#just now. which has caused me to consider them a natural category.

[unopenablebox]

does someone want to like, write shit down so i can finally find out why half my tumblr mutual in laws think tzmr (and nnvk i guess while we’re at it) are assholes or what

[alpaca-clouds]

Why I oppose punitive justice

Time for another anarchist talking point. I actually do not believe in punitive justice. I do not believe in locking people up in jail or making them pay fines as punishment (though asking them to pay for something they broke is alright). And I do even less believe in violence as a form of punishment. Moreover I do believe that the idea of punishment is rooted in a deeply flawed perception of why crimes get commited, as well as a deeply flawed idea of what justice is.

Let me explain.

I will say it again: I actually do believe that humans are in general decent creatures who have evolved to function well in groups. As such it is for the most part not our nature to commit crimes - outside of things were the crime actually is something that should not be illegal in the first place.

Most crimes, that do get committed, have one of the following causes:

It is a crime arrising from a situation committed spontanously without much prior thought.

It is a crime committed out of a desperate situation with the "criminal" not seeing any other way out.

It is a crime committed by someone in a psychologically bad place.

It is a crime committed by a true believer who believed himself to act justly.

One of the first ideas of punitive justice is that it somehow deters people from committing crimes, because they will think to themselves: "I do not want to be punished." But this just ignores the actual reasoning behind those crimes.

Someone who commits crime spontanously (which is a lot of violent crime, actually - most violent crime is not committed by someone who has gone somewhere with a plan to commit violence, but rather arises out of people unable to deal with emotions) does not think about the consequences in the moment.

Someone in a desperate situation often just does not see themselves having a choice. Examples of this can both be that person killing an abusive partner or parent, or the person stealing bread from a supermarket, because they are otherwise going to starve.

Someone who commits crimes because they are psychologically in a bad place (by which I do not even mean the serial killers, though some of them surely also fall under this umbrella - rather I am speaking of people who are prone to violence, have habbits or are forced into crime through addiction and the like) often will not consider possible outcomes either.

And the last kind of person usually tends to believe they are in their right to do whatever. This might be those abusing partners, as well as a ton of people committing hate crimes.

So, yeah... Punishment does not deter people from crimes. We even do have statistics on this showing that often enough in the places with the most harsh punishments there are more crimes getting committed than in the places with softer punishment.

Now, when it comes to the entire idea of justice... Two wrongs do not make a right. Punishing someone does not make the crime undone. Especially given that the punishment often lasts much longer than whatever the actual sentence is, due to societal prejudice against anyone who might have been imprisoned once.

Don't get me wrong: I do think there are some cases where people might need to be somewhere under lockdown, because otherwise they will not stop dealing in violence. The "true believers" often belong under this category. And some people in psychological emergencies, too.

But they should be kept secure for that reason: Security. Not to punish them for their crimes.

Punishment does not make a society safer. At best it satisfies some vengeful lustings of a society. And if we do not (and we cannot) satisfy an individuals lusting for revenge... We should also not do that on a society wide scale. Rather we should focus on making the world safer for everyone.

[joyswonderland1108]

Fanservice?

In the lights of uhm.. everyday's events because at this point there's nothing occasional about this, i wanted to talk about this one subject :

✨Fanservice✨

Or as they call it in Korean 팬서비스 . Quite honestly i'm not making this post for you know who because as much as i want to educate them they're hard headed so this is more of a general knowledge for everyone and whoever wants to add it to their Kpopictionnary.

Fanservice is literally the act of servicing the fans aka doing things that would please the fans. I know that a lot of people think that fanservice = gay activities or queerbaiting well.. It's not entirely true, maybe it's a form we are more used to seeing nowadays but fan service can pretty much be a very straight activity as long as it keeps the fans entertained.

As a kpop oldie (i'm no expert just speaking from experience) i used to listen to 2NE1 and a bit of Bigbang and these two groups engaged in fanservice mainly because both of their fans liked the chemistry between them, i remember noticing this about CL and G-dragon, yes they were friends but that didn't mean that to please their fans they wouldn't do a lil something to make it look a tad bit romantic

In more recent kpop groups, despite me not knowing them all too much BUT i know OOO (OnlyOneOf) have this one "Libido" choreography that is very.. HUM and personally i know choreographies are a form of art but i also think that it has a bit of an act of service. But then one should be able to not mix up everything cause one of the members, Rie, has a song called "because" but because of the nature of the song, what it is talking about, the MV cannot be considered as fanservice.

In other words, just because something looks "gay" to you it does not mean that it is automatically an act of service.

In general the fanservice culture is pretty well known in Kpop but contrary to the past where it somehow was a bit of a "mandatory" thing, now as an idol you either chose to do it or you don't, and many times within the same group some chose to do it some don't, as long as the one who choses to do it respects the boundaries of the person who just isn't interested in it, then they're just having their fun.

Now moving on from generalities to specifications, BTS, which i've seen a lot of confusions and misinformation going on about them and fanservice. Will i be one of those who will say that they NEVER did that? No of course not i'm not that stupid and blind, but will i just lie and say that up until this day they are still engaging in it? Also no.

Listen, kpop idols in general have a tougher starts, and BTS just like other groups had to engage in some form of fanservice which is why you'd find videos like this on YT

And yes this whole thing was an act of service, remember their lil games too? Aka when Hobi stole tae's first kiss lol well yes that was an act of service. But you know what else is an act of service? Fan meets, because whether people are ready to accept that this also falls into the fanservice category or not, it IS a fanservice, an idol basically offers the fan the service of getting to see them up close, hold their hand, talk to them, give them gifts, etc..

Now just like i mentioned above, it is a bit less tough in the recent years as idols now have a choice, which was the case for our boys. Things change, the same way personalities do, the same way our boys in the past had a certain view about what masculinity is and what their view now is of masculinity, our boys are just no longer interested in that type of fanservice since within the years they've been together they grew closer and it's easier for them to naturally tend to be affectionate.

In what i like to call their "lil skit" on PTD in Seoul Jimin made it very clear that they're not into "fake stuff", why do i think that maybe it's a skit to get the message across, it's simply because our boys do go online and they do see what people say about them and in a way or in another they always tells us what's up, so of fucking course they must've known about how some "fans" seem to downgrade their bond into just an act of service.

While some smaller groups are still a bit "forced" into that extra bond with the members, i remember seeing somewhere that some idol confessed they weren't even that close but they were forced to act like it, bigger groups like BTS don't need that anymore to push them further and yet "some people" like to still call their bond a fanservice simply because they have narratives that get humbled everytime and they're not ready to accept it.

Whatever activitiy a member choses to do with the other, this has nothing to do with fanservice whether you like it or not. Jimin attending Tae's music bank show is because he wants to support his friend, Namjikook attending and participating in Yoongi's concert is because they wanted to be there and wanted to do a surprise, any member chosing to hang out with another member or a member of a different group is not an act of service, they are human, and they have relationships with other humans which so happen to be their friends.

People need to stop putting the boys into a bubble they've created for them and anything that goes beyond that bubble is deemed unacceptable for them and titled as fanservice or "forced to do". BTS will ALL be in their 30's very soon, they are adults and very responsible for their own action, they are very big, very popular and don't need anyone to tell them what type of relationship they should be having with others.

I feel like countries need to invest in more green spaces because clearly some "fans" need to go outside and touch some grass they've been a bit too invested into the online community that they forgot that idols have lives and they can actually chose to be friends with members of their own group too.

With that being said, let's please keep supporting our boys, we shouldn't let haters ruin our mood or try to pick fights with us, the best thing to do is ignore what we can and report what is harmful. Have a nice day y'aaaall and STREAM MUSE!!!!

[je-dood]

Can machines be considered Lovecraftian monsters?

The short answer is yes.

However, the long answer has been a chain of thoughts that have bothered me for the past hour and a half, in which I've had to somehow stumble my way across debates about moral philosophy, questions of the unknown, and trying and quantify the limitation of human understanding.

This all started when I was listening to a recommended Lovecraftian Inspire podcast, Rolling with Rainbows, and a small, brief discussion was had about whether mortals like them could even begin to discuss the ongoing mind of the eldrich. This caused me to pause and question myself. If Lovecraftian beings were so alien to the human mind, how could we potentially even write from the perspective of one without it feeling diluted and disingenuous? I tried asking the philosophers of my own personal round table aka my friends; however, it was clear that today wasn't the day for intellectual discussion for Lovecraftian pursuit, so I was off to my own devices. During that time I had been recommended to potentially find others who may have been interested in such a subject, as discord severs around Lovecraftian discussion do exist. However,  after joining, I felt immediately intimidated to push any further, so as all great philosophers do, I casted myself out of society for 10 to 15 minutes to rant to myself.

