#not that i'm bitter or anything

[marlynnofmany]

Interspecies Adventures While Sick

“Hi again, Smooth Vibrations,” I rasped, trying not to cough. “I’ve got a pickup for Zhee.”

Running errands with a cold was never fun, but at least this one was quick. And I was even sure that I’d met this vendor before. Waterwills really do all look the same to human eyes, since the size and color of their column-of-jello bodies was liable to change depending on health, but this one was wearing a nametag. I say wearing, but really she had it floating near the front. I was glad for that. There was no chance I’d pick up the frequencies they identify each other by otherwise.

“Welcome back!” said Smooth Vibrations brightly. Someday I’d figure out how they produced sounds, but it had never felt polite to ask. “We haven’t seen your ship in a while. Is Zhee ill?”

I shook my congested head. “He’s fine; I’m sick. He’s just busy and asked me to grab his order on my way to go rest.” I sniffed, but only one nostril was working.

“Sounds like a big favor,” the Waterwill said as she extended an arm tendril to open a drawer.

“Eh, not too bad,” I told her. “It’s a minor sickness. I probably caught it from somebody on the last station a few days ago; I don't think anyone on my ship can even get human diseases.”

“That’s convenient,” Smooth Vibrations said. “If—”

My explosive sneeze interrupted her. I’d turned away and aimed into the crook of my arm, but it was a loud one. Also unpleasantly messy. I’d have to wash this shirt.

“Excuse me,” I said, wiping my nose on the sleeve. “Ugh.”

When I looked back at her, I found the Waterwill frozen in place, her surface covered in alarmed-looking spikes. Even the vague shapes floating about her interior had stilled. Before I could ask if she was okay, she exclaimed, “What was that?”

“A sneeze?” I said. “Have you not seen that before?”

“That’s normal?” she demanded. The spikes began flattening out.

“For sick humans, yes,” I said, digging in a pocket for a tissue. “Probably other species too. Something was irritating my breathing passages, and that’s a way to get it out. Automatically. I don’t have much control over it.” I glanced at my befouled sleeve. “More’s the pity.”

She started to say something else as I blew my nose, then she stopped. The spikes didn’t reappear, but I got the impression that she was shocked in a different way. I couldn’t blame her. Those snotty noises were gross even to me. One tissue was barely enough.

“What did you say?” she asked when I was done.

I re-wound my memory. “More’s the pity?” I asked.

“After that!” she said, sounding scandalized.

“I didn’t say anything. I just blew my nose.”

“Are you sure?” she pressed. “Because that sounded an awful lot like—” She produced a snotty sound of her own, which really did sound similar.

“Wow, is that your language? I swear I didn’t do it on purpose!” This was fascinating. “What did I say?”

Smooth Vibrations paused before saying, “May all your organs clump together.”

“No, I definitely didn’t mean to say that!” I assured her, laughing a bit. “I’m so sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” she said primly, going back to the drawer. “Let’s get you that order so you can go back to your ship and rest.”

“Yes please,” I said, looking down at the tissue and wondering what to do with it. Asking to throw it in her trash can just didn’t seem polite. I ended up crumpling it and shoving it in a pocket; I’d wash all my clothes later anyway. Bluh. I hate being sick.

“Here it is,” Smooth Vibrations announced, placing a flat case on the counter. “Do you want a bag?”

“Sure,” I said, trying to make out the brightly-colored text. “Your bags are really neat.”

Smooth Vibrations sounded proud as she said, “That’s Waterwill efficiency for you!” She moved the case into a clear bag that was made out of a thin layer of their patented solid-water technology. It didn’t get anything wet, and it would evaporate in a day. So clever. “I hope you get your rest, and Zhee enjoys his music. The Loud Ones are a fine band.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard their stuff, but the name sounds familiar,” I said as I picked up the bag. It felt smooth and cool against my fingers.

“Their biggest song is ‘What The Hell Is A Shuwog?’” she told me.

“Ohh, I remember that one!” I flashed back to my first day with this crew, and Paint’s lively rendition of the song about Mesmer body parts. Zhee had been particularly grumpy about it, insisting that the song was a dishonor to his glorious blade-arms. But now he was buying the album? I laughed, then had to cough. “This is why he wanted me to pick it up for him, instead of waiting for Paint to do her supply run!” I exclaimed. “She’d never let him live it down that he actually likes that song!”

