#not necessarily in every case

[bookwyrminspiration]

the kotlc fandom's favorite words are "pressured" and "rushed"

[angelsdean]

me, dean, and everyone else watching: ok sure, sammy

[lazycranberrydoodles]

the people in the tags understand me. starembers art is super pretty but also weird at times.

[name-doggo]

One thing I really wish the FF Community would Stop doing is Removing All Nuance from the Parents in Those Stories in order to Make Them Abusive Supervillains who Never Loved their Kid.

Like... In the Four Years I've been here, and for how Small the Community really is, you'd be surprised how many Times I've seen it-

[tomwambsgans]

tomgreg is about the fantasy of being able to find someone who genuinely likes that you're mean and in fact thrives very well being needed in the particular kind of fucked up way that you need someone which makes it so you don't actually have to work that much to strip away your superiority complex in order to be loved for who you are

[sysig]

Bad time of it, all things considered (Patreon)

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

danny talking about how resentful she became when nobody who she self-sacrificed for cared when she died and then leaving kirsch with laura and carmilla bc "if he stays with me i might lose control again and kill him" kinda confirms my thoughts abt both newly-turnedness and anger making vampires more vampiry

but also makes me think that in more usual circumstances, when the dean turned vampires like carmilla and mattie, that shes really nice at the start to temper any of that unruly anger

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

I feel like Wanda serves her purpose of explaining why Wade is the way he is. Also the thumb thing was pretty funny ngl

I agree! And at the same time, they're fairly similar too. Though Wanda can seem a bit more asshole-ey, it's usually in the stuff like. Starting shit for seemingly no reason. Other than that, she comes off as more antagonistic because of her framing as antagonistic to Wade specifically (like when we see montages of past Shabbat dinners, or her being suspicious of things Wade says).

Although frankly how they act during the Shabbat dinner and how their mother (Wendy) handles it is also just...fairly realistic to me? Like, sure. A bit of it felt dramaticized personally, but aside from that, it made sense for the characters' personalities. Both Wanda and Wade are (for lack of a better term) a bit childish, especially when it comes to each other. And, as someone who has a number of siblings, even when you're adults things can devolve into, well, childish arguments or fights. Whether she started anything or not (and despite the fork thing, a definite escalation of the situation, while one could tell Wade was trying not to engage at the beginning), you can see some realism in the way that Wendy pretty much becomes exasperated by the situation and focuses more on the fact that her kids are fighting at all than who started what. As a person who was once a younger person, I've also been on the receiving end of...dealing with your parent(s) seemingly branding the fight as a "everyone is being bad here" thing, even when you didn't escalate or start anything.

Or in short, that was a fairly real situation to me, down to how the characters acted (especially given their personalities) and how they each chose to handle the situation. To me one can tell that it was at least partially based upon some real life experiences of people involved in the show.

And I'll be real with you anon. To me, Wanda's level of rudeness/assholeness during...the scene where she purposely ignores her mother asking her to help with Shabbat traditions, until she stops bothering to get Wanda to participate, is kind of no different to me than the level of rudeness/assholeness in the scene where Wade purposely mispronounces Pachacamac's name, until the echidna just gives up and allows him an "easier nickname" to use instead.

And ahsjsjwjsjs the thumb thing. I think I was largely uncomfortable looking at it, but all in all it was kind of funny 😂 I love that the creators thought well enough into their new characters (even side characters) to be able to include moments like that. Even if the Whipple family (excluding Pete) is closer by the end of the show, Wanda never stops being who she is and she never gives up on her rivalry with her brother just because everyone is on better terms now. I love it😂

Anyways, thank you for the ask, anon! 😊

[soulsxng]

"Naturally, I am more than willing to offer services to anyone willing to pay...or to trade me something worthwhile, at the very least. Discretion is something I take very seriously, so even the most illustrious of clientele need not worry about a thing when in my care. I should also mention that teleportation is hardly the only service available-- in fact, I feel confident in saying that I have such a wide range of offerings that I have no doubt that anyone could find something that catches their interest."

Helai was, after all, considered a king of the underground and black markets for a reason. Fast and reliable transportation was a must for someone like that, and so he'd made sure that multiple methods fulfilling that need were made available to him.

The only real issue was dealing with competition, and those that might attempt to steal said methods...but that wasn't too terribly difficult.

[quaranmine]

Missing 411 guy?

David Paulides, the guy who is the creator of "Missing 411" which is basically a conspiracy about suspicious clusters of people going missing in National Parks in the United States. He is also the bane of my existence for the past year as someone who is researching a story about someone who goes missing in a National Forest.

To start with, if you've ever been even on the fringes of "irl spooky stuff" videos on YouTube, you might have encountered this. There are a lot of youtubers and podcasters who cover this guy's content without understanding What and Who they are giving platform to. Sometimes, people don't even mention him but will relate the cases that he covers in his books or use the same conspiracy points as him. I would not be suprised if you watched a Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher video (which are fine btw) and then got recommended something related to Missing 411 in the sidebar since it's a similar genre. It's super popular to the point where its outgrown its creator. I can't stress enough that many of you have probably encountered this content, at least in passing, without knowing what it was.

