#opt in being default is evil

[lycorid]

I got an unsolicited email trying to shill some national gym pass to me.

Didn't ask, fuck you.

[crayons-and-glitter-glue]

I think about Sun and Moon's original versions a LOT, and I don't get why people say they're not expressive!

Or perhaps, I do, and I just wanna ramble. Anyways! Big ol warning for lots of talking, some fursuit gifs and analyzation of body movement.

So, they have flat, immobile faceplates, right? Technically, yes!some argue that this makes them immediately inert and expressionless and opt to enhance their expressions. And this is a-okay! Do what you like!

But as someone who used to be a costumer, and wears a fursuit on occasion,

(Sorry, I love this gif so much)

BUT! When in a mascot costume, fursuit, or any other costume with a mask over one's face, the performer has to learn how to move in order to portray the emotions necessary for character engagement with the audience! Whether it's exaggerated head bobs, using your hands to talk, or making everything a bit of a spectacle, even the way you tilt your FACE can affect how you look.

Even MUPPETS do this with their limited range of expression. And we can easily draw those conclusions of how the boys were programmed to act in canon!

Take Sun's default animation in the daycare, just standing there.

It's very obvious here what he's trying to portray, and who his programmed audience is- little children! When costuming around little kids, you wanna use big gestures, and get on their level because you can seem HUGE AND SCARY to them! You wanna get down towards the ground, make big sweeping cartoon motions, and make sure all your movements are ROUNDED- not jabbing, sharp, or sudden- so that the kid isn't ever surprised, but rather delighted by your performance as a costumer. I'll show you an example by the amazing performer, Temba the Bat! (Made by Toxicoon, I believe.)

Big sweeping motions, slow without being too spooky, and generally friendly motions while swaying the head! Looks kinda similar right?

Another point is, though, these exaggerated motions don't really... turn off when feeling other things. Sun and Moon don't have a customer service mode, and that's WILD to me that their programming requires them to act like this all the time. Exhibit B: Sun's pain in the transformation scene.

He's making such exaggerated motions and movements to INDICATE he is in pain or holding something back. He's gripping his face like something is trying to come out of it, and even dramatically falls backwards to indicate a loss of control in his body. Whether the way the fall looks so cartoonist was intentionally programmed in, I couldn't tell you.

And then... there's Moon.

This is SO cartoon villain sequel, isn't it? The hands tapping delicately on the surface, the exaggerated head tilt, all of it is so wildly exaggerated in such a smooth way to let you know "Ah! I'm in danger! Great!"

And yet... he still is low to the ground. Still in that pose of going after someone SMALL. Performing for someone small. His evilness is almost completely exaggerated and, dare I say, fabricated by his programming. Of course, the virus probably had something to do with it but LIKE! Look at that range of motion!

Idk what the point of all this is, I just wanna say: it's totally understandable to make the boys super duper expressive in the artistic, flat 2d styles i see a lot!

But man I do hope someone draws them biblically accurate while expressing something else because that would be hilarious to see Sun throwing a temper tantrum by banging his fists on the ground and flailing while his face is just

:D

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Outliving Emperors

There’s a common tendency in a lot of fantastic fiction portraying long-lived races or individuals interacting with shorter-lived types. It often defaults to, “they have a mindset of slow and patient consideration in the face of Problems. After all, they have plenty of time.”

(Until, of course, they don’t, and the Evil Overlord obliterates lots or possibly all of them.)

It’s a valid way to portray a fantasy race, I guess. But I think it misses a critical consideration of sapient life. And that’s pattern recognition.

To boil it down - if you’ve lived a long time, and you pay attention to what’s going on around you, sooner or later you will recognize when things are about to go nastily sideways. The river-folk down there and the mountain-folk up there have had a new generation grow up without bloodshed; sooner or later some young buck out to make a name for himself is going to dig up the old feuds all over again. Or, we’ve had three years of bad harvests in a row, I bet the nomads think we’re weak now, let’s watch for raids. Or (and much worse), this guy is making speeches about a Glorious Past and Restoring the Nation to its Rightful Place in World Affairs... right, time to duck, world war incoming.

If you’ve had time, you’ve seen things happen. If you’ve had enough time, and survived it, and even a little breather afterward, you can sift back through the history leading up to When All The Maps Got Arrowy, and try to see what set the whole mess off. So if you see similar precursors go off again....

Slow and patient consideration might not actually be your preferred plan. Instead, you might opt for, find the bastards and shut them down, fast.