Firstly, the reason why I chose the topic of a machine is because they are preexisting objects that, at the time of writing this, I could still empirically justify weren't figments of my own imagination. Secondly, machines within my mind fit the category of holding an alien form of "thinking," so I can use them as the same basis for my questioning of eldritch minds.

Now to tackle the main question at hand, I believe it is imperative to understand what we mean by Lovecraftian monsters, as some definitions already leave this question to become redundant at a first glance. Wikipedia states, "Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasises the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock." This definition is quite tricky at first glance, as one may be able to focus on the aspect of cosmic horror, and one could state that due to machines being located and crafted on Earth, there is hardly anything cosmic or wholly other about that. However, this is where I would have to push an interjection and state that truly, in the grand scheme of things, everything that we have come to know at some point has in some way, shape or form, derived from some sort of cosmic interference or origins, whether it be the metal that forms from the bowels of celestial bodies or the eventual creation of the earth, which led to the existence of humanity. One could argue if they were to get really abstract with it, that all dimensions of machines hold some sort of cosmic nature about them, and they can pass this cosmic check in the definition.

Although one could pull things to a stop here and conclude that overall machines fit the definition of Lovecraftian horror and therefore could be considered Lovecraftian monsters, I believe this is not enough overall to come to a satisfactory conclusion as, in my mind, there is still potential for a banana berry situation. The idea is that although something technically fulfils the qualifications to be something, it just personally feels ontologically distinct, and in this identification, I wanted to figure out whether machines were to exhibit the same abilities or mannerisms as preexisting Lovecraftian monsters. This is named how I believe that although bananas may be berry, I just don't vibe with it.

Morality-wise Lovecraftian beings tend to lean themselves a little more on the hedonistic side of things, mostly. This can be mainly seen within their carefree attitude in slaughtering the masses and quite frankly doing whatever they want, and although one could argue this may present them as being evil, I would argue they are simply acting as any rational being would in such a situation, for if one were to be unborn as a creature so vast and great the scholars would fail to find conjures appropriate adjective to describe your presence, and you were to grow up in a world that lacks any guidance or social moral consequence, it would only make sense that one such as these beings would act out of an almost infantile alien hedonistic desire. However, this understanding of the mind of the unknown does bring problems about machines, as, as far as we can tell, machines lack any actual desire to want in the first place, as they are simply constructed to fulfil the task. However, I would like to bring this chain of ideas to less focus on the existence of desire and more on the idea of an alien existence. As beings of desire, we would like to believe other sentient beings would have the desire; however, in the face of a truly unknown existence, going forward with such presumptions is simply wishful thinking in an attempt to rationalise the unknown. So even if machines were to lack this core mechanic of holding desires like people, I argue that one could say this makes them MORE Lovecraftian in nature as it solidifies their alien nature in comparison to human life, therefore meaning both Lovecraftian beings and machines both share the property of holding an alien philosophical system in compression to human beings.

However, in retrospect to abilities, this is quite a finicky topic, as although there are some relational qualities about Lovecraftian when it comes to philosophical attitudes, most of this comes completely out of the window when it comes to scaling feats and traits. On the one hand, you could have reality-eating beings such as Azathoth, which need to be subdued to let existence keep doing its things; on the other hand, you can also have immortal beings such as the deep ones being outsmarted and outrun by seemingly ordinary guy at the time. Although most, if not all, Lovecraftian beings hold some impressive and additionally alien concepts to them, which overall separates them from your average person, as they might as well be as diverse as a microwave to a refrigerator…

under the guise of a poor attempt at comedy, in which reading over is making me regret attempting it in the first place. On my part, to make things seem as if I was about to end this while ranting on a low point, this is my final point. Like a microwave to a refrigerator, and Azathoth and the deep ones, [ a wild comparison now that I look at it] both Lovecraftian creatures and machinery share the property of holding a diverse powerset in which most, if not all, demonstrate feats that are simply too great for humans to replicate. This idea of being diverse yet unique and inhuman is what solidifies machines as being considered Lovecraftian creatures.

So the long answer to all of this is yes, machines are Lovecraftian monsters, and additionally, you should probably treat your Alexa with more care, as they are quite literally gods beyond your wildest comprehension.

[cynopter]

Orange Peels on Fire: aka Townsend lore

because someone asked: here's a big dump of stuff about the story Townsend is from, i.e. the narrator of Choker!

Major TW for suicide/hanging, and obviously OCD.

Also, heads up that it's a really silly, REALLY emo story about ghost hunting lol.

Townsend is the deuteragonist of a (really extremely unfinished) story I had, that was provisionally called Orange Peels on Fire (opof). I started working on it when I was watching a lot of Demon Slayer, and it was basically my attempt to create a cast of shounen anime characters who were all girls but look exactly like the typical shounen anime protagonists. (I mention Demon Slayer because I took a LOT of inspiration from that - at times I described it to people as a shitty lesbian Vietnamese Demon Slayer knockoff... wow it's like it was made for me!!!)

A lot of lore is super wishy-washy because I did like the OG concept art in 2021, then I just kinda fucked around until 2022 when I revamped it for a screenwriting class. I don't really consider either version more canon, but I did a lot more work on the screenwriting version so I'll just describe that :P

Setting

It's set in post-apocalyptic US (either Virginia or like California but I couldn't commit because I've never seen California). A lot of the human population is gone - old civilization is being reclaimed by nature and the surplus oxygen means that there are also giant bugs now who take a lot of the niches previously held by mammals (like mice, dogs, deer etc). The oxygen is also how I campily explain away people being able to do epic anime jumps and stuff lmao. This, plus global warming, also means that the middle of North America now has a sort of tropical climate.

The part that actually matters is everyone in the US lives in tiny villages created out of suburban neighborhoods, and they're constantly having Ghost and Monster Problems of some nature because society has forgotten how to properly bury the dead --- and also because that apocalyptic event 100-or-so years ago caused so many ghosts to be created.

Phượng Lê

The protagonist is Phượng Lê, an 18 year old girl who can see ghosts. She's a triplet, with a living brother (Thanh) and a stillborn sister (the titular Cam / "Orange") who she's always seen as just a normal sister because she's a ghost that lives with them.

(All three of these characters are from a depressing realistic fiction short story I wrote, which I personally consider to be their "true" versions, but I imported them into this because I thought it'd be stupid and funny to turn a story like that into a shounen anime lol)

This is what Phượng looks like! (modern on left, old on right)

She's struggled with depression her whole life, partially because everyone thinks she's a sad and delusional pyromaniac for acting like she has a living sister (whose bones she keeps in a box) and for burning stuff to send it to her. Because of that she puts a LOT of stock in Cam's happiness because keeping Cam's ghost kind of cost her everything (including her parents abandoning them etc).

Cam's remains get stolen one day and long story short, Phượng and Thanh end up traveling around the country trying to solve ghost problems, scooby-doo style, in pursuit of the person who stole them. There's like a different category of ghost every time, based on Vietnamese folklore. (And if you're wondering, Cam's bones are valuable because stillborn baby remains can be used for evil magic, which is of course what the evil people in this story want to do).

That finally brings us to...

Townsend! (aka May Hoàng)

Townsend has pretty different lore between 2021 and 2022, but again I'm going with the latter because I've spent more time on that.

In the story:

She's a self-proclaimed "evil ghost" who haunts a tree at the edge of town. Phuong comes to her to ask if she's seen Cam; Townsend is surprised to meet a human who's friendly to ghosts.

She lightly antagonizes P & Th (in what is later revealed to be an attempted suicide-by-cop type thing) and runs away from them a few times before finally deciding to join their team. (In some versions she has to pretend to be human to deceive Irene, the secretly evil lady helping P & Th out).

Originally I had her birth name as Townsend - in the most recent iteration, this is a nickname Phượng gives her through this miscommunication:

She's the only member of the team who can actually, you know, touch ghosts? (Except when Phuong goes all danny phantom on their asses but I don't need to get into that).

Despite this, and despite the fact that she constantly threatens to kill people*, she basically bursts into tears at the thought of enacting violence on people/ghosts, so she ends up just serving as their strategist **(as the only one who isn't kind of dumb lol).

* Her catch phrase is basically "Don't touch me, i'll kill you." This is really emo lol, but what you find out eventually is this is actually a warning and not a threat.

**Specifically, because Thanh is the only one with absolutely no ghost powers, he has to use weapons made by Phuong, and because Phuong is like the main character, Townsend and Thanh have to work together to strategize & fight in the background. That's a whole arc because Townsend is a coward who doesn't want to be in fights, and Thanh doesn't trust Townsend because she constantly threatens to kill him and Phuong. Fair, I guess.

