#not to get into the semantics of what it means to be organic or whatever

[fernspirals]

Having a weird time. My roommate expects everything to be communal but I pay for most of the groceries and I can’t financially support his eating habits

[respectthepetty]

10 QL Girls I Want Carnally

Because @twig-tea hit me with the tag in their 10 QL People I Want Carnally list sprinkled with women as @negrowhat requested, let me slide up in here to show some appreciation for only the ladies because the amount of GLs we have leaves me thirsty, and these women look like a beautiful stream in the dusty desert.

Honorable Mention - Namtan's Characters [Pluto]

I don't understand the plot of this upcoming series. Namtan is playing twins and one or both of them love May (played by Film). Full disclosure here, I don't give a fuck about the plot because I'm going to watch it regardless. I'm always showing up for Namtan (and Film and Clize). When I'm being offered beautiful women in a GL plot, I do not question the gifts God bestows on me.

Honorable Mention - Jung One [She's Makes My Heart Flutter]

Fucking Korea and its short ass shows! I only had this precious babygirl for one hour, and I would murder for her. I would treat her so well that she would never feel nervous about another thing in her whole life. She is like Jim from Moonlight Chicken, just trying to help her niece and run her bar, but I'll be like Wen and WORK FOR FREE because that's how much I want to be in her bed warming her up at night. Money ain't the only way to pay me for my services.

Hydration Station

Maya & Rose [Laws of Attraction]

Choke me. Maya AND Rose are my ideal throuple with me being the third. Silvy had me hot and bothered in her scenes with Joong and New in The Warp Effect (bisexual reawakening), and Organ had me hot for mommy in Never Let Me Go, so Laws of Attraction giving me both in a Be Gay, Do Crime plot was heaven sent. Watching them manipulate and beat up men, knowing they were going home to each other is the energy I need from all my GL plots.

Yuna [Semantic Error]

She rides a bike and has beanies for every occasion. She'd let me wear her hoodies. She'd let me wear her beanies. She let me ride her bike. She'd let me ride her. Her entire demeanor lets me know what's up without her even having to open her mouth, and I've already signed up for a two-month subscription before I even approach her. Whatever she wants to do, I'm down whenever including going down wherever.

Tee [GAP]

Let me say this with my full chest "FUCK, SAM!" If I was Mon, as soon as Tee would've asked my name, it would have been "Sam, who?" because TEE COULD GET IT! I'd let Tee fuck me in front of all her friends and God on that table. Tee's game was unmatched. No hate to Sam being inexperienced, but Tee obviously knew thangs and was more than willing to share her knowledge, anytime, any day, anyway. *bites knuckles*

Phai [My Dear Gangster Oppa]

I don't fuck with cops. But . . . girl definitely knows how to use handcuffs. And the way she always told Muffin to shut up did things to my sacral chakra that told me that even though I don't fuck with the police, I would 100%, without a doubt, fuck the police(woman).

Proud [7 Project]

This is going to be a theme in this list because I don't just want Proud from 7 Project, who deserved so much better than that horrible story. I want Samantha, the person who played Proud. Sammy has been in everything for a solid decade now. She deserves the lead already, and I deserve to watch her and those beautiful lips of hers make out with another girl again! 2024, do me and my girl right.

Luna [Sleep with Me]

She has problems sleeping. Like an actual medical diagnosis. Not even trying to take away from the seriousness of her condition but . . . I've heard intensive physical activity is good for sleep. I'd be more than willing to test this scientific theory out by fucking all night long. It couldn't be just once though. In order to prove a theory, we'd have to do it a couple of times. I'm great at pulling all-nighters and being an enthusiastic participant for *science*

Cher [GAP]

GAP gave me so many beautiful women, and all of them were mean to Sam. Blessed. But my favorite Mean Girl was Cher. I had her for only a few seconds, but I would leave my SO on vacation if I saw her walking through the resort. Her AND her girlfriend could get it. Call me. Beep me. If you wanna reach me.

Ray [Club Friday]

This bitch was crazy. And I. Loved. It. But playing crazy is apparently what this actress does best.

As Ray, she was wildin' out trying to have a baby between her husband, her husband's boyfriend, and her ex-girlfriend, and as Anthika in Midnight Museum, she was wildin' out trying to resurrect the savior. And you know what? I would proudly stand next to her and commit queer wrongs every day instead of demanding she come to her senses if it meant she was making me come every night. Ooookay.

Mayris [The Sign]

Is she open to a two-night stand with a girl? I don't know, but I'm sure the hell gonna try to persuade her.

Ink [Bad Buddy]

There is a reason everyone loved her in that show. In Magic of Zero, Pa was trying her damndest to get Ink to remember her, and girl, same. If I had a girl like Ink, I would be the brattiest bitch. I'd pout until she gave me all of her attention. I'd be pissy if she even looked at someone else. I'd want her all to myself and she'd have to lose her job because I'd keep her in the bed ALL DAY. Well, not the bed. We could pull a Pat and Pran and fuck on the couch, the kitchen counter, and outside after drinking.

The One to Rule Them All

Sine Inthira, the person, not the character.

I want this woman carnally. She could tell me to shut up in front of my friends and God, and I WOULD DO IT! She could say something that went against all my feminist beliefs, and I would not give one fuck. I would ruin my life for this woman. I would be peak toxic for this woman. Why The Eclipse cast her as the teacher and tried to make me feel bad for Khao's character was the rudest thing to ever happen in my bisexual existence, but I know where my heart lies because I was telling Ayan to shut the fuck up and let my beautiful angel speak.

LOOK AT HER! If y'all ever hear of an American sitting in a Thai jail after chasing after this woman, know that American is me because my ass will not be sane if I see her in person.

I'm only tagging one person in this list of women I want carnally.

💙Daddy💙

@dribs-and-drabbles, I'd love to know who you want helping you break in that bed after you move it in this weekend. You've been so focused on shared clothing when all I want to know is whose do you want to take off.

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

hello i am asking politely for your mommy Medic surgeon goresex thoughts. feel free to use the reply to this ask as your dumping ground if it would be easier than an original post!

Welllll if you insist! Putting all this under a cut bc despite my cool exterior I'm extremely ashamed of every thought I've ever had (and bc I wanna put this in some tags and if the juicy stuff is under a cut no one can complain)

Uhhh CWs for sex, gore, goresex, surgery kink, medfet, mommy kink (just the title and the persona for Medic, no specified role for the sub), needles, knives, boot stuff, whatever. This makes me feel like a real writer

Sooo first things first bc I think people won't understand this one at first: Medic tf2 is a man who is a mommy dom. To me and to a lot of other kinky people, there exists a non-gendered semantic difference between a "daddy dom" and a "mommy dom", so women can be daddies and, much more rarely, men can certainly be mommies. Kink educator Evie Lupine describes mommy doms as "giggly, joyful sadists". Sound like someone we know? He's mommy (Mommy doms are also typically more "nurturing" and smothering than daddy doms, I'll get to that later)

I really love characterizing Medic as extremely faux-sympathetic (with flashes of real sympathy every now and again), so he's telling you (or whoever) just how bad he feels for you, you poor thing, that looks like it really hurts, and it's, like, the extra hand he attached to your pelvis. If it does actually hurt and the procedure wasn't successful he will safely remove it, though

Although I definitely think Medic can be mean, I think ESPECIALLY in a gorekink/medfet context, he gives a LOT of praise. He's SUPER full of himself, he'd never deride one of his Crowning Achievements In The Field Of Medical Science!

