#one of us is significantly richer and it is NOT me

[p-antalons]

HES YOUNGER THAN US PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN WHAT THE FUCK

this winter classic stuff really has me a fool tell me why i thought bobby orr was long dead that man is like 70

[e-vay]

so… i turn thirty this year & after two failed relationships, im unsure how to have hope i’ll ever find my “person”. Ive been following you for a long time… how did you have hope that you’d eventually find someone and have a happy relationship?

If this is too intense or personal to ask, dont worry i just,,, i dont know. Its a struggle to feel like i’ll ever find The One and i know you went through something similar so… maybe you’d just have advice?

Thank you,,, i hope youre having an amazing night ❤️

I don’t mind you asking me this. If talking about the hard times I went through can help others get through it, I think it’s worth discussing. 

Like you said, I also struggled with love for a long time and after a few devastating relationships I gave up on dating altogether for a while. But, in hindsight, that ended up being a blessing because I was able to spend time bettering myself and—most importantly—learn to love myself. Yes, having a partner can make our lives richer, but I think it’s important to be able to enjoy your own company. Before, I thought the void inside of me needed to be filled by another person, so I would go out of my way to find somebody to do that without actually worrying whether or not they were the correct fit for me. Having time to focus on myself made me a better person (I think), and it ultimately ended up being for the best because I no longer felt like I was less than. Of course, I would still feel lonely from time-to-time and I’ve always been a romantic so I love the idea of love, but I got to the point where I felt fulfilled enough on my own so that when I met my now-husband, the feeling was significantly different. It wasn’t “I need to put this person in the hole that is my heart so that I can crawl my way up out of this pit,”... It was instead “Oh, this person significantly ADDS to the joy in my life” and that’s one of the reasons why he stood out to me as a partner. Though I would have liked to have met my husband sooner in life, honestly? Had we met sooner, before I matured and improved myself, we likely wouldn’t have worked out. I'm not saying you need to improve yourself. I'm just saying that that's what helped me and ended up giving me hope.

I also think society gives us too many unrealistic expectations and goals that we’re expected to meet by certain “deadlines”. Everybody moves at their own pace and has their own journey that’s unique to them. We can’t all be expected to follow the same linear path; humans are just too different. I was my husband’s very first girlfriend and he was 36 years old when we started dating. But when I’ve asked him if he’s upset/disappointed he never had a relationship before meeting me, he’s told me “No, I think we met when we were supposed to.”

Lastly, I want to address my personal beliefs on “The One.” Y’all know I’m a romantic and I do believe in soulmates, but I also believe we’re capable of having more than one soulmate. The world is too big for us to be limited to the chance of only ever finding one single person who is compatible for us. And if we miss out on meeting that one person, our chance of love is shot??? I just don’t believe that. When widows/widowers remarry, does that diminish the love they had for their late spouse? Of course not. It doesn’t mean their first love wasn’t just as important and meaningful as their new love. So, maybe you could find it helpful if you adopt this mindset as well. I think it makes the idea of romance seem less impossible.

I don’t know if this makes you feel any better but at the very least I hope you don’t feel worse for having read it! I don’t know you personally, but I wish you absolute happiness.

It's going to be okay 🙂

[lizzaneia-elizalde]

Hi, Goodmorning/night! how has your day been? :3 i hope it went well!

If its okay, can I request mermaid reader (preferably fem), dropping some stuff down to Viper? It can be small jewelry she doesn't quite like or anything REALLY shiny — because she thinks sending him stuff would make him less interested in her and more on the stuff she drops. Basically her doing an offering and praying Viper would take the items instead of her

Always rest! And can I be "🦪" Anon? Im mostly a huge fan of Viper and Damon, so i might ask a lot about them! Again always rest and take care of yourself!!

Yandere! Male! Deep sea creature x mermaid! Fem! Reader: Viper route 1

That's so cute! Okay cuz I think Viper has like some similarities to Orion. He's also a collector! So I just let my hands flow and see where it takes me. Also, welcome 🦪anon! It's so nice to have more familiar faces here!

Also a bit sick, so I'll probably slow down a bit till i'm healed. Sore throat plus a runny nose, plus A FEVER WHAT LIKE LET ME BREATH????

Writing puts my mind at rest from being sick anyways...

You pursed your lips and looked down at the void below the trenches.

It's been quite a while since you escaped Viper's grasp, and Viper has continued to try and fail to seduce you back to him with that dang light of his.

You're a curious fish, but not that curious.

You're even deliberating on moving out of the trenches and back to civilization again, but something's telling you to don't do it.

Deciding on taking your mind off of the deep sea merman, you dedicated your time in talking to Orion and knowing more about human technology. He's happy to oblige too, anyways.

But you can't help but glance back at the deep, dark void down below, telling you, whispering that you belong there.

Surely you don't.

You're a creature of light, someone who enjoys the sunrays reflecting on the blue, tranquil sea. Someone who loves looking at the boats passing by, cleaning up trash, finding little treasures that you stock up and design your little pod inside the trenches...

You're satisfied...

Are you?

You can't help but remember how cold yet warm the darkness was. How Viper coiled his long tail around yours, his body heat enveloping yours. You can still feel against your back, your skin, the way his torso pressed against yours flush and fit. Significantly stronger, can kill you with one bite and yet...

You shook your head as you shivered away the daydream. No. No no no!

Slapping your face, you grabbed your bag and zoomed back to the trenches to start your little... Littering.

You've been sprinkling these little gems, trinkets, and jewels down below to him. Sure, you might need them as it's currency, but you're self sufficient enough with a farm and an aquatic ranch. You rarely even go to civilization anymore to really use these.

So, as valuable as these treasures are, and would literally make you rich, you decided to dump them on Viper.

Sweet, little naive you thinks that this counts as littering. You really didn't want to throw down actual trash-- you're environmentally friendly, you don't want to do that. And Viper is still a merfolk despite how um, scary he is. Hope he sees it as a bribe too. Who knows? Maybe he'll leave you alone if you make him rich enough?

But then again, you're sweet, you're little...

And you're naive.

Didn't you really thought that this practice looks like you're giving him gifts?

No, a wedding gift specifically?

He did propose to you to be his mate, his eternal partner.

And you're doing this?

Oh, little one. You're too cute! Acting all shy and bashful-- you're so upfront at wanting to marry him by giving him what's equal to a dowry!

Viper collects them meticulously. Putting them in a giant pit that's slowly but surely making him richer by the second.

Should you and him move out of the trenches and back to civilization with this money? With all of these riches, both of you are basically at the upper crust now.

Then, he'll show to those pesky upperdwellers that one of them is his, and only his.

He'll show them how he owns you, loves you, and will have a family just to piss them off.

Oh, how it makes him shiver just thinking about it.

So yes, continue giving him the dowry, little one.

Sooner or later, he'll snatch you up and drag you back down to the abyss,

and live happily ever after.

That's what you wanted, right?

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

Just finished grinding Assassin's Creed Mirage! WOOHOO! ୧⁠(⁠ ⁠ಠ⁠ ⁠Д⁠ ⁠ಠ⁠ ⁠)⁠୨

I think it's a deffo wonderful game and a refreshment after the RPG trilogy (it does have RPG elements to it, but still), and it also have some things that are lacking. It reminds me of the good 'ol days, but deffo not on par with the good 'ol days.

Here're some of my thoughts and reviews!

🕌 Sleepy's Assassin's Creed Mirage Review 🗡️

(Spoiler Warning ⚠️ Including the ending ⚠️)

Disclaimer, this is just my personal opinion. You may agree and disagree. I’m just gonna talk a lot because I LOVE Assassin’s Creed with all my heart. Here goes.

VISUALS

(+) Basim Ibn Ishaq, the handsome man that you are… HOLY SHIT (yes I’m adding him as the first plus point of this game what of it). Man's fine AF. 

(+) Baghdad’s really beautiful, nuff said. The color palette is PERFECT - displays the warmth of the atmosphere really well, but also just enough greens and many starking hues of flowers. 

(+) The waters and environment textures are CRISPY.  The detailed patterns on the clothes, the engravings and the state of the arts is really cool. I haven’t really looked a lot into the 800’ Baghdad arts, but I can see lots of good details and art styles. SHOUT OUT TO THE ARTISTS!!

GAMEPLAY - Now here’s what I have a lot to comment on.

