#like. SUPER gradual but :'''')

[dreamerdrop]

I don’t talk about my love for Kira Nerys too often because. Look. I think if DS9 handles anything well, it’s Kira, hands down.

Her character development is a work of art. She is so traumatised, so angry, so beaten down and STILL FIGHTING at the start. She struggles so much with her PTSD, with the idea that she is ever allowed to be in anything but attack mode…

And then, slowly, gradually, she becomes a whole new person. She laughs, she smiles, she makes corny jokes, she does dumb fun things for the sake of enjoying herself. She has friends, she has a family, she is surrounded by love and joy and HOPE.

Even in the middle of second war, she’s DIFFERENT now. She’s not the same miserable angry person she was, afraid to let go of the vigilant surivival instincts that kept her alive for so long. She’s come back to life as a person who has something to live for.

She has done terrible things. Her hands are stained with blood. She is never going to be able to forget her trauma or the suffering, both her own and that of her people, nor the suffering she inflicted while fighting for her freedom. But she recovers. She heals. She carves out an existence where she is truly, genuinely happy to be alive.

I don’t need to talk about Kira as much as some other characters because this all happens on screen. It’s right there, and it’s beautiful and perfect.

Kira Nerys goes from a person who cannot conceive of herself outside of the horrors she has suffered, inflicted, and fought against, to someone for whom her trauma is just one part of the larger picture, a piece of a rich and vibrant tapestry that is now filled, overwhelmingly, with joy.

Kira Nerys is like, hands down, bar none, one of, if not THE best characters Star Trek has ever created. I love her so much. She is just, completely and utterly perfect, especially in her flaws.

[mollysunder]

I see Arcane's marketing is thrusting a lot of blue on Jinx's persona, which is fine, but also a misdirection! I argue that the use of blue on Jinx represents THE IDEA that others have of Jinx rather than representing who Jinx really is. Jinx's true color, the one she paints over those closest to her, the one that represents her is PINK. Jinx is pink!

When we see Jinx in pieces either in or out of show where blue is the predominant color in the palette it's signaling to us the audience that this the Jinx that is perceived by the world around her, which includes Piltover AND Zaun. In this essay I will---

[lnkedmyheart]

People saying Dazai has done more for Sigma than anyone else when my man has been constantly risking his life to save people since before leaving the mafia. He risked his life (and the city) to give Chuuya a choice at 16, he tried to risk his life for Oda in dark era, he risked his life and actually flat lined in Dazai's entrance exam, he risked his life for the agency and got shot, he risked his life during dead apple and has been super gentle with Chuuya after every use of corruption barring the fight with lovecraft, he is now risking his life for Sigma. I am sorry but Dazai has always been a normal person with severe mental illness exploited by his environment and those around him till he was left feeling inhuman and desperate for death. He has been trying again and again and I hate ya'll for acting like this is the first time he's been nice or self sacrificing since the series started.

Edit: it wasn't DEE it was 55 minutes where his heart stopped and Yosano healed him. I mixed that up somehow.

[happywitchesofnewdi]

It only took 8 billion chapters for Switch to show up in Saga but it was worth it 😭💕

[honesttoglob]

I feel like Tim is a cryptid nerd and he's gonna be GEEKED when he sees those guys in the same cell as Steve.

[videogamelover99]

Guys what if Fukuzawa is just...fucking lying about having an ability?

[duckapus]

Had the idea that Wario wasn't the first member of the Mario cast Ashley ever met.

Occasionally her parents drag her along to one of their business events instead of just leaving her home alone like usual, and one time when she was seven the particular event she got dragged to was a banquet hosted by Princess Peach. Between being a very small child at a very adult party that she really didn't want to be at, dealing with all these strangers that her parents were showing her off to even though they should know that she doesn't handle meeting new people or having her personal space invaded very well, and the fact that this was the longest she and Red had been apart since she first summoned him a few months ago and she had no idea how he was handling being stuck in that big spooky empty house alone, she was completely overwhelmed, and as soon as her parents' attention was off her she ran off to find somewhere quiet to freak out without making a scene.

