#needs my input on BASIC DECISIONS

[rainyamy]

WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME?!?!?! YOU’VE BEEN SAYING YOU WANT TO DO THEMED WEEKS SO DO IT!!!!! i will bully you regardless :3

Live prompts for Erisol week 2023!

Hello everybody, let me tell you about a wonderful week that is coming this November. From Monday the 13th to Sunday the 19th this event is back and still kicking!

This year the prompts are being kept simple in the traditional way: one word prompts to make your mind spring to action. Find more information about the event here.

As always, have a great and fun week! ＼(＾▽＾)／

[dismas-n-dismay]

Having OSDD and playing STP and seeing how other people interpret the voices is crazy. Mostly because I attribute all the Voices as just being smaller parts of the Whole (You, the player) so it’s harder to take their flaws seriously when it’s like. Yeah but I’m not like that and I don’t wanna do that, ur just a thought bro.

Like L + Ratio imagine not being the guy in control of the body today, ANYWAYS-

(Mini ramble undercut!!)

It what makes certain routes like the Spectre so fun when she joins the mess and is like “??? Is it always this loud” because like yeah. Being apart of a system in real life is really just fine tuning the noise and making your own choices, especially since the voices are usually shown at face value and when you dig deeper they all usually want the same thing: To survive.

And when you realize that it’s easier to take agency of the control you Do have as the player and therefore the vessel. They each have their own different ways and thoughts of surviving but ultimately they either just want to survive or they want to survive and end the pain of the cycle they’re forced through.

They’re just thoughts, just voices, brought forth from trauma and trying to escape, give them grace.

All this to say, being apart of a system and playing a game that involves multiple voices is really just like playing a real life simulator and is probably why I have such an easy time playing and understanding the characters in the game

[rachelazegler]

trying to have an objective conversation with my mother about the pros and cons of a future living situation without her bringing up every personal flaw of mine that she has a problem with level impossible

[phantomrose96]

The conversation around AI is going to get away from us quickly because people lack the language to distinguish types of AI--and it's not their fault. Companies love to slap "AI" on anything they believe can pass for something "intelligent" a computer program is doing. And this muddies the waters when people want to talk about AI when the exact same word covers a wide umbrella and they themselves don't know how to qualify the distinctions within.

I'm a software engineer and not a data scientist, so I'm not exactly at the level of domain expert. But I work with data scientists, and I have at least rudimentary college-level knowledge of machine learning and linear algebra from my CS degree. So I want to give some quick guidance.

What is AI? And what is not AI?

So what's the difference between just a computer program, and an "AI" program? Computers can do a lot of smart things, and companies love the idea of calling anything that seems smart enough "AI", but industry-wise the question of "how smart" a program is has nothing to do with whether it is AI.

A regular, non-AI computer program is procedural, and rigidly defined. I could "program" traffic light behavior that essentially goes { if(light === green) { go(); } else { stop();} }. I've told it in simple and rigid terms what condition to check, and how to behave based on that check. (A better program would have a lot more to check for, like signs and road conditions and pedestrians in the street, and those things will still need to be spelled out.)

An AI traffic light behavior is generated by machine-learning, which simplistically is a huge cranking machine of linear algebra which you feed training data into and it "learns" from. By "learning" I mean it's developing a complex and opaque model of parameters to fit the training data (but not over-fit). In this case the training data probably includes thousands of videos of car behavior at traffic intersections. Through parameter tweaking and model adjustment, data scientists will turn this crank over and over adjusting it to create something which, in very opaque terms, has developed a model that will guess the right behavioral output for any future scenario.

A well-trained model would be fed a green light and know to go, and a red light and know to stop, and 'green but there's a kid in the road' and know to stop. A very very well-trained model can probably do this better than my program above, because it has the capacity to be more adaptive than my rigidly-defined thing if the rigidly-defined program is missing some considerations. But if the AI model makes a wrong choice, it is significantly harder to trace down why exactly it did that.

Because again, the reason it's making this decision may be very opaque. It's like engineering a very specific plinko machine which gets tweaked to be very good at taking a road input and giving the right output. But like if that plinko machine contained millions of pegs and none of them necessarily correlated to anything to do with the road. There's possibly no "if green, go, else stop" to look for. (Maybe there is, for traffic light specifically as that is intentionally very simplistic. But a model trained to recognize written numbers for example likely contains no parameters at all that you could map to ideas a human has like "look for a rigid line in the number". The parameters may be all, to humans, meaningless.)

So, that's basics. Here are some categories of things which get called AI:

"AI" which is just genuinely not AI

There's plenty of software that follows a normal, procedural program defined rigidly, with no linear algebra model training, that companies would love to brand as "AI" because it sounds cool.

Something like motion detection/tracking might be sold as artificially intelligent. But under the covers that can be done as simply as "if some range of pixels changes color by a certain amount, flag as motion"

2. AI which IS genuinely AI, but is not the kind of AI everyone is talking about right now

"AI", by which I mean machine learning using linear algebra, is very good at being fed a lot of training data, and then coming up with an ability to go and categorize real information.

The AI technology that looks at cells and determines whether they're cancer or not, that is using this technology. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is the technology that can take an image of hand-written text and transcribe it. Again, it's using linear algebra, so yes it's AI.

Many other such examples exist, and have been around for quite a good number of years. They share the genre of technology, which is machine learning models, but these are not the Large Language Model Generative AI that is all over the media. Criticizing these would be like criticizing airplanes when you're actually mad at military drones. It's the same "makes fly in the air" technology but their impact is very different.

3. The AI we ARE talking about. "Chat-gpt" type of Generative AI which uses LLMs ("Large Language Models")

If there was one word I wish people would know in all this, it's LLM (Large Language Model). This describes the KIND of machine learning model that Chat-GPT/midjourney/stablediffusion are fueled by. They're so extremely powerfully trained on human language that they can take an input of conversational language and create a predictive output that is human coherent. (I am less certain what additional technology fuels art-creation, specifically, but considering the AI art generation has risen hand-in-hand with the advent of powerful LLM, I'm at least confident in saying it is still corely LLM).

This technology isn't exactly brand new (predictive text has been using it, but more like the mostly innocent and much less successful older sibling of some celebrity, who no one really thinks about.) But the scale and power of LLM-based AI technology is what is new with Chat-GPT.

This is the generative AI, and even better, the large language model generative AI.

(Data scientists, feel free to add on or correct anything.)

[witchpassing]

interview_3aC

I got into piloting during the Third Generation. For the historically illiterate, that’s before the breakpoint, not after. Summer Offensive, Chelsk Offensive, ‘81, ‘82… All that shit.

When you say pilot now, people get a certain mental image. It wasn’t like that, back then; end of the day, a G3 frame is basically just another kind of tank. Hot like hell inside and full analogue control. You had to think five, six, seven seconds ahead sometimes, because that’s how long it’d take you to string together the inputs for what you were doing next.

I was good. I mean, I’m good at my job now, sure, but… you should’ve fuckin’ seen me then.

... Anyway. Long and short of it is, I got unlucky. Everyone does, sooner or later. Coterie railcannon caved in part of my cockpit, crushed my leg to dogmeat, and that was that. A few years later, they’d have amputated, plugged in a spare, and sent me back in, but this was ‘83, the tech wasn’t there yet. We were hearing about it, you know, shit on the grapevine about the brain-machine barrier, weird tests underground out in Lysk, but I don’t think any of us really believed in it.

I wanna say I knew what was coming, but I didn’t. Nobody did.

So. Cockpit breach. Fucked leg. They did a lot of work, got it to where I could walk on a good day, but it was obvious I wasn’t gonna cut it any more. Took my pension, checked out, spent eight years in the worst dyke bars I could find. Don’t really wanna talk about that part. That’s not what you’re here for, anyway.