Similarly, he's very good about giving compliments specific to like, all of a person's inside stuff. The size of your organs, the shade of your blood, the prominence of your veins, the sturdiness of your bones... Medic tf2 is leaned over you on the vivisection table lovingly stroking your liver and cooing about how much he loves the color

This one's kind of a big one for me tbh... I think Medic tf2 would intentionally (consensually, temporarily) incapacitate someone so he gets to take care of them. Misery-style. My favorite version of this is Medic "accidentally" taking too much of someone's blood out during a blood draw, so they get all sleepy and he needs to feed them (with his boobs) and let them rest (on his boobs). Despite it all I think he really does like to feel needed.

I think Mommy Medic can be veryyyy... smothering. Figuratively and literally. He can really heap on the compliments, especially with a character who isn't very used to praise, which is its own kind of sadism. And he literally suffocates you in his boobs/thighs/ass/tummy/whatever. That one's a little less psychological.

Okayyyy goresex time... surgery makes Medic horny and he wants to fuck people's internal organs. Tf2 is really fun for this because the medigun is a built-in explanation for how he can do that while the other person is still awake. In Meet the Medic he should've been straddling Heavy's hips and jacking off onto his large intestine.

I don't know how into drinking blood normal humanguy Medic would be, but he definitely likes touching blood. Getting it all over his hands. I think he'd maybe be more into making you (or whoever) drink blood, lick it off his gloves, off his boots, off his big hairy (eroticized body part of your choice here). One of those things that he probably intends as a humiliation thing but if you're enough of a freak you just enjoy for what it is.

The penetration imagery of the needle. I read something like that recently about the scene in Breaking Bad where Jesse does heroin for the first time and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. You understand

On a humiliation note, I think Medic would think it's Very fun to "force" (lovingly encourage) someone to call him "mommy" if they're embarrassed about it, which I think most of his team would be. Medic using kink to help Sniper drop his inhibitions and give in to his urges and Have Fun is one of my fave bushmed dynamics and I definitely think getting Sniper to get over the hill and call him "mommy" for the first time would be a big thing for him. Of course this is all part of his plan to break you (consensually!) and have you (or whoever!) whimpering into his cleavage as he gets to nurture you

Imagine everything I just said but he's in a sexy nurse outfit that's extremely visibly too small for him. And also just COMPLETELY covered in blood. That's my vision

[hackedmotionsensors]

i didn't reblog the post but I do agree that the terminology for zines has gotten completely twisted.

ON THE OTHER HAND I don't think that selling them for say 20$ (which is what i sell my sketchbooks for) is unreasonable or unfair to still call a zine. I need to cover my costs of printing and the time I put into putting them together. yeah I can TECHNICALLY get a printer and print them myself but with the cost of printer ink and the lack of space its easier for me to just pay for someone to do it professionally but I'm also NOT making them at like....the HIGHEST QUALITY, LIBRARY BOUND, HARD COVER, IT COMES WITH A THOUSAND DOO DADS AND GIFTS. its just sketchbooks ofpreviously existing doodles and a few new sketches or sketches that I had before and colored in. Its essentially like selling a full print but in carryable size with some notes from me.

Its a zine but I call it a sketchbook because the idea of zines has changed for a lot of consumers. Thats not their fault bc those zines or anthologies DID start out in the "lets make a big ol book together because we are all horny for Reigen" kind of thing. A lot of times they're projects made from passion. I HAVE noticed that there's been a turn in the whole process of making them that both stresses out artists, requires kickstarters, and all sorts of shit that should be considered Artbooks. ARTBOOKS have always been on the higher end of things. There's nothing wrong with considering an anthology thats proper bound, and for a certain amount on a kickstarter you get extra things like stickers, charms, whatever.

But zines SHOULD go back to being simple little things. The cost to buy them shouldn't be lost UNLESS the artist wants it to be. If you print at home or using a schools printer and just print a bunch of cute little zines yourself then that should also exist and you can set your price point for whatever you want.

Its all semantics and personal preference at the end of the day but I do think that...yknow it wouldn't hurt if we could start calling the big project 50$ range books that often get run into the ground from bad leadership (or fun stuff like the organizer of the thing runs off with the money to play genshin) ...something other than zine. Like Artbook or Anthology. Or even Collection lol

Zine should be a small thing that you collect for fun and doesn't require a committee, a new discord channel, and a contract to make sure your organizer doesn't run off to play gacha (I'm sorry it still makes me laugh)

ALSO another thing about zines is that often times they were originally made to be alternatives to really closed minded book sellers. Like...its where a lot of the OG star trek fanfic/porn came from. Its a place to have your ideas put down. To explore narratives. Essentially Doujinshi can also be considered A TYPE of zine in that it literally means self published (not NECCESSARILY that its...yknow...bl or waifu porn lol Sometimes its just manga that artists put out before they can get published)

But lately there are a lot of zine projects (again...more actually like anthologies or art collections) that are REALLY REALLY closed minded even when the subject is SHIPPING.

So even the nature of CREATING the zines has changed a lot.

So yeah I agree with that post that I forgot to reblog. My only REAL gripe is that it doesn't mean that you should undercharge your work because you didn't print your zine at home or hand craft it like a youtube diy video. I did enough of that at art school I am not gonna bind a book or try to cut pages ever again if i don't have to lmao. CSP even has a zine preview so I can see the pages in 3d as if they were bound before printing lol

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Terf: Define a woman.

Yeah, writer, NB here, and generally, I LOVE etymology and being both Korean and Jewish, both cultures have a thing for debating in different tactics. Jews, in particular, have a thing for arguing about words. (well, some of us–it mostly has to do with Torah reading, and meaning, but getting into that is a whole chore.).

How to answer this with queer joy:

Terf: I think words have meaning. Define a woman.

Sure. Woman is a wife man. See, the Etymology is from old English.

So, if you think about it, it's defining this person by their role, in what? Society. WIFE is not a natural construct. It's a social construction and does not refer to genitalia at all. Which means the root of the word is also a social construction.

Terf: I meant female.

Me: Oh... well then, the etymology of female is...

One who can suckle.

Male and female do not have the same etymological root, BTW. And despite what linguists argued on this one long twitter rant, yes, it is quite sexist to define someone by their breasts?

But even so, men do have the organs to *also* suckle babies.

There are historical cases of this in this article.

So technically, men can be female by the original meaning. Because the root of the word feminine and female are the same: dhe(i), to suck.

The attributes of a man in which it's described by his presentation, is attested only to the 1500's, which is long after the fall of the roman empire. The original usage was to gender nouns, which has fallen in English steadily since long before Chaucer.

Emasculate is attributed to the 1600's.

Thus, women can be men. And men can be women. It's very liquid by the original definition and actual biology. And as long as a person can suckle, they can be female.

BTW, Chinese, 女 is a person 人 who sits. Meaning she's in the house all day.

This also is a SOCIAL construct of the word. Do you find houses in NATURE?

(If they haven't fallen asleep by this time. Haha. As an Asian accused of not knowing English well, or whatever racists like to get up to, I LOVE doing this type of thing to them.)

And in fact the start of defining male v. female and woman and man as gender roles coincides with the rise of the patriarchy, and if you notice the dates, English colonialism, as they started to encounter cultures that did presentations of gender different from them. This might not have been the sole two motivating factors, but shouldn't you, "defending women's rights" think seriously on that fact? In order to suppress women, they needed to shift the meaning of those words.