Peach suddenly sensed a source of very powerful and somewhat unstable magic in a side hallway just outside the ballroom and went over to investigate, figuring it was a Magikoopa sent by Bowser or something and that she could either deal with them or at least make it so her latest kidnapping didn't involve too much collateral damage.

Instead she finds a little girl with big black-and-white pigtails and even stronger magic than she had at that age who looks about ten seconds away from a full-blown panic attack.

She managed to calm Ashley down by walking her through a power-regulation spell that doubled as a breathing exercise and the two of them just sat there for a few minutes until Ashley felt okay enough to go back in. Peach reunited her with her parents (and noticed a few things about their dynamic that were a bit concerning given the context of where and how she'd found Ashley in the first place, but not substantial enough for her to investigate further without it being seen as an abuse of power) and that was that. Neither of them figured they'd really run into each other again.

Imagine their surprise when a few years later they suddenly have a mutual friend in Wario.

[tanadrin]

@sadoeconomist

Something politically aware people on every part of the political spectrum from the left to the right think is true and leaders of the Russian, Chinese, Israeli, etc. governments believe in enough to talk about publicly and make major geopolitical decisions based on maybe is not just a crazy fringe conspiracy theory, could be that there's some truth to the CIA, NED, etc. having more involvement in these events than the video author thinks I watched all this stuff happen in real time, and I read your notes, which went over how Russian hybrid warfare succeeded in Crimea in 2014. Every major power takes hybrid warfare seriously, what's objectively stupid is your mischaracterization of how it works. Trying to astroturf a revolution out of nowhere simply by paying random citizens en masse to overthrow the government would indeed be stupid but that's not what it is. Your notes seem to suggest that the video says US was paying little attention to eastern Europe until 2013 but Russia was frequently reacting to imaginary US provocations because they are stupid. It's like there's a giant America-shaped hole in the video's narrative. Ukraine was understood to be a NATO-Russia geopolitical battleground long before Euromaidan, it wasn't just Putin shadowboxing imaginary opponents out of pure stupidity that led to this.

You seem to be operating on the basic assumption that governments don't do stupid things for no reason, or fall prey to obviously inane conspiracy theories. That's simply not true; governments are led by human beings, human beings are subject to a common set of cognitive biases, and when you're an authoritarian right-winger (as the leaders of Russia, China, and Israel all are right now), an explanation for your apparent unpopularity that pins all the blame on the CIA instead of your shitty policies and your attempts to cling to power flatters those biases.

But we don't need to speculate about the propensity of governments to do stupid shit, because we have plenty of historical and contemporary examples of governments believing in nonsense: Havana Syndrome in the US, AIDS denialism in South Africa, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in Nazi Germany and Imperial Russia, etc., etc. And often these false beliefs lead to real strategic blunders: the Bay of Pigs, the Iraq War, World War II, etc. Sometimes world leaders are stupid! Like, leadership probably tends to select for some kinds of intelligence and ability--charisma, social intelligence, and so forth--but it doesn't automatically make you a geopolitical genius, or make you immune to believing false things about the world.

And the biggest problem with the conspiracy theory outlined here isn't just that we can trace its origin to a fringe American political cult, it's that it's not necessary to explain any development in politics since 1989. There is no problem in understanding the revolutions of '89 or 2000-2014 that CIA involvement is necessary to solve. Indeed, as the videos point out (if you would actually watch them), trying to use "the CIA did it" as an explanation adds considerable problems, bc color revolution theory doesn't work. It's based on misconceptions, misunderstanding of data, and a healthy dose of paranoia.