(+) Stealth -> I think they did quite good with the stealth. One of the many complaints that I saw on the previous RPG trilogy games was the fact that the main characters/players had no reason to be stealthy, because they can just barge in and defeat the enemies easily. Ubi has marketed the game to be more stealth focused and intentionally made Basim a less of a fighter (make sense, since he came from a thief background, unlike Bayek, Kassandra, and Eivor who are actual trained warriors since they’re kids). However, this brings me to the first lacking point.

(-) Combat -> The combat feels janky. I feel like I’m really fucked up in combat situations if I don’t upgrade my sword and dagger. Like I get it, Basim is not meant to be much of a fighter, but in the beginning parts (or… even the middle parts of the game, let’s be real), I feel like combat is HELL. I forgot the Youtuber who said it, but he said something along the lines of “I’m an assassin, I want to feel like an assassin and want to feel like a badass and can take down many enemies with ease.” And that actually rings true with me. When I’m in combat and countless soldiers are fighting or following me (and I don’t have the smoke bomb with the forgetting effect), I’m most certainly FUCKED. 

(+) The fighting style is cool though, it's stylish and the finishing moves are sick af. It could deffo use some work. 

(-+) Parkour/Movements - It’s alright. It’s most certainly better than the previous RPG trilogy, but it’s definitely not Unity or Syndicate. Sometimes Basim can do something that I didn’t want and I’ve lost count on how many times I got caught and died just from a mis-movement. I literally don’t understand why they don’t use the Unity parkours and combat styles. Unity’s parkour is smooth, swift, and stylish. It feels GOOD. 

(+) Stealing - I’m a loot goblin in games, and believe me, I think I’ve spent like hours just stealing from the entire population of Baghdad that by the end of the game I’m probably richer than the Taxmaster and the whole entire Abbasid Caliphate. It’s fun, it’s easy, but it can sometimes be hard enough to miss. I just hope there’s more variety/difficulty in the stealings in different places – Like maybe in the Round City the diamond thingy is much smaller, or in like for stealing merchants (who has particular fashion/silhouette or have wallets/pouches with different colors) can be harder to steal from but have more rewards and money. 

(-+) Map - OKAY. I love the fact that Mirage has a significantly smaller map than that of Odyssey and Valhalla. It’s focused and it’s much more centered. HOWEVER. For a game this caliber, and with this good of a graphic? It’s much too small and it’s too divided between two parts. Hear me out – The graphics are really cool, but I feel like the map is too divided between – either a densely populated city, or just barren lands of desert. I think the map could be much much bigger with much more collectibles and much more variety in the terrains. Like, for example in Black Flag (The S tier game. Argue with a wall), there’re more than one major city, while in Mirage the map is so very centered (Yes I get it it’s the Round City), but I’d love it if there’s another major city that we can travel to, like Damascus, for instace. + I love the Tales of Baghdad. MORE TALES OF BAGHDAD PLEASE. 

STORY - nOW THIS… I never liked the stories post - Origins and here's why : 

(-) LET 👏 THE ACTORS 👏 DO 👏 MOTION 👏 CAPTURE 👏 - My biggest complaint for the RPG game styles is always about the facial and motion animation. The cutscenes feel DEAD. The eyes are DEAD. I almost can't feel anything. Ubi is rich af, why not use facial capturing? AC3 was the first AC game to use motion capture, and holy shit… it's one of my fave games. Yes. All games, not only AC series. The emotion in their faces, the gestures, the small glances, the little movements - they all decide every character's personality. The reason why I love every AC since AC3-ACOrigins is because the actors pour all their voices, faces, even body movements into the interactions between characters, because they make the stories feel alive. Let the actors be actors. I can rant more but this is already a long post so I'll stop. MOTION 👏 CAPTURE 👏.

(+) I love Basim's origin story. Dude's a 17 year old street thief who got a bit over his head and ended up becoming a fugitive because he killed the fucking caliph himself. That was crazy HAHAHAH anyway even though I think the beginning felt a bit rushed I love it. I just wish they could milk it more.

(+) I love the side characters! Especially Ali (I think he's hot 👉👈 and he's the absolute freedom fighter). Anyway, even though they don’t really do much, they all feel alive and do lots of things (except Roshan prolly HAHAHAH but there's a reason I guess)

(+) Roshan. Mentor and reminds me of Al-Mualim. I particularly love the fact that after all that wise words throughout the game, she literally threatened Basim if he actually went to the underground temple. And when she showed up covered in blood??? And THE TWIST AT THE END??? "Roshan bint La-Ahad". SHE'S ALTAIR'S ANCESTOR. THAT FUCKING SHOCKED ME YOOOO. She's just amazing. 

(-) Pacing - I feel like this is because they’re speeding things up (which is a good thing), the pacing is pretty standard in the beginning, but the ending is a bit too high of a rollercoaster mount. The ending went from 0-100 real quick. I feel like we need a more of a climbing storyline. This is why I kind of don’t agree with the ‘centering’ storyline instead of a linear story. Centering styles of story has no climb in the intensity, and because of that we can’t feel the character developments because he’s supposed to stay the same even though we’ve killed like 3 bosses already. And then when all the underlings are dead, finally the boss racks up Basim’s curiosity super duper high that it becomes too sudden.

(-) Weak Villains - The villains since Origins are always hidden and unknown, unlike the previous games where the Templars are literally KNOWN by the people. I want more villains like Haytham tbh, where he literally doesn’t care about the precusor sites and only wants stability in his reign as a Grandmaster. Or if the villains do care about the Pieces of Eden or have a prior interest of the First Civ, at least let them have an actual personality and character, let them be a menace and a threat since the beginning of the game instead of being the NPC’s we kill to finish the game. Let them challenge our beliefs as an Assassin/Hidden Ones. Let the villains actually have an impact to the main storyline. Imagine in the end Basim and Qabiha really went to the underground temple together, and got confronted by Roshan. That’s where the conflict in Basim climaxed! Imagine the emotion! The drama~! 

(+) How the stories interlinked with Valhalla. Basim is a sage, and host of Loki who sought revenge to Odin (who wronged him). So I don't think Basim nor Loki are evil per se. They're just gray. Now the stories aren't just about Templars vs Assassin, it's more focused towards the First Civilization. It's a bit hard to keep up but it's nothing a bit of reading/looking up some lore videos wouldn't solve.

MISC

We need more outfits! The outfits are far too few for us to choose from! 

Wonderful and mystifying music. Nuff said. Brendan Angelides and Layth Sidiq nailed it. One Republic and Mishaal Tamer’s “Mirage” in on repeat on my Spotify right now.

I love gear chests hunting and all the collectibles. I just wish the map is bigger and there’re more collectibles T_T I’M A LOOT GOBLIN OKAY.

I learn history of Baghdad LFG. I play largely for the stories and not the gameplays, so if there’s a codex entry or any new historical sites I always read it. Learning history doesn’t hurt! 

How I can really relate to the real world. I live in Indonesia where 90% of the people is Muslim (I’m a Christian), so when I here familiar words like Alhamdullilah, Assalam’ualaikum and Wa’alaikumsalam, or see the people praying, the Adzan sounds throughout the city, the people praying towards the Ka’bah, it kinda feels like home! Just hope that they add more funny shit to it though, like “Yaallah Basim! Istighfar!” Or “WALLAHI.” Or more Arabic sayings so we can immerse more to the world.

MAKE BASIM DO THE 5 PRAYERS (maybe when we pass time or after a big mission we come back to him finishing a prayer).

FINAL VERDICT - 7.8/10 -> It’s a focused game, and it really did come back to some of the original elements of AC before the RPG trilogy. It’s not too long and casuals can play it without feeling like we have to grind like Odyssey or Valhalla. Deffo would recommend playing it!

Once again, BRING BACK MOTION CAPTURE ‼️‼️‼️🗣️🗣️

If you did play it gimme some thoughts in the comments! Thank you for reading! (⁠人⁠*⁠´⁠∀⁠｀⁠)⁠｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+

[zaceouiswriting]

Fairy Prince - Hearts of Leviathans - Ch.33

Character: Sky x male reader, Riven x male reader, Brandon x male reader

Universe: Somewhere in Winx Club/Saga

Warnings: None

It doesn't take long for the girl to return, interrupting my thoughts about throwing rocks at my best friend until he speaks to me again. As I hear her come closer, I quickly remove the mischievous smirk off my face. 

She comes running and almost trips over something, but manages to catch herself just in time, and without a word, she puts a few leaves on my dirt blanket.

"These are cartilion leaves. They are used for medicinal potions and tinctures. It is said that their roots can heal an entire forest as they grow."

