to add, giyagas-strikes-back claimed that all this happened in a server where the “mod was always away”. We are the mods, and they were fully aware of this. The status of our mods is very apparent and in no way shape or form secret. Even our nicknames are given a specific color to indicate that we are the mods of the server. We only ever interacted with them on the specific server that we mod, so I am unsure if this is another lie, or if they legitimately didn’t realize we were mods and that is why we kept addressing their behaviors with them.

They also mentioned that I associate with Blaze, who they claim said weird stuff to them/is grooming them. But doing a quick search on a statement they made proves otherwise:

I believe these allegations are an immature act of retaliation due to our addressing their ill behaviors.

Theres one more thing I need to address. It was also brought to my attention that someone is claiming I stole an AU. I was never approached about this, neither has Blue as far as I am aware, and honestly have no idea what AU they're referring to, so I'm going to assume it is CtyH (Close to Your Heart, the au where Mags marries a god). We first discussed this au last January 26, 2023 -- here are screenshots of the first discussions about it. This AU started off as an offshoot to my interp and evolved from there. If anyone ever felt I had stolen something, it was never brought up with me or Blue, and I never wrote this AU with anyone elses in mind.

In closing: A healthy reminder. When people are accusing others of something, never take just their word as fact. Always look into it before making your own decision about the person in question, even if it comes from someone you trust. Never let anyone's opinion be your opinion. Always, ALWAYS, find the facts and discern for yourself! Make your own choice. Don't allow others to choose for you. Take this evidence as you will, but please, if you know those responsible for damning our names and making these baseless claims, we ask that you do not harass them on our behalf. We will not tolerate anyone speaking ill of them in my name. Yes, what they are doing is bad, but would any of us be better if we reciprocate in the same manner? That helps no one. Instead, simply inform and educate others. Be peaceful, be respectful. Be polite. Do not attack these people under any circumstances.

[maingh0st]

The hate Taryn gets is way too exaggerated and disproportionate. It’s just straight up misogyny at this point, in my opinion. The fandom needs to get over it.

I could literally write a treatise about Taryn-hate at this point lmao. I’m going to share some thoughts (this actually got quite long), but I want to include a big ole disclaimer: at the end of the day, everybody gets to engage in fandom in the ways they want. everyone is free to love or hate whichever characters they want, for the reasons that feel valid and real to them. that being said, the treatment of Taryn specifically is really troubling and bizarre to me. 

I think it’s worth pointing out that when we say Taryn-hate seems misogynistic, that means a lot more than just “people who hate Taryn hate her because she’s a girl.” in my opinion, fandom misogyny toward her often gets couched in broader terms. some examples of what I mean by this are:

(1) Taryn does things that are bad and I don’t like that - uhhhh okay. everybody in these books does shitty things, so let’s think about why specifically the actions of Taryn (a 17-18 year old girl being manipulated by multiple men in her life) fall into the category of unredeemable for you. the reason we might point to this being misogynistic is because it’s a double standard that doesn’t apply to other characters—we’re willing to forgive Cardan his cruelty, or centuries-old Madoc for the trauma he's inflicted and his ongoing need for bloodshed, but Taryn is just a stupid, evil girl for trying to secure her place in Elfhame through the levers of power that are available to her. she can never be forgiven nor redeemed no matter how loyal she is to Jude moving forward. why is that? what sin of hers are so particularly evil to warrant this response? and we have to answer these questions in the context of Elfhame & its moral code, not in the context of our own world.

(2) I could never see myself acting in the way Taryn does and therefore I don’t like her - okay? I can never see myself acting like Madoc, or even like Vivi (don’t get me started on Vivi & the fact that she gets passes Taryn never does), but that doesn’t mean I can’t have empathy for them. I understand that we experience the books through Jude’s perspective, so we’re automatically more prone to rooting for her—and to be clear, I love Jude! but fiction challenges us to experience the world through other perspectives, and it’s my opinion that Taryn acts in a way that is completely consistent and understandable with her experience of Elfhame. “I’m not like you,” she tells Jude. “I want to belong here. Defying them makes everything worse. You never asked me before you went against Prince Cardan—you didn’t care what it brought down on either of our heads.” 

while Jude’s defiance is held up as girlboss behavior (by me, too! I love a “get worse” arc), Taryn’s more traditionally feminine approach to finding her place in Elfhame is reviled (@slightlyrebelliouswriter23 has a great post on the fawn response to trauma & on passivity). more on this point below. 

(3) Taryn isn’t a “girl’s girl” - I am begging fandom to think critically about why Taryn betrays Jude & what that says not just about Elfhame, but about our world. these girls live in a world that affords them little power and agency. we meet them on the cusp of adulthood, and they’re both hyper-aware that they need to secure their place in Elfhame. Jude refers to knighthood as “earning” her place and is uninterested in marriage, but Taryn seems aware that she’s more likely to secure her place through the latter option (and also expresses the fear that Jude is going to leave her behind). it’s an oversimplification, but a useful one for the sake of this conversation, to point out that Jude chooses a more traditionally masculine approach, while Taryn chooses a more traditionally feminine one.

the tragedy is that this world—and particularly the men in their lives—pit them against one another. Locke offers Taryn the thing she wants most, requires a vow of her secrecy, and then begins flirting with Jude (and that's not even to mention him being a gancanagh!). at a point in her story where Madoc and Oriana are the only family who are still around for Taryn, Madoc capitalizes on Taryn’s ignorance (and also her awareness that she's never been the favorite daughter) & uses her to betray Jude. I almost never see these complexities brought up in conversations about Taryn, which is just gross to me, and echoes the ways that patriarchal power structures pit women against each other in the real world. 