Townsend's backstory:

She's supposed to be this fundamentally irrational character, who eventually becomes a love interest of Phượng (they're both lesbians) but still never brings herself to stop antagonizing her whenever they get too close. After months and months of working together, Phượng finally gets Townsend's backstory:

She was originally a 17-year-old girl named May Hoàng, who lived in a town next to Phượng's. She suffered from something that we would in modern times describe as OCD, but had since been forgotten by society because of the apocalypse (rip). Her family was Catholic, and they didn't think much of her earlier obsessions (except that she was being annoying), but when she confided in them about her newest obsession about dropping and strangling her baby brother, Meri, they confided in the church - and eventually all the townsfolk came to believe she was being influenced by the devil.

May's parents kept trying to work with her, but eventually she ran away to hang herself.* In some versions, instead of going through with that, she conveniently gets attacked by a hangman ghost (which is how I really loosely translated ma thần vòng) right before that, who strangles her and she still dies. Fun!

*This is what's described in the beginning of Choker. In the original version, she runs away on the back of a giant-giant american millipede, as depicted on the cover, and that becomes kind of a faithful steed that they can all ride around on later.

Either way, what she didn't realize (I guess because she's Catholic) is that if you hang yourself and nobody finds your body, you turn into a hangman ghost, and can only pass on if you strangle a living person to take your place.

So..... obviously that's not going to happen.

Phượng & Townsend

May died about a year before the story starts. She was kind of hoping Phượng could just exorcize her, but because it takes about 3 seconds to realize May isn't actually a threat, Phượng refuses to do that.

Instead they kind of fall in love (shipname Phuongsend if you're wondering lol), and they eventually figure out she's just mentally ill and reinvent ERT or something.

Meanwhile, because of both Cam and May, the whole team is looking for a way to turn ghosts back into living people. I never decided if they actually succeed, but honestly I don't think they ever will. May committed suicide and that's just not something you can undo.

As foils

They both care a lot about each other, but that's despite (or maybe because of?) some very conflicting values. There's a little undercurrent of each trying to change the other's morals.

Phượng's mother abandoned her and Thanh because of her obsession with her sister, Cam, who was stillborn and never even got a chance at life. She's only leaving home now to find that sister and maybe even bring her back to life.

From Phượng's perspective, May HAD a shot at life, and somehow thinks she has the right to get it back even after squandering it. May also loves her baby sibling to death, but her idea of protecting him was to run away forever --- and to Phuong, that's just about the worst thing you can do to someone you love.

They were both treated as heretics, but Phượng reacted by getting a superiority complex and starting to hate everyone, while May still thinks everyone is fundamentally good, except herself. Phượng is (technically) a younger sister and constantly pushes back against Thanh's overprotectiveness, something May sees as disrespectful and scary, as an older sister who spent years obsessing over Meri's safety. Finally, Phượng's violent tendencies/occasional anger issues are something May sees as a big moral problem.

And.... that was a LOT. I'm not sure if I'll keep this post up honestly because there's still like a TINY chance I'll adapt this into something. But for now enjoy the lore dump :P

[mag7dumbies]

4 years ago I sent this to a complete stranger…. I have no idea why I sent it or why it is completely deranged but I sent it and 4 years later we are probably closer than two people 1,000 miles away could be

Kaz it’s been 4 years, 1,461 days, that have been the best days of my life, because you have been in them. You are my oracle, my rock, and the other half of my brain. I have no idea what I did to be so lucky to have met you.

In the first days of our friendship I think we wrote 4 peer reviewed papers just on Ezra Standish alone. I don’t think I ever told you this but I saved some (most) (for at least the first week) of our messages in a word doc because I liked rereading our convos. You are still just as verbose and detailed as you were back then and I consider myself so lucky to be able to read about your OCs and Aus whenever you get a hankering to share (which is fortunately often)

You have made me grow in so many ways, with your kindness and your snark. I strive to be as good a friend to you as you are to me. You’ve broaden my tastes to the moon (Fire and Ice and The Eagle are still burned into my brain) (Special mention to Rem Lezar and those eps of Rawhide because I can’t put those psychological horrors in this category but I wanted to mention it because they would have been good cause to lose my number... and yet)

Kaz this message could probably last at least 3,000 words, when it probably needs just three, I love you, I honestly believe it’s more than love, it is just a natural part of my heart, that you now inhabit. There is not a quality that you’ve shown me that I don’t love, from your strong convictions (that have rubbed off on me), your imagination that knows few bounds, and especially your patience. You are probably more important to me then you know and I hope I give as much as I get because you deserve it. Kaz you are the whole package plus about 6 other packages that I didn’t expect but happily unwrapped

I remember in 2022 when our friendship went from a casual, still very close but casual relationship, to what it is today. Our first watch party was the last two eps from Our Flag means Death season 1. What babies we were back then, there was little talking (due to how we watched but still) there was no screaming no brain melting a far cry from today. Our Saturday nights have always been sacred to me and I will/have bent over backwards to not miss them, they make getting through the week an easy task because I know I will be able to hang out with you for approximately 4-8 hours which sounds crazy and is crazy. Anyway now in 2024 I literally can’t imagine a day we aren’t in contact (I still get soft when I remember that week where I barely had the energy to open your messages and yet you were here on Tumblr being a bright spot which i definitely needed) And I get to have that everyday even if it’s just a check in or a in-depth psychology analysis on Jess Harper I get to have the pleasure of talking to you which is priceless.

One more thing Kaz when I met you I didn’t have close friends I had a couple but they felt very hollow and it was hard to communicate with them sometimes, due to my Visions TM (it’s probably the autism but I’ll blame Visions and not how my brain functions) my real world friends did not share my interest in Gay cowboys or weird shows from the 70s so I felt very alone for a long time but then I threatened a random Incorrect quotes blog and I found someone I could make a home out of a multitude of fandoms with. You will have no idea what an impact you’ve made on me. And I hope we have at least 80,000 more anniversaries that we can share

I could go on, I should go on because I definitely don’t think I talked enough about how perfect you are and literally you are perfection but this has to come to an end for one our sakes lol. Kaz you really are the breath under my wings and I want to make sure you never forget just how much I cherish you

I am so excited to see you in person in 144 days!!!

@incorrect-gunslingers

[ruruumin]

4 — PAPER PLANE.

₊˚ ᗢ synopsis; getting over breakups is difficult. after your partner leaves you, you find comfort in your friends. when you least expected it, your childhood friend kazuha pulls you from the darkness.

⤷genres; modern college au, romance, and angst.

⤷masterlist; here.

The blond-haired man lowered the windows, staring out in front of him as you leaned your head against the side of the car. Your eyes were still puffy and teary, though not as terrible as before. You’ve rubbed the edges too much to the point it has been stained red. He holds his breath for a moment, bobbing his leg up and down at the stoplight as the night draws near. Next to your leg was a bag of McDonald’s fries that you haven’t touched since leaving the drive-thru. You still felt sick to your stomach, and the thought of eating wasn’t processing in your mind as well as the heartbreak.

He squeezes the steering wheel, anxiously waiting for the light to turn green. The car was playing his Spotify playlist, filled with tons and tons of love songs that you try to ignore. They masked your sniffles just enough for him to be unaware when you’re about to cry. He understands that heartbreak is not an easy thing to swallow. 

He has had his fair share of relationships in the past. He’s learned that people fall into two categories: people who want to fix others, and those wanting or needing to be fixed. This idealogy has followed him since his first relationship in high school with a classmate of his. He attempted to “help” them out of their depression and previous relationship, only to end up feeling exhausted and whittled away. 

He considered himself the “fixer” because he was attracted to people who needed help. He always felt the need to bring someone up. It made him feel just as good. Though he understands now that this was no healthy lifestyle to be living, and that the search to help others may never end well. It was in his nature though. His kind-hearted nature to want the best for others despite it being the worst for him. 

It was a constant cycle that he was acutely aware of.

He worries that the only reason why he is beside you today is because he wants to fix you. He wants to repair your broken heart and bring you back up to where you belong. He knows this is wrong though. And that the feelings he holds for you far surpass the desire to “fix” you. You were not meant to be fixed, nor were you meant to be the fixer. You exist for yourself. You should at the very least. He doesn’t want you to think his sympathy and efforts are just his way of worming into your heart.

You were not ready to be in another relationship. You need time, space, and love to heal. He knows this very well. He’s been on your end and has seen you countless times in this state of need. When the light turned green, he continued forward, steering the car in different directions until you were following a straight line. He heard your soft sniffles and the way your hands would raise themselves to hide your tears. 

