#not entirely related but that one post thats like a whole ''animal crossing is not a real game the sims is not a real game'' rant that has

[arovalentines]

hector working retail for my amusement

[phantom-noir]

People are taking the Four explanation way too far. Saying Jojo is trans-phobic and Queerbating. Seriously? Can you get your dang head out of the clouds?

For example, "Well the group laughed at wild for the Vai clothes, thats trans-phobic."

You've gotta to be kidding me man, its clear that there is nothing trans-phobic about it.

You think it's a little funny that your friend is carrying around revealing female clothing, maybe he cross dresses? Maybe they belong to someone else? They all have a laugh about it. I dont get how the heck that's trans-phobic. You don't have to be trans or queer to cross dress, maybe you just like feminine clothing. (This can go the opposite way, maybe you like more masculine clothing.) You can also be queer and cross dress too! Thats perfectly fine! Are you trans and wear feminine clothing to show your identity and feel more with yourself? A-Ok girl, you go for it!

It's just something seen as unexpected from Wild, so they tease him about it, they're interested, wanting to know the story. Wild gets embarrassed about it. There's nothing more too it. It literally a draw back to what Urbosa says in Wild's game, she also teases him about "wearing that outfit again."

Along with that, Jojo saying that Four isn't a system is apparently putting down those with D.I.D. I dont see her hating on the headcanon, she's simply explaining that, that wasn't her original plan for his character and explaining how the system works in further detail.

I like to think that more than half of you know, that she's had lots of the story planned out for a very long time. And the comic itself is a much slower process. He most likely wasn't going to be a mental system the entire time. Is that bad? Do all characters that share a similar trait with Four have to have a system, no, they don't. Can characters be a part of a mental system? Of course they can! Can there be headcanons of Four being a system? Of course there can be! Can those with D.I.D. still relate to him? Sure, that's up to you!

Along with that, some were pointing out the the chart about Twilight not being a Furry, Werewolf, or Otherkin/Therian. How that those people were clearly displayed poorly, and maybe even being made fun of within the post. I get that, and I understand that. I'm a furry myself, I make furry art, and I make fursuits. And the way Jojo displayed a furry as a smelly person in a gross costume with flies flying around it? While it may be a little disheartening, its funny. I can easily see it as a joke. And even if it wasn't, you don't HAVE to like them anyways.

Then again, being a Furry doesn't mean you need a fursuit, or even a fursona, you don't need to be an artist etc. All being a Furry means, is you like Anthropomorphic animals. There's two definitions of being a Furry, the identity and what a "Furry" is, a furry IS an Anthropomorphic animal, and an Anthropomorphic animal is an animal with human like characteristics. Some of those characteristics can be: human like emotions, talking, and emotional expressions.

This goes for Otherkin/Therians too, though they are completely different from the furry definition. Many therians don't identify as fully human, or don't identify as human at all. And some, may just feel as though they have a deeper connection with animals than they do with their human self. Theres plenty more to it, no one is the same.

Theres a whole lot more I can say to this. But I think that a lot of people just need to take a chill pill. Stop trying to force false facts in between the lines that don't exist. Be respectful to other peoples headcanons, be respectful to whats canon. I'm sorry that it came off a little dissapointing to a lot of people, even I'm slightly disappointed myself, I thought it might have been a bit more detailed than what it was. Sadly its not, its just what it is. Don't try to force headcanons on to people, dont try to shove what you think is better story wise down other peoples throats. Let's not harrass people, and call Jojo phobic.

Could you just calm down and take a breather?

TLDR: The community is taking it a bit to far. Share your two-cents, but don't harrass people with it.

[metanoiyed-archive]

“A Deed Without A Name” by Lee Morgan Notes and Thoughts part three

Recap of part two:

In part two, we discussed the bestiary, a wide variety of spirits and entities or not-quite either, along with a witches power, the Devil, and superstition. Fetchbeasts and familiars were also discussed.  We discussed how fetchbeasts will usually relate to the persons ancestral heritage the most, how the vitality of a person feeds the spirit working through them, and how accounts of working with the fae or the Devil appear throughout accounts of witchcraft.

On Visualization and hedgecrossing:

Visualization as you get older becomes more difficult, even with a longing to cross the hedge or if you had a talent for it when you were young. The walls built up as you reach adulthood are strong and require work to take down.

*A good way to hedgecross is to develop a good relationship with a powerful site where crossing is easy/liminality is clear. Every place has the capacity to be a location for passage, you just have to know where to look. There are parts of this passage informed by wisdom from Aboriginal medicine men that Morgan refers to as ‘nungkari’, but as I am not sure, I’m not going to definitively say it’s correct.

A direct quote on the nature of crossing places and crossing, “A site is active in that a relationship exists between site, humans and spirits, a threeway synergy that results in that place being sacred or being a dreaming site.” in regards to the wisdom of aforementioned Aboriginal medicine men.

“deep myth” is a form of meeting place between spirits and man; find a place with history tied to it, and learn it to make a connection. Make an offering once you’ve found such a place, speak to the spirits of the place.

Hedgecrossing is no more or no less than being other, no merging the daimonic other with your second skin.

On Western Occultism and the Daimonic Self:

Western Occultism will place the daimonic self as the ‘higher self’, of it being without substance, while there are actual accounts of peoples doubles committing crimes, but the person in question does not remember a thing. Whether they did it unknowingly or someone took their double for a spin, both accounts have been recorded.

On the dead, ‘the fat’ mentioned in the previous post, and dipping back into hedgecrossing:

The Taltos of Hungary were driven by a strong appetite. There was a ceremony called ‘Drenching the Ghosts’ in which the taltos was given milk mixed with the blood of the sacrificed animal’ this was meant to literally drench the ghosts through the taltos. This ties into the other point on my second notes post, about replenishing your energy and life force as those on the other side of the veil will draw from it.