I’ve seen people argue that while Jude’s approach is also flawed, she at least doesn’t betray Taryn. and like… kind of? she certainly doesn’t betray Taryn as directly as Taryn betrays her—but some of that just strikes me as dumb luck. consider what might’ve happened if Dain hadn’t died at the end of book one. what lengths might he have asked Jude to go to in order to prove her loyalty to him? or if we rewind even further—it’s honestly just dumb luck that someone didn’t harm or kill Taryn (Valerian, for example, could've chosen the wrong window). Jude’s antagonism of Cardan & his friends had a direct effect on Taryn’s life, and even though Taryn begged her to stop, she bullheadedly charged on. the difference is that Jude’s risky decisions ultimately work out for her, while Taryn has to face the consequences of hers not panning out the way she wanted them to. 

this isn't exhaustive, and there’s so much more I could say, but this is already so long. so in conclusion, the reason all this matters to me personally is twofold: 

at its best, fiction teaches us empathy. part of why I love tfota is because it takes characters & dynamics that are really messy & helps you, the reader, understand where everyone is coming from & why. the fact that we love Madoc is a testament to fiction’s ability to do this. so why is a teenage girl treated like the true villain of this story? what about her makes us incapable of empathy? why, in the mind of the fandom, is she not allowed forgiveness (or even just a chance at redemption) for the harm she's caused, while other characters are? I see people stanning Nicasia, who actively tortured Jude (over a boy, no less!!) ffs

fandom misogyny reflects our world. why are people eager to forgive toxic male love interests, yet hold the bar impossibly high for girls? why is there such a narrow set of choices & behaviors that we consider acceptable for female characters? Holly wrote a story about two young women carving out places for themselves in a world hostile to them, hurting each other in the process, and ultimately deciding to forgive, love, and root for one another—and fandom has taken that complex narrative and pitted them against one another, upholding one as the girlboss who can do no wrong while treating the other as scum. misogyny thrives on women treating each other like the problem, so if this is our attitude toward a fictional story where we’re afforded direct looks into characters’ thoughts, how much worse are we going to be in the real world, faced with real, imperfect women?

anyways, in conclusion: you're entitled to dislike taryn, but if you feel such vitriol toward her that you're literally making hate posts (or commenting under fanart of her!! holy shit), I invite you to interrogate where that hate actually comes from. fin.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for “not being able to keep issues in servers separate”

🌻🌷🌹🥀 (to find later)

this all happened a couple months ago now in mid november-ish so i’m sending this late, but i didn’t want to while the situation was ongoing. for the record me and everyone affected have collectively since left both servers mentioned. so. wee

i (23mtf) do a long of long form roleplay, specifically in public oc-based discord servers. these are servers where people will create a setting and then people can join and insert their ocs into the world, and they’re tons of fun! this is a hobby ive had for years now. it’s really important to me as it’s my main creative outlet and i know a good number of people in the community. i’ll often join servers and recognize at least a handful of people there already

around may last year, i joined a new server and things were great, for a while, but then not long after i joined someone new did, i’ll call her X (34nb) for this. when she first joined the interactions we had were fine, but - and i’m still really not sure why this is, i’m not trying to absolve myself if i did do something but i have no idea what i did to warrant this shift even to this day - a few weeks later she just got… extremely passive aggressive and contrary with me, over silly things. most of it was “in character” but it really stuck out to me. i’d have a character say something marginally unconventional and she’d always, without fail, have one of her characters come in to scold them, even if her characters hadn’t been part of the conversation prior. her characters constantly talked down to or insulted mine. she was always talking ooc about how strange her characters found mine. when i tried to get involved in overarching plots, she would often push me out of them, or insist that my characters were only getting in the way, or would insert her characters to do things i’d stated to the group i wanted mine to do, so i didn’t end up able to do anything. it seemed targeted to me because the main character she was doing this with was known to be very kind to everyone else, but for some reason never had anything nice to say about mine. i know none of this is outright bullying but it wore on me greatly. i tried to confront her on this multiple times to tell her it was making me uncomfortable and to please knock it off, and i tried to get the server mods involved when that failed, but the behavior never really stopped and eventually i was content to just… not interact with her

but then a while later i noticed her treating someone else the same way. i reached out to him about it, and he told me that she had done basically everything she’d done to me to him, and he wasn’t the only one. after snooping around a little more i realized that a lot of people in the server had had this problem with her, totaling 7 of us. 7 of us in the group at the time. some people had dropped characters or outright left the group because of her, so 7 isn’t even everyone because it doesn’t include people she’d already driven out that i couldn’t contact. for reference, this server only had roughly 30 people. even if the number of total members was bigger, 7+ still feels like a lot

i tried to take this to the mods of the server again, but (and this is where i’m unsure if i misstepped) i thought it would be right to bring it up to the mods of a separate, larger server that all of us were in together as well. this server had closed to 50-60 members. in my head, if this person has harassed over half a dozen people like this it’d be silly to assume its only a problem in one group, and even if it wasn’t a problem in this larger server it would be better to make them aware of it so they could keep an eye out

the mods in both servers weren’t happy with me, through. even when all 7 people tried to give testimony, both teams claimed there wasn’t enough evidence to support harassment and that they’d talk to her about it, but this didn’t warrant any further action. keep in mind again i’d already had to go to the mods about this same person before, so they weren’t unaware that this happened to me and they had tried talking to her already. then they told me that it was inappropriate of me to bring this up in a server that wasn’t necessarily involved, and that the 7 of us were ganging up against her and bullying her. and i, especially, had been unfairly targeting her