Terf: But I mean people shouldn't use they.

Me:

Etymology:

See, because the original word was hie, which only referred to plural of he, not she. So they switched to a gender neutral word, thai. (Which BTW, is hilarious to me, since Thailand it's the only place to not have their plural gender system ravaged by colonialism. Yes, the sound of the words is different, but if the person is going that far into semantics, they can eat the shift of the masculine and feminine gender root to neuter too.) Anyway, the original is from Indo-European, likely meaning "this" "That" making it not gendered, but was gendered to only mean men along the way, but then was degendered

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/s%C3%B3

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/sa

Singular usage is attested back to William Shakespeare according to Webster's dictionary, singular they was in usage in early Modern English.

William Shakespeare, who, BTW, had men dress up as women which is still a strong part of pantomime today.

Also, for those who look at the Bible: James, the King that enforced this rule for the stage: No women on stage, is said to have been interested romantically and sexually in men and women. Yes, the one that translated the Bible to English, the King James Bible, was attracted to men and women and had sex with both.

This is LONG before Shakespeare.

This means early court cases could recognize gender nonconforming people, thus Shakespeare, who was in the company of queers, and crossdressers was likely to have.

There is even debate about Shakespeare's sexuality as an icon who was attracted to men and women. Plus he wrote about cross dressing in his plays. As You Like it.

So yes, Queer people always existed and it was actually legally recognize way back when in the English language.

If they haven't blocked you by this time... they are likely going to go into how people shouldn't enhance biological sex and change it, and then oh, you have science on your side.

You can go into the history of how testosterone was made and how men used it to enhance their feelings of gender.

You can go into how estrogen was used and applied. And ask them if they think that estrogen is evil when it is in biological males. And if they hate the idea of birth control, "the pill" for women.

You can go over brain science in humans and how a super male is actually gay. Haha. Make their heads explode.

And by this time while you're having queer joy, they are angry and blocking you, but you've won because you have redefine a bit of semantics and science with evidence.

tldr;

Female, one who can suckle, but males can suckle too. Woman, Wife man. Singular They: first attested to Shakespeare, and the birth of Modern English. Shakespeare and King James VI who were also bi. Male and masculine in terms of presentation, rise of the patriarchy and colonization. Gay person? A super masculine man, according to nature. GNC was legally recognized by English law in 1395.

And the terf is going to have to cry and take it.

[roseyturtles]

is your Bencade post meant to be like, an Evil Power Couple AU? because Arcade is not a very warlike or violent person, and he wouldn't be antagonistic enough to want to "strike first in self defence". Maybe Benny would be, but Arcade would NOT. (agree to disagree if you want, but that's just how i see it!)

You're right, Arcade is by no means warlike (unless you go by the op companion ai and that's not a good judge of character.) What he IS, is idealistic. And that's the funny thing about idealism. You put it in the right circumstances and it can twist into much more perverted versions of itself.

Gonna put this under cut because it's a long theoretical chain of events explaining my thoughts.

As we know him now, no, Arcade would never decide to go on the offense against another faction. But let's assume for a minute that he and Benny, in all their ambitions and knowledge and collective political influence, managed to bring freedom to the Mojave. No NCR, no House, no Legion. Arcade would be happy to let the people rule themselves as just another citizen himself, but Benny is much more power-hungry and takes House's old throne. Of course, seeing this and knowing his political partner, Arcade follows him and decides to stick by his side instead, knowing he's prone to overly cruel decisions.

And what would you know it, all that power at his fingertips means that helping organize council meetings, redistributing wealth, and keeping raiders at bay is a much easier endeavor! It's easy enough that with a little reprogramming, the Securitrons can assemble a tiny citizen's militia as well as defend the people with their own numbers. They don't have to worry as much about inside squabbles or starvation or people who would take advantage of a power vacuum because there is none. They're able to make as close to a utopia as they can get in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

But all the while the realization is beginning to sink in that this model of government isn't sustainable. Two figureheads actively abdicating their political power while still maintaining an iron grip over the Mojave's only major military force? That's an opening just waiting to be exploited by the likes of a scorned NCR, or whatever rises in the east after the Legion. But what alternative do they have? Give the immense power of the securitrons to the Mojave Council? To any smaller individual factions inside it? And what if they don't use the securitrons when and where necessary---or worse, what if they do? No, The Mojave needs people who want the best for everyone, not just their own interests, to handle such forces. Even the Followers follow too strictly their pacifism to be effective. But that still doesn't change the basic problem that outside forces bigger than them aren't going to stay put like they have.

So he talks with Benny, his only real equal anymore, about the situation, about what-ifs, worst-case scenarios, because admittedly, just for the dam, the Mojave is inevitably going to be the center of another war if they don't do something about it. And Benny's solution is surprisingly straightforward. They attack. Whoever wants to take over their little commune isn't going to listen to diplomacy or gift baskets or any of that prissy nonsense, he tells Arcade. They only speak one language, and that language is guns. ("Only guns? No energy weapons?" "Yeah, yeah, sure, doc, semantics." "Because if they speak the language of energy weapons too, that makes them bilingual." "Shut the hell up, you know what I mean.") And as much as Arcade hates it, as much as it goes against everything he stood for as a practicing physician, he knows Benny is right. No one likes war, least of all him, but out here it's just another fact of life. The least he can do is make sure it never reaches the doorstep of the people he's sworn to protect.

Which is how he ends up in a military position at all, because like hell is he letting Benny do it, what is he, insane? Inevitably, the NCR tries to strike back. Inevitably something sickening rises in the east. Inevitably Arcade's hand is forced and he pushes back against opponents. And then again. And again. Enough that it exhausts and hardens Arcade, who has at this point spent years at the top of the food chain. By this point he's doubtlessly either been ousted from the Followers for his use of the securitrons or simply has drawn away from them over time because he deems his work protecting the Mojave as more important, leaving him only with an enabler. One he listens to more and more, especially with his own anxieties gnawing away at him. Is that just another little tribe or something more to worry about? Is that war dance for them or for another smaller conflict? Why are these people organizing like this? Better show their hand just to be safe. Better make sure they know not to come near. Better make a proverbial barrier around the desert, just to keep its citizens safe.

And maybe Arcade hates what he's doing. And maybe it twists his stomach and makes him lose sleep. And maybe that only makes his paranoia worse, put in charge of this necessary evil. And maybe he mistakes one thing for another and maybe he fires on people he shouldn't have and maybe in some sick way it feels good and maybe he wouldn't trust anyone else to do this and maybe this is for the best and maybe he has to do this and maybe he's right and maybe he's right and maybe he's right and maybe-

Anyways.

You're right about Arcade being a good man. It'd take years to have this happen. But it's not so far off you can't track the line of thought from point A to B and that's what's fascinating about it.