This reminds us that humans are not the only ones that stradde the hedge - but also those who work through them.

The dead appear ambiguously in folklore. Could give blessings if they were properly honored after life, but if not they could turn on the community that forgot them.

Witches present a strong relationship to the dead; appearing at peoples bedsides as doubles wearing white veils.

Taltos had all sorts of hungry spirits working through them, burning the aforementioned vitality, which would drive some to skim off fat from the milk harvests.

You may find you need to take offerings on behalf of your spirits - be wary of using ‘the will of the spirits’ as an excuse. (A warning provided by Morgan, and a good lesson to heed.)

On the Beast, Riding Plants, and initiatory process:

The beast exists in everyone, regardless of if you have seen it. When you seek out witchcraft, you stir the beast. (Arguable, but I do not have enough evidence or the energy to refute this, but as I am early in my research I am not sure I entirely agree with this point; if anyone has opinions they wish to share or reading material on the topic I welcome it. Certainly you make yourself more interesting as you seek out witchcraft, you stir up things, but do I believe everyone has a beast? To be determined)

Riding plants was a thing far before riding animals or broomsticks.

Ragwort is known as being a steed of witches, alongside sorghum.

Things with the reputation of being hex breakers, magic counters, protection from maleficium usually have benevolent physical actions, (ex. sage, known for spiritual cleansing, is also an antiseptic)

Being ‘made’ consists of an initiatory crisis, (death/rebirth, symbolic) that includes power gifting and dismemberment, the power that has been given will try to remake the person into a suitable vessel. This can and will be a time of confusion and conflict. The process will feel like the threat of death to the body of the person under going it, whether thats physically or emotionally/mentally/situationally.

Visions of being taken apart of swallowed whole or dragged under (especially by your fetchbeast) are not uncommon testimonies to see.

The association of witches with death makes sense when we consider that initiation centers around death and dying; being remade and reborn, dismembered. They’re not the person they were before, and this reflects in what they bring with them.

[desolationlovers]

oh yall thought i was done x posting? lol. kamui character rant under the cut

the thing about kamui is i dont know that hes a very deep character??atleast not how clamp has written him and esp not in the manga.

he spends a lot of the manga being confused and often manipulated. and hes really just a kid.

his first big character arc is debastardization basically. when hes introduced hes a TOTAL asshole (the anime added scenes to make him more of a dick at the start but also has a bit of an explaination? ill get to it). hes shown as very rude to everyone around him, yelling at people to get out of his way or get lost, including his previous friends. hes also shown to have absolutely no care for his surrondings and regularly fights and uses his powers in places where bystanders could be injured and leaving roads bridges or nearby buildings in ruins. when confronted about the latter by hinotos knight (his name is saiki) he straight up says he doesnt care if anyone gets hurt. which i mean ok nothing wrong with a character being an asshole. the extreme in your face way kotori and fuuma describe kamui as a kid being very shy and Very quiet and gentle makes this characterization confusing but hey people can change i guess. the confusing part is that as kamui slowly beings to let his guard down he says that the big reason he was so standoffish especially wrt kotori and fuuma was because he wanted to keep them at a distance so they wouldnt get involved with all the end of the world stuff. which makes sense obviously! kamui was absolutely aware of how dangerous it might get. his entire plan was to get the shinken (the sacred sword) and bail because he didnt want any part of any of it. what i dont get is why he was totally cool with bystanders being injured or killed. during his fight with saiki they were in a neighborhood! on people roofs and shit!! saiki is the one to lead them to an abandoned construction site so no one gets caught in the crossfire. and kamui almost kills saiki!!! which i will let slide a bit because kamui was being followed and had been attacked by spells literally that morning. but later on he apologizes to saiki but never explained his reasoning why he didnt care about destroying peoples houses??? and its never brought up again?????? also theres a scene added to the anime where he kicks the shit out of kotori and fuumas dad??? because he wouldnt give kamui the sword?? bro thats ur best friends dad you jackass!!!!!

in the anime they added flashbacks for the time after he moved away from tokyo which i think make his whole character make much more sense. when he first moves and goes to a new school he accidentally uses his powers and makes everyone afraid of him. fast forward past elementary school to high? school? its unclear. at school hes a lazy slacker that never goes to class and never talks to anyone, big ol loner. he sees that a local gang has been stealing kids money and beating them up. so he decides to put on a tough guy persona and confront the gang telling them to knock it off and scaring them shitless with some fun ass kicking psychokenesis. now i am SO on board with this addition. kamui being ostrisized for being weird and scary when hes already a super shy kid, so he embraces this scary intimidating image and tries using it for good because hes still ultimately kind hearted. he gets too absorbed in this tough guy persona that he loses touch with the original purpose of it and just uses it as a shield because he himself is afraid and confused. and maybe even hiding behind it because hes so afraid of having this huge destiny that he doesnt know if he can live up to and how can someone who decides the fate of the world be just some quiet oversensitive guy.

except all of that is my own speculation and analysis because they really do not go into ANY detail about this. i wouldnt say its to the point where it feels like they just flipped a switch and hes nice now but it def feels like that. and it annoys me because after he kind of apologizes for being a dick it doesnt really get brought up again?? i think he broods over it once or twice. but i would have really liked to see flashes of it coming back in high stress situations or something? he has a lot of points of grief and depression but its always meloncholic rather than angry and it really makes him feel like two different characters i wish it was way more of a mix.

anger would also be good with the whole overarching theme of trying to break out of the path destined for you. its constantly said that theres only one future by the dreamgazers although hinoto wants to change it. its supposed destined that kamui will lose and earth will be destroyed. anger but more importantly PASSION is whats needed break out of what has been preordained and to carve your own path. passion is also whats needed for the main part of the second half of kamuis character arc, figuring out what it is he REALLY wants. what his true wish is.