Smooth Vibrations burbled in amusement. “Sounds like you’ve got some blackmail material if he ever sends you out while you’re sick again.” She waved me away with three arm tendrils. “Go rest!”

“I will!” I told her. “Thanks!” With another sniffle that was hopefully not a different rude word, I hurried back to my ship and a much-needed nap.

~~~

The ongoing backstory of the main character from this book. More to come!

The shuwog bit is a callback to this story.

[markantonys]

being the only wheel of time reader in the world who likes gawyn moodboard

[kissabledyke]

always cool to see a post going around about how important it is to establish and respect people's boundaries written by people who have treated my boundaries like a hilarious joke

[owormy]

thinks about my mum telling me how before i was born she wanted to have a baby so badly she broke down crying in a Mothercare and then proceeded to spend 5 days a week on the other side of the country from when I turned four until I finished high school

[deadpresidents]

Loved the LBJ gift story, is there a reason you don't write more of those stories?

Thank you!

Actually, THAT very story is a good example of why I stopped writing as many of those essays and more longform pieces: they kept getting plagiarized or immediately posted on other websites without many differences and almost always without attribution. That story in particular is good example because after I originally posted it, the same story started popping up other places. And when I reblogged it later, I noticed that it coincidentally started being told other places again within days.

Maybe it was a coincidence, but I reblogged that story on September 23, 2015, and it just so happened that America Magazine -- a magazine published by the Jesuits for over 100 years -- told the very same story on September 25, 2015 with no attribution. Again, maybe that was a total coincidence and that they just happened tell the same story in their own words and use many of the same images two days after mine was reposted. I don't know. It's just seemed kind of egregious to me. And that was a supposedly reputable publication, unlike all the clickbait sites that have aggregated the intellectual property of so many creators that it's just kind of expected.

Anyway, as you can tell, it got to be pretty frustrating, so I scaled back on writing interesting stories for free that other people and places get paid for

[thoughts-of-caly]

people are like "how does it feel being 16" "are you excited to drive" "when are you getting a job" bro i'm just trying to process being the same age as peter parker ok give me a second here

[burgundy-and-navy]

When Kathy told Ben to talk to Callum my eyes rolled so far back in my head lol.

Cause you would feel totally safe telling someone who repeatedly told you to get over your trauma that your struggling again. But we're all meant to forget that ever happened because the show certainly has.

[kastillia]

just a boy and his birds

[r0setyler]

one thing about me is that i ship timepetals in it's entirety, a timepetals multishipper you may say:

ninerose romantic? sign me up. elevenrose queer platonic relationship? sure i'm locked in. fiverose bad wolf stuff? why not sounds fun. thirteenrose sapphic pining? yep babe i'm there. twelverose toxic yearning? i'm sold.

[schadenfreudich]

Dislike it when I see a post making a good point about romantic relationships not being necessary from an aro perspective and then the rest of the post is about friendships.

Especially in a way where it just feels like they replaced romantic relationships with platonic ones.

[yet-another-haven-of-dollya]

*Tap mic*

Yes, it is I - your poor little Dollya

As some of you may have known already because of my constant whining and bickering for the past few days, my original blog was flagged and I'm trying to appeal. Things seem to not be on my side, though, so I figured a new blog is a must.

I won't delete the og blog, there are too many things going on over there and I simply can not. All my contributions to the DoL fandom, my AU and asks and stuffs,... have all been hidden away from the tags.

Not gonna lie I was terribly discouraged and couldn't pick up a pen to draw or do anything for several days. Terrible, just simply terrible, to look at the ask box or that stupid default avatar icon... But, well, you know, it is what it is, no point just weeping around so might as well make a new place to post stuffs!

This is a sub-blog with the same email address as the flagged one, I think I would still use the same tags as the original flagged blog: Dollya art, Dollya ask,... and I won't repost my higher interaction posts here either, that's just bitter.

I will post more "community-friendly" kinds of stuff here, so spicier asks or requests oughta go to the original blog' ask box... I don't really know, I guess things will kinda fall into the right places after some time... What do you call it? Settle down?

Anyway, I'll try to be positive. After all, the Pandora box was opened, so if I don't hold onto the tiny hope left behind, I will have nothing.

Let's just hope for the best.

[thunderboltfire]

I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.

It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.

The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.

What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.

But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.

There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.

On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.

But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.