[maxfaiden]

get to know a simmer

I was tagged by @igotsnothing on my main (@greighish), but since this is "get to know a simmer" I'm responding on my simblr. They have quickly become one of my favorite simmers, as a person and a creative mind. You should check out their story, Bite Me! It's a... vampire vs human romcom? Yes, "vs", go read it, you'll understand. Anyway, on with the show! (Don't mind that some of these answers appeared in a previous one because some things never change.)

show your wallpaper: personal/work/phone

last song you listened to: I wasn't listening to anything, and then, just as I told Google to play I like It by DeBarge, I got a text from the BFF with a link to Into My Arms by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. It took me back to our days at Tower... makes me miss the days when I didn't consider leaving the house a form of torture.

currently reading: A lot. But I am genuinely counting the days for the next update for The Dangerous Convenience Store, Ao to Midori, Semantic Error, and Second Piatto. Additionally, I'm actively reading these simblr stories: Bite Me ⬆️, Things Fall Apart by @cinamun, Night Life Series by @nightlifeseries, and The Organization by @windenbro.

last movie: I don't know. It's been so long.

last show: See above...

craving: Pain-free mornings

what are you wearing right now: My “uniform”… t-shirt dress, zip hoodie, heel sleeves.

how tall are you: 5'8"/173.

piercings: One in each ear, but I haven’t adorned them since I stopped stretching them.

tattoos: None. I wanted one when I was a teen, but decided I wouldn’t get one unless I would feel the same way about it forever. Then I learned I have commitment issues.

glasses? contacts?: Glasses.

last thing you ate: Shrimp Mei Fun, extra spicy.

favourite colour: Since gray is not a color, I have to go with green.

current obsession: Reading; it's a lifelong one.

any pets: Nope.

favourite fictional character: No overall faves, but there are characters who are my faves from particular series, like Kagami (KnB), Tsukishima (HQ!!), Aizen (Bleach), Hojo & Asami (Sanctuary), Tenka (Laughing Under the Clouds), and Nodame (Nodame Cantabile).

last place you traveled: I work from home and live in an immunocompromised household and even before COVID I was not great in public spaces, so nowhere, I guess. Or rather, today I drove around the corner to the mailbox, 2 months ago I drove to Delaware to visit my grandmother, and in 2007 I went to Belize, whatever happened in between is lost to me.

I'm tagging a mix of simmers from here and my main: @whimpysims, @beebiesims, @sierraelil, @faetheegrey, @twofingerswhiskey, @vulpossims. No pressure, of course; take a rain check if you like. Anyone else that wants to join in, I really mean it when I say please do and tag me so I can get to know you, too.

[blank template below the cut]

show your wallpaper:

last song you listened to:

currently reading:

last movie:

last show:

craving:

what are you wearing right now:

how tall are you:

piercings:

tattoos:

glasses? contacts?:

last thing you ate:

favourite colour:

current obsession:

any pets:

favourite fictional character:

last place you traveled:

[sanguine-arena]

phony court | misc drabbles #3

desc: Thatcher Leichenberg would rather be anywhere than where he was right now. After his first career fatality on a player from the Alekov Valiant, Nikita Asetov, Thatcher is forced to attend a disciplinary hearing from the CSHL Department of Player Safety.

cw: no major warnings, though there are mentions of the death of a teenager

wc: 1,620

tags: @thetruearchmagos , @isherwoodj , @elijahrichardwrites , @jezifster , @hottubraccoon , @rsdan , @aquil-writes

Thatcher Leichenberg really wished he was anywhere but where he was right now.

He watched the phony court of league officials and their so-called “unbiased” arbitrators mull over the summary of the gruesome details of his latest offense against league policy. He watched them get their bearings on the situation at hand, some of them rapidly flipping through the papers almost in shock, and he was almost certain at that moment that some of them hadn’t even heard a vague idea of the case’s details. Despite the fact that they’d so  graciously  informed him and the whole Kongsplass Thunder organization that, three days ago now, during the Thunder’s last game he’d somehow violated league code “Whatever”, subsection “Who Cares”, specifically the infractions listed and numbered as “This League Is Getting Soft” and “I Stopped Listening Ten Minutes Ago”.

Well, that’s what these things always sounded like to him, anyway.

If he were honest, Thatcher always stopped listening once the League’s player safety office started throwing their convoluted jargon around at him as if it should mean something to him. As if the needlessly complicated semantics of the supposed rules this league had weren’t a topic of discussion better suited for his agent, who sat right next to him at their desk in the current moment. Thatcher leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed as he boredly awaited the council’s decision to finally get things going.

It was already bad enough that they made him get up super early and that they made wear this stupid gray suit.

The least they could do is hurry up with getting the hearing started.

“Mr. Leichenberg.”

Ugh. Thatcher caught himself thinking immediately after the Safety Commissioner’s voice finally spoke up. The stuffy formalities of these people were grating on his ears, and he was surprised he didn’t instantly burst out in hives at the sound of it.

“Mr. Leichenberg. As you already know, we’ve called you here today to discuss your actions in the last game the Kongsplass Thunder played against the Alekov Valiant, three nights ago now.”

If Thatcher never heard his last name butchered out loud again, it would be too soon.

“Yeah, I’m aware.”

Thatcher could feel his agent’s eyes on him instantly, as well as the silent nudge to curb his attitude that came with it. The older man at the head of their desk stared Thatcher down with an attempt at intimidation that made him want to burst out laughing. There was a long pause from him, and a soft sigh that preceded the next words he would say.

“We are here because a check you laid on one of the Valiant’s players, Nikita Asetov, resulted in the loss of his life after he was taken to the hospital.” the man paused again, seeming to hope that the news would shake Thatcher in some way. The only response he got was a slight cock of Thatcher’s eyebrow, but it was one more of intrigue than shock or worry. “Were you aware of this before today?” “Nope.” Thatcher said the word plainly, not even turning to his agent who was certainly sitting on the edge of his seat, hoping he wouldn’t have to jump out of it to defend him in the next few minutes. “Didn’t know the kid died.”

He could see all four of the league’s figureheads for their take on player safety staring him down now, and he wasn’t sure if they were more shocked at the fact he didn’t know that Nikita Asetov was dead, or that he didn’t really give a shit that Nikita Asetov was dead. They were silent, clearly stunned from the straightforward response.

“Mr. Leichenberg,” the older man who seemed to be purposely butchering his name spoke up again, and Thatcher could see him swallow hard before continuing on. “In the video footage we have of the event, we see you take several strides towards Mr. Asetov, before eventually jumping into him and your shoulder makes contact with his head. He falls to the ice, and does not get back up.” Thatcher looked to his agent, who jumped into the conversation before he could even think of a response.

“Hold on a second,” he said, his tone firm and as pointed as his gaze on the Safety Commissioner was. “That’s not what happened. At all. Mr. Asetov was skating with his head down, and my client made a normal hit on the boards to knock him off of the puck. If Mr. Asetov has his head up, he likely would’ve been able to better brace himself for the hit.”

The Head Safety Commissioner looked to Thatcher, his jaw tightening at the challenge.

“Would you agree that this is what happened?” “Yeah, of course,” Thatcher said, barely holding back a scoff at such a stupid question. “That kid never had his head up. It doesn’t help that he’s smaller than me, but I didn’t charge him. I  definitely didn’t take ‘several strides’ towards him to make that hit.” “Mr. Leichenberg,” a new voice spoke up, an older woman who Thatcher always swore was wearing a scowl on her face every time he’d seen her. “The video simply doesn’t support that recounting of events. You were about forty feet away from him when you started skating towards him, and Mr. Asetov had already gotten rid of the puck by the time you got there.” “Am I not allowed to finish checks anymore?” Thatcher’s voice showed the most aggression it had all morning now, though it was nothing more than mild annoyance at the moment. “Listen, that kid never had his head up every time I played him and always bitched whenever anyone touched him. He was gonna have to learn that this isn’t minor hockey eventually.”

Thatcher watched as he lost the favour of a second person in the phony court, though he couldn’t say he was going to lose sleep over that fact.