So I’m a few years down the line, losing my mind somewhere in Sengrade, and I get a call. It’s this guy I used to know, I never really nailed down what he did, Information maybe, and he’s telling me about this program they’re spinning up over in Lysk, and sure that rings some alarm bells but what am I gonna do, say no? I don’t even need to hear the specifics, he’s trying to tell me it’s the next big jump in frame tech, it’s gonna win us the war, whatever, I’m already halfway onto a train.

The job turned out to be the Fifth Generation. Not only was the brain-machine barrier real, but they’d smashed clean through it. I said a G3 is basically a tank, right? So I was expecting an iteration on the form. Sharper, sleeker sure, but at the end of the day just a prettier-looking tank.

Well, I was dead fuckin’ wrong. Seeing something that size move that way, it’s… I don’t think I can put it into words. Go find a poet or something. Ask them what they think about Gen 5.

… Didn’t come for free, of course. The neural throughput on a machine that size will cook an unprepared brain like a fuckin’ egg. You need to be dosed to the gills on a whole cocktail of ten-syllable shit to take it for more than a few minutes, and the drugs make you weird. Horny, mostly - I’m sure you’ve heard about that - but you’re also looking at impaired impulse control, difficulty with long-term thinking, emotional disregulation, mania… Plus, there’s something in the cocktail or the link or both that is bastard habit-forming. You see them counting the hours between sorties. They adjust to the hyperstimulation, get calibrated to it, and then everything else is just too god-damn quiet.

Think maybe it’s carcinogenic, actually, but you didn’t hear that from me.

So, yeah. Weird. Command doesn’t want weird operating superweaponry. Weird doesn’t make sound tactical decisions. Which means all the shit that makes somebody a functioning soldier - the long-term decision making, the impulse control, the ability to give a fuck about the rules of engagement - it had to be outsourced.

The term they used at first was “special consultant”. Then “special consulting officer”, once we hit field testing. It wasn’t “handler” until later.

The first crop of us - I’m just gonna say handlers, I know how you’re gonna wanna spin this, I get it - were all ex-pilots. G3, mostly; Gen 4 didn’t leave a lot of material to work with. I guess the idea was we were the closest you could get to a G5 candidate’s frame of reference, but it was pretty clear within the first few months that that was bullshit. Some of us took to it, some of us washed out. A lot couldn’t take the wetwork, which I guess I can sympathise with.

Me, I handled it fine. Better than I should’ve, maybe. Being a tanker didn’t do shit for me, but my dad, he was a dog trainer, and… Yeah, well, you get the idea.

… No, no. The other kind of wetwork. You know what I mean.

…

The leg? Ha. Yeah, they offered me a prosthetic. ‘Course they did. But, call me a hypocrite, whatever you want - by that point I was six months in and I knew with total fuckin’ certainty I didn’t want the link. I spend enough of my time helping the military put their shit into peoples’ bodies, you know? I don’t want it walking home with me.

… No, I don’t understand why they keep signing up. Early days, sure, nobody knew what it did to you back then, but there’s been leaks, people’ve talked - hell, I’m talking right now. You can find our burnouts in any dive in the country, or what's fuckin' left of them. The candidates now, they know what we do to people here, and they just keep coming, and coming…

Though, you know… I think sometimes about the first time I saw a Gen 5 machine take off, that first day on the program. The way it moved against the blue-black of the sky, like it weighed nothing at all. And I almost get it.

[cute-little-fly]

Folks… I think that “Stolas saving Blitzø shows he didn’t thought about Via” is one of the sentiments that confuse me more about how some people discuss the ending of Season 2.

Hiii there!!!

This post was originated because I was writing an answer to a comment in one of my mutuals post, and realized this deserved a post to express the entire idea better and also I didn’t want to invade too much that comment section. I also had a theory that I realized I have never shared, that might make some sort of sense or be interesting.

First of all, this is also not against any particular person or individual. Is a comment that we know a lot of people have typed since the episode aired, we have seen tons of discussions about this.

So if the person that made the comment see this it’s not personal. It is just that my brain started to have a flow of ideas from this. So it’s basically a general “rant” “vent” post about the general sentiment I have about this fandom general idea that for me doesn’t hold any water.

First the obvious.

None of us wanted Blitzø to die… right??? Right???!

Stolas didn’t wanted Blitzø to die, and I think that neither of us wanted that if we like the show and characters.

I don’t know if you have stumbled upon those fics of what would have happened if Blitzø have died… and they are devastating to say the least.

It wasn’t Blitzø going to jail, or Stolas wanting to take him back. It was about saving HIS life.

It was also about saving his life for something they did together and they shared the blame of.

It was also about Stolas making a choice to save someone, even if he thought that someone didn’t cared about him. Stolas’s autonomy is a huge deal about his arc. Nothing I will touch deeply here, because other people have done it before better that I can…

But basically, Stolas making this decision for saving someone he held deeply is a huge growth for his arc; and not a mistake as some people see it. His mistakes are things he did prior.

This whole situation is a trap. It was designed to condemn Stolas, no matter what he did. Stolas bravely chose to save someone important to him.

Are you familiar with these kids of dilemmas? Who would you save? The person you love or the entire world?

If you are familiar to video games, you would know these kind of dilemmas are super common there, and this is why it is so surprising to me why people is so shocked about this and doesn’t get it. The option Stolas took doesn’t kill anyone and he saved a life.

If I was playing a video game that would be the most obvious choice. In these kind of scenarios you will always lose something. This is what makes the decision hard and compelling in the first place.

In the case of these other kind of dilemmas like the one of the train and railroads and if you would save 1 person over 8?…. Have you ever saw people saying like: okay, but why I would need to choose that in the first place? Why I can’t call help and save everyone??? Who would tie one person in one rail road and 8 other people in another railroad?

Well… because the dilemma is designed to not have an obvious answer that fix everything, and to raise questions. About how life can’t be evaluated in a numeric way (1 live can be as valuable to us as 8, and if we love the person that is tied alone we might save that person instead of the other 8… because that is how we are). But the point is… is a design. You don’t have opportunity to solve the dilemma with another external input.

In the case of Stolas what limited this was time, and that he didn’t heard anything about the trial and what was discussed.

Andrealphus designed his plot in a way that would damage Stolas no matter what he did. He doesn’t care about Blitzø at all… So he wasn’t risking much in his mind.

If Blitzø died Stolas and all the people that cared about him would be damaged beyond repair. He could take advantage of a destroyed Stolas. Andrealphus knows that Stolas cares about Blitzø because of Stella… If Stolas made everything to save Blitzø, like he probably expected, he would expose himself and he would take that as a chance to “take the upper hand”. So I think Andrealphus knew Stolas would step up and save him.

So… why some people discuss this in a way of thinking Stolas could have had his cake and eat it is beyond me.

If Stolas would have let Blitzø to die, they would be complaining too. Because they wouldn’t know the Octavia situation consequence. The same here, they are ignoring how Blitzø dying would have a big consequence.

But, What about my daughter?

This phrase hides a lot of meaning and it’s brushed off too much… by the fandom.

First of all, we could say that Octavia is not in immediate danger, contrary to Blitzø. This would be enough of a justification. She is also not good with her mother, she is emotionally abusive, but I don’t think Stolas suspects they would kill her or seriously harm her. Because well… she hates him and she was forced to marry her, but Via is after all her daughter and Stella’s intentions were clearly use her to secure her own comfort and convenient position like she did with Stolas before.

We could stay there and be fine with Stolas. However, since it is not enough for some people, I think this moment hides something deeper.

Why Stolas is concerned about her until he is stripped of his power and position? People take it as… Oh, she is an after thought for him that’s why. But if you see he isn’t worried about what him dying would imply for Via when he is just about be assasinated by Striker either. He is worried Striker might go after her from his own volition, so it’s not like Stolas doesn’t think or defend her openly.

I think that while Stolas holds power… even if he dies Via’s position and integrity would be secured and he has preparations for that.