i also think anger could have been a good inverse to the deliberate mirroring of kamuis character and subarus character. subaru really represents despair and being completely swallowed by grief. his story is that the man he fell in love with (named seishiro) was just manipulating him for fun and is actually an emotionless assassian. subaru is so destroyed by this realization he goes into a depression and because of this is unable to save his sister being killed by seishiro. his goal is literally to be enough of a nusance to seishiro that hell kill him. literally he wants to be acknowledged as important enough to bother killing. its pointed out often how subaru and kamui are so similar, with how fuuma killed kotori, and how theyre both kindhearted ro a fault. its an intentional reflection. subaru even pulls kamui out of a similar depressive state after kotori dies. he and kamui have a whole heart to heart about how some peoples happiness can look pitiful to others and how hes going to fufill his goals even when other people are worried for him. and most importantly about how not everyone can be happy with an outcome. i think it would have been really good for subaru to represent someone overcome with depression about how awful the world is and paralyzed with that sadness and kamui would be the rightous anger and compassion needed to actually change the world. “lets this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair” you know? it would have been a really good parallel considering part of x’s themes are literally about having compassion for humanity. but that reading possibly shoots itself in the foot because the language used wrt the two possible futures are things to stay as they are or for a “revolution” to occur, meaning killing everyone to let the earth heal. so ideas of change are insinuated to be connected with the seven angels and genocide. which uh. not going to get into that.

i do like when he starts going to the clamp school he goes back to being shy and quiet and kind of gets pushed around by people with more force of personality. very fun uncomfortably relatable. its ok man im extremely passive too.

anyway final thoughts kamui needs more passion. clamp give me the rights. also let subaru and kamui hang out and have a brotherly bond. no creepy shit. just subaru being an akward older brother that knows what kamuis going thru and gives bad advice bc he has god awful coping mechanisms.

side note we arent ever told about his likes/dislikes hobby or anything of that nature. the blankest of slates. so my city now. i think hes into obscure indie music and has thousands of hours in various life sim games like animal crossing and stardew valley.

[bladekindeyewear]

HS^2 bloggin’ upd8 2020-01-17

Alright, morningblogging yesterday’s 2020-01-17 upd8 to Homestuck^2 let’s go!  Spoiler-free again.  I kinda don’t want even the next chapter names image-spoiled above the cut anymore so I’m going to have to figure out WHAT to put above the cut in these liveblog posts for visual reinforcement... a unique silly icon?  Going back once I’m done with the upd8 and posting something non-spoilery but weird-looking out of context?

Eh, can’t be assed.  Just know that after this I’m going to pony up for the Patreon commentary and skim it for anything plot-useful to y’all (in a separate post).  Let’s get started.

Okay, what’s next:  Any bonuses?  Oh, none!  Phew.  Unless those are coming faster too and just staggered differently, which would mean I gotta overcome my irrational pre-Homestuck-reading anxiety even MORE often.  :T

No Homestuck you don’t GET to ask how my-- ah, right.  :P

(FYI, HS^2 has been good to my emotions so far, quite a balm for the epilogues, so once I START reading I’m usually fine; but after being hurt so badly how could I possibly convince my lizard brain to trust it until it’s right in front of me?  Seriously, just hearing that the upd8 has landed messes me up a bit until I come fix it by reading w/ y’all here.)

Okay, so whose feelings?  As much as I’ve been waiting for Jade, I hope this isn’t about Jade.

> ==>

Ah fuck, we’re finally with the Pursuit Crew.  Bracing myself.  That means we get to see probably sleeping Jade ( :C ), full-swing DaveKat (approving nod), the first canon onscreen look at masculine-mode Roxy (<3), a probably pretty pissed off Kanaya (possibly either the feelings target, the one Saying How Are Your Feelings, or both), and uh... did they drag Callie along?  Or leave her back there with her meta freakout?  Probably left her back there, but... hm.

Let me turn up the brightness on this screen to sear these next pages into my retinas.  (Also, it feels odd to still be using a four-person “==>” for these, although if Jade is still asleep the numbers might fit on both ends... :c )

> ==>

I don’t think Dad is in the spacefaring business, so this is probably one of Jake’s shittier spaceship designs.

> ==>

...well that’s a touch disturbing.  Is that a Jade-occupied bed or are those just pillows?

Oh what the fresh fanfic’y heck is this command.

> i enter.

Okay that’s great.  I got a kick out of that.

JADE [in calliope red]: the prince’s power grows.

--but that’s not.  That explains the narrative command text, it’s alt!callie talking through a still conked-out Jade.  Please let her wake up between speak-throughs, please tell me you’ve learned that trick??  I already know you’re gonna pull an “oh she was asleep pretty much all of those THREE YEARS OF TRAVEL” thing on me and that’s hard fucking enough to deal with.

KARKAT: JESUS CHRIST!

He’s actually using the full curse correctly, huh?

...These commands.  Guess part of the puzzle is how much alt!Callie is being typically morbid and how much she might actually be wising up enough to get a kick out of this.

> the knight of blood falls.

DAVE: dude can you chill for like even a single fucking second DAVE: also are you ok

Has CallieJade chilled for even a single second this entire trip??  Is he asking just if Karkat’s okay or Jade too???

--yeah I’m overblowing things out of nervousness.  Just wait and see a bit, boots.

Alt!Callie has at least learned to be more of a smartass:

> karkat is characteristically appreciative of the alarm call.

Shirt trade Karkat, nice.  And uh, Jade’s dress sure is a... dress.  Hm.