The third of the group, a fresh face he’d surprisingly never seen before today, decided to try his hand at talking to him next.

“Mr. Leichenberg, you do understand that Mr. Asetov was only sixteen years old at the time of the incident, correct? And that he likely isn’t very used to the physicality of the League as a result?” “Nope, I didn’t.” Thatcher said it plainly once again, and his flippance towards the idea of having accidentally killed a teenager sent chills down the spine of everyone else in the room outside of Thatcher himself. “He definitely acted like it, though.”

“Also,” his agent interjected again, leaning forward in his seat to get a better look at the four who sat across from them. “Why should he have to tone down his style of play if there’s a teenager out there? Respectfully, Mr. Asetov should either have been down in the minors or his teammates should’ve done better at looking out for him.”

With that, Thatcher lost the favour of a third member of the phony court.

The fourth and final of the council straightened himself out in his chair, as well as the papers on their desk about the case. He looked to the three others sitting with him, all three equally as astounded at the responses they’d gotten thus far. He would be the last to try and get the message of how severe the situation was across to Thatcher, though odds weren’t looking so good.

“Mr. Leichenberg, your callousness towards the situation is, quite frankly,  alarming.” he said, the heavy judgment in his voice making Thatcher want to laugh in his face. He gave an exasperated exhale at seeing Thatcher roll his eyes in response. “Your actions during that game were a horrifying display of wanton violence that ended the life of a young man. I don’t understand how you can sit here and be okay with what you did, knowing how it ended.”

Thatcher couldn’t hold back the quiet laugh that wanted to come out for much longer, and with it, he lost the favour of the entirety of the phony court.

“Because of this, we are forced to take extra disciplinary action against you.” the older woman spoke up again, her tone almost as uncompromising in its convictions as Thatcher’s had been all morning. “You will be fined five thousand dollars, and you will also be suspended for 7 games without the pay you would have received for those games.” “Oh, come on,” Thatcher couldn’t help but say it out loud, the tail end of his exasperated laughter still hanging on by a thread. This was something that made his agent flush red with equal parts anger, shock, and embarrassment, and he stared down his client with wide eyes and his mouth slightly agape. Thatcher’s eyes almost rolled into the back of his head at how righteous these people sounded, all because they currently sat at a slightly higher table than he did. “This league has gotten so soft. I apparently can’t finish checks anymore. I accidentally kill a guy and I’m the problem? You guys have never had a problem with me making that play dozens of times before, but now that it happens to kill some kid who didn’t know to keep his head up, you’re gonna throw the book at me? You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.”

“Mr. Leichenberg, that sort of behaviour won’t be tolerated-”

Thatcher got to his feet, shoving his chair into the desk as hard as he could.

“Thatcher, sit down- ” his agent started, immediately cut off by Thatcher’s continued outburst.

“This league is a fuckin’ joke.”

With that and the heavy, stunned silence that followed, Thatcher shook his head, leaving the room without another word.

[scarlettundrhett]

a temporary abundance by fleet_off

Relationship: Vegas/Pete

Words: 1070

We don't know Vegas like that.

Vegas suffers, Vegas makes suffer. We know Vegas angry, broken, crying, grinning his predatory smile.

But Vegas on a sunny morning together with Pete, relaxed, redeemed and peaceful, that's not how we know Vegas, but that's how we want to know and love him.

Saturday morning settles over them in languid golden hues and the scent of fresh congee on the stove, glutinous and savory. They make a drawn-out affair of their breakfast simply because they can, because Macau doesn’t wake up until noon on weekends and because it feels nice to exchange inconsequential words between bites of porridge and sips of rich dark coffee.

Paradise can sometimes be just a moment, a morning when time stands still.

Such a golden moment we have always wished for Vegas and Pete. They are the couple that has seen only longing, regret, blood and and death. Get some rest!

Death has always been powerful in the lives of both. A bodyguard lives to die instead of his master. Vegas was the frontline soldier of the family, everyone is puzzled why he is not dead yet.

Life used to be the means to a messy end, bodies tools given in service to a name larger than either of them. They are still learning what it means to live for living’s sake, to be made of flesh and openly want for all the things living flesh wants. It hurts because it matters. Such is living, and there is joy in being alive.

They sit on the couch together after their meal, the food a warm weight in Pete’s stomach. Pleasant soreness, the mark of the well-used and well-loved, curls in his wrists and the backs of his thighs. He feels the urge to flex and stretch, but his head is hazy with the indolent catlike sleepiness that comes with satiety--he does not want to lift it from Vegas’s thigh.

Fleet_off is a magician. He stops time and we hold our breath. We see only Vegas and Pete lying on the sofa on a sunny morning. The past suffering is not faded out, it is not magicked away, but it has lost its dark power.

There are days, too, when the emotions go numb and dead in Pete’s chest and he can only puppet himself with wire-jointed fingers and a painted-on smile no matter how Vegas tugs at his strings to bring him back. Days when Vegas locks himself in the cage of his own brain and takes the keys with him, leaving Pete to batter his fists bloody against an unresponsive steel door. (…) Today, they’re in one of those temperate stretches where they’re both human and present enough to be good to themselves and each other, their silences familiar instead of fraught.

Then comes a passage that has sparked a semantic discussion in reader comments about the use of the word "pretty“. Unfortunately, I'm not a native speaker to guess at all the secondary meanings of the word. Don't people call men pretty? Is there an underlying pejorative message when one does?

Pretty, Pete thinks but doesn’t say. Vegas wouldn’t appreciate that specific compliment--is sensitive, sometimes. There’s probably a wound there that Pete hasn’t yet picked open. Someday he will find it, either by chance or by willful design, and will probe with blunted fingernails underneath Vegas’s skin to fish out whatever lead or rusted blade hides underneath this particular bit of damage. Once he has done that, once he has kissed what is torn and licked him clean again--only then will he tell Vegas that sometimes he freezes Pete’s breath in his throat just by how pretty he is. But they are enjoying a quiet morning, today, so he can find other ways to express the sentiment.

The author works his magic, we let ourselves be enchanted and wish the couple the happiness of normality on the sofa with a teenager, Macau, who endures all the tenderness with the annoyed but loving disregard that only teenagers can show.

[justlegal1]

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[one-winged-dreams]

MASSIVE LORE DUMP, AS PROMISED, I'm high as shit so I hope I conveyed my vision wel

using my tag list just in case

Tag list: @dearly-beeloved @camellias-and-coriander @rebel-wolf13 @sunstar-of-the-north @lysandreslittlechatot @goldenworldsabound @edencantstopfallininlove @adoredbyalatus @dorothys-wife @faerie-circle-ships @kylars-princess @little-miss-selfships

Okay so as far as I've got, everything started when some "heavenly matter" fell to Earth. It was humanoid but possessed no organs or indicators that it was at all a sapient being.

So of course it gets dragged off and every researcher on the planet NEEDS to get their hands on it. So humanity does its thing where "we don't know what it is but let's find out what we can do with it.

A few month or a year later comes first contact with aliens who show up and are like "So that stuff came here, right?" And once the semantics of 'holy fuck, aliens' wore off humanity was like "oh the heavenly matter? Yeah, neat stuff, been playing around with possibilities, why?" And the aliens are like "Do you want space kaiju? Because that's how you get space kaiju." "What does THAT mean?" "You'll find out if you don't stop fucking with it."