When her words finally sink in, I wonder why she put leaves on me instead of their roots. Her shining eyes confuse me, as this seems utterly pointless. My gaze wandered back and forth between the leaves and the ground. There is silence between us for a minute. Until it clicks in my head.

“You’re a genius!” I quickly soften the soil under the leaves and pull them into it.

She looks as happy as I feel and even blushes at the compliment I gave her. Seeing her so happy, I can't help but smile even though my chest hurts, knowing that I'm one of the few people who actually speaks kindly to her. At least, that's my conclusion from what I have witnessed thus far. She is always reserved in the company of others, but when we are alone, she seems free, sometimes even lively. Despite it all, I still don't know her name, but that is a problem for another time.

She kneels next to me for the second time. Carefully, she moves her hands over the leaves and uses her magic, but I can immediately feel how unstable it is. I can only sigh in exhaustion. Although I thought I had helped her with this problem, she seemed to have forgotten everything already.

“Breathe!” I order her sternly. She looks at me in shock and stops breathing completely for a moment. "Breathe in," I tell her and wait until she actually takes air into her lungs. As she is holding her breath, I wait a few seconds. “Now, breathe out.” I order her to do this a few more times, and each time I see her chest move a little more normally. The pulsation of her magic and her heartbeat soften in unison.

The magic slowly begins to form, but it is still significantly unstable. I don't know what kind of spell she is trying to cast, as she is only whispering, which I can barely hear. A soft green glow appears around the leaves, but nothing happens.

"Close your eyes and concentrate on the node of your inner magic," I explain to her. "A core should have formed there by now, but that's something for another time," I mumble, not wanting to upset her.

She does as she is told, and I feel her magic stabilizing, making the bright green glow richer, darker, and larger. The leaves take root in the soil and quickly dig into my skin. Just as she said, something in those roots helps my body heal faster than before. In combination with my magic, the healing happens much faster. At first, I don't think anything of it, but then I feel pain all over my body. The roots that had previously only dug into me a little now seem to want to form an entire system in my body. Suddenly, a scream erupts from my throat, a high-pitched one that you would normally hear from a woman, but at this moment, I don't care; it just hurts like a bitch.

I grit my teeth and endure the pain, sure that it won't last too long. But as the minutes go by, I become more and more unsure. Until, out of nowhere, the pain slowly fades away, leaving only the warm feeling of healing. A half-sigh escapes my lips as the lower part of my body heals while the upper half still hurts. It will probably still take a while, but thanks to the girl's magic, it won't take as long as it would with mine alone.

In the middle of the night, everything was finally done, but I was so damn exhausted, and the girl next to me could barely keep her eyes open.

After hours, I let the earth fall around me. My body feels stiff. I can still clearly feel every bone that was healed, and it seemed like nothing ever happened, one of the good things about magic.

I'm so exhausted that I can't move, but lying there sounds like a good idea. The girl quickly falls next to me, breathing heavily as if she had just run a marathon. It's pretty impressive how quickly her chest rises and falls.

"Thank you," I murmur. She didn't respond, so I continued, "Not only for helping me but most of all because you didn't run and stayed away."

She finally turns her head towards me, a small smile on her lips. She gently pets my chest, then turns her head upwards and clasps her hands on her stomach. Afterward, we lie there for a while, recovering.

“Can you stand up?” My voice is quiet, as exhausted as the rest of my body.

She started giggling: “No way!”

I could only giggle with her. But deep down, I hope this is a special situation in a fairy's everyday school life.

“But we have to go back inside!” I laugh quite loudly, “It’s getting fucking cold.”

She could only laugh with me, probably because I am always decent, serious, and dignified in front of everyone. But I admit it feels good to show a part of my personality finally.

“I know,” she replies, still laughing. “But I can’t move properly anymore; my magic is completely exhausted!”

We laugh for a while until it dies down on its own. It feels quite pleasant. Even though I don't know her name yet, I believe we could get along pretty well.

But just then, an idea comes to me. "Would you mind if I tried something?" Curious, she turns her head back towards me, one of her eyebrows raising questioningly. "Don't worry," I giggle again. "It would just be a bit rocky."

She became even more confused, but I take her silence as agreement. My magic bubbles in my veins, making my body glow with a grayish shine. "Soldiers of the Deep Rock!"

The ground around us rumbles, and suddenly, something emerges from underground without leaving a hole like my magic would have done before because I've finally learned how to use my fairy magic properly. Maybe I knew it all along and simply couldn't do it, but since the other two cores are out of me, my mind feels strangely clear, too.

Two heads emerge from the ground, followed by strangely detailed bodies in armor, until two stone people who look like soldiers stand before us. Their armor consists of heavy plate mail like that of the ancient soldiers of my homeworld; their helmets completely cover their faces. The back of their helmets faces upwards, and at the top is a small spike where normally feathers hang from. Slightly behind these spikes is a ring that ends on either side of the helmet, making it look almost like a sun or moon.

“What are they?” the girl asks in a frightened tone.

"It's a spell I've always wanted to try. I read about it in an old family grimoire. They're called the Deep Rock Legion, people from the past that sacrificed themselves to become immortal soldiers who could be summoned infinitely." I tell her in a deep, mysterious voice. "Or so the legend goes. They haven't been summoned in a long time. I didn't even know they really existed or still do."

“Then why did you summon them?”

Both stone soldiers immediately obey the command and stretch their right arms out to the sides until their hands are at chest height. They don't stay there long before they slam their clenched fists against their breastplates, which echo like real metal through the pitch-black night.

The soldiers lower their heads, get down on one knee, and gently place their hands underneath us, lifting us off the ground and standing up again. We are both carried like princesses, and it feels incredible; now I know why girls love to be carried like that, especially by such big, strong men. Both soldiers are the same height, over two meters tall, which is pretty impressive.

The night takes over; none of us says a word and only the clattering of the soldiers' metal armor echoes through the night until a gentle voice breaks the strange silence. "I once heard of a family that could create human-like beings. Are these stone men like them?"

"You mean golems?" I couldn't but laugh, but not to mock her. "No. If the legends are to be believed, they are stone soldiers who follow orders but have a certain intelligence, whereas golems have either no intelligence or, ideally, their own soul."

"How do you know all of this?"

I look around conspiratorially as if I'm afraid someone might hear me, but in reality, I only want to freak her out. "Can you keep secrets?" I finally ask her in a whispering tone.

She looks at me suspiciously—truly, nothing new or overly questionable in this situation—and yet she agrees.

"A small part of my family can become golemancers, able to create golems to which they can bind souls. They made them so people-like that they could even bleed and reproduce." The girl hangs on my every word as if it were a legendary story, like the war with the three ancient witches. "However, as our world slowly began to die, these golems disappeared along with 90% of the habitable space when one of our moons fell on our world, nearly tearing it to pieces if my family hadn't pulled the planet back together, but three generations of my family died, and only my branch of the family remained. I don’t have any cousins or any other than my immediate family.”

“I had no idea,” she gasps, shocked.

I could only shrug. "Almost no one does because we never made it public. Since then, it's been difficult to enter our planet to ensure no one tries to destroy it because there's a hole that leads directly to the core of our world."

“Then why are you telling me this?”

I shrug my shoulders once more. I look her in the eyes. "Because I trust you." She smiled broadly, and yet I could see a small tear in her eyes. "Don't cry; I'm sure everything will be fine. But I have one more question."

"What is that?"

"What's your name?"

She looks stunned at my question. Although I'm embarrassed, I hide it perfectly. At least, I like to believe so.

She must have realized how serious I was about my question because she burst out laughing loudly, which I'm sure woke someone up. After all, it's a hearty laugh straight from her belly. It even makes me smile despite my embarrassment.

[Masterlist]

[rick-e-cheddar-official]

Guys. I’m fed up right now.

This morning I woke up and got ready early, so I could go work on our small home garden with my mom. We took out some lettuce (dinner tonight!), picked some strawberries (they’re finally coming in :) and, as an experiment, planted some brand new zucchini. Next task was to put mulch on the front beds, so I dumped some compost in the wheelbarrow and dragged it through our gate.

Everything was going well, and my socially-conscious intellectual side- the side that’s been suffering recently from climate anxiety- was at last soothed. I’m in nature. I’m in control. I can deal with what’s right in front of me. Therapy-speak, blah blah, etc.

Then the sun came out. It’ll be, it seems, a beautiful, unreasonably hot day in our Pacific Northwest “paradise”. First instinct: take off my jacket. Keep working. Shovel, pour- feeling faint, drink some water- shovel, pour- wow, okay, I really don’t feel good- shovel, pour- give up, go inside, change.