What makes me believe this is true? That Andrealphus said that if Stella killed Stolas they would lose almost completely the possibility of taking Stolas’s position.

If you see, in the first song we have of Stolas he seems to be very confident that eventually Via is going to be without him (this might be cause of a prophecy or his depression) and that without him she is going to be okay.

I think he had a lot of things prepared to have Via secured in case that happened, to not let them have control over her. Also, he might have seen that in a prophecy.

However, that might change with his banishment. Stolas never thought that being banished was a possibility before. Even if Stolas died his position would be still secured, and that would secure Via’s position too.

However, if someone takes his position like Andrealphus did, that changes everything.

Andrealphus now has the possibility of taking more power with his influence and taking Via’s position too. In 100 years he could claim the position indefinitely if he does a lot of work and gains influence. We know that ain’t gonna happen… because he probably is gonna suck but, it’s a possibility and this is why Stolas was concerned about what could happen to Via it in that specific moment. With how I interpreted it.

Stolas didn’t thought his position and inheritance could be at risk for what he was doing. Now after this, it clearly is. He thought that if Blitzø got into trouble that would fall on him mostly, and not on Blitzø.

(Okay this one didn’t had subtitles buuut I am referring to what Stolas said there).

Andrealphus framed the situation as Stolas being helpless, so no one would blame him (the same to how in courts people use mental illnesses to say that a person didn’t knew what they were doing).

So, Stolas was left with no choice but to confess without defending himself because Blitzø’s life was on the line. If Stolas tried to defend himself or blame someone else he would be risking Blitzø’s life.

This is why a lot of theories of the fandom include these two trying to marry Octavia to another royal. This would be an easier way to take her out of the way. They could also try to assasinate her too (wether this is done by Andrealphus and Striker alone or with Stella’s compliance). But… you all act like Stolas was aware this could happen when it’s obvious he was completely confident his position was almost 100% secured.

For the other part. Stolas clearly cares about Via. But this would be for another post and this would be out of this discussion.

[boggyblazingmood]

Wow! Just wow! In a world in which we have people of color in the aristocracy, everyone is dancing to renditions of Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and Miley Cyrus, and the Mondriches are now a Barony; the place where these toxic Philoises draw the line is that we are getting future waves of feminism in the Regency era?!

It's called fiction. If it was a documentary or a biography or any other nonfiction work then I would understand the pitchforks. But if a work is clearly meant to be a work of fiction, then I don't see why people would get worked up over not following the historical norms.

Wow! I can't believe they wrote Eloise to be so different compared to Daphne, Penelope, and even Kate?! It's almost as if they want to create different female characters so that different people can resonate with them! So crazy and unheard of! Also I wonder why the show purposefully made Phillip and Eloise so incompatible with each other. Phillip is a dull and amiable man who abides by Regency norm. And Eloise hates the countryside, isn't the most fond of children, and like interesting men. Plus they haven't even shared a single scene together.

Huh it's almost as if they can see how much Phillip and Eloise are so incompatible with each other. But because of TSPWL, that's why they want to force these two individuals together. Phillip a dull and amiable man who abides with Regency norm. And Eloise who doesn't give a fuck and also hates the countryside, children, and boring men. They also anticipate the fandom will get whiplash from seeing Phillip as Eloise's endgame. Of course we will! Eloise who has been spending her arc in rebelling against the Ton, marrying a societally acceptable man, a baronet. You can't make Philoise/TSPWL compelling. Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an outdated trope and Grumpy-Sunshine is getting there. What with all the romance books seeking to recreate Reylo in the sense of Grumpy-Sunshine. And TSPWL is the most hated for a reason, Eloise is forced to marry a narcissistic child abusing rapist and then become a Stepford Wife. Show Eloise ≠ Book Eloise.

See we argue about time skips all the time on the Theloise sub. I am in favor. As it would allow Hyacinth and Gregory to be the same age as their actors. As well as let Theo open his own printshop and also make Eloise into a spinster. My preferred age for Eloise at the beginning of her season is to be 24. I believe that Theo is either the same age as Eloise, one year older, or two years older. Also as a sister of a Viscountess, it would be incredibly inappropriate for Eloise to be a governess as 1. Anthony would never allow her and 2. she would be subject to whoever is her boss. Basically they want to input the Sound of Music into Show Eloise even though she's NOT FOND OF CHILDREN! Eloise being a matchmaker for a widowed Fran? That didn't happen in TSPWL nor in WHWW. It's funny that they want to stick with book canon unless if it serves the purpose of Show Eloise learning to shut up and get married. She's not interested in teaching either but in politics. Like we frequently see people compliment Eloise as a speaker, wouldn't that suggest that she may have a career as an orator? 👀

See when Daphne, Penelope. and Francesca wanted to marry young and become teenage mothers the fandom applauded them. But when Eloise who frequently goes on the record about how much she's against marrying and becoming a mother, she is dismissed as being childish. Which is frankly bullshit because Daphne, Penelope, and Francesca were "mature" when they made their decision but Eloise is seen as "immature". Not to mention, of course Eloise can get married and have kids. I put up polls on the Theloise sub and the majority were in favor for Theo and Eloise having a small wedding and were neutral about the two of them having kids. We just don't want Eloise to get saddled with being responsible for Marina's children. As Philip is seen to be an excellent father so he doesn't need any help. Plus if he's truly the Sunshine in Grumpy-Sunshine, then he definitely doesn't abuse his children!

That intellectually stimulating person is Theo Sharpe. The man that gave her books and listened to her. The same man that she's still thinking about in Season 3. I highly doubt Phillip is coming back, either Chris Fulton has the chillest acting contract on Earth. To the point that NO JOURNALIST asks him about Bridgerton and he can still post about Bridgerton. Or you know... They are done with Phillip and moving towards Theloise endgame.

Wait wait wait! Hold up hold up hold up! Penelope is the nuanced feminist and Eloise is the girl boss feminist?! Which world do they live in? Penelope the tabloid journalist who wrote nasty things about the Bridgertons, their loved ones, and the Royals is a feminist?! For what? Being nice to Rae, Genevieve, and the printer boys? Despite the fact that they work for her? Well if these two Philoises knew how to read or conduct a basic Google search they would realize that it is Penelope who is the girl boss feminist. The same Penelope who uses the rigid rules of the Ton to make a profit. Who knows that she benefits from the patriarchy as everyone loves gossip and tearing down women. Girlboss feminists care about themselves, they operate on the individual level not the collective level. This is in sharp contrast to Eloise who is slowly learning about her privilege and feminism but not taking advantage of her privilege to get rich like Penelope. Philoises know that Penelope is not a true feminist. That's where this argument originates if we see Eloise's political arc, that further nullifies Penelope's girl boss feminism. Because with Eloise she wants to improve the lives of ALL women not just the upper class.

This is the only sane voice. Show Eloise isn't meant to be Phillip's wife on the show. He is living his happiest life with Marina. Sure they aren't in love with each other but they represent the real life Regency aristocrats who had such marriages. As for Eloise she'll hopefully get her political arc with the bonus of ending up with Theo Sharpe 💙📚

[windvexer]

On what I'm going to call "peer positioning" in witchcraft, and the scary empowerment it can bring you

I think a lot of people who get into witchcraft have a problem with being able to see themselves as peers & equals to the powers they cultivate around them.

I see this most often discussed when it comes to gods. "Just because your god asks you for something doesn't mean you need to do it!" Etc. I think we've all heard that.

But today my thoughts are on the tarot, and how some people seem to treat tarot readings as "the truth" or "the answer" that then must be followed, even if they (the living, breathing, human practitioner) don't really agree or don't really want to do that.

I'm really big on the analogy of a witch as a monarch, and the concept of various powers (like gods, spirits, tools, and spells) being counselors in the throne room.