this confused me greatly! i will admit, it’s likely i’ve been snippier with X than i intended. thats on me, i struggle with tone and i have trouble masking my frustration, but i have never once gone out of my way to make her feel bad. she has a generalized anxiety disorder or some such, and before i realized how many people had this issue with her i had been avoiding her for months. i have no idea what i could have said to her that was taken as bullying, because i haven’t been talking to her, period. when i see her in channels i just mute the channel until it’s passed, ive seriously done everything i could to minimize contact because i figured it was a personal issue. i asked both the mods and her directly, in dms, for examples or screenshots of what i said or did so i could adjust my behavior, and i never got shown any. i still as of typing this don’t know what i did to warrant that being said

the mods said they would give her a warning, but they gave me a warning as well, that if i continued like this i would be booted from both servers. they insisted to me again that i’d been clearly bullying her (did not provide examples) and i never should have brought it up to the other server and gotten them involved. i admit i think they might be right on that last point, but i am iffy. i had (honestly still have) justifiable reason to think X is an unsafe person to be around. she pushes people out of the community and cries and gets meek if she’s ever confronted on it in a way that’s distinctly guilt trippy and makes it hard to communicate. i have previously tried to resolve my issues with her in private and she was never receptive nor did she ever accept accountability, or change her actions. if her target calls her out she just starts doing it to someone else. it’s not like her being in a different server suddenly means she’s a different person. if someone like that is in your server, even if you don’t have “proof” that it’s happened in your group, wouldn’t you want to know about it? they kept insisting it had nothing to do with them and it was wrong of me to get them involved. i kind of think this is a cowardly policy to have, that you won’t act on or acknowledge harassment from your members unless it happens right in front of you and is blindingly obvious, but i don’t know

to be clear, i think X is an asshole, so that’s not what i’m asking about. anxiety disorder or not, she is frankly too old and has done this too many times for me to believe it’s unintentional. even if it is unintentional, she’s still hurting people and makes no effort to change. but i’m wondering if i’m an asshole for bringing it into another server. should i have just kept it in the first group?

What are these acronyms?

[reikiajakoiranruohoja]

W5: Oral histories are bad

For an edition focusing on being more aware of different cultures, W5 sure does spend a lot of time hating on oral histories; NOTE: LONG post and critical of W5, don't read if you like it.

"A history of the Garou is both impossible and reductive. The stories of the past that werewolves tell are oral histories, part legend and part reality, revised, reinterpreted, and redone, according to the needs of the generation doing the telling. They contain multiple narratives that are all considered to be true. The finer details, locations, and players in these grand dramas may shift with the times, and with the storytellers spinning the tale for those listening to them. " - W5 core, p.22 "The Garou Nation, as it was known, existed for a brief period of relative success, but even there, its actual duration is unknown and varies by who’s reciting the history. Was it decades? Centuries? Millennia? Because the historical events involved in it date to various times across myriad locations, to say with any certainty is impossible, and even spirits speak of it in terms unsuited to the physical world. " -W5 core, p.37 "Much of the Garou’s history is oral, more within the realm of legend and even self-mythology than a true history. Given the animistic perspective of Garou, when one says, “the mighty Silver Fang rode upon Falcon’s back,” that might literally mean a werewolf rode an enormous falcon in a legendary time, or it may mean that a falcon-spirit carried the werewolf, or even that Falcon himself transported the werewolf through the Umbra.

So it goes with the Litany, a code of Garou custom that’s equally as impressionistic and open to interpretation as the animistic lens through which werewolves see the world." -W5 core,p.46 "The Litany is an imperfect set of rules by which to wage a guerilla war of resistance during an ongoing Apocalypse. Those rules mean different things at different times to different werewolves, and the oral tradition of the Garou is rife with the Litany being used to justify self-dealing or even atrocity. " -W5 core, p.47 "Above and beyond the tribes and the septs, there used to be something called the Garou Nation. It was understood that all Garou were united in their war against the forces of the Wyrm.

Some dispute whether this was ever really true. Were the Garou of old really united in a global nation in the mythical prehistory of Garou legend at a time when humans had barely managed to get from one continent to another" -Shattered Nation, p.37

"The Garou are creatures of the present, their traditions built on oral storytelling. This means that factual accuracy is often not considered particularly important as long as the broad outlines fit what the crowd at the moot wants to hear. The stories of Garou from the '80s and '90s are already ancient history, having happened before most Garou today were even born.

Garou legends are notoriously difficult to date accurately. When was the War of Rage or the Impergium? In the Middle Ages? In the Stone Age? Who knows, and the spirits are no help either. Their sense of time is so different that it’s impossible to translate into human reckoning."

-Shattered Nation, p.40

I apologize for the paste spam, but I wanted to show you that this is not a one-time thing. This is constant. This is not that the books are saying that the garou specifically are bad at keeping histories straight, it is saying that with oral storytelling, it is impossible to tell when things happened. Which doesn't pass the smell test even if we focus solely on Europe. People have, for generations, kept information up through oral histories. Minor things might change, but the core details are there.