Because, what I haven’t told you is, I have epilepsy. And two of my triggers are heat and exhaustion. If I had stayed out there, I would have had a seizure.

And what pisses me off us, a few years ago, it wouldn’t have been like this. I would have been able to stay out there, in nature, reaping up a kind of faith in humanity. I can’t do that anymore. The visible effects of climate change makes it literally, tangibly dangerous (re: life-threatening) for me to go outside and do what I love. More dangerous, say, than for a non-epileptic.

I realize that my epilepsy forces me into a more fragile existence than most people experience. That my day-to-day going on requires all the artificialities of civilization: medication, air conditioning, and so on. I’ve accepted that. For gods sake, I confront the possibility of sudden unexpected death whenever I go to sleep. I can handle this.

No, what pisses me off is… it’s well understood that climate change affects certain populations (namely, impoverished ones) more than others. One can theorize that this physical and emotional distance is why richer nations seem so nonchalant about the issue. But even within these guiltier wealthy nations, certain people- through no fault of their own- feel the climate crisis more than others.

This isn’t fair. Really, nothing is fair. Why should we this be any different? But also, why should I feel this heat wave more than non-epileptics? Why should those unfortunate souls with worse epilepsy than me suffer significantly more?

My existence is fragile, and I can accept that, but those waves of fear and sadness aren’t going away. The least non-epileptics can do is try to understand that.

[the-meat-machine]

is stridercest canon-compliant

Hi. I'm not sure how to answer this question, but like hell am I going to let that stop me from rambling on about it for far longer than anyone would consider reasonable.

What does it mean for a ship to be canon-compliant?

My first difficulty is this: what does it mean for a ship to be "canon-compliant"?

I tend to be of the opinion that you can come up with a justification for nearly any ship that, at the very least, doesn't contradict canon. Whether that ship is probable or not is a different story.

To give an example of a ship that's technically possible but canonically unlikely… let's say I were to posit that Nepeta had red feelings for Aradia. Well, we get fairly direct evidence of Nepeta's romantic interests throughout the comic, and Aradia never features in her self-pairing fantasies. Not to mention that if she had such feelings, you'd think it would cause conflict in her relationship with Equius, who does canonically have feelings for Aradia. But Nepeta never says she doesn't like Aradia that way, so for all we know they could have had a torrid romance offscreen that is never once hinted at in the comic. Highly improbable within canon, but not strictly impossible.

A level above that, there are ships where there's basically nothing to go on. Nothing to contradict it, but nothing to really support it either. For example, how would Dirk and John get along? Well, they only ever meet once in the comic and it's when Game Over!Dirk is giving himself over to the glitchy void, so who fuckin' knows. You'll have to base their interactions on a general knowledge of their characters. And hey, you can probably come up with a pretty convincing argument that they'd be great for each other! You can equally come up with an argument that they couldn't stand one another. There's really no canon basis to say either way.

That said, I think Stridercest is on a rung above that. These characters have had significant canonical interactions that revolve around one another, giving a richer basis to draw from. Or at least… Dave and Dirk have. Which leads me to my second difficulty.

What is Stridercest?

"Stridercest" can refer to quite a few possible ships.

For example, Guardiancest. Do I think Guardiancest has a basis in canon? No. Alpha Dave and Beta Dirk lived in different versions of the universe and both died well before the end of the game. They almost certainly never even knew that each other existed.

That said, Homestuck is a pretty wild canon as far as possible character interactions go, what with all the various ways characters can hop between universes, time travel, get resurrected, meet up in dream bubbles, etc. Trans-universal communication is canonically possible (see for example Jade and Jake's letters to each other), so who knows -- maybe Alpha Dave and Beta Dirk could have met each other somehow. Does it seem likely? Absolutely not. But it's not impossible.

Now, if you were asking about the original Stridercest, Bro/Dave, that's a ship that clearly is logistically possible, at least. They spent 13 years in the same apartment. Something could have happened. Did it? I don't know. I don't consider myself a Bro/Dave scholar, so I'll leave that as a question for the reader.

But one pairing I have significantly more to say about is Dave/Dirk.

Here are some things that are canon:

Dave has had, at the very least, passing attractions to a minimum of two of his ectobiological relatives -- namely, Rose and Roxy

Dave has evinced attraction to both men and women

Dave used to idolize his bro, but later came to have more complicated feelings about him

Dirk has had a lifelong obsession with his own long-dead bro. He studied all the minutiae of Alpha Dave's life and patterned his own life after what he's gleaned from that

Dirk is definitely attracted to men

Dave and Dirk had a long heart-to-heart during which they hugged each other

Here are some questions that cannot be directly answered by canon:

Do Dave's incestuous inclinations extend to Dirk and/or Bro?

Is there a homoerotic dimension to Dirk's obsession with Dave?

Now, you could plausibly answer these questions with "no". Maybe Dave's upbringing with Bro made it impossible for him to see Dirk in a romantic light. Or hell, maybe he only likes blond hair on chicks, not on dudes. And for all we know, maybe Dirk's interest in Alpha Dave is strictly platonic. (…ha, that one's hard to type with a straight face. But it's possible.)

Of course, I'm asking these questions because I think you can easily answer them with "yes". There's significant canonical basis to suggest that these suppositions at least could be true. At the very least, conditions are ripe for these two to have some very weird, complicated feelings about each other that are laced with incestuous and homoerotic undertones.

So is Stridercest canon-compliant? For Dave/Dirk, at the very least, I'd argue that it is.

[nkn0va]

Hello again, I was the anon w/ the stressed S/O headcanons here to say keep up the good work and I had another set to drop in, coffee date headcanons for Bullet and Wagner! (I almost debated dropping the original ask but for wagner but I wanted to keep it fresh--! You can just call me the coffee anon lol)

Chef anon, Doodoo anon, Coffee anon. I'm liking these names we're starting to get around here.

Bullet

-When it came to dating in general, Bullet really had no idea what the hell she was doing, especially where people conventionally went for a date. Call it a consequence of being raised by a group of mercenaries.

-You decided to keep it simple after some thinking through it and decided on taking her to a cafe. It took some convincing but you managed to get her to leave her gear behind so as to not scare anyone there. Not having it does make her feel vulnerable but she did see your point.

-The cafe you end up going to ends up being a small, simple one, to ease her into it. A cozy warm atmosphere to help calm her nerves.

-You'll probably have to explain a lot of stuff on the menu for Bullet, she's likely not a coffee person. While Bullet does drink it on occasion, it's not in a fashion like this. She probably just takes whatever has the most caffeine available to keep her awake during long assignments. She's not quite used to picking coffees that suit her tastes.

-In the end though, she probably ends up going for a black coffee because that's just her and a simple sandwich they have available.

-Outside of food, Bullet really doesn't quite know how to converse in this kind of context. Mostly alone with a person she's caught feelings for is not what she's used to. Should she ask about your day? Talk about hers? Current events going on with the world? Talking about work, especially the kind of work she's in doesn't feel right? Should she try those pick-up lines she read in the Ikaruga Walker books?

-All those thoughts swim through her head all at once, none in particular winning and she just sort of...sits there. You'll have to be the one to find a satisfactory conversation to have.

-It takes Bullet a while to warm up to it, but at some point she's able to ease into it. She's more on the straightforward, blunt side, but that's part of her charm.

-The date as a whole is relatively short, but it turns out to be quite nice. Being able to unwind like that with her S/O with no threat in sight for a change was a much more pleasant experience for Bullet than she thought. She'd definitely not mind doing it again.

Miyashiro Erika Wagner

-When you manage to get with Wagner of all people, you don't really quite know how to proceed. This is a woman born of one of the richest families in the world. Not like you could do much on a date that would impress her, realistically speaking.

-That's why you find yourself surprised when she mentions the idea of just finding some nice cafe in the city to spend some time together.

-Naturally it ends up being a rather high class cafe in one of the richer, more sophisticated parts of the city. Wagner appreciates the finer things in life and she does want to impress you on your first date by giving you some of the best.

-The establishment is quite luxurious and expensive-looking, as an ordinary person you can't help but feel at least a tad out of place. The shock doesn't go away when you sit down and look at the menu. This stuff sounds significantly better than pretty much every other cafe you've been to and prices are downright outrageous. Wagner tells you not to worry though, she's more than capable of covering the bill and encourages you to order whatever you'd like.