In this context, it's easier to adopt the mindset that all of these powers have their own personalities, abilities, and goals - and that they can & will provide conflicting information when you ask for advice. (Especially ancestors - so opinionated!)

Imagine Captain Picard sitting in the meeting room with Geordi, Riker, and the rest of the space nerds.

Captain Picard is like, "the power core is failing and the away team is stranded on the planet. I think we should use the nebula to hide until the Gromflomites stop searching for us." And then Geordi is like, "but Captain, the engines would never make it! We have to go rescue the away team immediately!" And Captain Picard is like, "damn... Wow. I really wanted to go to the nebula, I thought it was the best choice :/ but if you're saying we literally don't have to worry about the Gromflomites..." Then Riker is like, "Captain, no. Geordi isn't saying the Gromflomites aren't a problem, he's just expressing his top concerns as Chief Engineer." And then Picard is all, "oh, so... this is conflicting information? Did that mean I did a bad reading on Geordi, or that negative spirits are stopping me from being able to communicate? Is Riker possibly a trickster?"

If you're captain of the ship, monarch of the kingdom, (etc.), then it might be important to ask yourself:

Am asking for input from my counsel of allied powers, and then making choices for myself?

Or, have I inadvertently signed over my decision-making process to these powers?

And I think it all kind of comes back to "peer positioning," or, witches being able to develop a spiritual framework within which they are equals to the powers around them.

Since beginning practicing witchcraft in earnest, I have often demanded a course of direction. Instead of asking, "how do I accomplish this?" I would ask, "what do I do?"

And the answer was the same every time, deeply infuriating, but also very scary: "Do whatever you think is best."

I think that's the problem of being the captain of the ship. Once your counselors are done giving their input, you are the one who has to make the final call.

Lately I've really been on a kick about witchcraft as a path of empowerment, and I think that viewing spiritual input as just that - input - is a vital part of the process.

Even if you are a true-blue believer in the magical power of tarot, tarot is still just one counselor sitting in your throne room.

Even if you have tutelary spirits, guardians and guides, gods and angels, providing blessings and support - they are not sitting at the head of the table.

You are.

I think that a framework of allied powers as peers and equals is relatively basic, and does have its flaws. But I also think it can be helpful in a variety of ways:

It can provide a system of understanding why allied powers can give conflicting advice, or even seemingly bad advice that doesn't align with our personal desires.

It can provide a tool for processing spiritual input.

It helps restore a sense of personal authority to a practitioner.

It can help a practitioner reclaim control of a path that's grown a mind of its own.

It aids in practicing that most oppressive of skills - liberated autonomy.

I just think it's something to consider. At the end of the day, most of us have probably got to make our own calls.

[I'm making this post because in the past few months I've been helping witches consult the tarot, and they've been giving feedback like, "so this is what I should do, right?" or, "what is it telling me to do?"

I can basically see the huge reblogs where people are explaining that a period of time where they signed complete personal autonomy over to their god was the most empowering and spiritually electric time in their lives,

and I want you to know, I'm not speaking about vows and oaths made to entities that gives them control over your life. I'm talking about situations where witches put down their autonomy so they can have both hands free to shuffle tarot.]

[appleeejuiceee]

Arcane Fallout AU I need to infodump abt or I'll die

Hihihi okay I've been thinking about this for a while now and I've been like trying to get this whole AU down in my head and I think it'd be banging if I let the public know as well,. I like input and also I like to just dump things.,.,

It is very Jayvik centric but there is hints of Zaundads n all tht in this AU because I am very normal abt those two ships and I need them everywhere in everything that I consume rn or I'll die (not actually). I'll probably add the Zaundads part of this AU in another post just because the Jayvik section is getting a bit long. I was thinking Viktor is like a big part of this AU where he was a lone wanderer tht has been a tinkerer in his free time when he actually has the time to settle down. His inventing and building has actually helped him create really well made inventions including but not limited to, a mechanized prosthetic for his leg, a sentry bot that he has modified a lot named Blitzcrank, and a portal he made by himself that takes him to the Syndicate. This leads into him being a major part of Syndicate research and him meeting Jayce, a synth that was originally housed in the Syndicate as a builder. Because of how well made the portal was and how advanced Viktor's inventions were, they have made the decision to let him stay and travel between the Wastelands and the Syndicate as much as he wants, in exchange for more research that they cannot get themselves. Unfortunately for Viktor, since he was born need an irradiated zone, his body has been rapidly decaying this entire time. It was the reason why his leg was messed up and it is the reason why his organs are starting to fail him. No matter how much rad-away and rad x he takes, he cannot get rid of the effects it gave him from birth, and unfortunately it makes him very very desperate to try and find something to help him. His desperateness does lead him towards a very very experimental chem that Singed made when he wandered over to his area, not asking too many questions as he took said chem. Overtime his body started to change for both better and worse. He could move around freely now, he didn't need his prosthetic or cane anymore, but his body and skin began to rot and wrinkle. He was slowly becoming part ghoul, the Syndicate deciding to cut ties with him after his change because of how terrifying he was towards the synths. Jayce however, despite his change, stayed by his side. Speaking of Jayce, when he met Viktor it was basically love at first sight. He's always wanted to know what was out there in the Wastelands and he never had the chance to do so just because of how important he was to the Syndicate. But once Viktor came into his life, he immediately latched onto the fact that he was from the Wastelands and that he could get some of his questions answered now that he has a reputable source. Even on occasions, he would follow Viktor out of the Syndicate to see the Wastelands first hand and experience both the horrors and the strange beauty of it. Viktor always thought of it as endearing and would help him learn some valuable defensive strategies so he wouldn't die out in the Wastelands. Their bond became really close really fast, Jayce not knowing what he was exactly feeling since it was very new to him but he didn't mind the new feelings. There were some points where he thought he was broken, mentioning it to Viktor who quickly picked up on the fact on what he was feeling. I think they'd be very sweet to each other, Jayce always being there for Viktor when he can join him in the Wastelands. Once Viktor became a ghoul, Jayce was ultimately told he couldn't see the man again because of his transformation and how grotesque he has started to look and obviously Jayce didn't take that well. He would ultimately escape the Syndicate one day, searching the Wastelands to find his partner that he's come to enjoy. He didn't care if he didn't look like Viktor, he just wanted to stay with him. They do eventually meet up, Viktor very shocked he found him, let alone searched everywhere for him, and they survive the wastelands together. Like I said I'll add onto this most likely with Zaundads but for now you get Jayvik thoughts

[midnight-fox-boy]

I know this is a very high emotion topic right now but I think I need to say this.

To my USA pals; If you see any posts from a trans person talking about potentially detransitioning/going back in the closet and they list strong reasons as to why they're considering it (living in specific areas for example), please do not react with "No! Don't! Don't let them win that's what they want!!".

Like don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should encourage people to go back in the closet or to "give in". But I DO think that this mindset places an unfair responsibility onto that person. It comes off as seeing it as a betrayal, as "giving up and conforming", as a "loss".

It comes off as thinking someone needs to put their life on the line to loudly fight for what is right. That they must exist as they are publicly regardless of the dangers.

If someone GENUINELY feels that they will be safer going back into the closet until this is all over, that's valid. We shouldn't support them in whatever choices they make and remind them that they are still welcome within his community.

Buuuuttt, I think it's also okay to speak logically, especially if the person is asking for input or something. Helping the person find any potential helpful resources (or how to find those resources) to live as safely and healthily as possible.

I think it's okay to suggest waiting and seeing how things go before hastily making an emotionally charged decision that they may regret. I think it's okay to remind them that there's options in-between fully detransitioning/going into the closet, and being OUT loud and proud. For example maybe that's boy/girlmoding at work/school or going partially back into the closet, but not fully.

By basically telling people they have to be okay with being in danger no matter how scared they are or else they've basically done something wrong or bad, you're just going to contribute to more guilt, fear, and feelings of being alone.