Think about it, how many of your family histories are written down? Most likely they are told orally a put into memory. And the time these events happened is usually a big part of it. Those of you with immigrant backgrounds will know why your family left, what kind of journey it was and when they arrived. It gets even less acceptable once we get to Indigenous people. Australian Blaks are very strict about accuracy and so there is no drift in stories over the centuries. Most Native American nations told their histories orally, maybe using metaphor but still recalling exact details over the centuries. W5 says that garou don't know when the Garou Nation existed. Given the former silver fang king is alive, it is clear it was within living memory. Yet the book still paints the garou as ignorant of their own history, the origins of their laws and so on. What is worse, is that this is often contrasted with written history being accurate. Essentially implying that the correct history is only found in books. A VERY Western European take if I ever heard one. Let's remember that, according to W5, any tribe can be found anywhere. So those garou found in mostly oral cultures just failed to record their own history? Writing like this, in a work with heavy animistic inspirations from Native American cultures and other animistic cultures, is insulting because it suggests only the western method is accurate.

[yuhi-san]

Alright for trigun fanfiction appreciation week by @trigunfanfic I made a small fic record, though I might add more

In the meadow by @eomma-jpeg

Rating M

Tags: Milly has a Savior Complex, No Smut, Slow Burn, farm life, Knives Redemption, Hints at Vashmeryl, but I have other plans for them, POV Multiple, Post-Canon, Post-AnimeTrimax influences, Character Study, Panic Attacks, Social Anxiety, Mutual Pining, References to both Millywood and Vashwood

ngl I just opened it because I was starved for ‘post series knives needs to learn how to live with people’ content. I thought Millyknives was just a case of pairing the ‘leftovers’ but I figured the rest might bee good.

It is so, so good and also, not a case of pairing the leftovers (if you think you don’t care for millyknives, this story will probably convert you lol).

Its 98 trigun with some trimax and stampede elements (Roberto!!). its sweet, its funny, they have ups and downs and without wanting to spoil anything, I love how it does explore that a lot of knives hate for humans stems from fear.

All the original character are great, everyone gets their time to shine, vashmeryl are so cute and silly

Sinking sand by @rainflamestudio

Rating T

Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Medical Trauma, Found Family, Whump, Smoking, because Wolfwood is here, Trust Issues, Friendship, Mixed Canon, Alien Biology, Nick's dying but he walks it off, dadberto, Nick learns he has friends, Panic Attacks, Sensory Overload

We all love some hurt comfort for vash but this time its wolfwoods turn! he’ is not having a good time but cant ask for help either. Not that this is topping vash, meryl and Roberto from coming to his rescue and staying by his side no matter what.

Hot water by OpticalCrown

Rating G

Tags:   Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Chronic Pain, Character Analysis, Light Angst

A short story about sleeping arrangements, the things vash so desperately wants to hide but Roberto and Wolfwood notice anyway

 

New growth by @puffinpastry

Ongoing

Rating T

Tags: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Millions Knives-centric (Trigun), Depression, Implied Mpreg, Mostly trimax with some tristamp for seasoning, Trans Vash the Stampede (Trigun), Trans Millions Knives (Trigun), Millions Knives domestication arc, Brief suicidal ideation, Knives gets to heal but hes got to confront his past first, Angst with a Happy Ending, past trans male pregnancy, Knives doesn't know how to interact with kids, Silly but its buried under all their issues, Hey knives what if you were confronted with the forgiveness of a small child?

Still ongoing but very good knives has to learn to live with people, specifically vash. its very well written, I love knives in this and the struggle he and vash both have, especially because vash cant just move ast what had happened, even though he kinda wishes he cold. cute kids, also bless wolfwood

The heaviness we’ve known  by @cosmictapestry

 Rating T

Tags: Heart-to-Heart, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Vash the Stampede (Trigun), Vash the Stampede has Prosthetic Legs (Trigun), Caretaking, past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Violence, Vash the Stampede's Scars (Trigun), Body Modification, Father-Son Relationship, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Episode Tag, Parent-Child Relationship, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Unresolved Tension, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Vash the Stampede Needs a Hug (Trigun)

Look, I love trisamp brad and his relationship to vash. he didn’t do right from the start but he cares so much and this one is just, oof. Goes deeper in the lost tech that keeps vash together and the pain he has from it and how little brad and others sometimes can do. Set after episode 9.

Ricochet by @heffawhump

Rating G

Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Whump, Sick Character, Poisoning, Caretaking, Hidden Injury, BAMF!Meryl Stryfe, dad!berto, Fluff

Classic hurt comfort and sick character. Very well written, absolutely in love with the gang ready to kick anyones ass that wants vash harm. get them, meryl

Never understood a word by @aboxthecolourofheartache

Rating T

Tags: Road Trips, Introspection, Character Study, Developing Friendships, Trust Issues, Trust, Loneliness, Treasure Hunting, Brotherly Angst, Dysfunctional Family, POV Alternating, Developing Relationship, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, the inherent vulnerability of bringing someone to a favorite location, the inherent sanctity of natural places, eccentricity as plot device, Vulnerability, several instances of blink and you miss it Trimax-flavored Plant lore, Singing

Absolutely amazing story and character study about vash from the view of Roberto, meryl and Wolfwood. Love how it shows that there is so much rage and other emotions bubbling under vashs cheerful attitude because knives tormenting him one way or another is not so easily brusched of. But my favorite part might be that it also shows vashs silly and clumsy persona isn’t all fake either, rather it is an exaggeration of genuine traits he has. Also some really great Roberto rep!