-It's much harder than it ought to be to decide, everything just looks so damn good, but you eventually decide on whatever you end up doing. Of course upon seeing what she ordered herself it looks just as good as what you have.

-Wagner is surprisingly quick to notice this. With an amused laugh, she brings up the idea of trying a bite or two of each other's food. You of course weren't one to shoot it down. It almost makes you want to trade orders entirely. Almost.

-Wagner is much more willing and skilled than Bullet when it comes to the actual dating part, that is getting to know each other better. She can't really talk about the true nature of her job, especially if you're not an In-Birth, but she's happy to talk more about herself personally. Where she's from, her family, and the few friends she has. It's a surprisingly intriguing experience for both of you, learning more about what it's like to have come from different countries and in different socio-economic standings.

-Wagner definitely is a more straightforward person as well, but thankfully she has a lot more tact. She's more than capable of holding a conversation even when not talking about the Night and whatnot and finds herself opening up a lot more than both of you expected. It's quite nice seeing her when she lets her guard down and is more honest with you.

-Both of you share the same sentiment that this should definitely become a regular occurrence. Both for each other's company and for that damn good food.

[green-loaf]

Disney Plus’ Willow isn’t canceled, just paused for at least a year, says producer

Jon Kasdan says reports of the show’s death are greatly exaggerated

“The truth is less splashy [than cancellation],” he writes, “but here it is: A decision was made last week to release our main cast for other series opportunities that may arise for them in the coming year. With all the tv and movies in production around the world, it feels unfair to limit an actor’s availability without a clear sense of when you’re going to need them again.”

According to Kasdan, season 2 of Willow is, if not completely written, significantly planned out, and some characters with small roles in the first season, like Annabelle Davis’ Mims, will have much larger ones in the new. But since their initial contracts didn’t include so much season 2 work, they’re now busy with other projects.

“Due to forces much larger and more intricate than I would ever pretend to fully understand,” Kasdan says, “production of streaming shows is slowing down across the entire industry, and Willow won’t resume filming in the next 12 months. But here’s what’s equally true: with the enthusiastic and unwavering support of Lucasfilm and Disney, we’ve developed and written what we hope is a brain-meltingly fun, richer, darker and better VOLUME II, which builds on the characters and story of our first eight chapters (The Wyrm survives!).”

The Wyrm is the shadowy evil force worshipped by the Crone, the ultimate antagonist of Willow’s first season. Though the Wyrm didn’t make any direct appearance in Willow’s first season, Kasdan clearly had a solid idea of it in November of last year.

“[The Crone is] the emissary of something much greater and darker and more powerful [...] I loved the idea that to whomever [the Wyrm] is, we are ants barely playing on the cement, and he needs to only reach out and crush us,” Kasdan told Polygon during the Willow press tour.

“[The Crone is] the spokesperson of that voice and ends up being really representative to me of, weirdly enough, more of a worldview and of a philosophical view, than she is an out and out villain,” Kasdan added. “There’s nihilism at the core of the Crone that I really wanted to explore. And I think that even after her story ends, the influence of that philosophical point of view is going to leave a permanent impact on our characters.”

In the Twitter thread, Kasdan went on to talk about the themes of season 2 — including courage, desire, acceptance, comedy and beauty in the darkest places, “the enemies we must inevitably confront, both without and, often far more insidiously, from within. But, above all, it’s about the ineffable and enduring magic of friendship.”

So, is Willow canceled? No, according to its executive producer. But do we know if it’ll continue? That’s hazier.

“I have total confidence that, if an appetite for more Willow persists, Disney, Lucasfilm and this amazing cast will satisfy it,” Kasdan wrote in his thread.

[danisbrainrot]

capitol!academy!reader (shes 18 and is a coryo friend) teaching gf!tigris to read and write because she never had the opportunity due to having to take care of coriolanus and grandmother

tigris snow x reader

also, she and coriolanus aren't really friends, it's more of a symbiotic relationship. i hope you don't mind.

you were desperately poor. your family had been this way ever since the war. crassus snow had persuaded your father to invest everything in district 13, that when it was bombed to nothing, your whole life collapsed before your eyes. now, your family had to take up any and all kinds of jobs to make a little money.

you had always been incredibly smart. in fact, you and coriolanus were often academic rivals, trying to out score each other in exams and essays. it made sense that you'd be able to help tutor the dumber—but much richer—students at the academy in the grades below.

one day, coriolanus was walking past you explaining the themes of an old fictional book from before the war that surprisingly stuck on the curriculum—something about mice and men.

you started packing up, collecting payment from the younger student, before you locked eyes with coriolanus. you stood in shock—no one in the grade was supposed to know that you were poor. he swiftly approached you, promising not to rat you out if you helped his cousin. you asked why he couldn't do it himself, but he evaded the question. you sighed, but agreed—you couldn't just say no. what if he told everyone about your family's. . . situation?

that's how you found yourself outside his apartment, standing on the pavement of the corso, gripping onto your book bag tightly. you knew they lived on the penthouse, which meant climbing several hundred stairs; you discovered the elevator was broken upon entry. groaning, you began the long climb to the top, wondering how coriolanus did this everyday.

you pounded on the door, catching your breath once you finally reached the top. tigris eagerly opened the door, pulling you in for a tight hug and thanking you profusely for coming.

the first thing you noticed was how barren the grand apartment was. there were only a few necessary pieces of furniture, paint was peeling off the wall and the carpet looked like half of it was ripped up years ago. you realised that the snow's were as poor as you were.

"coryo's at sejanus' house right now, and my grandma'am is asleep so it's just us right now, I hope you're okay with that," she explains, leading you to her room and where her desk was. it was significantly smaller than all the other rooms she'd seen throughout the apartment, half of it still damaged from the war. she sat on her bed, gesturing for you to sit at the desk.

"that's fine. coriolanus told me you were struggling with your reading and writing?" you ask, taking your book bag off and setting your stationary on the desk.

she bit her lip sheepishly, looking at the ground and nodding. "besides the basics and a few things he's taught me, I'm almost illiterate. I had to drop out of the academy to get a full time job, but even then I was terrible at literature," she replies, rubbing her arm up and down.

you freeze, looking at her for a moment too long before shaking her head, "well, I guess that just means we'll be spending a lot of time together," you state, sitting down next to her. you didn't really know where to start, considering all the other people you tutored were usually at a 10th grade reading level, but you quickly found out that tigris wasn't being modest; almost illiterate was an accurate claim.

pulling out an old literature skills book, you place a pen down in front of her and open it to the twentieth page. "do all the activities you can," you say, beckoning her over and standing up. she filled in a few blank spaces, corrected one spelling mistake and bit her lip, before finally placing the pen down. you sigh, knowing that there was a lot of work that would need to be done.

over the next week, tigris' literacy gradually improved. you meticulously poured over past notes you'd taken, encouraging her to learn however she felt comfortable. you stuck to a slow, but effective pace.

you had found out that the reason coriolanus refused to teach tigris was because his temper was far too short and he valued her too much. this didn't completely surprise you—remembering the countless group projects where he'd snap at arachne or festus when they couldn't understand something.

when tigris could finally complete ten pages all by herself, you deemed it a cause of celebration and bought a small cake. it had cost you the same as one tutoring lesson, but it was all worth it when you presented it to her. her eyes nearly bulged out of her head; she subconsciously kissed you on the cheek.

she blushes once she realised what she did, before taking a bite out of the cake and closed her eyes in bliss. "I can't believe you bought me a cake for something so simple," she mumbles, avoiding your gaze.

you snorted, shaking your head in disbelief, "are you kidding me? it's a huge improvement. besides, it's nothing," you lie. your family really needed the money, but the way tigris' face lit up, you couldn't help but know you made the right choice.

"what are you going to do if I finish the whole book?" she asks teasingly, taking another bite of the cake before offering it to you.

you refuse it, before thinking about her question for a minute. "hmm, I think I'd have to kiss you," you joke, winking at her.

the blood rushed to her cheeks, as she turned a dark shade of scarlet. she had grown to really like you over the past week, forming a slight crush on you—the suggestion didn't sound like a bad idea to her. but she knew you were joking, by the way you started laughing straight afterwards.

when you left that evening, she made it her mission to complete the 150 page activity book before your next tutor session. you had a group assignment you had to do with lysistrata so it wouldn't be for another week, giving tigris ample time to get it done.

one day at the academy, you were in the library studying with lyssie and hilarius when coriolanus pulls you aside. he thanks you in private for helping his cousin, and mentions how she was so inspired that she'd managed to finish the entire book. your eyes widen, shock evident on your face for two reasons. one, the book was long and the many pages were extremely difficult. two, did that mean tigris really wanted that kiss?

you and coriolanus walk to his apartment that very afternoon. as he opened the door, tigris ran into the room, flapping the book in your face excitedly. you laugh at her enthusiasm, pulling her into a hug and congratulating her. she grabs your hand, leading you to her room and out of coriolanus's view.