“Do you want me to drop you off at your apartment?” He asked, out of respect for your feelings he does not turn to look at you. There were a few cars out tonight. Not as many as there would be in the day, but enough for him to feel weary about being hit. You wrapped your arms around yourself, hugging your body as open windows causes you to shiver. “Ayaka and Yoimiya must be worried about you. Did you tell them what happened?” 

You haven’t told your roommates about your departure. They’ve called you and texted you a few times to which you would give dry replies. They didn’t know that you and your partner had broken up. And you weren’t sure when you’d ever tell them the truth.

You press your lips tightly together before shaking your head. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to tell them because they’d get worried, and I’d feel awkward. I wouldn’t want them to look at me differently. I talked about my partner a lot and I just…” 

“I’m scared that talking to them might open the wound.” This was partially true. 

You were indeed scared that when you open up to them about your recent breakup, you’d be forced to remember the old memories that have now soured. However, what you were truly afraid of was the shame that came with it. You thought it was pitiful that after half a year of being with someone, half a year of constantly talking about how you loved them, and how you want to see them more often, they would leave you.

“I see. That’s fine by me,” He continues to drive. “You could stay at my place until you feel better. Gorou wouldn’t mind the extra company. I don’t think it would be comfortable for you to sleep on the couch so… You could just sleep in my room for now.”

You pick at your nails, “I think I intruded enough. You should keep your bed, I’m fine with the couch. It’s a lot more comfortable than you think.”

“Oh really?” You listen to him chuckle, “I wouldn’t want you to sleep there though. You never know if there are snacks hidden beneath the cushions. Scaramouche likes to eat chips on there. His friend Childe comes over often as well for drinks. You shouldn’t worry about that now, I’m just throwing it out there. The only people at the apartment right now are me and Gorou. Scaramouche is on a roadtrip.” 

A huff escapes you. Scaramouche? You were honestly astonished that he was still living in the apartment with him. Do not get it wrong, you were sure he was a kind man at heart, though not to the same degree as Kazuha. You only knew that after leaving his mother’s company, he needed a place to stay and that Kazuha, his seatmate was the singular person who offered to split the rent. 

You and he were on neutral terms. Shared a few classes but never talked. However, you always had the sneaking suspicion that he and Kazuha talked about things that were outside of your reach. You weren’t sure how to describe it. Whenever you and Kazuha hang out during lunch or passing periods, he gives you a bit of a stink eye. 

“Are you… upset at me?” He nearly hits the brake when he hears this news. 

Upset? At you? He taps his fingers on the steering wheel. Should he be mad at you? If he were to ask his friend Scaramouche what to do in this situation, he might tell him that you were trying to get into his head. He’s always been the cautious man. It doesn’t surprise him that he might tell him that you were desperate and needed a rebound. But he doesn’t want to believe in such nonsense. 

He wouldn’t get mad at you. You’ve done a lot for him in the past and he is grateful. He thinks that it would be wrong to ignore you in your time of need. It wasn’t about feelings or romance, it was about the friendship that he has long kept with you. You just need time. Someone to listen to your problems. Someone who can lend a shoulder for you to cry on when nights get long.

“No. I am not mad,” Kazuha makes a right turn. “Everyone has their moments. I’m not going to fault you for feeling this way. You’ve invested a lot into the relationship, and you tried your very best, but things just didn’t work out. It’ll be okay.” 

You straightened out your back. Was it truly okay? You’ve heard countless times by others that if you loved something you should fight for it. If you lost, what then? Weren’t you the terrible person for being an unforgivable partner? You’ve crossed the line many times. You’ve done things that you can’t take back anymore. 

You can’t keep playing the victim and acting like everything is fine when it's clear it’s not. You believe that there has to be more done to you. You deserved to be left behind. Abandoned by everyone else. You couldn’t stand being alone yet you can’t even be with others. 

You can’t be using Kazuha like this. You shouldn’t be shielding yourself from the harsh realities of your problems. However, what could you do? What was the point of beating yourself up? Would you gain anything from it? You weren’t sure. You weren’t sure about a lot of things. You knew that you were being unreasonable and that punishing yourself wasn’t the right answer.

No matter how much you hate yourself, you won’t be able to move forward without acknowledging your mistakes. And yet, even when you do acknowledge them, you feel terrible. You feel like hurting yourself or putting yourself down because you think you deserve it. 

You let out a sigh. “It doesn’t feel okay.” 

“Why is that?”

“Because I feel like I'm a terrible person. I ruined the relationship and… I made a lot of mistakes along the way.” You squeeze the fabric of your clothes, your eyes beginning to tear up. “I keep watching those dumb Instagram reels… all those relationship advice videos, they make me feel like I’m the problem. Like I deserve to be left behind or something.”

“Things aren’t always that black and white,” He clarifies, “There is a lot more to relationships than just that.”

“But!” 

“But? There are no buts. You just need to know that things aren’t as simple as they seem to be. Relationships are hard, it’s a two-way street. You did everything you could to make things right, but they wanted to move on. The right thing to do is to move forward on your own. You have to learn from your mistakes.” 

There was some truth to his words. It’s not right for you to feel hung up over someone who no longer wanted to try. You did give it your all, and you should feel proud that you were at least acknowledging your mistakes. You were taking the right steps to improve. You just need to give yourself a chance, Kazuha thinks, looking at your shivering body. 

“Are you cold?” 

“...Sort of.” 

He pulls up the window before deciding to stop on the side of the road. He wasn’t too far from his apartment now. There wasn’t much more he had to drive. He just wanted to take a breather. The stress of his classes was beginning to take a toll on him. Having you around and worrying about you wasn’t helping much either. However, he would never tell you the second part out of fear of pushing you away.

Unbuckling the seatbelt, he reaches out to the back, pulling out a blanket and wrapping it over you. You clutch onto the soft fabric as you slowly bring it close to your face. It smells like his cologne. You wonder if he always kept a blanket in the back. Did he sleep a lot when driving? Or did he have someone else in the car? 

“I always keep one in the back for emergencies,” It seemed like he read your mind. Was it the childhood friend's telepathy? “I always wash it, so don’t worry about it having puke or anything on it.” 

“I wasn’t thinking of that but… okay,” You laugh for the first time in a while. Kazuha could feel his ears grow slightly red as he breathes a sigh of relief. He’s glad that for a moment, you were able to at least enjoy a small bit of this night with him. “Does Gorou have a weak alcohol tolerance?”

He scratches the back of his neck, “Not really. I think he’s quite good with it despite what he says. I’ve driven him back from a couple of parties a few times, but he’s never thrown up before.”

“I always thought of him as someone being bad with alcohol. Maybe on your level,” You giggle into the back of your hand. 

“You think I’m still bad at alcohol? I’m getting better.”

“By how much?” 

“Not much.” 

You lean back on the chair, staring at him with your head tilted slightly to the side. He has to admit that despite the dreary night, you looked at peace here. You were distracting yourself with a few of his words. Was it working as well as he wanted? 

“Thank you, Kazuha,” You start, closing your eyes. 

You try not to get distracted by the sudden intrusion of the song, ‘Are You Bored Yet’ playing in the background. It seemed so cheesy that you had to resist the urge of mentioning it. He still played this song even to this day? You were impressed. You only remember hearing this song when he first found it in high school, and now the two of you were college students. You push your tongue against the front of your teeth as you inhaled deeply. 

“You didn’t have to do any of this for me. It’s just a silly breakup. I was just… the stupid one for getting caught up in my feelings.” You wipe away at a stray tear that had slipped. Your voice was cracking slightly as you forced out words of gratitude.

“I don’t think it was much. You need someone to talk to and I don’t mind it if I’m that person. We’ve known each other for years after all. It’d be quite irresponsible of me to abandon you.” He made it sound so easy to be there for you. 

“You don’t have to do this much for me. I’m already sort of… intruding and everything,” Before you could blurt out any more words, Kazuha stops you by pressing a french fry against your lips. Your eyes widen and you stare into his autumn-colored irises with an expression of confusion.

“Just eat your fries. They’re going to get stale if you keep putting them off.”