And remember that many trans people are parents. Sometimes a parent may choose decisions they really don't want to do in order to keep their children safe.

I know this is not intended..I know you're not trying to guilt them or imply that they're contributing to the "enemy winning", but it can very much cause those kinds of feelings. They have not failed us. They have not failed themselves.

We will fight as a community, and we will fight for those who have to do whatever they can to survive and be safe, even if they can't be on the front lines. Our collective strength is enough to carry them.

[xxl1ly-1n-ch41n5xx]

I’ve been hesitant, but here’s an introduction of me and my friend’s (@secretlyab1rd) Maze Runner OCs! Our series is called “Starshuck”, which is the title of my book. My friend’s is called “We Heart Hart” (you’ll understand) My other friend (@day-ur-fav-gay) does not have a book, just the OC. This is just a little introduction, like how they act in the prologue/chapter one!

Up first: Melanie!

Melanie is named after Melanie Windridge, who is a British plasma physicist and science communicator, by WICKED. The Gladers call Melanie “Melby”, while Minho calls her “Mellie” (Will be explained), and Valentina calls her “Mel”. She has vitiligo and heterochromia (lots of melanin issues🫣) There’s some art/Sims 4 making at the end! (THEY ARE THEIR AGE IN THE GLADE IN THE ART)

TFC knowledge first!: She and Minho came up in the Box together. (Side note: I know that they came up in a large group, but my book is a mix of both the movie and the book.) Her and Minho were close before they were sent up, and yes, Melanie does cry when Minho is almost killed with a Griever in The Fever Code. Mel was supposed to be one of the Elites, but was way too aggressive and hostile towards the WICKED agents and refused to do as they say, often ending in violence (and punishment). She has a little sister that is four years younger than her, Valentina. She is named after Valentina Tereshkova, the FIRST woman in space. Valentina’s friends (including her sister) call her Val. Val and Mel were stolen from their parents as small children (who were slowly dying of the Flare, which Mel tried to hide from Val desperately, taking care of her like she was her mother). Mel was eight, and Val was four. If you haven’t gotten it yet, Minho is Mel’s love interest. They first meet in the halls, sneaking around the facility. Of course, they’re eight, so they’re best friends after saying that their favorite color is blue. (hehe I love them) Mel of course sneaks off together with the group, dragging a tired (and often sleeping) 6 year old Val with her, as she (and I cannot make this clear enough) does NOT trust WICKED. Mel eventually started to sneak out with Minho alone, just to chat, as she was the only one that agreed with his escape attempts. At one of those, she kissed his cheek, and nine year old Minho blushed so hard. (I had to add that in because AGH) Adding on to the hostility part, Mel tried to get Val away from the surgery, only to be injected with a substance that eased her.

Onto TMR knowledge!: As I mentioned, Mel did come up with Minho in the Box. She woke up panicked and crying, because she thought that Minho was dead. He woke up minutes later, immediately coming to the realization, that in his eyes, she was gorgeous. Minho immediately sticks his hand out without thinking, mentally slapping himself. All he wanted to do was introduce himself, but his body acted against his wishes. She took his hand, smiling. He immediately said how he thought her eyes were pretty in an attempt to reassure her that he’s not trying to hurt her. She didn’t even remember that she had heterochromia, and was bewildered by his comment. Again, Mel is really smart, and knows a lot about random things. She started explaining the literal definition of heterochromia iridium, and he got so confused. As the Box comes up, she introduced herself, and the eight other boys there collectively agreed on calling her Melby, without her input on it. Minho still respected her opinion and continued to call her Melanie, and accidentally slipped up and called her “Mellie”, which stuck. At their bonfire, when everyone leaves, they kiss. Which to Minho, seemed like a stupid decision that he made, but immediately, something sparked. They started sneaking off together, and then they got in trouble for not working. Basically, Alby requested a curtain for the Homestead out of pure annoyance from the two, saying that they need to “keep their relationship private”. Which was pretty funny in their eyes. (Mel has earrings gifted to her by Val in the future if you are confused by the art)

Further (and rather unimportant) information: Minho + Mellie = Millie

Hope you enjoyed Mel; now we move to Hawk.

Hawk is my friend @secretlyab1rd’s OC, named after Stephen Hawking. Originally intended as a pure joke to be able to say if there were two Hawks, it would be Hawk Two-ah. (You can probably understand where we’re going and that we’re super immature ;)) His love interest is Zart, and you have to love the gays. That’s an order, not a request. I don’t think we have any TFC knowledge for him, but he IS canon in my book.

TMR knowledge!: Hawk wakes up in the Box, immediately overwhelmed with everything, with the feeling of nausea. Mel immediately picked up on it but said nothing. He continuously asks the question of “where am I”, and was not getting the answer he wanted. (As would I, because come on, wouldn’t you freak out?) He immediately gets on Mel’s nerves, because Mel was trying her best to answer his question, but he wouldn’t listen to her, and as Mel thought to herself, “If he doesn’t stop asking these stupid questions, and not letting me explain, I’m going to throw him”. He makes a run to go vomit by a tree, and Zart crouches by him, placing a hand on his back and helping him vomit. Hawk then calms down, walking with Newt and Val to the Medhut when he gets water. When Mel learns that his name is Hawk, she immediately spits out that there are over 200 species of them, to which Val says, “stop nerding at the poor guy”. (Later on Hawk tries to bash his skull in with a shovel but Zart shoves him, making it just leave a scar in his chin, that’s why the art is like that btw)

Further (and rather unimportant) information:

Hawk + Zart = Hart

Onto Val! Val is my friend @day-ur-fav-gay’s OC. She is Mel’s sister, named because of the ship name.

TFC Knowledge: Mel’s original name was Lorraine, and Val’s original name was Rose. They were both from an abusive household, and Lorraine treated Rose like she was her own child, even if Lorraine was only eight and Rose was only four when they were taken. Rose complied to the name change, while Lorraine did not. Lorraine acted aggressively towards strangers that tried to interact with her or even make a move to talk to Rose. Repeatedly, she was tortured, like Thomas, until she gave in and accepted her name. Of course, Val didn’t like being dragged around as a toddler by her older sister. She refused to let go of her, even if she was uncomfortable being dragged around. Eventually, WICKED did separate them forcibly, to which Mel was made aggressive. Val hated seeing her sister in a room with an Asian boy (Minho) as Mel desperately screamed for her to not let them do the surgery on her, as they were both given sedatives. Eventually, Val started to sneak around to see her older sister in her room, and Mel would hide her there. When the visits started, Val would often be seen being carried by Mel, passed out on her shoulder. Val was not a very good night owl, and tried to stay awake to talk to Chuck. It never worked, obviously. Mel caught on and started bringing blankets. Eventually, Val stopped seeing Mel as often as she was. She never knew why, but she missed her a lot.

Onto TMR: Val woke up, panicked and scared when there were a bunch of boys surrounding her, especially considering that she looked younger than them. A girl broke through the grasp of another boy, jumping down into the lift that she was in (yes she called it a lift) introducing herself as Melanie, but the “shuckfaces” around here call her Melby. For some reason, Val was drawn away from that name, and she couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t her name, so why would she care? She realized that she looked a lot like her, but the girl had splotched skin and different colored eyes. She attached herself to her immediately, seeing as though she was the only other girl there. At her bonfire, she stuck close to Mel and Minho, even though Minho didn’t seem to like her. That night, she couldn’t sleep and made Mel a pair of earrings out of the Builder’s scrap metal in thanks. The next morning, the look on Mel’s face was totally worth it. A couple of weeks later, Val saved a rabbit from the Bloodhouse and named it Nutmeg. (Oh my babies). (I’m going to skip ahead a couple of chapters, because this is important). Val meets Thomas and immediately seems skeptical of him. In a way that she questions how he acts. She slowly finds herself slipping up, and starts liking his observance, until literally finding herself head over heels for him. She helps Thomas while he’s in the Slammer on her off time. She is relatively the only one on his side, and he comforts her when the end of the Maze is triggered. (Instead of Teresa, it is another boy that shows up the day after. So original, I know.)