The only real problem is trying to explain Putin's behavior--and that doesn't require color revolution theory to be true, only that Putin believes it is true. And why he would believe something is true, when he has the supposedly vast power of the Russian state at his beck and call, is easy to explain: authoritarian dictators surrounded by yes men do not have accurate pictures of the world! From Idi Amin to Saddam Hussein to Vladimir Putin, there is a common pattern of authoritarian dictators losing touch with reality, getting really weird, and coming to believe all kinds of counterproductive stuff that flatters their egos. It would be an even bigger problem to try to explain why Putin was immune to that dynamic after 24 years in power.

"World leaders don't shadowbox opponents out of pure stupidity" is an assumption that seems wholly ungrounded to me. Why not? World leaders do foolish things all the time on large and small scales. World leaders make mistakes. World leaders can become paranoid and out of touch--and if they lead countries without functioning electoral democracies, they can stay in power regardless. World leaders are not a magic special class of human being. They're just people. And whether it's because they're your uncle who watches nothing but OANN and Fox, or they're the President of Russia and they have yes-men and the Global Research guys telling them only what they want to hear, they can end up making absolute nonsense a load-bearing part of their worldview.

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally finished all of one character's entire quests/optional dialogue/questions/etc.... 100,000 words... .... aughhh

[phoenixcatch7]

I know 'person with secret to hide spots other person with secret to hide but doesn't say anything' is like. Thee trope in superhero crossovers, but come on! Some of these guys have been doing this for decades! There's tons of heroes that have gone to pretty extreme lengths to be Completely Imperceptible in civilian life.

Don't you think it's scarier, after all is said and done, to sit there and think I didn't notice a thing? I wouldn't have ever realised? I would never have known? To know that someone you were familiar with - close with, even! - had this whole other personality and skillset and powers and experiences and life just behind the curtain, and they hid it so completely you didn't even see it was there.

'I always knew there was something off' what if you didn't. How world shaking would it be to be so utterly blindsided? To know that this person had somehow learned to so deceptive?

[eternal-moss]

Venti :D

(Pretend I am not 2 days late)

^this year’s birthday art

^last year’s birthday art

^various Ventis over the past 2 years

Venti is tied with Kokomi as my favourite Genshin character. I love him so much, and draw him constantly on scraps of paper but somehow he looks different each time I draw him-

[fnrrfygmschnish]

Even more than I miss the original chunky Pikachu design (as opposed to the "yellow baby" it eventually morphed into, first in the anime and then later carrying over to the games), I miss when Yoshis were actually Yoshi-shaped.

This is a Yoshi:

And these are Yoshis (note: if you spell it "Yoshies," I will punch you. That is not how plurals of words ending in "i" work.)

Notice the longer tail, scrawny T-Rex arms, long neck, big spikes on the back of the neck. It's bipedal, but in pretty much the same way a velociraptor or a tyrannosaur or an ostrich is bipedal -- not at all "human-shaped."

This, however...

...this is not a Yoshi.

This is... somebody in a Yoshi mascot suit. A reject from whatever the Mushroom Kingdom's version of Disneyland is, or their equivalent of Barney perhaps.

The tail is barely more than a useless nubbin, not a legit tail like on an actual Yoshi-shaped Yoshi. It's so small now that they actually have to have it inexplicably grow to usable size whenever Yoshi uses a tail-related move in the Super Smash Bros. games.

The arms are suspiciously human-like in both size and shape, with huge hands on the end rather than the hands being about the same width as the rest of the arm. Not surprising, considering that they have to be big enough to fit the actor's hands inside.

The torso and neck have shrunk down, while the head is inflated to absurd size. This is so it can fit the actor's head inside as well as mechanisms for moving the eyes and mouth, of course.

And it's now fully human-shaped rather than "dinosaur style" bipedal, which is no surprise when you consider that there's a human inside of the suit!

That is not a Yoshi.

Bring back actual, Yoshi-shaped, legit Yoshis.

[brutal-nemesis]

You already know you've got me invested. So a bunch of questions about your HRT magic system, whenever you've got the time:

- what does the ritual actually look like/involve?