[unknownteapot]

My unpopular shourtney opinion is that I really hate the way the Smosh fandom polices its shippers. It's the ship that smosh themselves arguably fanservices the most, yet you hop onto any social media platform and there's this weird clique-y negative attitude when it comes to anyone shipping them. Which is extra ironic considering: put 'smosh' into the tag search here on tumblr and ALLLLLL you're scrolling through is rpf ship content. But, oh, guess we're all down to clown over shaymien 'cause it's fun but it's invasive when it's shourtney? But not iananthony or shayne/chanse or amanda/angela or spencer/courtney or or or etc. There's such a huge hypocrisy when it comes to Shayne and Courtney and the double standard of "don't ship real people, it's weird............ except for these real people that iiiii've deemed shippable" is a huge turnoff from making me want to participate in the fandom. Like, we're all little weirdos at the table. You don't have to police the party. AND ADDITIONALLY: people overanalyze interactions and videos and pictures ALL THE TIME. Yes, I wish the shourtney fandom in general would chill with freeze framing videos and doing crime scene level analysis on them, but I see that happening with every ship mentioned above too. It's the nature of shipping, it's not exclusive to shourtney✌️

ooofffff anon, hello hii and thank you for sharing <3

i do understand where you're coming from with the irony of it being okay to ship certain couples but not others, and while i haven't experienced much of it myself yet as i'm fairly new to the fandom & tumblr, i do see the double standards. but, i also think there's a reason they exist and it's a valid one (even if it is a little sad)

people who've been fans longer than me can correct me- but i'm pretty sure there was a strange discord(?) where invasive shourtney 'proofs' were being posted and discussed and so on for a while, and as we know c has experienced their fair share of stalker-ish behaviours. due to how immensely popular the shourtney ship is/was in the early days of smosh and the behaviours of some members of the fandom, shourtney shippers gained a reputation of being overly analytical and invasive. that's where i think its important to draw the distinction between shipping and trying to prove a relationship.

i think a lot of shourtney shippers fell/fall into the latter category, where 'shipping' treads the line of seeking to expose them somehow or 'show the truth' -> in my eyes that's not really shipping, that's just an invasion of privacy, so i do understand where others' hesitation or disdain comes from when talking about shourtney shippers in this context.

however, of course some of us are here because we just love them, love their dynamic, find them to be a safe space for us or want to rant about how cute they are or the look they shared in a video- that's just standard fan behaviour in my eyes. i don't even have that much of a problem with people analysing (public) interactions/freeze-framing videos of cute moments or whatnot, because that's just looking into their dynamic, that's shipping culture at its core. every ship is entitled to cute gifets and loving rants, like u say:

"Like, we're all little weirdos at the table." anon i love u hahahahh

it can be frustrating feeling like we're looked down upon as shourtney shippers, but i think now its up to us to build that reputation back up of respect and boundaries, and lean more into the shipping side of things rather than the 'proofs' side of things <3

(god this was long, i hope this answered your ask anon :)

[aronarchy]

i think there are some belief sets that are shoved into the category of “just thinking about The Future(tm)” & thus assumed to have zero bearing on your present values, and thus anyone who gets “pushy” about those/has a stance & sticks to it is assumed to be problematizing/politicizing an apolitical issue and thus ruining the party for everyone else

for example I remember some time ago I was posting about transhumanism/deity-abolition stuff & how I believe it is unethical for any sentient, agentic being to be capable of stopping vast amounts of suffering but still choosing not to just because, and maintaining a vast power imbalance btwn them & other beings. & that “natural” biological death is, if caused by/enabled by a superior agent, just functionally equivalent to ppl being drugged unconscious/put to sleep permanently against their will (or at least, without them being able to say no). a christian responded by saying death is compatible with her philosophy bc she believes in heaven & saved souls after and whatnot. i pointed out that (even if that’s true, which is unlikely, & not reasonable to subject ppl to the risk of given how that cannot be verified rn & is logically unlikely) that would be functionally equivalent to drugging someone nonconsensually, dragging them off to somewhere else against their will or without their knowledge (or at least ability to say no), and then policing a border so that they are forcibly cut off from loved ones & huge swaths of the sentient universe & the like for eternity. a friend dm’ed me on her behalf later to ask me “but why did you block that woman over her christianity comment.” just, did not understand why I think that was an issue, and did not like being derailed like that, and that I view this as an actual ethical issue w/genuine ethical weight & that matters. bc all spirituality is automatically assigned “apolitical” & “a valid belief” even if it’s passing down real ethical mandates that negatively/would negatively impact lives.

some progressives cede that yea doctrine is wrong sometimes but only when it’s Real Political Issues That Matter like christianity being used to justify misogyny/adultism/queerphobia for example. but, there’s a lot they leave uninterrogated (including the fundamental premise). or, they care about death-advocacy-bc-heaven but only when it becomes Really Bad Enough, like actual suicide cults or telling people to kill themselves or others. but they have a point at which they stop, like indefinite life extension upon request.

I wrote an analysis once abt how belief in all-powerful deities & positive moral assignations to them can be considered analogous to certain scenarios where a human was extremely socially/economically powerful & controlled much of the world or your resources & you can’t see them but they might be able to make demands and the like, and still restrict your agency but in ways too normalized to really notice. I don’t think it can be anarchic, on principle, to believe that choosing to be/remain a powerful deity, taking control over numerous ppl’s lives, is ethical. and I don’t think you can hold that + anarchism as opinions at the same time without running into contradiction somewhere down the line when you try to reduce/apply your philosophies.

some ppl argue that transhumanism isn’t rly an issue that has ethical weight that actually matters bc it doesn’t matter, it’s all for the future, we can’t do any of that right now so leave it (and the arguing!) for later. that’s not really right though; transhumanism, first off, isn’t just some discrete set of alterations, but a principle, and nature essentialism is often used right now to disagree w/sex-modification surgeries or certain types of accommodations for disabled people. some ppl try to shove the later into a category of “unproblematic” bioalteration but that’s not really coherent, is it; it relies on aesthetic/political convenience to judge, not analysis. likewise for primitivism discourses--I’m not saying that working together on some things sometimes is impossible, but that taking a stance is ethically relevant (and also primitivists seem to have a much easier time accusing us of “disunity”/imposing unimportant beliefs than vice versa). is it as immediate as now? no, but it does matter to at least some degree.

somewhat similar dynamics wrt state communists who don’t support any presently existing or past examples of oppression, but still support it as a hypothetical, and make it a future goal. it does bleed into their actual present theory & practice at least sometimes, even if they’re willing to work with anarchists in the present. and also, again, they have an easier time accusing us of caring about irrelevancies than vice versa.

also (this seems like a very different issue, but i’m just putting my own thoughts/experiences out here) this seems like a similar line of thinking to what’s applied to contact discourse a lot of the time. “well that’s about the FUTURE but we can’t say anything about the future post-youthlib or post-“destigmatization” & whether or not it would be ethical then so let’s not care now and fuck you for caring.” bc first of all, 1) “youthlib’d societies” existed in the past, and 1b) pro-c’s like bringing up “noncolonized ‘non-adultist’ pro-c societies” so it’s just completely unaware & irresponsible imo to act like it is just needed “for the future” not for anything in the past or the present; 2) post-youthlib ppl would deserve to have their trauma recognized too if they experienced csa, and the epistemic injustice of abuse being denied (or relativized) is, well (bad, obviously); 3) they wouldn’t be an entirely different species even then, and contact stances wrt that “future world” would involve debates around biopol. & psychology & physiology and frameworks, and which when used now for current debates (bc they are used, yes) do actually influence how we would conceptualize the answer to that future problem, so it’s kind of not a good idea to think that the two are just, like, completely disconnected & discrete.

also just bc it “can’t matter now” isn’t an excuse for arguing it will/should never matter (which is smth claimed by some of such aforementioned individuals).

[goldenjhobi-blog]

The Grocery Inflation

Aurash Azad: 81969644

Tayeh Ahadi: 46283688

How does inflation affect grocery prices?

Eggs

In the past year, many groceries have seen an increase in prices due to several different factors, such as supply shortages, labor shortages, and natural disasters. In the latter category is eggs, which has had a 138% increase in price in the past year. Before, the average for a dozen Grade A eggs was approximately $1.79, but as of January of this year, the average price has gone up to $4.25. What could be the cause? For the most part, the rising price of eggs can be attributed to the avian bird flu that has swept the nation in the recent months, affecting close to 60 million birds, and as a result, their eggs. The bird flu has not only decreased the supply of eggs to the country, but also increased their overall prices. However, the high price of eggs doesn't detain all Americans, as they are considered a food staple to many, since they are used in a wide range of dishes, such as breakfast foods and baked dishes. The low supply of eggs coupled with their stable consumption means that in many grocery stores across America, eggs are completely sold out. Another source of high prices could be due to price gouging in major egg firms, such as Cal-Maine Foods, which has reported an increase of 600% in quarterly gross profit, though they haven’t had any cases of avian bird flu on their farms. Thus, although the egg industry has seen a decrease in supply due to the avian bird flu, a lot of the price increase is associated with large firms using the flu as an excuse to gouge prices in order to increase their profits, not thinking of the effects they may have on their consumers. In my personal experience, I use eggs frequently in my breakfast as they’re a quick and easy source of nutrition, and they’re versatile in a way that many other foods aren’t. Also, as a college student with very little income, eggs have served as a staple in my fridge since the beginning of university. However, in recent months, I have had to be more frugal in how I spend my grocery budget, and that means less eggs and healthy food options, and more cheap, low-quality food that’ll last me longer. However, even when I plan to buy eggs, they are not always available in my local grocery stores. Just recently, my trip to Trader Joe’s revealed empty rows where eggs used to be, as consumers continue to buy them even as their supply decreases. Eggs, though seemingly inconsequential in day-to-day life, play a significant role in many foods, and their price increase coupled with their supply shortage has resulted in distressing grocery trips all across the country.