Further (and rather unimportant) information:

Thomas + Valentina = Talentina

ART! Mel first (made by me), Val second (by @day-ur-fav-gay), and Hawk third (by @secretlyab1rd). (Some Nutmeg and the Homestead wall against the world that I made too! XD)

[centrally-unplanned]

I have been taking my fit-and-starts second stab at playing Victoria 3 - I did a Japan run, and a Korea run, and this is a very frustrating game. It bothers me because its deep core is probably the best of Vicky so far. It understands that the appeal of these game is Factorio-esque; you want to build up this cool little supply chain that goes chug chug chug I make-a the widgets and numbers go up.

Vicky 1 was ofc just pure cheese; most goods could just be dumped on the global market with no buyer and do fine, certain goods were just hard-coded to be profitable, and insane things like 100% of import costs coming out of the government's budget pushed you towards a kind of samey, slapdash hyper-industrial mercantilism. Vicky 2 was the opposite - so opaque in its function that you as the player didn't really have agency over it, as the vaunted World Market just does its thing. Your strategies "worked" no matter what you really did though, so you just kind of followed basic "build factory in same territory as RGO" logic and let the system run itself. Both of these systems made for functional-but-not-exceptional gameplay loops.

Vicky 3 is more complicated than its predecessors, but in ways that makes how the economic system functions more concrete. You have local prices for goods, wider markets with clearly labelled high-and-low demand, and clearly defined "production methods" where buildings can commit to better tech at the cost of different inputs. As a player you can build factories, farms, and mines of a dozen different types anywhere, so you always have agency - and those new production lines gives you goals. Invent steel tools, so now your tooling workshops can make more tools but will need steel instead of iron as a input? You can switch over the lines...but make sure you have enough steel mills! And oh, that drives down the price of tools once you do it...so now your cattle ranches can justify switching their line to tool-assisted butchers! And now you make more meat, your local cost is low, but oh in the Russian market meat prices are high - as shown by that little gold coin icon it - so you can export it now!

Things are looped, contingent, and based on your decisions. It is simple, of course, you are making lots of little, easy calls that build you up over time - which is what makes it fun. It has to be simple, because otherwise it is a dizzyingly complex web of a million markets, it would never work. You feel like you are actually building the economy without being overwhelmed by it.

Which would be great if it wasn't stapled to one of the worst political & military systems I have ever seen, played with a UI God abandoned in shame.

So you can join the markets of other countries? Like you have your own market as a default, so you can click the "market" tab and it will show you how much wheat your country makes, how much iron it buys, etc. All good. But if you join another country's market, now that tab shows the collective market, everyone's wheat, iron, etc. Useful but like obiously I am not playing the market, I am playing the country; so how do I see how much wheat I make?

You can't.

You actually can't! Idk maybe they patched it in recently, but I couldn't find it and all the reddit threads I google from 2023 say you can't. Are you planning to declare independence and wanna see if you make enough food for your people? Too bad! Fuck around and find out I guess. I saw one thread where someone's advice was "save the game, declare independence, screenshot the new market, then reload". Quantum timeline level of experimental design going on in these guys' Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It isn't even the gameplay implications that bother me the most - this is a game about building an economy. You want to see what you built! And they stop you. It is baffling, and is just the tip of the iceberg - there are so many things like this. One of my favourites is that your "construction sector" is a hybrid of government and private projects, sometimes it is you spending the money, sometimes investors. Okay, cool, when it is you spending it comes out of your treasury, right? Well, yes, but the way they show that is when everyone spends it comes out of your treasury, but the private sector reimburses you for their share. Which you will not understand your first ~3 games, and instead just see huge red numbers on your budget screen and panic. And you are just left asking why? Why do that?

Beyond UI, the political system is just half-baked. It is "interest groups", each has baseline popularity, and verrrry slowly that changes as your economic structure changes (or revolutions). And to change laws you initiate campaigns to drum up support with roll dice to pass/fail. Which isn't a bad baseline, but it completely fails to capture how political change occurred in the era. Like the Meiji Restoration is "done" by you putting industrialists in power and kicking out the "landlords" lol. Japan didn't have industrialists then! Landlords are the ones who did the restoring of Meiji.

More importantly than inaccurate it isn't fun - to change a law you just arrange a coalition in power than kind of backs it, then pray you get good random events. In Vicky 2 they had a lot more railroad-style decisions and stuff you could do to capture history, "hit this military score benchmark and launch a civil war" kind of stuff. It wasn't complicated, and it was less organic, but it was pro player agency, you could take active steps to achieve it. In Vicky 3 it is mainly waiting or cheese - people often talk about getting the Meiji Restoration by deleting all your armies at game start and launching a civil war immediately that the AI will lose by default. A checkbox decision is better than that!

The military mechanics are the epitome of their "systems over gameplay" approach. What they wanted to do was two-fold; reduce micro in Vicky 2 where it is "click army to province" over and over, and "balance" the game by making combat not reward micro where players could cheese the AI. Very valid goals, I totally support it. What they did was built a system where armies auto-move to "fronts" and their AI can't handle it, but now as a player my agency over my units is gone so I can't fix it. The UI is awful, you can't even really tell armies to attack or defend, they just ~whim. You have to do a lot of clicking to fight the system - yes it is less clicking than Vicky 2, but in Vicky 2 that wasn't mentally taxing, it was fun enough to wage the war you wanted to wage. Everything was concrete and in your control.

Here...look, as Korea I declared war on China to gain independence. Then the UK - not my ally, just separately, declared war on China as well. So now we are kindaaaa on the same side? At which point half my army auto-reployed to Hong Kong because a "new front" had "appeared". One my one boat. Then the UK declared war on me as well and then 50% of my army was fighting the UK in the South China Sea alongside the Russians (???) while the other half of my army is sitting there at home facing the Qing troops along the Yalu River going "bro, wtf?". At one point a newly spawned army of mine tried to auto-redeploy to Senegal.

All of this is just so preventable - you wanna reduce micro? Make combat provinces really big. You just invade "Manchuria", no clicking from Jilin to Mukden, and have bordering armies support each other defensively or something like that so you don't have to dash back and forth. Don't try to make your AI "do it for you" because it clearly can't and you want to play your own game. I'm sure the above will get better as I learn the system but I can just see the hundreds of players who saw this system and insta-quit, because until you "understand" it, it stabs you in the back. Not what you want out of a game.

Anyway enough me whinging about the game for way too long - the fundamentals are strong in the end. I will test out mods, I could see an overhaul mod really fixing everything except maybe the combat (and then you just cope). I definitely want it to work, the potential is high.

[interstellarsystem]

Hello, I just want some input from someone whose actually plural because I don't know what's going on with me.

I have adhd and autism and hyperfixated two months ago on a character. It was a very difficult time for me and he sort of manifested in my mind. At the time I can see how I needed him, because my orientation was getting skewed but I am better now. A lot better but. He's still there.

I cannot really tell how sentient he really is but he does things on his own occasionally. I don't know how much of what he's saying is my own thoughts but repackaged, I cannot tell. I do dissociate but I never really had signs of DID.

Can I have any input on what could be going on here? I have no idea how to find good resources on plurality, I don't know anything about plurality and feel a bit lost.

Plurality doesn't necessarily have to be DID--but if you're concerned, talking to a professional about the possibility of dissociative disorders might be your best bet.

As for the general question... Honestly, hyperfixating on a character is a pretty common reason to gain a fictive! We've done it plenty of times, even before being aware of our own plurality. There's plenty of reasons and explanations for how it can happen, but really those are for you to decide your opinion on at your own pace.