- does the process look the same for both feminizing and masculinizing, or are they different?

- are there any effects that can't really be achieved using this form of HRT?

- how long does it take to build up effects? will you see some changes immediately, or is it slower?

More to come later, I'm sure 😁🧡

suit up bitches it's time for all the trans magic lore

What does the ritual actually look like/involve?

Essentially, person performing the procedure uses magic to force the patient's gonads (testes or ovaries) to produce more of the desired hormone, whether it's estrogen or testosterone. Unlike in our world, where people on E need to take T blockers to ensure that they see results (since T has stronger effects), this change in what the body itself is producing means that T levels would naturally decrease since the testes are producing more E. The actual procedure usually just involves the one performing it placing their hands on the patient's back near their spine and carrying out the spell. This typically takes five or so minutes, depending on how much the patient's natural levels need to be adjusted. The spell only lasts so long, so after a couple weeks it will need to be cast again. The spells themselves are called estrogen/testosterone production stimulation, EPS and TPS for short.

However, as magic advances, beyond the point it's at in Castys's early story and the entirety of Erebus & Terror, a new method is developed that alters the hypothalamus and pituitary glands instead, since they tell the rest of the body of what hormones to produce. This spell, called hypothalamus pituitary direction alteration (HPDA) only needs to be done once as the effects are permanent in the sense that they don't wear off, even after decades. However, it's much more complicated to carry out, so it takes longer to cast and is usually more expensive. The procedure itself usually involves the caster putting their hands on the patient's head and doing the spell for about 20 minutes.

It generally becomes standard practice for a patient to undergo at least a year of E/TPS in order to find the right balance of hormones for them before getting HPDA. The effects of HPDA can be altered later, but it's complicated enough that it's best to get it right the first time, hence using E/TPS as a trial run of sorts to figure out the best fit for each individual person.

Does the process look the same for both feminizing and masculinizing, or are they different?

Yes and no. The actual process is very similar, since it's just changing what hormones are produced, but adjusting the AMAB body to produce E and the AFAB body to produce T are different enough that most doctors specialize in one or the other. There's a lot more nuance to it than just turning up the hormone dial, so specialists in one or the other are skilled at helping bring about the wanted changes and preventing certain negative side effects.

Are there any effects that can't really be achieved using this form of HRT?

Since it's pretty similar to HRT here, it has the same limitations and effects, for the most part. Magic can certainly be used to help with things like top and bottom surgery (which sometimes don't need to be an actual surgery and are just a magical procedure), but neither form of HRT discussed above will completely change primary sex organs or massively alter skeletal structure.

How long does it take to build up effects? will you see some changes immediately, or is it slower?

It's a slow change, happening over the course of years, just like it is for people on HRT in our world. The body takes time to adjust and change on its own, and forcing it to do so quickly can have drastic consequences. At the start of E/TPS, all changes are closely monitored so that the levels of hormone production can be adjusted in order to suit the individual patient best and prevent side effects like emotional instability and blood clots.

[supersymmetries]

i've finally reached the part in the semester where we're covering the second law of thermodynamics. matt bellamy we're in it together now

[totopopopo]

every few years i remember i’m aromantic with a flavoring of dyke and not the other way around and i have a rly good time living my life and then i inexplicably forget again for serval years. this has been happening since i was a preteen. not a phase or something i guess ,

[off-the-rails-raccoon]

What pet/kid would squeak if you squeeze them?

First and foremost: definitely Shroud, like its undeniable, but you would also be mauled afterwards to its debatable if it's really worth it.

Micheal would as well but he's probably gonna go tell on you and sic Tubbo on you.

Yogurt, because of course.

Friend I think would but I'm a little less certain for Mareep.

And finally, I feel like Edward (who is technically more of a roommate than kid/pet but he needs to be included in more) would make some weird noise that you can't translate into words but it would be similar enough to classify as a squeak.