Butter

Grocery prices have been on the rise within the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic that began March 2020 is only one reason to blame the skyrocketing prices, and the shortage of supply in the market. A shortage is when the quantity demanded is disproportionate and larger than the supply available at the market price. After the breakout of the pandemic, many of us would walk into grocery stores to see nothing left on the shelves. There are many different reasons for the rise of prices, and a few important ones that can be seen include shortages within labor as well as supply. According to the Time magazine, the price for one stick of butter has increased more than 31% just within the past year. The average price of butter was set at $3.47, and is now found to be $4.81 on average across most cities in the United States. Besides the COVID-19 pandemic, dairy farmers are blaming the extreme heat, along with the small cow herds, which includes the results of financial combats as the primary reason for the increase in the price for butter. The shortage of butter has caused major concerns in the US, not only for consumers, but for factories and productions as well. One of the main reasons for this is set due to milk production setbacks that occurred within the economy. The demand for butter is increasing, even as the rates for dairy production is lowering, which is causing a lower availability in the supply market. Besides the direct effect it has on the market industry, it affects the lives of individuals as well. For example, butter is an essential ingredient to both chefs as well as bakers, to almost everyone using it in the global economy. Most dishes around the world incorporate butter into their ingredients and are used to help melt or fry, complement, or enhance flavor. The cost of producing dairy products has widely increased and therefore has caused the supply to decrease. How has this affected my personal life? Well, here at UC Irvine it has been difficult living on campus, on a college budget and having to purchase groceries to cook meals. It has become more difficult due to the recent rise in grocery prices, but more specifically butter. Using butter is a crucial ingredient to many different dishes, including eggs, which have also seen inflation within the past few years. With the rise in prices and the decrease in supply available, it has been hard to get access to many basic grocery needs, including butter. Not only do I use butter to cook, but to bake as well. Whether it has been a cookie, cake, or any other dessert, one of the principle ingredients is butter and without it, it makes it very hard to bake or cook. Overall, the rise in grocery prices has caused a worldwide crisis in many households and has put no option but a budget to be imposed in many families that had never thought about having one before. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic emergency slowly coming to an end, along with the combination of farmers beginning to recover from the pandemic and fertilizer costs slowly beginning to decrease, we can anticipate that grocery prices, including the price of butter will begin to decrease once again. 

https://time.com/6250895/grocery-prices-rising-inflation 

https://time.com/6255258/inflation-grocery-prices-rise/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inflation-food-grocery-prices-financial-pain/

[simpleexross]

INTRODUCTION POST!

Hello! I have been lurking in the tickle community for a while (ever since I was a kid) but I was always too afraid/embarrassed to interact with any content. Ever since I turned 18 though, the idea of FINALLY making a Tumblr Blog for this totally NOT obsessive interest seemed like a good idea!

Some thing to know about me:

Online I go by the name/nickname of Ross, I use He/Him pronouns and am FtM. As far as sexuality, I am Pan, AroAce though I usually say AroAce to simplify due to how little I partake in any kind of romance. I am 18 years old (2006), and I fall into the Lee category. (I could say Lee-leaning, but the divide of 90% lee / 10% let feels to small to consider.)

This will be a SFW blog, I am fine with anyone 15+ (15 is pushing it so NO younger) interacting with me since I do that now in high school! (As of this post I'm a senior) However I would like nobody above the age of 25 (again, pushing it so really NO older) to interact with me. I'm general I would prefer for my own comfortability you are as close to my age as possible! For anyone my age feel free to DM me anytime, though let it be known I'm an anxious as well as busy person so please don't feel bad if it takes time to reply at all!

Now, the big reveal now that you have gotten this far. My reason for being in this community, I have never been tickled before, sure I've had people poke me or wiggle their fingers for a second, if I'm lucky a squeeze. But, it's never been more than just to see me flinch, not real tickling. So I have never been properly tickled before. Knowing from a few "random moments" (I caused them) I know I should be a little bit? I mean I flinch, I react? It's odd.

I wanna use this blog as a place to cope with that, and also to be honest with a part of myself I have ignored for probably a decade, a weird fascination (and slight craving) for experiencing what it's like to be tickled. It has consumed all my thoughts so might as well!

Boundaries:

Other than the age range I stated earlier here are other questions you might have,

Yes, you can DM and @ me in post

Yes, you can use the submissions for anything SFW

Yes, you can tease me and things of that nature (as long as you're my age) however I will find it quite flustering! Which ironically is a new feeling for me I thought I was shameless, but I was mistaken. Once tickling is brought out I'm a mess. (Also yes I can type "the word" but I still can't say it, and yes other people saying it is well...)

No, you can't tag me in a NSFW post or talk about that with me

No, you may not use suggestive language & no, you can't use anything like "puppy" (or "toy") or other things similar to that when talking to me (this goes with suggestive language)

The only tickles I don't like are feet, I'm fine everywhere else but feet. Anything relating to feet or feet tickling makes me uncomfortable so if you interact with me please don't bring it up! No hate to you just not my thing personally.

Fandoms:

I write at 3 am on Google docs sad pathetic fanfiction, don't know if it will ever be seen here but the idea of having moots in the same fandom to share tickle hc's with sounds like a great time

Main Interest Right Now:

The Magnus Archives

My Hero Academia

Arcane

Others I can think of:

South Park

One Piece

(a bunch of other animes)

Etc.,

I am also obsessed with my own OCs I love drawing & writing them

Thank you for reading this!

Here attached is one of these intro post I see all the time, do with it what you must:

[rake-rake]

@ofdeedsglorious

"Merlin, I told you quite plainly." Arthur scowled, arms crossed as he looked at the mage over his desk. To a degree he understood that it was her nature to cause issues, but to disregard what he had to say so blatantly was a source of immense frustration and outright annoyance. How badly things could have gone had it not been for Bedivere's quick interference in what was almost a brawl before the tournament had even begun! "Do not go around convincing men to fight for you for your amusement, especially not today. I told you that, just as I made certain to inform you that this tournament is important to reaffirm the friendship between my kingdom and King Uriens' lands." An important task, considering the older king's disdain for him. "Why did you feel the need to stir up trouble despite my orders?" ; from arthur to merlin for the inbox call

Unprompted.

If there was one feature most people would use to describe the mage of flowers, it would be always beautiful, but if there was a second one to mention it would certainly be her smile. Always present even in the most idle of moments, simply wanning an raising like the moon but never totally disappearing, no matter what emotion could cross those slit eyes. Yet, the one with which she faces her king now has a certain edge of pity for him, barely covered by an always present amusement when before him.

"I guess it's difficult for you to understand something like this." she lets out a sigh as placing her staff in the air behind her, letting it levitate to use the horizontal handle as an impromptu seat. She crosses her legs and rests her chin on her hand, claws brushing purple lips as she tilts her head and narrows her eyes, "Let's go slowly then. Tell me Artie, when you look at me, what do you see?"

The true intention of the question is pretty evident as she pulls down her hood with her other hand, iridescent hair brushing the scales of her cheekbones to frame her face. She smirks and crosses her legs before continuing.

"Let me answer that. You see your mage and resident nuisance. But that's only you. Most men I've met in my life see me as a woman, and mage only afterwards. I don't need to spell out what that means, do I?" he smirk widens into a grin, but there's nothing happy or amused about it, rather a palpable feeling of disgust, "Humans are just another breed of animals, but males are the worst of them. They will always try to take what they want, no matter what- or who, it is. I fall into that category, as you might've guessed by now."

She sighs as standing up again and throwing her hood once more over her face, fingers carefully pushing the tufts underneath.

"If it will ease your mind, I won't ever lift my hood near human men again. Nor speak. Although I can't do anything about my fragrance. It's just the way things are, right?"

[just-nebularomantic-things]

Also really glad to see that your blog is cluster-B safe! Despite what I said in my other asks about me feeling hesitant to label myself as nebularomantic due to it falling under the aro umbrella and me not relating to aros at all (but also not relating to allos because most of them draw a very hard line between platonic and romantic love and their experience of it is very alien and foreign to me and has actually led to some very unpleasant social interactions in the past), I do relate to the experience very much and I am pretty sure it's caused by the combination of all my personality disorders.