And then they leave and of course humanity doesn't listen. And then giant space kaiju DO start showing up. Which means humanity does what humanity does and tries to build giant robots. Giant artificial cyborgs is more like it. Whatever they're mechs. Later the call them Angels seeing as how they're made out of the "heavenly matter"

They're supposed to be fitted with an AI but the AI keeps getting rejected. Lo and behold, the thing has created a brain and has it's own consciousness. This proves to be extremely interesting and troublesome because there is little to no communication. It may as well be a newborn baby. An AI program is created to give them an instant crash course in the basics of humanity but it's still difficult to communicate with them because they can't speak (no vocal chords) and they can barely move on their own. Eventually one manages to tap into a network (what kind I do not know) Bluetooth style and requests a neural link with a human being. It will be absolutely permanent, there will be a person in your head at all times, and the connection can't be broken until both of them die.

Sounds good let's do it.

So they start trying to link the Angels up with people but they find out that compatibility is difficult to discern. After a while it's discovered that certain people with cognitive degeneration or imbalanced brain chemicals take to the link almost immediately. THAT'S a secret they keep under wraps, along with the fact that it's a legitimate treatment that works at the price of you never having personal privacy again.

Anyway, a company is born called -gestures bc I've got nothing rn- that becomes the face of the project. It's made up of multiple nations of the world as to discourage the Angels as weapons of war. Which would eventually have happened if the space kaiju didn't actually show up.

The ones that had been neutrally linked to an Angel were instructed to enter the (very gross and squishy and slimy) inside so that a full neural link could be completed. And then it was monster ass kicking time. The Angels made perfect weapons against the Kaiju and the aliens from first contact came by like "we have literally never seen anyone crazy enough to do what it is you're doing, teach us because these things have been wrecking us forever,"

And so the corporation expands all over the world and out into various civilizations through space.

And so being a pilot is COOL now, you're a hero, a sports star, a celebrity and public figure. There are usually three to five pilots in one base (which is the building they keep the mechs in as well as a building so huge it's literally a self contained community for employees and pilots to live in for the sake of convenience. Anyway the company is like the biggest deal on the planet.

The way they scout for pilots is to find someone with an abysmal psych case file and cross reference it with their cognitive ability. Then they swoop in like "I know life's hard sweetie? Don't you want to be healed? Don't you want to be a star?" And suddenly there's a new idol to fawn over. The Angels are just as popular, sentient mechs are hype as fuck. the pairs go on becoming full on celebrities.

The neural link itself is a two way mental connection between the Angel and the pilot. They hear feel and see the same things and hear each other's thoughts. It's the ultimate commitment because it can never be broken.

When pilots are out or need their Angel's presence without lugging a giant 40 foot tall (absolute MINIMUM, They can go as big as 80 feet) mech around, they have a neural Bluetooth speaker attached to their own person because they do meetups and talk shows and all that other bullshit.

Anyway, Sariel is an aerial unit, so he's got big angel wings (shhhh let's not think about the mass production EVAs for a second) and he's only 40 feet tall. He's got charm but in a rough sort of way. He's kind of a jackass but a playful one.

I'll talk about my insert on the design art.

So uh

I got got by this post

so...

potential new oc f/o just dropped 👉👈

ABSOLUTELY ripping off the concept of religious themes in mecha series, he's like... a giant sentient mech. That has flesh also? And his designated name is Sariel.

I need to put like, an actual plot together because I need a convoluted narrative to make a dynamic

But yeah >:I

tag list: @dearly-beeloved @camellias-and-coriander @rebel-wolf13 @sunstar-of-the-north @lysandreslittlechatot @goldenworldsabound @edencantstopfallininlove @adoredbyalatus @dorothys-wife @faerie-circle-ships @kylars-princess @little-miss-selfships

[nat-20s]

Weird Girl Table <3

Here’s twenty different weird like quirks/personality traits/ hobbies you can give your female characters to give them a lil’ pizzaz. a lil spice. Feel free to roll on a d20 for selection or peruse at your leisure!

1. Has been low key trying to solve the JonBenét Ramsey  case for the past ten years. She is not into true crime overall and has no personal connection to the event. She just thinks it’s a thing she should do.

2. Has a slightly concerning PhD level knowledge of parasitology. Bonus points if she’s not involved in science in any other way.

3. Keeps newts and lizards in her pockets, will give one to you if you have her favor or are like. A really nice cashier

4. Refuses to wear clothes that are not made of Lycra.

5. Has an unironic love and passion for eating objectively disgusting foods. Frequently cooks those wack gelatin based recipes from like 1950s

6. Personal life motto is “memento mori”. Bonus points if she’s not goth in any other way

7. Meant it when she said #scenekid4lyfe. Will truly be scene for life

8. Her pipe dream is to be in Jackass she thinks she DESERVES it

9. Has a “thing” about glass eyes. You get to decide what “thing” means

10.She simply cannot resist the siren’s call of ridiculous roadside tourist traps. She will go two hours out of everyone’s way to go see the largest ball of twine or whatever

11. Will sometimes use a Russian accent for several days at a time. She is in no way Russian.

12. Her second language is one she made up with a childhood best friend and she is EXTREMELY fluent in it. The language has LORE and GRAMMAR and SEMANTICS that would make Tolkien weep.

13. Has such a strong inflation fetish it’s genuinely interfering with her day to day life

14. Has such a strong inflation phobia it’s genuinely interfering with her day to day life

15. She’s working on the process of slowly turning her house into a theme park. It is not going well.

16. Makes shipwrecks in a bottle. Personally wrecks the ship herself via water and shaking after completing the regular ship.

17. Is a respected breeder of an unconventional animal. Dealer’s choice on what said animal is. Again, bonus points if nothing else about her is animal related.

18. Has a VERY successful etsy shop making photo-realistic genitalia (and occasionally other organs but mainly genitalia) out of polymer clay + resin

19.Religiously devoted to the idea of Atlantis being real and filled with merpeople. Hates the Disney movie atlantis because if you have to go FIND atlantis you don’t truly have faith in Atlantis

20. A groupie but not for a band. A groupie for the openings of office supplies stores. Like goes on roadtrips for them. She rarely buys anything from said stores except maybe t-shirts

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

What do you think a modern version of enjolras would actually be like and do you agree/disagree with the popular fanon version of him ?

As always, I preface this by saying that fanon has its place and has value in its own right, and what is canonically accurate has no bearing on that status. If you like fanon, shine on, you crazy diamond.

To answer the question (or rather, how I am interpretting the question): I do not feel that popular fanon reflects what a modern, canon-based Enjolras would look like.

One reason I don't think it does is that modern AUs (and arguably fanfic in general) seek to humanize characters, and I don't think Hugo's characters were ever truly meant to be fleshed out and humanized to that extent: most of them are 90% symbolism in the same way we are 90% water. To ignore the symbolic ramifications of any given character's actions is already to sort of lose the concept of who they are. Any given two characters even merely conversing or interacting is already in and of itself a statement in the bricc (in most cases), and I think modern fanon in general often loses that. Like, Les Misérables is Invisible Man levels of "everyone is a symbol and no one simply Is a person unto themself."

Moving onto specifically what I think a modern Enjolras would look like based on the bricc description of him: an important part of the Amis, to my thinking, is that none of them are working in their own self-interest. Even Feuilly (and I may be forgetting some passage here, please feel free to correct me) is described as going out of his way to learn about the plights of fellow workers that don't actually personally affect him, and I think this really matters, because in that way Hugo indicates the importance of solidarity between classes and social stratuses in effecting change. As such, I think it remains important that Enjolras retain his privilege, though in what capacity can be very flexible (so long as he is privileged in whatever areas they are advocating for ie he is not rallying for his own rights).