Like Eden by @revenantpoet / @revenantghost

Also known as untitled E fic lol

Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, narrative poetry, Frottage, Vash the Stampede Has Plant-Like Genitalia (Trigun), Sexual Inexperience, First Time, They're so in love and they're stupid about it, Written as Vash being demi and Wolfwood being grey but, All I know is Vash is Wolfwood, sexual and Wolfwood is Vashsexual ok, Emotional Sex, Trauma, the usual Guilt, This was supposed to be a quick pwpIt is not, Canon Compliant

Look, I’m not usually one for poetry stile and it never occurred to me before to give it a try. It’s worth getting over the hang up though. It ready very nicely, like following Vash’s thoughts which fits soo well for the situation. Also we need more fics where they get some time after the sandsteamer disaster. And especially of vash getting the chance to show ww the geodome and for him to have a chance to be actually comforted after what happened to livio. It’s a really sweet one, though of course Wolfwood and vash cant make things too easy on themselves… communication is hard isn’t it boys

sorry if this looks all so messy, i have no idea how people have the nerve and patience to put thing togetehr nicely. I might do another list later in the week because there are so many lol

maybe a seperate E list, too (Like eden gets to be here because in my opinion it isn't really that much about the smut and its smal compared to everything else going on.)

[3-aem]

I just wanted to say I really like your art and appreciate that you share it with us. I know there are very vocal people out there who bring up past mistakes, but I and many others have seen you take accountability and change. I think this nk person is just chronically online and likes drama. Some people just cannot accept the fact that people can make mistakes and then grow. There is a common mentality nowadays of "once wrong, always wrong." Your work is beautiful, and we can see the hard work you put into it.

I'm normally a quiet reblogger but I'm sending this because I want you to know you still do have a lot of people who support you and your work!

i am relieved to hear this. all i want is to show i have taken accountability and changed. all i want is to prove my work is not ai. as long as my followers understand that i can feel some peace.

i want to be clear that im not saying i feel my mistakes were whatever. im also not sitting here buying into the belief that person is jealous. i hope i am making that clear. what i did was hurtful to some people, i want to acknowledge that. i have sat with this a long time. i eventually determined this to not be fair. especially line “whom you all love so much” which heavily suggests a gripe with the wrong thing, and not a genuine care that i have taken accountability.

i did not just remove the piece, i paid the artist double the profits and it was agreed upon and settled. i reached out to artists to apologize and ask for permission to keep certain works up. this is well documented.

but knowing this, because I told them Directly and they acknowledged they read it first, nk still proceeded to send two more callouts and linked a post where they accuse me of being ai and selling copied work for profit.

these are very heavy allegations that can destroy an artist and so it needs Ongoing substantial proof. Nk could not provide any but treated it as such. its careless disregard. so i agree they wanted a reaction. they do not actually care even if they claim to have followed me back at one point. like that means anything given the rest of the context.

the fact is i have lost many many mutuals and friends from this. i have since experienced multiple cases of using the same reference as another artist and being accused of copying and stealing from them because of this. See yunonai, that one draco malfoy fic, and that sad suguru where he’s touching his eyes. i no longer have the benefit of doubt for a lot of people. i can work on accepting that as my fault, my problem. but i cannot accept what nk specifically did.

the final straw for me was not that i woke up with a vendetta to settle. it was seeing other artists and creators doing the same things with no consequence. it was seeing them take far less accountability. while i sit and try hard to make things right only to be told repeatedly its not enough.

[rotationalsymmetry]

The social model of disability is incomplete on its own -- it was never intended to completely explain disability. But it is also really important to give the concept time to sink in if it's new to you I think.

Twenty story buildings have elevators. Because most people aren't up for walking up twenty flights of stairs on the regular. But most people ARE up for walking up one or two flights, so one to two story buildings only have stairs. If everybody could climb 20 stories easily, or teleport or something, 20 story buildings wouldn't have elevators and anyone who couldn't would be screwed.

(I'm expressing this in terms of "most people", but it's less a majority/minority thing and more some people are seen as normal and some aren't. Most people don't have any one specific disability at any given time. But everybody spends some part of their life disabled. We were all born incontinent.)

I have an ongoing daydream scenario involving aliens. These aliens happen to be sort of centaur shaped (ok, probably sort of Andalite shaped, whatever.) They don't do stairs, at all. So their society just doesn't have any. At all. And they can't access places that require stairs in ours -- someone who is not disabled by their standards is by human standards.

But the reverse is also true. My made up aliens have sort of built in texting (you can think of it as telepathy if you prefer) and it's just normal to be able to communicate vocally and by text, either in broadcast mode or one to one, at the same time, and their media often relies on multiple channels to convey information. Humans don't really do that. A human who's fully abled by normal human standards is cut out of a lot of this alien society's culture in a way that's somewhat similar to being blind or deaf or maybe just colorblind in human society.

Anyways, I find the sci fi thought experiments helpful but you don't gotta do it that way. You can also look at history, or compare across cultures. In the modern day, being unable to read is a significant disability. It'll mess with your ability to get a job, to navigate cities, to drive, to date, to enjoy a lot of media, all sorts of things. But in say medieval Europe, it wouldn't be a disability, it would be normal. Most culture is passed along orally. Your local bar has a picture on its sign, not words. Your local church has stained glass windows specifically to help tell Bible stories without words (you're not going to get them from worship, that's happening in a language you don't speak, because reasons.)

You can look at animals. A hawk that can't fly is severely disabled. You've never flown a day in your life.