I also have diagnosed ADHD and used to be considered autistic as well (that was later changed to a misdiagnosis and now I'm considered ADHD with a lot of autistic traits) but for me, the problems with differentiating between platonic and romantic love seems to be directly caused by my 3 diagnosed personality disorders specifically. I have Schizotypal, Borderline and Avoidant. And like if I had just one of them this wouldn't be happening, I think, and maybe even the killer combo itself wouldn't be that much of a problem but I also have a lot of symptoms of NPD. Which isn't that weird, cluster B disorders tend to kinda overlap and while most of my BPD friends don't show NPD traits, coincidentally my one friend with NPD does have a lot of BPD symptoms. But yeah I have a fair share of NPD traits as a cherry on the top of my BPD cake, and when that combines with my STPD and my AVPD, it creates this unholy concoction. Oh yeah and the asexuality was probably the last nail in the coffin because if I could feel sexual attraction I might be able to differentiate platonic and romantic based on my sexual feelings. But alas I am not sexually attracted to anyone at all, I just think that all bodies look cool as all hell and I am an admirer of the human form. People and the diversity of the human experience, both physical and psychical, always moves me to tears because people are just so beautiful and perfect aaaand sorry got carried away by the star bright perfection of humanity again.

your reasoning is exactly why nebularomanticism is not specifically an "autistic" label, but a neurodivergent one!

cluster b disorders are so unfairly demonized. this is totally a place where that will not be tolerated towards any personality disorders (or anyone at all.)

personally, mine is because of my autism- but I do have some NPD traits also (enough to make my life a more difficult, but not enough to be diagnosed.....) which may have something to do with it. i naturally don't have many friends, but if i do want a friend, it is strictly in the "acquaintance" category, and i just want the company, without the strong emotional connection. i've had friends who i care deeply about, but that same platonic love for those people..... could just as well be called romantic. if i were to date one of those people, my behaviour towards them wouldn't change- because it's the same feeling, with the same behaviors (TO ME). i don't understand the difference between taking a friend out to the movies, and taking your boyfriend on a date to the movies. that should be the same thing.... right? hahaha

it is interesting to me that some people do feel a real difference with those two types of "love."

thank you for sharing your experiences! i do agree a lack of sexual attraction may cause some difficulty in differentiating those feelings too. i can see what you mean.

humanity is beautiful! one of the reasons i made this blog was to have a place for all sorts of people to be able to share their feelings. it's been nice hearing from you!

[pjunicornart]

Round 2 les goooo

By the way, the Token preferences were inferred based on vibes.

Drink: "I like tea. Especially oolong." Ice Cream Flavor: "Cookie dough, all the time! Can you believe that's the ONE flavor of ice cream Neil doesn't like?" Music Genre: "Well, considering my frog band is a jazz band... it would be weird if I didn't say jazz." Movie Genre: "What's not to love about action movies? Explosions, crazy plot lines, and shredded men and women everywhere you look." Online Activity: "I like to watch videos with Neil before bed. It's our own little ritual." Phone App: "I use the music player the most, but it only works like, half the time. Which reminds me... I REALLY need to get a new phone..." Type of Exercise: "Karate! I took lessons when I was kid, and I still practice it to this day! You better watch out, buddy!" Outdoor Activity: "I like to go down to the nearby pond and find some new frogs to possibly join the band, or to just have around." Theme Park Ride: "Nothing raises my spirits quite like a roller coaster! My favorites are the ones that do those big drops." Friday Night: "That's band practice night. Rarely ever miss a day, too." Sunday Morning: "I usually sleep in on the weekends, just like everybody else in my family, ha ha." Weather: "Bright, sunny days are the best, because our house is filled with such a nice natural light." Holiday: "I've loved Christmas ever since I was a kid. I look forward to it every year! Much to the annoyance of my husband, ha ha." Pet: "Sis, do you think I'm NOT gonna say frogs?" School Subject: "Gym class was fun, because I got to show the big boys how it's done! Ha ha ha!" Place to Shop: "I absolutely LOVE going to those high end fashion boutiques. That's where I got the dress I'm wearing now!" Trait in Partner: "Hmmm... How about confidence? I think that's just as important as anything else." Own Body Part: "Oh, easy. My hips! They're the part I love the most, just look at them!" Sex Position: "What's the one called where the girl's on top? Oh yeah, cowgirl. That one hits just right, every time." Porn Category: "I don't know if I should disclose that information... Hm, if you simply MUST know, I prefer to watch solo girls. That's all I need."

Baggage Franny: "I like you, y'know. You don't doubt me as much some of the other people I've talked to." YN: "What do you mean by that?" Franny: "You know the type of people. The ones who judge you at a first glance? Ugh, I can't stand those people. It's fine, though. All they have to do is piss me off, and they won't do it again. You have my word on that." Hot Headed - If Franny becomes upset a row of tokens will shatter after every move is made on her date until her Stamina fully recovers.

Franny: "Did I tell you about my upcoming concert yet? Ugh, it's kinda lookin' like a shit show right now. Mostly because there's just so much left to do." YN: "Maybe I can lend you a helping hand?" Franny: "Nope. I appreciate the offer, but I can do it just fine on my own, thanks. I've been doing this alone for about eight years now, and I can do it for eight more!" Miss Independent - Franny will refuse to accept any date gifts unless she has at least 30% Passion.

Franny: "Hey, think I can borrow your phone for a sec? I need to make a quick call." YN: "Didn't you say that you put in a time off notice?" Franny: "Hm? Oh, I did. This is gonna be a call to my lead singer, Frankie. We need to schedule some more practice days as well as schedule dates for meet and greets and such. It's a lot of stuff... which kinda sucks, 'cause it means I don't have much time to myself." Busy Schedule - Franny will shorten the date by taking one extra move after every ten moves.

Cornelius... Michael... Lizzy...

[thursday7econlive]

Aurash Azad: 81969644

Tayeh Ahadi: 46283688

How does inflation affect grocery prices?

Eggs

In the past year, many groceries have seen an increase in prices due to several different factors, such as supply shortages, labor shortages, and natural disasters. In the latter category is eggs, which has had a 138% increase in price in the past year. Before, the average for a dozen Grade A eggs was approximately $1.79, but as of January of this year, the average price has gone up to $4.25. What could be the cause? For the most part, the rising price of eggs can be attributed to the avian bird flu that has swept the nation in the recent months, affecting close to 60 million birds, and as a result, their eggs. The bird flu has not only decreased the supply of eggs to the country, but also increased their overall prices. However, the high price of eggs doesn't detain all Americans, as they are considered a food staple to many, since they are used in a wide range of dishes, such as breakfast foods and baked dishes. The low supply of eggs coupled with their stable consumption means that in many grocery stores across America, eggs are completely sold out. Another source of high prices could be due to price gouging in major egg firms, such as Cal-Maine Foods, which has reported an increase of 600% in quarterly gross profit, though they haven’t had any cases of avian bird flu on their farms. Thus, although the egg industry has seen a decrease in supply due to the avian bird flu, a lot of the price increase is associated with large firms using the flu as an excuse to gouge prices in order to increase their profits, not thinking of the effects they may have on their consumers. In my personal experience, I use eggs frequently in my breakfast as they’re a quick and easy source of nutrition, and they’re versatile in a way that many other foods aren’t. Also, as a college student with very little income, eggs have served as a staple in my fridge since the beginning of university. However, in recent months, I have had to be more frugal in how I spend my grocery budget, and that means less eggs and healthy food options, and more cheap, low-quality food that’ll last me longer. However, even when I plan to buy eggs, they are not always available in my local grocery stores. Just recently, my trip to Trader Joe’s revealed empty rows where eggs used to be, as consumers continue to buy them even as their supply decreases. Eggs, though seemingly inconsequential in day-to-day life, play a significant role in many foods, and their price increase coupled with their supply shortage has resulted in distressing grocery trips all across the country.