(Did alt!Callie alchemize adjustments to did she just luck out to have a red-symbol’d Bec belt and accent leggings?  I’d prefer the former, because as much as it would be acceptable within Homestuck proper, using the transition between the epilogues and this new-author’d work to just HAPPEN to give her a fitting outfit without an excuse via providence is kind of lazy.)

KARKAT: OH, PARDON THE FUCK OUT OF ME FOR OVERREACTING A LITTLE WHEN MY GOOD FRIEND "POSSESSED JADE" BUSTS INTO MY RESPITEBLOCK AT 5 AM! KARKAT: NEXT TIME I’LL JUST PULL THE COVERS BACK AND LET HER CLIMB IN! JADE: i am uninterested in that scenario. KARKAT: GREAT! POSSESSED JADE ISN’T EVEN HORNY! HOW FUCKED UP IS THAT?

...please let that mean he’s not used to her being possessed all the time and she wakes up sometimes.  PLEASE.

DAVE: but im pretty sure i locked that door JADE: i unlocked it with my mind. DAVE: fuck KARKAT: FANTASTIC. JADE: the prince’s powers are growing, but so are mine.

Dave, I’m pretty sure regular-ass no-Green-Sun Space powers can flip a few lock tumblers too.  (--though, I guess from context this was a Jakeship technolock.  Confirmation on the ship’s bad taste in design.  --I think I’m foggily remembering it said in the Epilogues that they took one of Jake’s ships just like Dirk did, too... man, being depressed so much by the Epilogues sure took a lot out of my ability to recall them decently.)

KARKAT: LIKE YOU DON’T FLOAT AROUND LIKE A CREEPY PIECE OF SHIT ALL DAY AS IT IS?

God DAMN IT she’s been asleep and possessed the whole fucking time.

> sleep is abandoned, coffee sought.

More obligatory DaveKat being cute, somehow only emphasized by the embarrassing glowing-with-power observer who doesn’t really get any of it.

Ah, here we go:

> the rogue is also awake.

Oh huh.  Cool!

Hero outfit, understated...  her his choice of heart-shades color-coded to stand out from Dave more to avoid further mistaken identity cases.  Works well!  (Holy shit I only JUST remembered at the end to go back and correctly gender Roxy as him, that was close. I blame the epilogues for a lack of visual reinforcement; I shouldn’t have as much trouble soon enough.  Seriously, I don’t remember ANYTHING without visual reinforcement, I think that’s why I remember so much of Homestuck proper so clearly.)

KARKAT: OH SHIT, THERE SHE IS! I DIDN’T EVEN HEAR HER FOLLOW US! ROXY: sometimes a girls just got to get her drift on i guess ROXY: it be like that

ilu roxy.

I missed Roxy so much, you guys.  I need more of him remarking on all this crazy shit if I’m gonna stay sane though all this.  (And I need more of him and AWAKE JADE kicking ass independently or together if I’m going to continue to believe there’s justice in the world.)

> ==>

We rarely saw Rose drinking anything but the rare coffee in canon, but I think Kanaya would have gotten her plenty into tea, yes.  Or at the very least, wanting the aesthetic of drinking tea with Kanaya would have gotten Rose into tea even if it never crossed Kanaya’s mind to try the stuff.

ROXY: well i mean who knows what she drinks now ROXY: dirk probs tossed the coffee machine out the space window right away ROXY: dude doesnt "believe" in "substances" > the prince is contemplated for a moment in silence.

FUCK, Dirk can see the narrative all the way out here???  No wonder alt!Callie’s forced to have possession turned on 24/7.  That’s fucking disappointing.  How the hell are we going to get any proper Jade time with THAT hanging over our heads?  She’d only be able to do anything when Dirk’s knocked out, and maybe not even THEN!

I was virtually promised more of actual non-asleep Jade getting shit done in HS^2.  Now there’s an even longer wait on it than I expected.  This sucks.

(EDIT: BOY did I misread that link line. Thinking “is contemplated” meant is sitting contemplating, when it meant "is being contemplated by everyone here". That was dumb of me.)

*clicks that next link*

Oh my goodness, Roxy joined the Bird Hair Crew.  It makes him look like a fucking asshole but I kind of love it.

KARKAT: IS THERE MILK?

I can’t believe Karkat is okay with drinking milk.  --yes, culturally Trolls are more comfortable with animal excretions than we are, but you would’ve thought years of railing against Equius would have purged any tolerance the idea of milk from his psyche.

I guess Dave introduced him to cereal, and it was all over from there.

DAVE: this is more like a castle DAVE: a castle of idk DAVE: twenty something ennui

Sounds like a relatable mood.  Especially considering Dirk probably decided to conquer reality out of almost nothing but twenty-something ennui.

Alright.  You aren’t going to turn Kanaya into an alcoholic or anything on us are you?

> the knight of time seeks a sylph...

--this is the shittiest shipboard starship aesthetic.

> ...and finds her, momentarily.

WOW that looks fucking depressed.  :(

> ==>

...okay you know what?  Never mind.  That outfit has wrapped straight back around into Trying Too Hard and is now hilarious.

DAVE: you ever feel like our whole lives are eventually gonna end up like this DAVE: just blasting through space on a sweeps long journey to ""somewhere"" chasing after or running from some vague enemy thats sometimes a god modded pet dog and sometimes your dad DAVE: without the faintest fucking idea of whats going to happen when we get there DAVE: thats a little specific but you know what i mean

Why do you think the epilogues upset us so much?  We thought we’d won free of that bullshit.

> ==>

Oh jesus christ that’s the most depressingly sad I’ve ever seen Kanaya drawn.  :C

--Karkat got you to watch Serendipity?  That’s amazing, Dave.