[who-is-page]

i heard that youre a good resource on therianthropy/otherkinity so uh

i know that you can be a therian for animals, real or otherwise (im a cat therian) but can i be, like, a scoutbot tf2 therian? is that allowed?

also can you have multiple theriotypes (i think thats the term) at once?

There's a longstanding history of therians who have had multiple theriotypes at one time, so you don't need to worry there. The idea that therians could only ever have one theriotype arouse around the mid-2000's, and was propagated largely due to the grilling and gatekeeping culture that was ongoing at the time-- the circles you will mainly see parroting that language nowadays usually are similar in the ways they micromanage the ideas around what does and doesn't count in terms of someone's personal therianthropy.

The Scoutbot TF2 question is trickier to answer. In terms of "is this a thing you're allowed to do," the answer is yes (as the saying goes, you can do whatever you want forever) but you might run into an issue where people assume your experiences are different than you may intend to represent them as.

The therian community traces its roots back to the were community of the 1990's, specifically to alt.horror.werewolves (which is often shortened to AHWw). On AHWw, there was a were-Pontiac who went by the name Ponty. I've seen arguments for and against the legitimacy of this user, but there's still the fact that they were an active participant in the community, and they specifically identified as a Pontiac car. There have also been other inanimate objects within the community, such as a broom who was on the Werelist forum for a brief period of time (and I think I've heard talk of a violin on a different forum elsewhere, too-- but take that one with a grain of salt, since I can't remember exactly where or when it was, and I could be misremembering).

So is there historical basis for non-animal therians? The answer is, absolutely, yes! However, when people use the term therian or reference their theriotype, there is an underlying assumption that there is an inherent form of animality connected to their identity because of the history and culture around the community and term. For some non-animal therians, that works perfectly into their paradigm and is exactly why the term therian appeals to them so much-- they may not be an animal, but they still experience that animality and ferality that is so often closely associated with therianthropy and which is often assumed to be a relevant part of the concept, so the term perfectly encapsulates everything they hope for people to understand about their identity and its experiences.

For other non-animal identified folks, they don't experience anything they'd want to label as animality, and so they don't find the term therian useful to apply to themselves. If they were to use it, they would end up in a situation where they would be presenting their identity in a way that implies importance on specific things that aren't actually relevant to them.

What terms someone uses are going to come down largely to personal preference, how accurate they feel the term is in application to their experiences, and how well that term conveys their experiences to others on a surface level. Therian isn't necessarily a term everyone will find applicable, but for those who do resonate with it, it's perfect for what it needs to do.

I hope this made sense!

[greyspirehollow]

MURDER AT THE HOSPITAL Chapter 7

warnings: swearing; serious/potentially triggering themes ; discussion of ongoing investigation ;

I would rate this chapter and the overall fic 16+

The silence was only broken by the distant sounds of phones ringing and chatter amongst colleagues. Vulgora flipped through the different boxes of files on the metallic shelf, trying to find somewhere, somehow, a list of the different employees at Tower. They had no name to help with their research per se, only this “Big Bill” nickname. They gnawed at their lower lip as they focused on their research. But then they paused and cursed under their breath: Tower was a private company, there was no way the office had anything about them that was easily accessible. Of course. They sighed and pinched the bridge of their nose, sitting down at a nearby table on which they had laid files already. If they wanted information about Tower and its employees, they were going to have to get a warrant, or some other permission to investigate. They would need to ask Volta for that, and they mentally noted they should ask permission to search Rick’s house too. Gods, all of this was so complicated for nothing… At least it was much simpler back in the army: you had a few superiors, they gave you directives, and that was it. Their fingers drummed on the table as they grabbed their phone, looking at the slightly broken screen. They hesitated, but ultimately decided to text Liam.

Vulgora sighed and rolled their eyes. Sure, they could look into small acts of vandalism in all of Vesuvia. If they had eternity. Looking into those that happened only around Tower wasn’t too bad of an idea, but they knew gangs’ territories could go much further than their working areas -besides, some groups had more than one zone-. But… at least it was better than nothing.

Vulgora wheezed quietly as they put their phone back in their pocket, trying to focus back on the task at hand: minor offenses in the zone surrounding the Tower concrete factory. Their shoulders still shook softly with silent laughter as they once again searched through the boxes of files, on a different metallic shelf this time.

They flipped through file after file, searching for those “little crimes” people might have committed around Heart District. Vandalism, car theft, nocturnal noise… Their brows furrowed, focused, as their eyes scanned all the culprits’ pictures. A few caught their attention, namely those who looked slightly disheveled or defiant in their mugshots, but eventually, finally, they found what seemed to be their guy. They grabbed the file and pushed the others aside, quickly scanning over the information written on the paper which was pinned to the front of the file… Emmanuel Biz, twenty-nine years old, five foot nine, initially from Prakra, more specifically the Pearl Isles. Moved in Vesuvia ten years ago, before he dropped out of college; he stayed in the city, however. Has been an employee at Tower for around five years now, and has previously been charged with multiple accounts of vandalism and destruction of property. Various store windows and three cars, the file said… Vulgora took the time to let the information they’d just gathered sink in. This man was nothing more than a small delinquent and was certainly not the author of the murder. However, there was a chance he did know the murderer, if he was truly part of that “gang” Miss Averton had mentioned. One thing was sure, the victim knew him, and was at least acquaintances with him, and that, was big. This Big Bill guy was the biggest piece of this case yet, and maybe they’d get all the answers from him… Or not. They sighed. True, there was still a chance that this man knew absolutely nothing and that the murderer was nowhere near him at all, but… They had to try. It’s all they had.