"I guess this means I'm getting that kiss, huh?" she asked shyly. you could tell it was meant to come out teasingly, but tigris was genuinely flustered.

you smiled softly at her, leaning and caressing her cheek with your thumb. "you're smarter than you give yourself credit for," you praise, watching as tigris' cheeks turn pinker. finally, you delicately press your lips against hers and pull her in closer to you.

she sighs into the kiss, wrapping her arms around your shoulders and smiling at the soft way your lips felt. she wanted to stay in this blissful moment forever; you felt similarly.

once you pull away, she pouts momentarily—missing the way your lips felt on hers. "you know, I have another exercise book at home. I could get it for you, and then once you finish that I could kiss you like that again," you tease.

she shook her head, "I think I wanna kiss you like that all the time. not as a reward," she replies, pressing her forehead against yours. you couldn't help but agree, leaning in to kiss her again.

[aelaer]

Saw your most recent reblog and figured I’d ask a question about Stephen… (You are one of the foremost experts on Stephen I feel like I’ve interacted with!)

What do you think would have happened to Stephen/what would he have done if he’d never have found Kamar Taj after his accident?

Would he have eventually have been able to heal, do you think?

Sorry it took me a while to get to this, health, RL blah blah blah. Got some energy tonight though!

This is a tough one. There are some fics that explore this scenario, and often they're unhappy and lead to his death.

Let's explore the "he doesn't die within a couple weeks" route here instead.

The problem with Stephen is his pride. It's one of his greatest weaknesses and I don't know if he would have been wise enough to admit he was wrong and try to reach the US Embassy for assistance into getting back to the United States. But even if he did, he would have absolutely nothing to return to; he pushed his greatest ally, Christine, away by this point, and interviewing as a homeless person is significantly harder than not, because you don't have a stable address to give recruiters, even if you have access to a shower and interview clothes.

Assuming he didn't die, but had enough sense to forego his pride to realize that he needed real help to survive, he could have turned to one of the many secular charities, Hindu temples, or Buddhist monasteries within Kathmandu for assistance. English is a strongly desired skill in almost every non-English speaking country within the world due to its international prominence; he can still write, albeit slowly, and he can certainly speak. He would be best suited to exchanging his skills in English for a place to stay and eat within one of these places

Within a monastery or temple, he may learn some of the tenets of Buddhism or Hinduism. While religion is certainly not for everyone (and honestly, even after magic, I view Stephen as a non-religious agnostic), there are principles within both religions that could help Stephen grieve his loss properly and find meaning within his life without being a surgeon.

As he comes to terms with this, learns Nepali, and the people around him realize just how much medical expertise he has, his education could very well expand just from English to medical education. Other than worldly resources, education opportunities is the biggest gap between richer and poorer countries, and if he allows himself to go down this new path, Stephen could very well find meaning in giving what he has to offer to others less fortunate than him.

It'd take longer than the magical path for his turn, but as I don't view Stephen as one to give up in the face of adversary, I think it's wholly possible. And he could make a lot of difference for a small amount of people in that part of the world by letting go of his ego and accepting a new path in life.

[khaleesiofalicante]

Hello Dani , this is a response to the ask about TNLD Alec .

I am so glad that we are now talking about it .

The hate toward Magnus really made me uneasy because I felt like the people defending Alec where acting as if Alec’s emotions had more value than Magnus’ LIFE. It gave me major « online mirroring real life «  type vibe where the white man’s feelings are all that matters

i didn’t say anything because I did not want to make the situation more unpleasant for you and did not think that the people critiquing would have been able to have a real conversation about the topic.

I had a really hard time with TlND Alex . I could not understand why Magnus got back with him and stayed all these years . He gave me huge toxic WHITE man vibes and I read the story for Magnus and Max (and also your amazing writing and treatment of mental health as a topic)

I never understood why there where so much hate towards Magnus because he was the one who suffered and sacrificed the most for this angry, oblivious white man -like bro could have done so much better.

Like asking your boyfriend to tolerate your racist parents and getting mad because he refused ?? Automatic breake up. He actually carried that lack of consideration when it came to race after he was married to a certain extent too 😤

Let’s not even talk about his jealousy problem, and tendency to »say hurtful things he doesn’t mean « like this excuses the fact that u are willfully hurting someone u claim to love .

Annnnnywwwwways , I could write an essay ..

I am very curious about the demographic of the TLND Alec stans

I myself is a Caribbean woman not raised in the US in their late thirties.

Love this.

Let's discuss further.

Because I can't just mind my business and write fics, I not only analyse my characters, but I also analyse my readers. TLND - in that case - is very special.

BECAUSE, if you followed the discourse around the fic, you might notice that some of that discourse also made it into the fic. I've even directly quoted some people because it was SO interesting how people started to take sides (expected!) but the way in which they started to defend their fave and attack someone else was basically what was happening in the fic itself.

This fic started to mirror reality and vice versa and for a minute it got a little surreal for me tbh.

But in my analysis and observations, I noticed four kinds of Alec stans in TLND.

Please note these are merely my observations and don't mean anything beyond that so don't take it personally y'all 😇

People who liked Alec and Magnus and believed 'they were both wrong' - The concept of 'both sides are wrong' is a paradox. It doesn't exist. Yes, two people can be wrong. But in the event of a conflict, because of the power dynamics involved, one side becomes the aggressor.

In TLND, this changed from time to time, but it was very clear that Alec had the upper hand in the relationship. It's how I wanted it to be (for plot reasons) which is why Alec is significantly older than Magnus and richer (in the beginning) and many other things.

I firmly believe that neutrality doesn't exist. So, the "both Magnus and Alec were wrong" gang took the easy way out. Sometimes, one person is more wrong than the other, and we need to learn to admit that.

People who liked Alec even when they knew he was a bad guy but didn't hold him accountable - Well, at least they are self-aware. But not holding people you like accountable is a dangerous habit. Did you know (fun fact) that marginalized gender identities are more likely to face violence and intimidation by people they know than people they don't know? In many cases (as that initial ask that started this conversation pointed out), Alec was one of the people who hurt Magnus too. It's just hard to see that (for many) because Alec was also one of the few people who loved Magnus a lot. I will not go on a rant about how emotional violence in intimate relationships is completely normalized (and statistically proven) but it is.

Also, this bit reminded me of this quote from rwrb because it's one of my favourite quotes ever.

 “God, I want to fight everyone who's ever hurt you, but it was me too, wasn't it? All that time. I'm so sorry.” - ACD

ALSO - I've encountered so many "Alec should've moved on and Alec should've dated someone else" readers. They also fall into this category. One of the reasons I never let Alec date anyone else was Alec wasn't ready to date anyone else. That relationship, even simply sexual, would've been extremely toxic. Alec didn't need another boyfriend. Alec needed to learn how to be a better boyfriend. I said what i said. I would've never let Alec date someone else without working on himself (and guess what, I think he knew that too. One of his better qualities).

People who liked Alec, knew he was a bad guy, but wanted him to get better and were rooting for him - Totally valid people. I like these people. I'd fall into this category if I was a reader. I think, these were also people who felt it wouldn't be the end of the world if they didn't end up together. I think people who were in the category would've enjoyed the fic the most.

People who liked Alec, and because of that, started to hate on Magnus - Wish they hadn't found the fic 🫠

But here's the deal though. Not all readers fit into one of these categories. It just doesn't work that way. If I had been younger and you said you hated TLND Alec, I would have been hurt and offended. But I'm not now. At all. Because I'm old enough to know that the way we perceive characters depends on our own values, experiences and identities. So, it's impossible for the readers to like all the characters and like the fic the same way.

While I didn't mind that TLND got all these different kinds of stans, what I did mind was when people started to get abusive and hurtful - to the characters, to me, and to the people who didn't agree with them.

That was just juvenile, and unnecessary and made me realize they were simply reading the fic without understanding the themes because if they did, they would've realized their mistakes by now.

I'll stop now though.

Thanks, always, for engaging critically with my writing. I love it and appreciate it a lot.