KANAYA: You Arent Reminding Me Of Her As I Rarely Think Of Anything Else KANAYA: I Close My Eyes And I See Her KANAYA: I Keep Them Open And I See Her

Fuck.

Y’know how little showing these two in love and actually HAPPY together we’ve seen in this entire comic and its subworks?  Despite them having spent at least a few happy years together we only saw in tiny screenclips?  And how Candy alluded super hard that they most likely couldn’t get that in this real timeline where shit’s going down?

Seriously, FUCK.  You could at least pretend to give us some hope, here.

Oh no, don’t ask for the nursery story, Dave.  Unless it turns out to be a funny one or a Rose twist on an old story or something.  Which it probably is, I should stop worrying.

> ==>

KANAYA: Oh Its A Wriggler Story About A Young Prince And The Beloved Flower He Loved And Lost DAVE: flower DAVE: like a plant KANAYA: Its A Fairytale Dave DAVE: right KANAYA: A Singular Wild Rose He Failed To Cherish When He Had Her KANAYA: And His Journey Of Discovering What She Meant To Him All Along KANAYA: Culminating In A New Quest To Find Her And Win Her Back

Dirk you PIECE OF SHIT did you rewrite the narrative of the fucking STORIES SHE TOLD CHILDREN?!??  Does the fact that alt!Callie is only in the present mean he can rewrite ANY past event we didn’t literally SEE???  FUCK you.  Seriously fuck all of this.

Please tell me she was kidding just then, or realizes there’s fucking something wrong with what she’s saying and getting angry or.

(EDIT: shoutyourporpoise replied: "Hey, idk If you picked up on this, but the 'nursery story' Rose told to the wigglers is just The Little Prince, which is maybe a BIT early for them to read, but I don't think that's a case of Dirk changing the narrative; its just Rose being Too Adult as usual." Oh, damn, I didn't even CATCH that it was that story. That makes all of this a lot more forgivable, even if pretty unforgivably leaning into the fiction that Dirk used to brainwash and kidnap her. Maybe that's exactly why it worked -- fiction, a story so blazed into the public consciousness? Hm. Thanks, shoutyourporpoise.)

KANAYA: But In A Way I Feel As If It Is the Greater Universe Trying To Tell Me Something

Mother fuck I’m even going to have to see our protagonists warped by Dirk when they’re ostensibly FULLY SHIELDED aren’t I.  There’s only so much of that I would be able to take, you know.

KANAYA: It May Simply Stem From My Longing To See Her Again And How Much Is Indicative Of Something More Sinister KANAYA: She Is A Goddess Of Light And The Only Of Her Kind We Know Is Alive After All KANAYA: Maybe Shes Wrested Dominion Of The Entire Concept In All Its Appearances Within This Frame Of Reference

Hm.  Well, it being a product of Rose’s ascension instead of Dirk’s is possibly a more charitable take, with Ultimate Rose projecting the delusion enforced on her backward, visible to past Rose’s Sight when she isn’t paying attention and thus paving the way for Dirk to paradoxically exploit that “ideal” as something Lighty and Important and “Perfect”.  I still don’t fucking like it though.

> ==>

DAVE: sorry i know you say you got your badass monster powers but kanaya you look tired as hell DAVE: not that im tryna psyche you or whatever but youre waxing poetic in the dark which i guess is maybe on brand but still

Yyyep.

DAVE: unless terezi is lurking in the vents somewhere and now that i bring that up its actually not out of the question so im kind of gonna be thinking about that one for a while

Pffff.

DAVE: youre the only person i know whos still basically the same as when i met you

--Which is kind of going to have to change, right?  She’s got some other cosmic purpose ready to change her a little more than she changed pre-human-troll-meetup, you’d think.

> ==>

Cute as hell.

> ==>

KANAYA: How Are Your Feelings

There’s the title drop.  I’d think Dave’s doing pretty well, considering?  Still fucked over by Dirk betraying and tricking Rose away who he’s been close with all his life, but.

> ==>

DAVE: except sometimes your best friend disappears and your other best friend goes into a ghost coma and your third best friend fucks off to space with your dad DAVE: the dude youve spent the last 7 years convincing yourself isnt an egomaniacal anime villain DAVE: and who isnt actually lying in wait to completely decimate your life and your emotions and shit

Ah... yeah.  A little worse than my casual list, huh?  Forgot that Jade vanishing into a possession-coma for THREE FUCKING YEARS is going to be hard on people inside the comic too, fuck.

DAVE: maybe it was naive to think that a bunch of twenty something trauma victims could run a society

I was honestly surprised they TRIED to run society at all.  Jasp even just highlighted a big reason why not in the bonuses.

DAVE: cool how earth c existed for centuries then we show up and manage to ruin society in seven fucking years

:(

Well, the trolls got THEIR lesson on why they didn’t deserve to rule over their new universe like gods; I guess some of y’all needed that lesson too?

DAVE: every serious conversation i have inevitably falls apart into riffing on a casual acquaintances ass

True.

Dammit, Dave didn’t feel like he could just be Some Guy even on Earth C.  :(

> ==>

...don’t think I’ve forgotten that nursery story, though.  I don’t want to think that it was something that ACTUALLY past happened, especially not without manipulation.  Like maybe past Rose was foreseeing the false purpose that Dirk wrote for her or the like, a cooperative misunderstanding between the two instead of Dirk or Rose literally reaching back in time.

> meanwhile...

KARKAT: WAIT, WHY THE FUCK AM I EVEN ASKING? HE’S OBVIOUSLY NOT FINE. KARKAT: ARE ANY OF US? ARE YOU? ROXY: not rly KARKAT: EXACTLY.