So to recap, Missing 411 documents cases of real-life people who have disappeared or been found dead in national parks, national forests, etc and claims that these cases are unusual and mysterious. It frequently talks about missing person "clusters" and things like that. There is often an overt, if not outrightly stated, implication that something supernatural, crpytid, or UFO/alien related was involved. For starters, David Paulides has written a ton of books trying to prove the existence of bigfoot. Now, I have no issues with people believing in bigfoot, or cryptids, or aliens, but I do have an issue with people co-opting real life tragedies and twisting information to push this as conspiracy. I simply do not think it is helpful or respectful to talk about missing and dead people (and children!) like this. Also, with the high prices of his books ($100-200) he just reeks of grifter to me.

To me, Missing 411 "criteria" is a stretch at best. You will see cases "mysteriously" connected because both of these people wore red when they went missing. Both these people's bodies were found near water (as if many National Park do not have water features.) Both these people's bodies were found near granite rocks (like, the most common rock type in mountains lol.) All these cases involve the weather turning bad! (um, yeah, that's a big reason why people get in trouble?) He frequently claims that bodies being undressed is highly unusual, without ever acknowledging paradoxical undressing. Or he claims laughably weak connections between people like "these two women who went missing in different years are connected because they both had three letter names that started with A." I haven't personally listened to this talk but there is a data scientist mentioned in his Wikipedia page who examined the case data and found nothing out of the ordinary in them. If you don't want to watch a video (I don't either right now) then he also wrote this article. From a different person, this article from a podcast is also good.

David Paulides does not present Missing 411 cases with accuracy. He has been known to cherry-pick data and purposefully omit data to make them seem more unusual. Many cases he covers are either already solved, or have extensive information available. He does not retract information or admit when he is wrong. Even if he does present a particular case accurately, he has such a bad track record with reliable research that he cannot be trusted as a source. There used to be someone on reddit who would deconstruct cases he covered. In this post they found several instances of cases of Paulides missing sources and coming to incorrect conclusions.

Note there's a few differences in the sources I just linked. The data scientist and podcast skeptic both said they found the data to be accurate, while the redditors have found evidence to the contrary. The data scientist also says he found Paulides' presentation of information respectful, but I personally find all of this highly disrespectful. But despite these differences I think we can all agree....the claims of Missing 411 are pretty ridiculous.

Also, let's talk about David Paulides himself. Before becoming a writer, he was a cop in California. He was a cop who was fired for corruption (well that's hard to do), because he was caught soliciting donations for a fake charity he set up. That's straight from his Wikipedia page. He continues to use his past as a "dectective" to attempt to make his claims sound more reliable. There was also a redditor who pulled up some other career highlights from when he was a cop in the 80s, by looking at court transcripts and news articles. His job used to be entrap gay men by pretending to be gay, getting them to invite him home with them, and then arresting then. He and his unit were also accused of police brutality many times in the 80s, with Paulides testifying in defense of his unit. And he has not changed btw, he's a Qanon stolen election covid denier type of nut right now on his YouTube channel (according to reddit. I am not watching this man's videos.) So yeah, I think his character speaks for itself.

Anyway, I'm tired of hearing about this guy and seeing 411 related content pop up around YouTube, Reddit, Tiktok, etc. Pay attention if you watch things related to "creepy and unexplained real life disappearnaces." I do not think he is a good person, I do not think he can be trusted, and I do not think that his work actually benefits the families of the missing persons in question. These are real people. He turns them into spectacles to push ~unusual~ circumstances and paranormal activity.

[caffeinatedopossum]

I don't understand why it's generally not socially acceptable to recognize your good qualities. Like I don't understand why it's bad to be a show-off or a know-it-all or to brag. Like I think most people know "those things = bad" but not why.

It also seems like people are always either waaaaay into one end of the scale where they are just so unbearably full of themselves and have preposterously high self esteem (and most people act like this is fine too? Like a lot of celebrities and white men specifically seem to be like this) and I don't understand why so many people respect them then. Or they're the complete opposite with self esteem way too low despite the fact that they have redeeming qualities.

I feel like maybe the reason it's considered bad to brag is because you might 'make' other people feel inadequate but see that seems like a stupid reason to me because the problem then is not that you stated an opinion of your own self worth but is actually that everyone else is conditioned to compare themselves to each other in a very unhealthy way. And I think instead of discouraging people from opening up about what they take pride in, what they like about themselves, what makes them feel happy or content or confident, maybe we could just be discouraging people from viewing those things as personal threats? Idk just trying to formulate some thoughts on this

[sukimas]

wizardry as portrayed in pop culture is very much related to historical alchemy, which of course evolved into modern chemistry

therefore, it makes sense that wizard school is 80% lab practicals. chemistry is a Weird Degree even compared to the other physical sciences- the blue collar of white collar subjects, i've heard people describe it as. so if you're confused as to why Wizard School is like that, look no further than chemists!

[bunnyb34r]

I wish my brain could be fucking normal for once :/

[answrs]

"what are you making?"

...................nothing....

[hopefulqueer]

I'm starting to think the reason I'm not as good of a writer as I want to be is because I like writing more than I like reading.

[novemberthewriter]

the way people speak about that l/cked tomb series (re: acting like queer art can't be criticized by its own community) reminds me of this big post abt borhap when the movie was new that said something to the effect of 'DONT tell other people not to engage with queer art just because it's not to your tastes' and im thinking about making a YT vid or sumn ruminating on how this stuff ties into the convos movie & book ppl have been having regarding freedom of expression in reviews / criticism