It's also very important that les Amis is an actually radical org: he doesn't get caught up in the semantics of veganism or anything so milquetoast as gay rights in the year 2022. Les Amis de l'ABC are a terrorist organization in its most basic and literal of definitions ie the use or threat of violence in pursuit of political goals. In 1832, they literally were hoping to overthrow the government. Everything was so broken that it made more sense to throw the whole thing away, and this is what they were preparing to do! Enjolras does not get tripped up in the small details when there is a grander vision to behold, and he certainly doesn't argue those details with people who disagree wholesale with that grander image. Even when Courfeyrac prods at Enjolras about Rousseau's personal foibles, Enjolras's response is pretty much, "And?" The means are not perfect, but the ends are Divine.

It also means, though, that in pursuit of this divine end, the motivation throughout needs to remain as pure as possible. At no point can they allow themselves to be swayed by the temptation to loot or harm for looting or harming's sake (as seen with Bahorel and the eggs): as people they may be flawed, but the movement itself and its actions must remain immaculate (as seen in the deleted quarry scene and demonstrated in the killing of le Cabuc). If they are not restrained in this time, how will the government they hope to achieve show the restraint necessary in its dealings with the people?

On that note: I simply don't think pre-barricades Enjolras as he is written in the brick is interested in romantic or sexual relationships. I think he has room in his life for one (1) project, it is fixing the world, and it is all-encompassing. I love a modern ExR as much as the next person, but as long as there is still suffering in the world and his duty is yet to be fulfilled, even if he isn't aroace or somewhere on that spectrum, it's not even something canonically on his radar because his attention to this cause is so absolute.

Moving onto personal carriage and interpersonal relationships: Enjolras is someone capable of doing what needs to be done and making hard choices, but that doesn't mean he's senselessly cruel. Fanon likes to portray him as this outspoken leader-type, but in meetings he's actually usually quiet and content to listen to his friends banter. He rarely properly argues with anyone (certainly not over major and core beliefs), and if anyone is issuing verbal smackdowns, it's most reliably Combeferre My Beloved. Enjolras will be there for you through your revelation, but he's not wasting time or energy on closed minds — he has other things to be focusing on here. He makes stupid corny puns sometimes and speaks in a very matter-of-fact way when he does speak and above all cares about humanity, and he is willing to make hard decisions on behalf of humanity.

Back to the type of leader he is: uh, generally, not. He's happy to sink into the background, but in times like the barricade, he's mostly the leader by merit of the rest of the Amis turning into the closest approximation of a pack of cats to herd. Enjolras can inspire them, sure, and remind them of why they're here and what they're fighting for, but how many people went to sleep when he said to rest up? Feuilly was like, "What are you, a cop?" and spent the entire time doing A Graffiti. When all of this is over, he doesn't intend nor want to be in charge, he just wants to prepare the way for and facilitate a system where the voices of the people are heard. He sees himself as a tool of the revolution, not a leader.

(It is also important to note that the other Amis do care about this cause A Lot. Enjolras is not compelling them to come, they're not just here because there's nothing else to do or it's the most convenient way to hang out and they all Just So Happen to think the world would be better if they overthrew the government, and Enjolras did not drag them kicking and screaming to the barricades. This is a movement of individuals who seem very different but all have come together because they see that society needs to change, and they're all willing to whatever it takes [having sworn to go through fire but not water] to effect it.)

So uh, to sum all of those thoughts up into a single person: Enjolras is probably that person in your law class who seems really serious and rarely speaks, but when he does, he does not leave much room for argument; if you seem open to having your mind on a subject changed, he may interject with an idea or two (a la Napoléon), but he probably mentally checks out of a conversation when he hears a bad take, and he is not losing sleep over not changing their mind. Seems rather intimidating and distant until you see him around his friends, at which point he doesn't exactly talk more or even necessarily seem more approachable, but he does soften and sometimes makes little jokes in what he does say delivered so seriously that it doesn't even initially register as a joke. He's in favor of overthrowing the government (or at least major instutions within it) and is actively a part of a group planning to do just that, but they're not raggedy anarchists either: they understand that Presentation Matters and that they need to hold their movement to a higher standard. This movement and helping the people are the most important things in Enjolras's life, and no one gives him hell over it because tbh they all really admire him and everything he stands for (even if they don't necessarily aspire to be him).

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Well, it wasn’t every day you found out you were working in an extension of hell — Charlie was by now well aware that Hades wasn’t hell, but she retained the right to continue to privately call it whatever she liked — but in the end it did not matter all that much. Once she had recovered from the initial shock all she had had to do was accept that apart from none of the guests being human, none of her co-workers were either. Well, no longer mortal at least.

It didn’t change her day-to-day too much. Whether Cassandra was just an exceptionally organized receptionist or a clairvoyant had no effect on either her job or their friendship. And the fact that Marsyas actually did have hooves, instead of very clunky boots, could hardly have any impact either. The only thing Charlie had resolved on was her suggestion to Echo that they both learn sign language, which she very enthusiastically accepted, but they were both so busy that would probably take a while.

So, no, when she requested a talk with her manager it wasn’t to resign, as he had feared.

“Of course not, chief,” she smiled. (He had explained that neither the name Damastes, nor Procrustes really suited him any longer and he had not yet found another one.) “What do you take me for? As long as the working conditions are good I am more than willing to work in an outpost of hell.”

He was clearly too relieved to argue with her about semantics.

“But that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” she continued. “Working conditions.” She fixed him with a determined expression. “We need more front of house staff. Specifically, I need someone to train to do at least part of my job, especially when I can’t be here.”

“Ah, well,” the manager said. “I am sure that will not be a problem. Provided, perhaps—” His broad shoulders stiffened a little. “You could possibly conduct the recruitment process personally…”

Charlie thought back to her own job interview and kept her face carefully neutral. “Of course, sir, if you think that is best. And I do have some thoughts on that point,” she immediately added.

The manager actually smiled. “By all means.”

“Normally I would never say this, but, don’t get someone from hospitality.” She gave him a pressing look. “I’d say customer service experience desired, but the required education should be a classics degree.”

If she was going to ever get all the nonsense in this hotel under control she really needed some help. And if her help knew about the Ancient Greek nonsense, she could teach them about the hotel nonsense.

“A...classics degree,” the manager repeated, writing it down. “I have never heard of this.”

“No need to look it up,” Charlie said. “But trust me, it’s going to make a world of difference.”

He nodded. “As long as it means your continued employment.”

She smiled. “Oh I don’t intend on leaving.” This was her hotel.

The End

[Hotel Olympus on Tumblr | Hotel Olympus on AO3]  

[argyrocratie]

“human beings do not exist first prior to the  circumstences to which they are born and then come together to  constitute society, and they don’t choose their heredity, at every  moment their decision emerge determinalisticly out of the totality of  past and present circumstances, inside and outside this skin into wich  they have been thrown: and yet human being do make decision for which  they might and should be accountable to others, such accountability is  indeed one of the chief feature of bio-social existance

(...)

it’s not your fault that you’re in trouble and it’s your responsability to  get out of it that is to do whatever you can to get out of trouble that  is it depends on your response-ability and we here to help you built  that ability that’s our responsability

(...)