:(

--Oh right.  I remember that Callie and Roxy were going reasonably steady in Meat even though it was only alluded to, she didn’t freak out and stay awol or what have you.  That’s good to remember.  But it means Roxy deliberately left her behind to go on this dangerous quest, for years.  :C

KARKAT: KANAYA BARELY EVEN TALKS, CALLIOPE WON’T LEAVE THEIR CABIN, JADE JUST FLOATS AROUND LIKE A CREEPY BALLOON THAT’S MOSTLY MADE OF HAIR.

Oh, SHIT.  I should have read one line further.  They DID bring her.  Alt!Callie being here too must really FUCK with her.  ...maybe she can actually learn to accept that alternate way her life might’ve played out, though?

KARKAT: THE REALLY FUCKED UP THING IS I MIGHT BE THE MOST OKAY OUT OF ALL OF US, WHICH IS HOW YOU KNOW SHIT HAS REALLY GONE GLOBES UP.

Quite true.

ROXY: ur kinda an intense dude anybody ever tell u that KARKAT: NO.

Pff.

> ==>

KARKAT: AGAINST PRETTY MUCH ALL ODDS, AND DESPITE ME NOT DESERVING ANY OF IT, I ENDED UP GETTING PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING I WANTED. KARKAT: OVER AND OVER AGAIN. KARKAT: SOMETIMES IT ALMOST FEELS LIKE WHATEVER SLATHERING MONSTROSITY OF A COSMIC HELLBEAST THAT PUT ALL THIS SHIT INTO MOTION...ACTUALLY LIKES ME?

Well, if you want to blame Lord English for instance... we never saw Caliborn and Karkat interact much, but the parallels between the two were drawn so severely that Caliborn was basically the idealized, multiverse-threatening Ultimate Kismesis that he’d always dreamed of.  And operated against him without him even ever quite realizing it.

If a level of “respect” went from Caliborn to Karkat, too, from his Lord-Englishy vision nigh-omnipresent, then this outcome isn’t very surprising at all.

> ==>

(I don’t quite feel I get why Roxy shifted to this exasperated-Dave expression, but I get logically that he’d been waiting for Karkat to make a breakfast choice... Homestuck proper rarely pulled a “last line said corresponds to next-panel’s expression” without either leaving the conversation blank or having the NEXT lines of the conversation reinforce it, to prevent this inelegant misunderstanding.  Andrew was really damned talented in getting his point across visually, in that regard.  Just like, that careful visual intent delivery.)

Alright, I guess that’s it for this short upd8!  Meeting the pursuit crew was both more and less difficult than I expected.  Hopefully I get desensitized a bit as the characters continue to feel semi-almost-sorta-fine.

I have NO idea how this group is gonna work as a proper crew when we get to whatever weird other-players’ session this shit is going down in, though.

[gay-jesus-probably]

so i’ve already done a well recieved text post on some actual facts about takashi shirogane and the entire thing is mostly joking but also completely my headcanons forever

but i figured in honour of season three just kidding i’ve been up all night reading voltron fanfiction havent gotten around to watching S3 yet so here some shiro headcanons that are actually my legit take on his life pre-kerberos

he’s only a partial american citizen. as a teenager, he was a japanese citizen with a school visa to attend the garrison, and after graduating he very easily recieved a work visa, but eventually for conveniences sake reluctantly went for partial citizenship once things started getting serious. he’s not happy about it. he’s in america for the space, he’s not a fan of the country as a whole.

and on the same note, due to being an american and japanese citizen, during the early stages of the kerberos mission set up (like years before launch) the publicity team initially tried to label him as an american astronaut. the second he found out, shiro very firmly demanded that everything related to him be marked with japans flag, not americas, thank you very much.

and again on that note, due to being the sole pilot of the furthest space mission ever, and doing it as a japanese astronaut, shiro met the prime minister of japan once. if there wasnt pictures of him with the prime minister, shiro probably would have convinced himself it wasnt real.

his first language was japanese, obviously. he learned how to read at about three, due to his parents reading to him literally every night, and also him being a genius. he didn’t give the faintest hint of a fuck about other languages, until he realised he wanted to join the galaxy garrison, at which point he went oh shit it’s only in english there, and started studying english like a madman. and spanish, because america’s got two official languages and you never know. and french and russian, because canada and russia are the other major players in space, and you can never be too careful.

mind you he learned these all in a purely academic setting as a teenager, so while he was fluent in all of them by the time he was old enough for the garrison, he was unpleasantly surprised to find that everyone used too much slang and contractions, and he was speaking in a very stilted and mechanical way with a hell of an accent. it took him about a year to get his english to a natural level, and he put up with harrasment for years until he managed to completely scrub out his accent. as a result, the majority of his friends at the garrison were other ESL students from overseas. he still kept every single one of his electronics set to japanese, and when tired, distracted or stressed, if someone tries to talk to him he is much more likely to respond in japanese without noticing. any time he’s returning from a trip home to visit his family, for the first week he starts every other sentence in rapid japanese, stops halfway through, thinks it over, and repeats himself in slower english. its rough to switch over.

he started going by shiro because in his first year, luck of the draw meant he was the only non-american in his astrophysics class, and the instructor was one who believed in groupwork and lots of it, so within a month everyone was acquaintances. there was mass confusion about if shiro’s name was shirogane or takashi, and attempts to explain made it worse. the matter was not helped by this being first year, and shiro not having the best grasp on conversational english. eventually he gave up and just told them all to call him shiro, because just shirogane sounded weird when everyone else went by their first names, and people kept pronouncing takashi weird so he gave up and took a nickname. it grew on him and he stuck with it.