PS - if it helps for context, I'm a south asian woman in her late twenties :)

[slimeydreamer]

Jasper Bluewright: A tale of Plagiarism

I had just moved into a very shitty apartment in New York City. I had managed to get a job in the city as an intern to an editor for a large magazine company. I didn't hate my job per say, but there were many days in which I wished that my boss (the editor) never woke up.

A common way I spent my free time was through writing short stories that kept me entertained. These stories weren't anything that I wanted to be made public; they were just a way that I handled my stressful job. I often wrote these short stories at a hole-in-the-wall cafe in Queens. I liked the atmosphere of the place, since it was warm and inviting. The coffee was delicious too.

Between the cafe and writing, I was able to handle a whole two years working for the evil editor. My stress levels had decreased significantly, my panic attacks had gone down by 50%, and I was able to line up a better position at a closer job. All seemed to be going well in my life. That's when Jasper Bluewright started showing up at the cafe.

Jasper Bluewright seemingly grew famous overnight for his harsh opinions towards Social Classes. He had written several books about income disparities in America, with him trying to convince his audience that any day now, the "evil lower-class" could rally up against the "defenseless rich", which is why America must get rid of the middle class further. He often tried to prove these claims by "watching lower-class people in their natural habitat", which was essentially him going to common areas in New York, writing about what he saw and spinning the story to be poor VS rich (with the rich coming out on top, of course). Jasper seemingly decided the cafe was the target for his next book.

Jasper himself was an odd man. His face looked like a rich man from the time of the Founding Fathers, but then you looked at his outfit, which was a look ripped right off a Balenciaga runway. After entering the cafe and seeing my laptop, Japer decided to "interview me" for his book, which was mostly him just gushing about how amazing it is for him to be born rich and grow even richer off his novels. He then demanded to see what I was writing to "prove" that the work of a poor woman was nowhere near as interesting as the work of a rich white man.

Jasper then read one of my short stories, and immediately changed his tune. He told me that "despite my condition" he was willing to offer me a position at his publishing company (my condition being that I wasn't rich). Before I could blink, all of the stuff in my apartment was moved into Jasper Bluewright's publishing company. I recieved my own desk, my own intern and a paycheck worth four times my paycheck from my other job. All I had to do was sit at my desk and write whatever I wanted. After a few weeks of working at this new job, and not seeing Jasper anywhere, I managed to catch him promoting his new book on TV. The premise of the book was something I had written. I later managed to swipe a copy of the book from my job and read it. It was word for word one of my short stories.

Immediately, I contacted a lawyer about the plagiarism and a trial was set up. Despite me being able to prove Jasper had stolen my work, the public outrage was intense. Fans of Jasper Bluewright's work were convinced I had made up the entire story to piggy-back off his success. It seemed like nothing could change their mind. Eventually, after the trial was dragged out for weeks, Jasper was officially charged with plagiarism. He was also found guilty of using ChatGPT to write his other novels.

In the end, I was able to get "Jasper's" book placed under my name as the author, and live decently off the money from the book. And Jasper Bluewright was sentenced to attend multiple writing classes at a community college (where he later was expelled for using ChatGPT again).

[loominggaia]

1: pregunta, ¿Que son los gigantes?

2: no sé si esto se haría, pero en etios se podrían hacer una especie de rastas con varo o grasa?, no se, para mí suena bien

(Translated via Google Translate)

"1: question, what are giants? 2: I don't know if this would be done, but in Ethiopia you could make a kind of dreadlocks with varus or fat? I don't know, it sounds good to me"

1 ) Giants used to be a type of monster in older concepts, but I have since retconned them to be variants of normal creatures. For example, Mr. Kraken is considered a giant. Giants are simply any creature that is significantly bigger than it's supposed to be, for whatever reason (those reasons are usually magical, but can also be due to genetic conditions are experimental drugs).

2 ) I think I know what you're talking about! Do you mean like the hair of the Himba people?

On Looming Gaia, there are cultures with similar hair styling methods. The ancient Claycoat centaurs are a notable one, and there are even some descendants of the Claycoats that still practice this style today. They wrap their hair and tails with clay, and also smear this clay on their equine fur to protect their skin from the sun and make the color look richer.

With the use of dyes, this clay can be many different colors, even brighter ones like green and pink.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

[whiskeyswifty]

How rich is Taylor? Is she just celebrity rich or is the amount of money she has abnormal even for a celebrity?

I mean insofar as net worth and all that, it’s impossible for me, or anyone including her, to give you an accurate number. But you can get an idea of what echelon she’s in by how she runs her life. For example how many homes she owns (4 officially, one being 3 separate apartments in a New York City building which I count as one but there you go right there) how often she redecorates them (she renovated her NYC main apartment significantly in recent years and has been restoring and renovating her new LA home), how she travels (by private planes that she owns, not charters), and other miscellaneous things that give you an idea of how much access we have to her. An example of the last parameter is how many vacation photos do we have of her in the past 5 or so years? If the answer is little to none, then she goes places that common people have little access too, meaning they’re places that cater to the super wealthy and protect their privacy. Or that they’re entire homes that are very far flung from common vacation spots, also very expensive to get to and typically only enjoyed by the super wealthy who can afford to rent villas and castles and private islands. Based off of the few things we have to go off of, the things listed above, she definitely operates in the circles of the extremely wealthy based on what she can afford to do. Owning a private plane vs. chartering one for example is the difference between the generally wealthy and the super rich .01%. Operating costs for a personal private jet can be around 1 million annually per jet depending on how often it’s used and the size of it. Fuel, pilot salaries, maintenance, etc. There was a time when she had two. So she’s not working with 10 million or even 50 million on average if she can afford that. She’s in the hundreds for sure. she also can afford to run her own company instead of hiring contract workers per tour or album cycle or going through her label. She’s footing the bill for that herself, meaning she’s responsible for salary, benefits, expenses, etc. and while it’s all tax deductible as operating costs for her own LLC or whatever it’s classified as, someone has to pay that upfront annually.

All this to say that given how she runs her life, what she’s able to afford to do, she is raking in what I’d estimate to be 250-500 million in income. The problem is it’s impossible to know, and again she doesn’t even know, numbers like that. For a number of reasons, but mainly 2 reasons that I can feel confident saying. One is she and I don’t know where her money is coming from. I can safely assume like all people in that tippy top percent, her income is diversified meaning it doesn’t just come from music. No not touring or merch, I mean she likely has large chunks of her money stowed away in investment portfolios with one of the big firms or perhaps a very exclusive one. The money generated by those investments probably accounts for 25% of her annual income, if not more. One of the secrets of how rich people stay rich and get richer is large sums of money beget more money via well managed investments. Passive income is what it’s typically referred to as and every single wealthy person at her level has a good chunk of their assets invested. You’re stupid not to. Why have your money sit there when it could be making you MORE money while it sits there. So because of that, and that she doesn’t manage it herself, she has no idea where some of her income comes from other than her investment portfolio. Number two is that neither she nor I know where it all goes, not exactly. The number one enemy for the super rich is taxes. There are a slew of ways to avoid paying the taxes they should pay on income, assets, and the like that essentially hide her money or make it untouchable via loopholes. A few I can speak to are things like off-shore accounts which are not illegal exactly but they’re shady and one of those “we’re gonna pretend we don’t see” things. Very wealthy people keep large sums of money in offshore accounts to keep their reported income low enough to lower their taxes. If she has any, she either knows about their existence and that’s all or doesn’t know at all which is better for her in case things go south. Accountants and money managers generally try to keep clients in the dark about things like that for mutual legal protection (if she doesn’t know she can’t blab about it and also won’t get in as much trouble if she’s audited). Another tactic for avoiding taxes is manipulating loopholes like the farm loophole. Many extremely wealthy people own working farms on paper because it gives them a huge agriculture tax cut. I can think of three extremely famous people you know that do. It’s one of many aspects of tax law money managers and accountants for that level of wealthy will know how to exploit to keep as much money in the pockets of their clients as possible. So given all of that, her actual numerical net worth is completely obscured, even from her, and it’s on purpose. If the public knew then the government would know and would tax or audit her accordingly and she doesn’t want that. Nobody will ever know, not her or her family or any media outlet that claims to know (they’re guessing). The only people who know are her accountants. But I can say with absolute certainty her level of wealth is abnormal. She’s beyond a celebrity at this point as far as the income she’s accumulating. She’s a full fledged business.

[gatekeeper-watchman]

Our Nation, Economically, Where Are We?

Let call a spade a spade. Let’s tell it like it is, beginning with where we are now.