Butter

Grocery prices have been on the rise within the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic that began March 2020 is only one reason to blame the skyrocketing prices, and the shortage of supply in the market. A shortage is when the quantity demanded is disproportionate and larger than the supply available at the market price. After the breakout of the pandemic, many of us would walk into grocery stores to see nothing left on the shelves. There are many different reasons for the rise of prices, and a few important ones that can be seen include shortages within labor as well as supply. According to the Time magazine, the price for one stick of butter has increased more than 31% just within the past year. The average price of butter was set at $3.47, and is now found to be $4.81 on average across most cities in the United States. Besides the COVID-19 pandemic, dairy farmers are blaming the extreme heat, along with the small cow herds, which includes the results of financial combats as the primary reason for the increase in the price for butter. The shortage of butter has caused major concerns in the US, not only for consumers, but for factories and productions as well. One of the main reasons for this is set due to milk production setbacks that occurred within the economy. The demand for butter is increasing, even as the rates for dairy production is lowering, which is causing a lower availability in the supply market. Besides the direct effect it has on the market industry, it affects the lives of individuals as well. For example, butter is an essential ingredient to both chefs as well as bakers, to almost everyone using it in the global economy. Most dishes around the world incorporate butter into their ingredients and are used to help melt or fry, complement, or enhance flavor. The cost of producing dairy products has widely increased and therefore has caused the supply to decrease. How has this affected my personal life? Well, here at UC Irvine it has been difficult living on campus, on a college budget and having to purchase groceries to cook meals. It has become more difficult due to the recent rise in grocery prices, but more specifically butter. Using butter is a crucial ingredient to many different dishes, including eggs, which have also seen inflation within the past few years. With the rise in prices and the decrease in supply available, it has been hard to get access to many basic grocery needs, including butter. Not only do I use butter to cook, but to bake as well. Whether it has been a cookie, cake, or any other dessert, one of the principle ingredients is butter and without it, it makes it very hard to bake or cook. Overall, the rise in grocery prices has caused a worldwide crisis in many households and has put no option but a budget to be imposed in many families that had never thought about having one before. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic emergency slowly coming to an end, along with the combination of farmers beginning to recover from the pandemic and fertilizer costs slowly beginning to decrease, we can anticipate that grocery prices, including the price of butter will begin to decrease once again. 

https://time.com/6250895/grocery-prices-rising-inflation 

https://time.com/6255258/inflation-grocery-prices-rise/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inflation-food-grocery-prices-financial-pain/

[terraoblivion]

Recently I’ve been finding enough energy to actually go out there and find a new roleplay group, which has of course meant interacting with a lot more roleplayers than I have in a long while. That’s reminded me of how important a lot of people find not just realism, but also the concept of high or low magic. While I certainly have thoughts about the former concept, it’s the latter that fascinates me enough to want to talk about it.

Specifically I want to talk about it because while the concept clearly has pragmatic utility, most people discussing thing from that perspective agree what it means and what makes for appropriate action based on it, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you seriously stop and think about it. Specifically, it runs into the core question of what magic is and what it means to have high or low amounts of it.

If you ask people to define magic, most people are probably just going to go with some variant of confusion, everybody knows what magic is, or discomfort at having to formally define something, but if you get an answer, it’s probably going to be that it’s things that violate the laws of nature. This has three obvious issues. The first is that a lot of things in fiction that violate the laws of nature aren’t considered magic, most of what goes down in action scenes is far beyond human capability, but nobody calls Rambo a wizard, for example.

Another is that, well, the laws of nature are something we’re in the process of understanding, so what is or isn’t magic keeps changing and while we’re probably not going to radically change our understanding of what’s possible now, we certainly have in the past. As an example, it fails utterly at understanding the perspective of medieval Europeans. To them, as well as to continuted Catholic doctrine, saints cause miracles and that’s their piety and God’s will, not magic. In a European context, cynocephali were just, you know, weird people living over there in Scandinavia/Central Asia/India/Subsaharan Africa/the Americas or wherever else the writer knew about, but didn’t really know the details of. The great ring of fire at the equator and its gap at Sri Lanka or Gog, Magog, the Hyperboreans and the Twelve Lost Tribes being locked up behind a great gate in the Caucasus by Alexander the Great weren’t magical either, they were just facts known to learned people.

Magic in this example was rather more specific. It was the ability to influence the world in unpredictable ways without the intervention of God. It was scribbling a doodle and sneaking out a midnight to cut off the hand of a criminal to stuff in your pocket in order to win at dice or whatever mysterious things the magisters at the university was up to. It was whatever went down at non-Christian religious rituals. Or to put it differently, magic wasn’t the stuff that was impossible, it was illegitimate spiritual conduct and at best shady and hubristic, at worst outright ungodly.

However, the really thorny problem posed here is that if magic is things that, by the fundamental nature of reality isn’t possible, then logically speaking no story would ever have magic. If it shows up in the story and is real within the context of the story, then the story takes place in a world where reality permits it to happen, so it can’t, within the logic of the story, be magic unless we change the definition of magic.

What all this leads to is this: Magic is not a set category, magic is a social construct for understanding and classifying concepts. By treating it as a singular, self-evident thing, you strongly limit the stories you can conceive of, the stories you can comprehend when faced with and the cultures you can meaningfully relate to both the religious and broader spiritual beliefs of, but also the narrative structures of. It also makes things needlessly blander by simply having an archetypal template to apply to things, rather than create something with greater specificity.

This is especially true because even if people define magic very broadly, they still carry a lot of ideas about what’s magical and what magical practice looks like. The classic example is people insisting that warriors cannot have special powers in D&D, because that’s magic and they’re mundane people, which not just brings a judgement about the prevalence of magic, but also a judgement about what practices can bring about magic. Apparently physical exercise, precise movements and the cultivated mindset of focused practice cannot lead to breaks with reality as it is exists in the universe that actually exists. But doodles, broken Latin and vaguely Hebrew sounding proclamations can, as can special ancestry or spiritual beings interacting with you. Which is obviously an entirely arbitrary distinction to make about how things that literally are impossible could be possible in an imagined world, rooted purely in traditional portrayal and conventional aesthetics.

The whole discussion about more or less magic also ends up presupposing a universe that’s essentially our own with more or less special bits bolted to the side. Which is doesn’t actually make a lot of sense once you stop, take a step back and remember that a universe that has something we’d call magic is by nature a universe that works differently than ours. There’d almost certainly be different social categorizations of what does and does not make sense to those people and what is and isn’t easy. Unless you propose magic as a new development, these cultures will have grown up with the fact that if mumble the right words the air explodes or if you do the right breathing exercises and martial arts forms you’ll be able to jump twenty meters and kick off from the surface of a lake. They’re not going to be weird breaks from reality to them anymore than the way messing just right with the electrons of rocks makes them do math and that math can then be converted to sound and images is to us.

The Rainbow Six event in Arknights provides a good example of this. A scientist ends up studying Tachanka’s shotgun and marvels at the precision engineering and complexity of the chemistry that went into its ammunition, before concluding that it’s a ridiculous work around when you can just get a staff with some originium and use arts. It’s way easier to make and maintain, why bother with something that complex just to deliver force at range?

Just because you’re breaking from not just real physics, but potentially even the materialism of reality* in favor of a world where cosmological forces have consciousness, will and agency, doesn’t mean that everything impossible goes. Correct martial arts practices letting you create fireballs doesn’t presuppose time travel, dragon, embodied gods or the efficacy of using urine in the production of gold. Nor do dragons necessarily lead to alternate dimension. Similarly, just because the rules of a world permits something, does not mean that it’s well known, or known at all, or well understood and even if it’s both, it can have achieved great cultural significance that makes it special anyway. We’ve got well known and well understood things we still marvel at, just look at the continuted popularity of sports for an example.

You don’t need to lose wonder because things that people in our world call magic is prevalent. The people of another world can still marvel at a flying ship, even if everybody has the rock that regulates temperature at home. Just because any skill can lead you to great feats beyond anything possible in our universe doesn’t mean that the day the Invisible Sword Princess rolls into town and takes down thirty bandits with a broken tableleg she sets on fire with her great skill isn’t a marvel.

 You also don’t need to lose the concept of a wizard if magic is more common. Sure, maybe the plumber fixes your sink by replacing the purification crystal or every elite soldier learns how to run up the sides of buildings. But how does that change that the guy in the tower working with the alignment of the stars to go to another world is doing some weird stuff that’s beyond my understanding. I might be weird, but I don’t think that the fact that I’ve got electric light makes the Large Hadron Collider any less of a marvel or the Moon landing any less wondrous.

In the end, think of what the elements mean to the people of the setting, story, game or whatever. What value do they ascribe to them. How do they understand them and how do they treat.

And ultimately, keeping magic magical or stories believable doesn’t come down to keeping it rare or even telling the audience that it’s special. It comes down to execution. As isekai anime and xianxia novels keep reminding us, just because your main character does amazing, overpowered things, breaks all the rules of how things were supposed to work and everybody keeps going on about how incredible it is doesn’t mean that it gets anymore wondrous than used dishwashing water without the ability to actually portray the wonder.

Forget magic as an amorphous everything blob, that usually gets limited to the people you’re used to thinking of deserving it. Think of themes, story and setting and how to sell it. What form of breaks from reality works for what you’re trying to do and what do the ones you see in a piece of media mean for what it’s trying to do.

*As we generally understand it. Matter being vibrating energy and the persistence of Uncertainty are just two examples of how reality is a lot stranger than we usually think of it.