while the garrison had the most international students out of any school in america, it was still very much a predominantly american school with 60% of the students being american. another 20% were canadian, british or australian. white native english speakers were a vast majority, and shiro had to deal with some racists. the racists he honestly didnt mind too much, because he could just physically drag them to an instructor he knew was sympathetic, explain what happened, and boom problem solved. what he absoloutely fucking hated were the weeaboos. he hated them. hated them so much. as a very attractive japanese teenager, he was getting weird fetishizing love letters at least once a month. and the amount of times he got invited to join the anime club. explaining to them that no he actually couldnt stand anime was too much of a chore to be worth it. eventually he worked out how to be juuuust enough of an asshole that they went away, but he wasnt in trouble for it. it was a very frustrating part of his life.

he grew up on hokkaido, specifically in sapporo because hunk and lance are both from tropical islands, keith is from desert texas, and pidge probably lived in the south her whole life because her father was a Big Deal with the galaxy garrison, which is the evolved form of NASA, and NASA operated entirely in the south. my canadian heart cannot handle an entire team thats used to just different shades of fucking hot, i need one of them to be from freeze your balls off up north, and its gotta be shiro.

although ironically, while shiro was more than happy to join the unofficial tradition of students from cold areas laughing at students from warm areas whenever the temperatures dropped, shiro was spending most of the year in florida, where the garrison is, and going back to sapporo during the summer for breaks, as the winter and spring break werent long enough to make the flights worth it. his tolerance for the cold dropped dramatically. his first year after graduating, he went back to sapporo in december for the first time, and was very displeased to realise that he was not prepared for the cold anymore. not prepared at all. oh god. holy shit.

after his application into the garrison was approved, things were a bit awkward for shiro because this meant unenrolling from the high school he’d been attending, and waiting to start class in the new semester at the galaxy garrison. he got the acceptance in spring. classes in japan start in april. classes in america start in september. it was like being on break, but it lasted half a year. it was surreal for shiro. i mean sure, there was preparing to go to america alone, but passport and visa prep only takes up so much time, and luggage/packing isnt a problem until the week leading up to leaving. he spent a lot of time lying around the house during that half year. you can only study alone for so long before you need to do something else. the sudden switch from the highly pressured japanese school enviroment to ~nothing to do~ was very jarring, but ended up functioning as a sort of gap year. as a genius kid, he was under a lot of pressure. being able to take a step back and breathe did him a world of good.

shiro is extremely foul mouthed, but has a reputation for almost never swearing. this is because he never completely gets the hang of english swearing, and decides to just not bother with working out how to properly say things that will land him in shit anyways. but he swears. almost constantly. just, in japanese. its hilariously common for other students to think “oh, there goes shiro, thinking outloud to himself” while shiro is actually violently swearing under his breath about forgetting his notes in his dorm. in his last year, he accidentally traumatized a first year from tokyo, when he was attempting to find a book he needed for his thesis from the library, and the computer he was using refused to cooperate. this led to him furiously cursing out the poor computer. in earshot of the first year, whose offended gasp was legendary. shiro immediately bribed her into secrecy. noone must know.

shiro realised he was pansexual during his half year hangtime between high school and garrison. while not exactly locked in the closet, he didn’t really think the information needed to be shared with anyone, and he was too busy with classes to really want to date anyone. he was only trying to hide his orientation from the weeaboos, mentioned earlier, who would have gotten even worse with the creepy fetishizing and never left him alone. he’s never really dated, and his experience is fooling around with other cadets, and the occasional one night stand when he was older with civilians his age in the nearby town. upon being considered for the kerberos mission, he immediately started very carefully making sure nobody found out about his sexuality. the first public broadcast from the kerberos ship was live to the world, and ended with shiro cheerfully declaring himself the first openly pansexual man in space. mission control had not been warned of this. the only parties warned in advance were sam and matt holt, and they both strongly approved of the idea.

after the kerberos team was declared dead from pilot error, it eventually came out that the garrison had no idea what caused the mission failure, and that the ship just suddenly lost communication and vanished, and that the pilot had been a convenient scapegoat. there was immediate backlash from a great deal of parties. over two dozen different LGBT and/or POC rights groups filed lawsuits against the Garrison, calling rascism and/or homophobia. international relations between america and japan turned frosty. shiro had previously been considered a national tragedy crossed with embarrasement for apparently fucking up such an important mission, but oh the speed at which that turned around. multiple cities, including sapporo and tokyo, comission statues of shiro practically overnight. he immediately swung around to national tragedy crossed with hero.

[viralhottopics]

Here’s Another Staggering Cost Of Trump’s Border Wall

Much has been made of the monetary cost of PresidentDonald Trumps proposed border wall. Trump himself has cited wildly differingestimates. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) recently said that the wall would cost $12 billion to $15 billion. Some experts have cited numbers far higher.

But the walls true cost surpasses even the biggest numbers being discussed. Theres upkeep, of course hundreds of millions of dollars per year will be needed to maintain the 1,000-mile barrier. There are other expenses, too, some of them intangible and difficult to quantify.

The political blowback could be significant. Mexican President Enrique Pea Nieto has already canceled a meeting with Trump over the wall, calling it a sign of disrespect. (Mexico is Americas third-largest trading partner and a close ally.) And the impacts on native tribes, border communities and migrant populations are projected to be immense.

Then, theres the potential damage to the environment, both locally and beyond. Environmentalists say the wall will contribute to climate change, disrupt natural water flows and profoundly affect native species and habitats.

Let me be blunt there are no benefits of a border wall, and many risks, Dan Millis, a coordinator of the Sierra Clubs borderlands program, told HuffPost in an email this month.

We dont just have concerns about the border wall, we have impacts, Millis said. Thats because there are already walls and barriers along more than 650 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Existing fences have not served their intended purpose, he said, but have already cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and have resulted in a wide array of unintended and damaging consequences.