            Currently, our nation is coming out of one of the deepest recessions in which we have ever been since the Great Depression in the 1930’s. In fact, it would have been a depression deeper than the depression then if it were not for our having certain safety nets in place this time, i.e. unemployment insurance, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and public welfare, all programs inaugurated by the administrations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression, and Lyndon Baines Johnson with his Great Society program(s) in the 1960’s—all fought vigorously against by those on the “right”, the Republicans. I don’t want to even think about what our nation would be like right now if these programs hadn't been in place. Also, not unlike the Great Depression, we aren’t coming out of this quickly. It will take time.

Even these safety nets may not have been enough if it were not for the trillion dollar plus bailouts of the financial markets and certain selected corporations in order to offset the effects of the collapse sustained by the financial markets, a direct result of their gambling in certain financial securities, i.e. derivatives in the form of credit default swaps, which motivated an immense build-up (“bubble”) and consequential collapse of real estate prices in the housing and commercial real estate markets. Also, all of this financial relief was further aided by actions of the Federal Reserve with their Quantitative Easing programs (QE1, QE2, etc.) by which they further charged the economy with cash money, trillions of dollars, through their purchase of government bonds, i.e. they printed money “Fed Style”. Even now, it remains questionable if we've done enough—all the arguments notwithstanding.

          Our government tells us that we have come out of this recession and are on the road to recovery. Perhaps we have, officially at least. In the United States, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) defines an economic recession as a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. So our economy, according to the above definition(s), has been increasing for “over three months in a row”. Therefore, the recession is officially over. We are on our way. But, are we really?

Let me call your attention to a few other factors buried in the detail—worms unseen in the woodwork that don’t quite fit into the pretty picture our politicians would like us to see—the picture which they see, ostensibly out of touch with us and reality. Business was laying off people for years before the financial crisis in 2008—layoffs due to union busting, globalization, increasing technology, increases in efficiency, productivity, and another factor, increasing CEO salaries partially financed by reductions in the workforce as well as on the backs of stockholders.

In conjunction with and in addition to the layoffs, our middle and lower classes (that’s you and me), on average, haven’t had, after adjusting for inflation, an increase in income for over a quarter century, the immense inflation during that time notwithstanding. The rich among us are becoming vastly richer, the poor are becoming poorer, and our middleclass is disappearing. In addition, our politicians, i.e. pseudo leaders, have completely immersed themselves into arguing and bickering, playing games over politics, with real issues, the business of the nation, completely neglected and at a standstill. As you might expect, worry, unrest, crime (its decreasing rate notwithstanding), and discontent among our people is rampant. The sale of firearms and ammunition in our country has increased significantly, and the establishment of internment facilities and massive purchases of ammunition by our government’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security has also been reported (Ref: infowars.com).

When the “crash” occurred in 2008, layoffs reached levels approaching 1,000,000 workers a week, forcing real total unemployment to the critical level, at which we find it today. The current published rate of unemployment notwithstanding, which reflects only those receiving benefits and still seeking employment, it does not reflect those who have become discouraged from looking and just given up or the underemployed. Also, it does not reflect those in the original lay-offs who, to this day, many still haven’t found jobs, their old jobs (if filled at all) having been filled by younger workers coming new into the market. We have over twenty million people presently out of work or underemployed; and, in spite of the fact that the economy has begun to turn around, many of these people are in danger of melding into the woodwork, to be forgotten and never again to find a real job as long as they live. Why? And the answer is, and I think I am right when I say this, as a whole, most of those within this group were among the first to be laid off. Being first, they were the most vulnerable, i.e., least desirable, lower skilled, least productive, older, perhaps overweight, i.e. too fat, lacking people skills, unattractive, i.e. not pretty, whatever. Making matters worse, as technology replaces jobs, the new jobs created in the process require higher skill levels, personal as well as technical, most of this group cannot fill. There are so many more currently unemployed than there are available jobs, that the slightest discrepancy in an applicant’s credentials can be cause for rejection. In addition, there is a continuing influx of new job applicants (mentioned above) into the market with whom they must compete. The story goes on, but you get the picture; and, the longer they are unemployed, the more unemployable they become. I digress, but people who fall into this category constitute a major reason why we should not raise age requirements on Social Security, Healthcare, or retirement. To do so at this time is unconscionable and immoral with defacto hiring ages and policies at present levels. I submit that no matter why these people are unemployed, they are God’s creation and they live in our country. They have a right to live. They have a right to food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and so on, and we have an obligation to help them. They don’t deserve to be forgotten. It’s just not right.

With over twenty million of our people out of work or underemployed, jobs (and money) flowing profusely from our country to nations around the globe, and our Corporatocracy taking advantage of what, in many instances is tantamount to slave labor, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of our people are going to bed at night hungry, unable to make ends meet, their homes in foreclosure, and many others sleeping in cars and, homeless. Even more are on some form of welfare or another–our welfare rolls (state of dependency) have literally exploded. Accordingly, the standard of living of our people and our economy as a whole is in decline, a trend I anticipate will continue for the foreseeable future.

Economically, as the rich among us become increasingly rich, our middle-class is disappearing and our under-class is expanding. Wages and income (in real terms) is decreasing, and the preponderance of our people is in debt up to their ears (personal as well as national debt), the effect of which is exacerbated by the false economy generated in the course of our massive excess spending over the years which created that debt in the first place. We were living “over our heads”, disillusioned, and the adjustment, our comedown, is painful and continuing.

Wait! There’s something else. There are more heavy storm clouds hanging over our heads—all that printed money out there. Our dollar is the reserve currency of the world and it is under attack from many sides. In addition to trillions of inflated dollars, it is reported that there are over $700 Trillion Dollars, nominal value, of Derivatives in circulation worldwide. You remember. Those are the financial securities, i.e. the credit default swaps that our lottery players on Wall Street used to cause our 2008 financial crisis. Think of this in terms of worldwide GWP (Gross World Product) and US GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2012. In 2012, the GWP totaled (in terms of U.S. dollars) approximately $84.97 Trillion. That’s for the whole planet, mind you. Compare that with $700 Trillion, nominal value, of derivatives outstanding. Compare our present $18 Trillion U.S. National Debt with our GDP of $71.83 Trillion for 2012. Just think about it. That just about makes us broke or close to it, doesn’t it?

Can you not see where our shadow government by the Corporatocracy and Power Elite has led us? Not only have they stolen our democracy, but also, they have led us to the very edge of bankruptcy. Capitalism has provided us a high standard of living over many years. We certainly need it and don’t want to lose it. It is also, however, out of control and running amuck. In its stark greed, it is consuming itself and leading us to catastrophe, just as Socialism has led others before. In and of themselves, both economic systems are flawed; but, as in most everything, there is good and bad in both. I submit to you, we the people should avail ourselves of the best and most favorable aspects of both. There is a middle ground that is best for all of us, and that’s NOT Socialism. It’s just plain common sense.  Some markets should be free and some should be collective, depending upon the market. Which approach we use should be that which is best for the people and our nation as a whole. Strictly regulated programs such as Social Security, Public Access to Universal Single Payer Healthcare, reasonable Public Welfare, and Public Utilities (including communications) are best suited collective (Do you really believe the average citizen can make objective and intelligent purchasing decisions in these areas?) When we use these programs, it’s not exactly like going to the supermarket. Always, with either choice, the final decision should be in the hands of and decided by the people through their elected representatives—not the Corporatocracy.  Our Corporatocracy should not be allowed to have an influence, in spite of what His Excellency, SCOTUS, says. It should be returned to the status where it belongs, a servant of their customers, i.e. the people. Their focus should be on service and production. Profit must be where it should be, too. Its focus should be that of the investors, the renters, i.e. the landlords. It’s a subtle difference but, nevertheless, critical if our Democratic Republic, our democracy, is to survive.

          I will close this for today, but I want to say one last thing. It may seem, or even be, out of context with this posting at this time, but I think it is very important to our thought processing, economically. That is, unless you have a way to contain it, money is like water. It always seeks its own level. Think about it when you think about globalization and outsourcing of labor. Think deeply or are you capable of doing so?

From: Elder Steven P. Miller Founder of Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups Jacksonville, Florida., Duval County, USA. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Sparkermiller.JAX.FL.USA https://www.tumblr.com/blog/gatekeeper-watchman https://www.facebook.com/ParkermillerQ/ Twitter: @GatekeeperWatchman1, @ParkermillerQ, @StevenPMiller6; #GWIG, #GWIN, #GWINGO, #Ephraim1, #IAM, #Sparkermiller, #Eldermiller1981

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