And in the end.. Sometimes you're not plural because you "need" your headmates. You just are. Even if you don't "need" him anymore, he might stick around for a long while simply because he just.. Exists now!

It might be tricky to manage going forward, but I recommend trying to establish communication with him--by talking in your head, leaving notes, journalling--any method would be good. If he is going to be sharing your body for any period of time, it'd be in the best interest of the both of you to figure out any compromises or decisions you need to make together. Does he have any interests he wants to tell you about? Does he want to do any activities that something is preventing him from while fronting? Is he confused about anything? Does he want to have fronting time? Talking back and forth about what the two of you want is honestly the number 1 way (in our opinion) to live happily as plural while you are and to have less chance of internal issues arising. You might not be more than one forever, but while you are, it'd be good to make it safe and comfortable for both of you.

Some further reading:

For an incredibly basic rundown, we tend to recommend MoreThanOne. It's generally an easy to understand resource with some nice general info on the subject, if it's something you're new to.

The Dragonheart Collective's Primer to Plurality is a good guide to check out. There's other guides and links within that document that can help you with questioning, terms, and other stuff.

If you need anything else specific, feel free to let us know. Best of luck to you!

[bibibbon]

Ok a question center about Izu, in a way. Hm, ok let me gather my thought:

Mirio is either stupid or naive? I ask this bc well nighteye was a miserable bitch against Izu for no reason but petty. Is Mirio aware Nighteye is a creep or ...nighteye fake around mirio?

Now to Izu...I think I'm the only one who can see this but...Izu getting the quirk, ofa, is now a mean spirit joke. "Huh?what you mean?"

Mirio is the perfect candidate for ofa. He has a good grasp on his quirk, he knows how to act and is a mini am. He could fill the gap right away and AM was in a hurray.

Why pick Izu?

"he saved PoS" which ok...but is that enough to grant him a special quirk? No discussing or get to know Izu? Am doesn't know this kid...for all he knows Izu could have used ofa for evil.

To me, the way I see it. Izu got the quirk bc am is stubborn and nighteye was a mega creep.

Like Mirio was a perfect option for ofa. Why Izu? Not asking this to shit on him (I'm not Hori) but while Izu does work to make this quirk his...AM was putting pressure...he needs Izu to be the symbol of peace in a second.

Mirio already was a symbol or coming closer. Why not him?

What makes Izu special of ofa? It's bc am picked him and it's a good reason if we saw why am picked him. Am picked him way too quick.

One good and frankly suicidal mission was enough to make him his heir. Why? We will never know.

Again, not shitting on Izu. I wanted to see a reason as why Izu is worthy of ofa. But we don't. The relationship of am and Izu is ...no. Existent. Really make me think he picked Izu too quick and if nighteye wasn't himself...the ofa would go to Mirio.

Hi @mikeellee 👋 sorry for not answering this sooner!

Hmm interesting I would say mirio is naive with a dash of biases. Let me explain, what I mean is that Mirio believes that nighteye wouldn't do such a thing especially if it's towards someone he thinks is a friend. Mirio and nighteyes relationship is what I like to describe what nighteye wanted his relationship to be with all might in a way.

I don't think that Mirio is aware of nighteye's creepy behaviour as canon never alludes or implies it at all and Mirio someone who has a strong sense of righteousness and would probably be very irked if he found out about nighteye.

My theory is that due to all mights and nighteye's strained relationship all might didn't trust nighteye's input or decision so he may of left Mirio getting OFA as a last resort type of thing. However, you are right Mirio is basically perfect for the role especially if they wanted another mini all might in a hugely short span of time but I think the message was supposed to be that with society changing that another all might may actually harm society a lot more than do good for it. Now I think that if horikoshi actually allowed Izuku's character to go through proper development that izuku would be perfect in delivering that message however this idea doesn't hold much weight after Izuku's fight with shigaraki that parallels all mights kamino fight.

Also maybe Izuku reminded all might of himself so that's why he picked him. In reality how would all might really know that though??!?! All might and izuku bonding time is basically non existent in the manga or anime their relationship is also non existent. All might doesn't know much about izuku and neither does izuku. All might is a bad mentor and it's never brought up or used as a point to develop him and his relationship with Izuku.

Iam not sure what's so special about izuku for all might to pick him or why all might never picked Mirio. I remember a few years ago I saw a video talking about how in the overhaul arc we never actually got proof as to why izuku is the better candidate for OFA and i have to actually agree. Izuku never ended up differentiating himself from Mirio and frankly we don't even have any logical reasoning from all might as to why it was izuku himself. Or it's how he broke the bystander effect and wanted to help bakugo even though he couldn't do anything that maybe inspired him to help this kids dream of becoming a hero become a reality but oh well I guess we will never know the true answer.

[thenarrowstreet]

Mirror's Reflection

Summary: Pre-relationship comfort between Gale and a reluctant leader Tav, and some reflections after learning the truth about the orb.

“Are you alright?” Familiar, by now. You attempt a smile as he finds his spot beside you. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Basically, Gale is my emotional-support companion lol

Word count: 1,610

AO3 Link

You were decidedly not the leader type. 

Timid, too quiet, overly sensitive. Such are the common themes in how others have always described you. You didn’t think that there should be anything shameful in sensitivity or preferring to listen than speak, and yet those descriptors were spoken with such disappointment and judgment that you felt yourself shrink. Rather than encouraging you to be bold and outgoing, you fell further into yourself until you believed it might be easier to just be invisible. 

So as you somehow find yourself at the head of a rapidly increasing group of strangers plagued with the same ill-fate as you, it should go without saying that you are out of your depth. It had started so gradually you hardly noticed until it was too late. What first began as simply trying to settle differences between Shadowheart and Lae’zel turned into authority unspokenly designated to you as Astarion joined the group. 

As the four of you made camp on the first night, you reasoned with yourself that it was a manageable group size. Compromise and fair discussions should be possible so that the group can make decisions together rather than just leaving them up to you. And yet, there was no denying that your new acquaintances were not going to easily find themselves on the same page. 

The next morning brought a new face to the group which elicited both instant comfort and yet an increasing sense of pressure. Gale was the first friendly face you had encountered, and you were drawn to him instantly by the warmth of his greeting and sincere brown eyes. You couldn’t help but marvel at his good-nature and optimism despite the life-threatening conditions you both shared. 

He was an eager and helpful addition to the party, and you found yourself valuing his input whenever he had insight to offer. Some decisions seemed so clear with him by your side, aided by the fact that you seemed to hold similar values. With Gale’s genuine expressions of approval, you felt assured of a reliable companion. Naturally, you readily helped Gale once he voiced a need for magical artifacts and the two of you only grew closer in mutual trust and reliance. However, you knew that there would be harder choices to make beyond the Grove. And with the more recent additions of Wyll and Karlach to the group the weight of responsibility placed on your shoulders became suffocating. 

Often, dinner around the campfire would result in heated discussions regarding the best courses of action and decisions to be made. Very rarely did you raise anything at these times, preferring to listen to all offered viewpoints. They quickly learned not to prompt you for your opinion, your mind grinding to a halt as all eyes turned towards you. With a mind buzzing with differing perspectives and arguments, you would afterwards retreat to your tent or the riverbank to consider all the options, even long after everyone else had begun to rest. 

On some nights your attention was drawn by a faint glowing light illuminating Gale’s tent, suggesting perhaps that the wizard found himself lost in some new book picked up along the journey. You secretly longed to join him and discover what volume had him so enthralled. For sleep to find you as you listened to his hushed voice reading the words aloud for you, rather than while endlessly turning around possible choices to be made the next day. But you would inevitably talk yourself out of it, any courage brought on from deep-seated longing thoroughly stamped out by reasoning of your own fabrication. 