Research suggests the existing barriers have not been effectiveat restricting the movement of people. Areportreleased this week by the Government Accountability Office found that border fencing was breached more than 9,200 times from 2010 to 2015. The barriers, however, have proven to be a formidable foe to migrating animals.

A 2014 study found that security barriers on the Arizona-Mexico border were doing little to prevent crossings by humans, but were restricting the movements of native species like pumas and coatis, a raccoon-like creature, thus limiting their access to food, water and habitat.

There was no significant difference in the number of migrants present in areas where there was a wall, compared to areas where there was no wall, Jamie McCallum, the lead author of the study, told HuffPost in interview last year. In other words, the wall did not seem to be doing the job it was intended for.

The barriers, however, could be driving some native species to a possible collapse in population, the study said.

Mike Blake/Reuters

Buildings in Nogales, Mexico (right) are separated by a border fence from Nogales, Arizona, United States, October 9, 2016

Leonardo Prest Mercon Ro/Getty Images

The ocelot is one endangered animal that would be threatened by Trump’s wall.

Migration corridors are critical for the health and survival of wildlife along the border. Endangered animals like jaguars and ocelots only live in the U.S. because of movements out of Mexico. Other species, including bighorn sheep, pygmy owls, gray wolves and black bears, travel back and forth across the border to access vital resources and to maintain genetic diversity.

Clinton Epps, a wildlife biologist at Oregon State University, told the BBC last year that some species have been crossing the border for millions of years. A physical barrier, he said, could fundamentally alter the health and behavior of these populations.

A wall also will stifle the ability of species to adapt to a changing climate. Imagine, for instance, if a herd of deer or an endangered species like the jaguar needed to move north or to a higher elevation in order to adapt to higher temperatures and lower rainfall. If a wall impedes their movement, that particular herd or even an entire species is put at risk, said Millis.

Getty Images

Big Horn sheep move back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border. 

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Getty Images

The bald eagle’s habitat would be threatened by the border wall.

Beyond the disruption to migratory movements, border infrastructure could also fragment and destroy habitats. Sergio Avila-Villegas, a conservation research scientist from Tucsons Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, told the BBC that a wall would have effects for the ecosystem as a whole.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated that 111 endangered species and 108 migratory bird species would be affected by an unbroken barrier along the entire land border between the U.S. and Mexico, reported Outside magazine. The bald eagle, California condor, several sea turtles and the West Indian manatee are among the species that would be potentially threatened by the wall.

John Moore/Getty Images

A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands at the U.S.-Mexico border fence on November 17, 2016 at San Luis, Arizona. Border protection officials, as well immigration experts, have said repeatedly that a border wall is an ineffective way to curb illegal immigration. Benjamin Webb, a former executive director of the policy and planning office for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said earlier this year that the “whole idea of building this big wall is preposterous.” 

Natural water flows across the Mexican border also would be affected. Existing barriers have already led to problems like erosion, flooding and sedimentation in border communities. In Arizona, for example, border fences have been the cause of increased flooding.

The border wall could additionally be a significant contributor of global warming. The production of the concrete for a wall such as the one Trump has suggested would produce a lot of greenhouse gases, since cement production is a coal-fired, carbon-intensive process, said Millis.

According to the MIT Technology Review, Trumps wall would contain some 9.7 million cubic meters of concrete and 2.3 billion kilograms of steel the production of which would produce more than 7.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

For some context, thats the same as the emissions from 823,654 homes over the course of a year, wrote the magazine. And thats on the low end: ongoing maintenance, re-routing of traffic, and other unforeseen consequences could all push the figure far higher.

Daniel Becerril/Reuters

A demonstrator holds a placard reading: “No wall. Respect to immigrants and human rights” during a protest against President Trump’s proposed border wall and to call for unity, in Monterrey, Mexico, February 12, 2017.

Environmentalists say they are particularly concerned that Trump, thanks to a legal loophole, may be able to push through his plans for the wall with little or no environmental oversight.

In 2005, during George W. Bushs presidency, Congress passed a bill that allows the secretary of Department of Homeland Security to waive local, state and federal laws deemed to hinder the building of walls and roads along U.S. borders. The Sierra Club said on its website that the law has already been used multiple times by DHS to waive in their entirety 37 federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, National Historic Preservation Act and the National Forest Management Act.

In 2008, then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff invoked the waiver to bypass environmental laws to build fences along more than 450 miles of the southern border. With the stroke of a pen one individual has the ability to dismiss decades of protective laws passed by Congress and signed by presidents, all to circumvent local, state, and federal laws when constructing border walls, the Sierra Club said.

Melinda Taylor, an environmental law professor at the University of Texas, said Trump could exploit this loophole to devastating effect.

The new administration has a wild card they can pull and its in this law, Taylor told CNN last month.The language in this law allows them to waive all federal laws that would be an impediment to building any type of physical barrier along the border, including a wall.

If Trump does use this wild card to duck environmental protections, it will be particularly tragic, said Taylor. If they really try to build a wall, without regard for environmental laws and without environmental impact statements, the effect of a border wall would be more catastrophic than a border fence.

______

Dominique Mosbergen is a reporter at The Huffington Post covering climate change, extreme weather and extinction. Send tips or feedback to dominique.mosbergen@huffingtonpost.com or follow her on Twitter.

Related…

What You Can Do Right Now To Stop Trump's Dangerous Climate Agenda

Trumps Pick For Interior Is No Friend Of Endangered Species

Scott Pruitt Confirmed As EPA Chief Despite New Firestorm Over Emails

Judge Orders Release Of EPA Nominee Scott Pruitt's Fossil Fuel Emails

Donald Trump Is Building A Wall: Revisited

Read more: http://ift.tt/2lXj1DF

from Here’s Another Staggering Cost Of Trump’s Border Wall