100% of the fault, the causation belong to circumstances outside and inside the skin and  100%  of the responsability belong to the decision maker

(...)

we  may say the individual is the level of the system where the system  problems are experienced, that is at the object level where we live and  so the level of responsability, response-ability, here the individual  can learn to improve their decision making abilities, to become more  response-able to the degree that circumstances permit and only to that  degree, in this way they can affect to some degree in a benificial  spiral manner the higher level of cause and condition.”

- Gad Horowitz - "Radical General Semantics" (2016)

...

“We deny society’s free will and its alleged right to punish. justice itself, taken in its widest, most humane sense, is but an idea, so to say, which is not an absolute dogma; it poses the social problem but it does not think it out. It merely indicates the only possible road to human emancipation, that is the humanization of society by liberty in equality. This positive solution can be achieved only by an increasingly rational organization of society. This solution, which is so greatly desired, our ideal for all, is liberty, morality, intelligence, and the welfare of each through the solidarity of all: human fraternity, in short.

Every human individual is the involuntary product of a natural and social environment within which he is born, and to the influence of which he continues to submit as he develops. The three great causes of all human immorality are: political, economic, and social inequality; the ignorance resulting naturally from all this; and the necessary consequence of these, slavery.

Since the social organization is always and everywhere the only cause of crimes committed by men, the punishing by society of criminals who can never be guilty is an act of hypocrisy or a patent absurdity. The theory of guilt and punishment is the offspring of theology, that is, of the union of absurdity and religious hypocrisy. The only right one can grant to society in its present transitional state is the natural right to kill in self-defense the criminals it has itself produced. but not the right to judge and condemn them This cannot, strictly speaking, be a right, it can only be a natural, painful, but inevitable act, itself the indication and outcome of the impotence and stupidity of present-day society. The less society makes use of it, the closer it will come to its real emancipation.”

-Mikhail Bakunin, “The Program of the International Brotherhood” (1869)

...

“What do we mean by respect for humanity? We mean the recognition of human right and human dignity in every man, of whatever race, color, degree of intellectual development, or even morality. But if this man is stupid, wicked, or contemptible, can I respect him? Of course, if he is all that, it is impossible for me to respect his villainy, his stupidity, and his brutality; they are repugnant to me and arouse my indignation. I shall, if necessary, take the strongest measures against them, even going so far as to kill him if I have no other way of defending against him my life, my right, and whatever I hold precious and worthy.But even in the midst of the most violent and bitter, even mortal, combat between us, I must respect his human character. My own dignity as a man depends on it.

Nevertheless, if he himself fails to recognize this dignity in others, must we recognize it in him? If he is a sort of ferocious beast or, as sometimes happens, worse than a beast, would we not, in recognizing his humanity, be supporting a mere fiction? No, for whatever his present intellectual and moral degradation may be, if, organically, he is neither an idiot nor a madman–in which case he should be treated as a sick man rather than as a criminal–if he is in full possession of his senses and of such intelligence as nature has granted him, his humanity, no matter how monstrous his deviations might be, nonetheless really exists. It exists as a lifelong potential capacity to rise to the awareness of his humanity, even if there should be little possibility for a radical change in the social conditions which have made him what he is.”

- Mikhail Bakunin, “Rousseau’s Theory of the State”

there’s an issue that’s really been bugging my mind for a very long time. i value your view points a lot and would really love to hear your perspective on this.

so if we all are just products of our genetics and our environments, then how can we really blame people for doing bad stuff? a lot of people who do ‘bad’ stuff genuinely believe they are the victims. i’ve done fucked up shit and genuinely didn’t see how it was bad, back then. nowadays i know better and i regret it and i won’t do it again but back then in my mind it was justified and i genuinely thought of myself as the victim.

and even the people who do bad shit and know it’s harmful— how can we really blame them, since they lack empathy due to their genes and environment?

that’s not to say that i think their actions are ok, but is being a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ person really a choice? even the people who are like yeah i do bad shit and idc are they to blame, since clearly something is wrong with the way their brain works?

Yeah, this is precisely why I reject the idea of good and bad people. Ultimately the only fault that can fairly be taken up is with reality itself.

[baeddel]

astrology, tarot, interpretation

so i saw a little more of the magic argument... i think the post people are talking about is so-and-so’s ambiguous answer to the question ‘do you really believe in the tarot?’ and it reminded me that they got a similar question saying ‘do you really believe in astrology?’ which they gave a clever answer to, which was to say that it has been shown, you can look it up, that your astrological chart has no influence on a person’s personality, their behaviour, or the course of events, which it is possible to show with statistics. however, they say, astrology has a social and cultural reality, such that people do hold astrological beliefs, and they will act on those beliefs, and so you can gain access to those beliefs through the study of astrology. it’s clever, but it doesn’t work. the reason it doesn’t work is that if people did act on those beleifs with any consistency then it would show up on the same statistics we were just talking about. so astrology doesn’t even predict people’s beliefs about astrology.

i believe this is because there is no theoretical basis for astrology that is very widely accepted. reading the Picatrix will not reveal much of anything about the sunday horoscope. there is no astrology, there are astrologies, with diverse intepretive criteria, and these astrologies develop in immediate social atmospheres (societies, magazines, websites, friend-groups). some things, like the calculation of charts, are widely accepted, but little else is nailed down. even within a single interpretative atmosphere astrology is not a consistent method. it is more like a style of reasoning, a semantic field for posing thoughts, which the other members can respond to from their own interpretation. this contest of interpretations is something the devout find satisfying.

why do people find it satisfying? usually it’s explained with a reference to things like confirmation bias, and i don’t mean to suggest that things like bias don’t exist, but it’s obviously not a completely satisfactory account of the whole phenomena either. it’s easy for anyone who hasn’t been deeply involved in those communities to dismiss it as a game of cons and rubes, but if you have been there, and aren’t there now, you long for a satisfying non-realist account. for myself when i was very involved i could never ‘get’ astrology. i would go to my friends who were good with it and they would give me advice, and i trusted them, but if i wanted to learn it myself id be very frustrated, because i couldn’t find out where it came from. i would read the Picatrix and the Greater Key of Solomon, but it’s really an oral tradition. but who’s oration do you listen to? i wanted to find the firm foundations of the discipline and find things out for myself. i felt stupid. and i was stupid—more precisely, an idiot, like “Jaroslav Hašek’s good soldier Švejk, who, when he saw soldiers shooting from their trenches at the enemy soldiers, ran into no‐man’s land and started to shout: ‘Stop shooting, there are people on the other side!’” it was my need for solid foundations that kept me from seeing what the others found satisfying in the interpretive atmosphere.

sometimes its an amusing social fiction (‘oh, i’m such a gemini’), sometimes its a way of organizing the year (make sure you finish whatever you’re working on before mercury goes retrograde!). sometimes its an easy way to ask your witchy friend for help. it’s very rarely a straightforward inquiry about the truth.

anyway, astrology isn’t my thing. but the tarot is still interesting to me. on a certain level the tarot is necessarily true, the same way flipping a coin is true. it really did land on heads, and you really did pull the Wheel of Fortune. there is already a kind of wisdom in fa which requires no occult explanation: “[it’s] not that they take [drawing lots] to be superior to human wisdom, but that one may eliminate private interest and resentment by these means” (Shen Dao). it’s like automatic writing, serialism, and other creative forms of self-displacement. the tarot adds to these means a vivid symbolic language, but then it hands the hermeneutic key back to the operant. it invites you to step out of your head, then it invites you to step back in. why not play this game?