They closed the file and went to put it on their desk before putting back the other ones. They then sat down in their chair with a loud huff, leaning back and stretching briefly. They sighed and glanced at their phone – which they had lazily put down on the desk before sitting – and considered phoning Liam. They were supposed to keep him updated… Their eyes widened as they realized they needed to keep everyone updated! They cursed under their breath and looked at the time. It was going to be noon soon, and it was likely that the everyone in question were all busy… They sighed and nonetheless opened the message app, creating a group chat for the four of them.

Vulgora quit the app with a sigh and went to their contacts, looking for Volta’s. Once they got it, they tapped the call button…

Vulgora hurried out of their office at around 7:45 PM. They were running a little short but hopefully they would be able to get ready just in time. Their heart hammered nervously in their chest as they drove up to their house and quickly dashed in the master bedroom, opening their closet and quickly scanning over what was available. They picked out a simple red suit and quickly changed, trying not to overthink it. They adjusted their tie, but then decided to take it off completely, instead opting for an open shirt collar. Gods, this felt strange. This felt weird. Preparing for the occasion. They’d never been a romantic person and here they were, trying not to wrinkle their tuxedo like some sort of nervous lovesick teenager on a first date. They’d seen that man naked, dammit! It’s going to be fine!! They took a deep breath and caught a glimpse of their reflection in the mirror while turning around. They paused. They adjusted a thing or two here and there -their sleeve, their watch- and… Let their features soften a little. No need to be overly military tonight… Vulgora looked at themselves a little more and, slowly, hesitantly, let their hair loose from their usual low ponytail. They didn’t do that often. If… Ever, really. They watched as the red strands fell over their shoulder, and ran their fingers through it, giving it all just a little bit of volume. It… It looked good. Yes. They took a deep breath and just quickly sprayed on some cologne before dashing back towards their car, heading out in the center city.

They parked near the restaurant, steeling themselves and walking towards it. They told the receptionist they’d reserved a table for two, and the man pointed to the table in question. They felt their nervousness spike again as they saw Vultur was there already, and they made their way to the opposite seat as confidently as they could. Vultur looked at them once they sat, his crystal clear blue eyes meeting their gold hazel own. He looked at them fondly, and smiled. By the Arcana he smiled. Stay calm.

“Good evening.” He said softly, putting down the menu which he’d been looking over before they arrived. He too had dressed a little bit for the occasion, in an all black suit with subtle little darker patterns. They felt so awkward they almost forgot to respond. Gods, they weren’t used to this, were they? They cleared their throat.

“Good evening.” after a short pause, they felt as if they should add: “How… Was your day?” It sounded nervous. But they were trying.

Vultur hummed, leaning back in his chair. “It was alright, I guess. The doctor said my lungs were getting better but I was still on thin ice, so I shouldn’t push them too much.” he replied, his voice soft and a little tired. Vulgora nodded softly. Vultur asked as well: “How was yours?”

Vulgora took a deep breath. “It was ok, I guess. I’m making some progress, at least.”

It was Vultur’s turn to nod: “hm, that’s nice. A little bit is better than nothing, especially in cases like these…”

Vulgora had to agree with him there… They looked at his face again, noticing the subtle bags under his eyes and his sagging shoulders. “… Do they hurt?” the question slipped past their lips before they could stop it.

“Hm?”

“Your- your lungs.”

“oh. A little bit, but… It’s not as bad as before the operation.” Vultur smirked slightly, and leaned forward on the table. “I might just think you’re worried about me~”

Vulgora felt their cheeks flush: “Isn’t that what you want??” They bit down on their lip – the words had sounded much harsher than they intended – and tried to fix their tone, forcing their voice to soften a little: “I-I mean… Don’t you want me to care for you?”

Vultur’s head tilted slightly, as he contemplated their answer. His smirk faltered in a small smile, and his features relaxed. “… Do you want to care for me?”

Vulgora blinked, taken aback, the words getting stuck in their throat. Yes. That’s all their mind was screaming. But they weren’t ready to admit that, not yet… They swallowed nervously and looked down at the menu, fiddling with a button of their sleeve. Vultur smiled. Even if the lack of answer slightly pained him, he knew he had to be patient with them. He could see they were trying, and knew deep down they cared, and no matter how much they looked at that menu he saw it in their eyes. He observed the way strands of their long red hair slipped from their shoulder to come frame their face, drawing his attention to their cheek, their brow… His smile widened a little bit. He was really tempted to reach out and tuck the strands behind their ear, but he thought it was better to wait until they were back home. He knew they didn’t like publicly displaying affection. Vultur looked down as the menu as well, his eyes flickering over the different dishes proposed. He was familiar with all of them, of course – this was his favorite restaurant after all – but he doesn’t remember Vulgora having come here before. His smile faltered slightly as he read the wines list… “Hm. Valerius’ wines keep gaining in popularity, I see…”

Vulgora raised an eyebrow and looked back up at Vultur. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Vultur replied, pointing to the menu. “They replaced mine.”

Vulgora’s eyes widened. “This place used to serve your wines?”

“They did. Until a month or two ago, perhaps… I still have no idea how those wines got popular so fast…” Vultur sighed. “I guess I’ll try them out and take a glass.”

Vulgora was about to respond, but words failed them. What does one even say in such situations? They decided to try and keep the conversation going instead. “How… Are the vines? Did you go to see them today?”

Vultur chuckled. “They’re all fine. All very healthy, even with the weather getting colder. As usual, the production will be on hold during winter, and then when spring comes back around, the wine will as well.”