— 

In the evening after Gale revealed the true nature of his affliction, some members of the party were less than pleased at your decision to allow him to stay and vocalized as much. It had been an instant choice on your part, needing not a moment of reflection. Though you have known him for only a short while, the trust and care you held for him left no room for doubt. Beyond such personal explanations, each member of the party knew that you all only stood a chance if you remained united. 

Even now you could recall with clarity his pained expression as he allowed you to see his self-declared folly, the depth of sorrow in his eyes as he held your hand near his heart and revealed the anguish hidden there. Always so desperate to be useful. And it seemed so obvious now as to why he wanted to help in any way possible. His fear of rejection, of being cast out, was as plain as the guilt pooled in his eyes. 

You had fought back the tears then, for his sake. Though in truth you could have knelt down with him and wrapped him in your arms as best as you were able. You were never very good at comforting, never certain if a hug was welcome or not. So instead your arms wrapped around yourself, trying to find stability after the shock of his revelation to you. But now, hearing the others murmuring that perhaps allowing him to stay was an irresponsible choice, tears prick your eyes once more and your throat tightens. You quietly excused yourself with what you hoped to be a measured expression, the group more than accustomed to your habit of withdrawing to be alone. 

Your hasty retreat to the riverside took you past Gale’s tent. Undoubtedly he would have been aware of the hushed dissent passing around the campfire, and yet seemed determined to appear untroubled as he read outside his tent. 

Not too long after finding a moment’s peace in your favourite spot, you are unsurprised by a gentle hand on your shoulder accompanied by a warm inquiry. He had found you here before, after all. 

“Are you alright?” Familiar, by now. 

You attempt a smile as he finds his spot beside you. “I could ask you the same thing.” 

A small exhaled hum is all the response that comes, leaving room for a thoughtful silence to settle between you. 

Your mind wanders to the first time he found you here alone with your thoughts. He had been searching for somewhere quiet to read, but didn’t want to impede upon your solitude. Where normally you would be grateful for such an offer, truly desiring to find a moment to yourself, you found yourself offering for him to join you. As much as you love to listen to him talk, you were equally delighted to find that you could share in a comfortable quietude. 

You are the one to ultimately dispel the hushed moment, your hesitant admission competing only with the river’s babbling and soft chirping of the crickets. 

“Some of them think I’m wrong, to want you to stay. And given that I’m not the most confident among us, I’m not surprised if they don’t trust me to make decisions. But…” 

You risk meeting his eyes, almost regretting it as you’re met with an overwhelming array of emotions filling his gaze. The intensity with which he considers your admission, seemingly holding his breath as he awaits its completion, is almost enough to derail your thought-process entirely. You avert your eyes though keeping your gaze near, urging yourself to press on. 

“But this is one of the few choices so far that I’ve been entirely sure of.” 

The relief he expressed earlier that day returned, though perhaps somewhat more subdued and paired with something more personal and harder to decipher. Gratitude? Affection? And yet the faintest sign of disbelief lingered. For all his earlier enthusiastic thanks to you, the look in his eyes now was so sincere and vulnerable that you really are in danger of crying all over again. 

But then his warm hand finds your own, so assuring and grounding that the tension between your knitted eyebrows softens almost instantly. 

“I meant what I said before, Tav. In witnessing your conduct thus far I have grown to trust you whole-heartedly. And how fortunate I am that your wisdom and generosity has extended to me. Even if Lae’zel and Astarion may think otherwise.” 

He turns to face you more fully then, both hands clinging to yours almost in a desperate plea. His eyes seek yours as his voice lowers, hushed as though revealing a precious secret. A matter of great magnitude. 

“I promise I will not betray your faith in me. Even if I can scarcely believe I have it, how unearned I fear it must be.” 

Such different lives you both had led, perhaps a result of what might appear on the surface to be almost opposite personalities. Yet as you sit here face-to-face, each finding your own insecurity mirrored in the other, the trust you place in him reflects right back to yourself. 

You huff an incredulous laugh and the tears fall at last, freely and with immense relief. One hand releases yours to hover over your cheek, stopped abruptly by hesitation on its path to wiping them. Stuttering concern that he might have offended you spills from his lips, so endearing and clumsy that you almost laugh properly this time. 

“Sorry Gale, really I’m fine.” You say it with a sheepish smile, opting to wipe the tears yourself. 

You intertwine your fingers with his hand that remained in yours, almost entirely forgotten in his brief panic, and focus your gaze out to the soft moonlight reflected on the river. 

“Thank you, by the way. And you’ve more than earned it, Gale. Truly.” 

Peace settles over you once again as his hand tightens in yours, each of you silently glowing in the comfort of having someone who believes in you.

[randomthefox]

Tangle is a terrible girlfriend. I don't understand how anyone can look at her relationship with Whisper and think it's cute.

Tangle has yet to fight or threaten anyone who's harmed Whisper by the way. I'm pretty sure Tangle basically tells Whisper to just take it until the perpetrator is finished. Lmao at all the fan art of Tangle getting angry at Surge.

And why is everyone fine with Lanolin attacking Whisper? If it's bad when Surge does it then it's also bad when Lanolin does it.

I don't understand idw stans.

Whisper is a pretty terrible girlfriend too honestly. They aren't a good couple at all. Whisper is too traumatized to be in a healthy functional relationship with another person. Because of her experiences she's extremely emotionally distant from everybody. Her initial reaction to meeting Sonic and Silver was to run away. She probably goes extremely long periods of time without even speaking at all. She's damaged goods.

Take this moment for example.

Now they're about to blow up and die, so I don't blame Whisper for prioritizing their safety from the bombs over anything else right now. But Tangle is extremely claustrophobic (a trait that was invented for this storyline and is never mentioned again but we're not talking about how dogshit this comic is right now). She was JUST trapped inside of that vault and was suffocating through a panic attack because of it.

So after the threat of death has passed and they're safe, this is what happens.

Whisper doesn't display ANY concern or sympathy for Tangle whatsoever. She doesn't reach out to comfort her. She doesn't offer her any support whatsoever. She doesn't even acknowledge what Tangle went through. Instead she just sends her away, something that Tangle reacts to like she's just been punched in the stomach. Not a very reassuring feeling to be hit with after going through a phobia experience.

Now you might respond to that by saying "that's not fair! Whisper is only sending Tangle away because she's concerned about her! She doesn't want to lose another friend! Whisper is speaking out from her own trauma and just isn't expressing herself in a healthy and articulate way because of the pain she's carrying!" And you'd be right. That's sort of my whole point.

TANGLE is the one who needs emotional support after what she just went through. TANGLE is the one who is mostly a civilian and almost died, TANGLE is the one who is claustrophobic and was locked away in a vault and who suffered through a deeply traumatic experience because of it. TANGLE is the one who needs to be comforted right now.

But because of how broken Whisper is, Tangle ends up needing to be the one who comforts HER.

I am so NOT okay with this.

Part of being in a relationship is give and take. Compromise. Averaging your misery. You need to be able to carry someone when they aren't able to walk on their own, and allow them to carry you. Whisper is unable to do that. Whisper always makes everything about HER and HER PAIN. She never communicates her feelings to others. She never allows Tangle to have any input whatsoever. She still operates as a lone wolf, making her own decisions for herself that she thinks is for the best without considering anybody elses feelings.

I'm not saying that Whisper is a "bad person" for this or anything like this. This is all completely understandable given her past life experiences. I'm not criticizing her actions or saying that she's being written badly for any of this. This is all compelling drama for her character.

It just makes her extremely bad girlfriend material. Tangle is not going to get ANYTHING out of her in a relationship. Any and all of Tangle's own burdens and needs are going to be completely and totally neglected and everything is going to need to revolve entirely around Whisper. That is not a healthy relationship. Whisper needs to work on herself before she can get anywhere close to being an equal and worthy partner for literally anybody. Let alone Tangle, who is her own walking disaster.

WhispAngle is a TOXIC SHIP as presented within the text of the comic. No ifs ands or buts about it.