My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.

The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.

I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.

It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.

And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?

There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.

[gh-0-stcup]

Daniel and Armand spent four years meeting up and having long, intense conversations about philosophy, culture, and history before they officially got together.

They had a very active social life and seemed to spend several years doing a wide variety of interesting activities together.

Daniel mentions how he grew increasingly bitter over the years. Things between him and Armand fell apart due to Armand not being willing to turn Daniel.

Daniel is free to leave at any time. Armand won't try to chase Daniel down if Daniel doesn't want to be there.

Daniel's alcoholism spirals out of control when he isn't with Armand. Daniel has been on the verge of death because of his alcoholism multiple times prior to this chapter.

[smallsies]

sorry but. something about how fanfiction is vastly undervalued by readers in fandom culture. how people love to read stories about their favorite characters but only if they're in love, or if they at least sleep with each other. there's so many incredible stories that are just missed because fandom culture struggles to see beyond romantic pairings and relationships.

[bardandbear]

So. Transient media. I'm not looking to start any beef, however the latest change to BG3 has me feeling uneasy, less for the specifics involved and more for what it represents.

For those unaware, some very eagle-eyed players spotted that Larian had rewritten some of Gortash's Act 3 letters. I don't know what prompted them to do this, they're extremely minor codex entries addressed to a NPC. I find it hard to believe that anyone provided feedback about these, and the opinion I've seen from most Gortfans is that they liked them before. They were a little character reward for people who were obsessively scouring the game for information.

What I find troubling is that the change definitely alters characterisation in a way that isn't building on something that already exists, it isn't reworking something in a remaster a decade later, it's literally been months. Lore and character are being retconned months after release in what was supposed to be a (finished) standalone singleplayer game.

When is it done? Bug fixes obviously can and should be applied when something is actively broken, but this isn't a bug fix, nor have the previous 'minor' tweaks to character approvals and voicelines etc. It's also not adding content to the game, it's changing it. It's like seeing a movie re-cut for the streaming release, or a book getting minor deviations introduced every time it gets a print run. By all means, fix errors left in by mistake, fix your typos, make a sequel, but why are we okay with increasingly crowdsourced transient media? What is the point in engaging with something, with forming connection with something, if there's always the chance that what you liked about it in the first place is going to get changed?

[trans-cuchulainn]

had a really interesting convo yesterday about ethics and whether intent or results matters (eg if you tried to make an ethical purchasing choice but the business was actually exploitative as hell, does that "count") and very much came to the conclusion that sure, if you're concerned with your personal immortal soul, as a christian might be, then intention counts. but if what you're focused on is your impact on the world, then intention means nothing if the actions have negative results, right? (that doesn't mean you're to blame for them! you didn't know! but you also don't get "ethics points" for trying, you know?)

and this also got me thinking about the whole christian idea that sinful thoughts are as bad as sinful actions because. they're just not imo. maybe for the sake of your Immortal Soul they are points against you, if that's your jam. but in terms of putting good into the world, in terms of your impact on other people, the ONLY thing that matters is what you choose to do with those thoughts. there is no way that "was kind to someone who was pissing me off, for the sake of community harmony" or "helped an acquaintance with a task even though I felt resentful about the time spent doing that" is a Bad Thing for the world

and it made me wonder how much purity culture and thought policing is rooted in (mostly evangelical) cultural christianity and this idea that ethical choices are an individual thing because what matters is the impact of them on YOUR soul and not, you know, things we do because of what we owe the world around us / because of love for others / because a world where people are trying to put good into it is a hell of a lot nicer to live in than one where people are only worried about themselves

i grew up evangelical but like. fairly mild evangelical and even though there wasn't a big focus on hell and stuff, i definitely fixated on imperfect thoughts and behaviours that were putting absolutely no harm into the world, rather than focusing on what i could do to put good into it, and that individualistic vs outward-focused approach to morality has been something i've grappled with a lot as an adult. but i never really thought about it as simply as this and really that's what it boils down to. are you making the ethical choice because you're trying to put good in the world, or because it would make you a "good person" to do so? because the answer to that 100% defines whether it's the thought or the result that counts