Vulgora nodded, looking between him and the menu, still trying to decide what to eat. “Uhm- how are wines made again? I don’t remember if you’ve told me.”

Vultur nodded, and proceeded to start explaining the process. And despite their best efforts, Vulgora… Didn’t care. They couldn’t bring themselves to listen. They tried, they really did, but the subject was… Boring to them. They looked at Vultur sheepishly when he paused.

“… You don’t care, do you?” He asked with a chuckle.

“I am so sorry.” Vulgora replied, hiding their face in their hands, embarrassed as ever – and feeling a little guilty as well – “I tried to listen, I just…”

Vultur laughed softly. “It’s alright. I get that a wine business isn’t as interesting as a murder case.”

Vulgora sighed, looking back at him, their gaze silently asking for forgiveness. When they were met with soft, fond amusement on his part, they tried to resist the urge to hide their face again, as they felt their cheeks burn. They cleared their throat and adjusted their tuxedo a bit.

Fortunately for them, the waiter arrived and took their orders. Vultur ordered one glass of wine to go with his plate, and Vulgora passed on any drinks. They spent the waiting-for-their-dishes time mainly in silence, much to Vulgora’s distress. They didn’t like silence. It was so awkward… Their eyes darted around the restaurant nervously and eventually they groaned slightly. Vultur, on his part, didn’t seem to mind the silence. He seemed to relax, even, and that made Vulgora want to settle down as well, to try and take in the present moment. Did they need to talk at all? Not really… But they liked to talk. Fortunately for them, Vultur spoke up and asked, calm and smiling, as usual: “So, are you allowed to tell me a little bit about the investigation?”

Vulgora sighed. “No, I can’t… I wish I could, I really do.”

Vultur nodded. “That’s alright. What about your colleagues, then? You rarely ever mention them, whether it’s at the station or somewhere else.”

Vulgora’s eyebrows raised in surprised. “I… don’t? Well. I was sure I did…” They awkwardly cleared their throat. “So there are currently four of us working on the case. Me and Liam are from the police and Julian and Valdemar are not.”

Vultur let out an intrigued hum: “Valdemar? The same you told me about?”

Vulgora huffed, slightly amused. “I’ll be damned if there’s two of ‘em. Yes, the weird one… And, well, we… Are trying our best to gather clues. I managed to fish out some info about a suspect this morning – that’s the minor progress I was talking about – and a day or two ago we found the site with Liam, my colleague from scientific police. It feels kind of weird to call him a colleague, he’s just some guy but, whatever.”

Vultur chuckled. “Just some guy?”

“Yeah, he’s… just there, being… Himself, I don’t know! He’s just a dude! I forget he has a life and a job sometimes…”

“Maybe it’s because you’re not that close to him.” Vultur commented, playing with the rim of his glass of wine which the waiter had just poured.

“Could be it… Hopefully he won’t be a pain in the ass.” Vulgora grumbled, crossing their arms. Vultur chuckled at that.

“What about the others? Are they a pain in the ass?”

Vulgora hummed in thought. “Surprisingly enough… No. Not yet. I hope I won’t have to fix anyone’s mess, is all…”

“It should be alright.” Vultur assured. “They’re adults, aren’t they?”

“I wonder, sometimes.” Vulgora commented, deadpan.

Vultur chuckled, before taking a sip of his wine. “Gods, it’s awful.” He said, still chuckling while looking down at his glass. Vulgora raised an eyebrow.

“Can I try it?” They extended a hand towards the glass.

“At your own peril.” Vultur said, handing them the glass.

Vulgora smelled the beverage briefly. It didn’t seem off or anything. They brought the deep crimson liquid to their lips and took a sip. They tried really hard not to make a face, but it tasted especially bitter. Their nose scrunched under the effort and they put the glass down. Vultur chuckled again, amused. It was a warm sound…

“I don’t remember wine tasting like that.” Vulgora commented, coughing discreetly before taking a big gulp out of their glass of water to wash the bitter taste away. Vultur seemed to laugh a little more heartily. Vulgora had a hard time suppressing a smile…

“The face you made-” Vultur commented quietly through his laughter.

Vulgora huffed, falsely offended: “What about my face?? You love my face and you know it.”

The man’s laughter subsided but he was still smiling. “I do love your face…”

Vulgora paused, flustered, and drank down their whole glass of water, hoping to drown out their reddening cheeks.

They finished eating around maybe 9:45 PM. The streets outside the restaurant were quiet, the sky was dark, and the electrical street lamps cast a strange greenish glow on the grey concrete around them. They had to admit, the food was good there. It was a little bit too fancy to their taste though. No wonder this was Vultur’s favorite restaurant, it’s almost as if he was part of the décor when he was there, as if he was in his natural environment. They looked at him from the corner of their eyes, an idea coursing through their head. They looked down at his hand as they walked… It was in his pocket, but… They took a deep breath and slipped their hand in to take his, their heart hammering in their chest as they intertwined their fingers together. They looked firmly ahead, cheeks burning hot, as Vultur curiously glanced at them, contemplating the sudden gesture of affection. It was such a small gesture but it was also enormous progress. He smiled…

“Woow, things are going fast between us~” He teased, feigning shock.

“SHUT UP.” Vulgora shouted back, their cheeks reddening even more, if that was possible.

Author's note: plz ignore the inconsistencies in the group chat's name I beg you the site is pretty tricky to use :') Again, please let me know if I missed any trigger warnings !

Hope you still enjoy <33