Someone slaps you? Walk out now, no matter what anyone else thinks. Squatters on your land? Find them and toss them out on their ears so hard they bounce. Sabers rattled your direction? Make it absolutely clear there will be heavy weapons firing back - as soon as fired on, not “two years later after we’ve deliberated it to death”.

Because if you’ve lived for a while, and you anticipate living a lot longer - think about it. “I’ll be a slave for a decade, then die,” is bad. “I’ll be a slave for a century, and that’s only if they let me die-”

Yeah. That’s worse.

With a long lifespan, the number of Bad Things that can happen to you automatically increases, just by virtue of your being alive to have them happen. Why would you want to give any avoidable Bad Thing a chance to happen?

 Wouldn’t it be possible that an elf, cultivator, dragon, or other creature who might live centuries, might actually be quicker to act than regular humans?

I have found this in one fantasy setting. In Lejentia, by Flying Buffalo Games, the Aelvan Nations finally beat down and imprisoned the Hyl Sudiar (Hellish Seducer) and the demon who possessed him, and breathed a sigh of relief. Some centuries later, said demon persuaded another person to become the next Hyl Sudiar... and the Aelvan Nations declared war immediately.

Human kingdoms: “Whyfor you do that?”

Human kingdoms a few centuries later, after despite all efforts the Hyl Sudiar’s armies have conquered half the world: “...Oh.”

I have to think about this, given I have a story that has at least one nearly three-hundred-years-old vampire, and a somewhat younger cultivator who has still outlived three emperors and is working on a fourth. (Zhengle, Jiajing, Longqing, and Wanli, if you’re interested.) They’ve seen threats to their people. They know, over and over again, what it is to lose people to the actions of evil men. What it is to live on, while those you love die, and it never stops hurting....

Long life might not mean slow and deliberate action. Just a thought.

[caurcaur]

Sayjin Minecraft HCs

-Sayeon would have the skin set to default for the first few weeks until Ryujin changed it for her.

-Ryujin would periodically change Sayeon's skin into ridiculous things.

-Ryujin made her own skin and its her usual look translated into pixels.

-Ryujin insists they both play in survival, Sayeon took some time adjusting to the different play style.

-Despite being a creative mode player Sayeon adjusted pretty well, she can handle herself and fight mobs.

-Survival mode didn't stop her from creating massive builds, she finds the process much more rewarding in survival mode.

-Ryujin would being home saplings for Sayeon and give her the spare cobblestone whenever she stripmines.

-Ryujin would usually just crash at Sayeon's minecraft house.

-Sayeon begrudgingly builds a room in her house for Ryujin, Ryujin uses that space as a storage area instead and still stays at Sayeon's room.

-Ryujin likes mining and exploring the world, usually brings home lots of loot.

-Sayeon likes the farming and building aspect of the game more, she usually just stays at the base expanding her builds.

-Sometimes Ryujin would shoot an arrow at Sayeon whenever she was building until she falls, Sayeon would either ignore her and block off her arrows or go down and chase her until Ryujin gets skilled.

- Sayeon gives Ryujin tours of her finished builds and rambles on about architecture lore about the references she used; Ryujin pretends to hate these tours but would always come whenever Sayeon wants to conduct one.

- Ryujin would build little music machines underneath Sayeon's builds, she would usually hide the pressure plates that trigger them to start.

-Sayeon finds it a pleasant surprise whenever she discovers one.

-Ryujin refuses to fill up creeper holes, it drives Sayeon insane whenever she sees one.

-Ryujin has a villager farm/trading hall that was just a shitty cobblestone box, Sayeon remodeled it to make it more pleasing to the eyes.

-Ryujin didn't mind, she just gave suggestions to make it look more evil.

-Ryujin would sometimes invite Sayeon to expeditions, shenanigans ensue.

-Ryujin would give Sayeon spare armor, sometimes she'd make a set just for her. She'd also give her tools.

- Ryujin and Sayeon would build together sometimes, Ryujin is fully capable in making good builds but opts to provide resources for Sayeon instead.

- Ryujin brought Sayeon along to defeat the ender dragon.

-While Ryujin was taking down the end crystals Sayeon manages to kill the dragon with beds, she doesn't elaborate how and when she learned how to this.

-Sometimes the two of them would have mining competitions, whoever brought home the best loot wins.

-Sayeon made a point system just for these competitions.

[thatmooncake]

What is your opinion on the books hinting that Moon shouldn't have existed but the Faz-pads most expensive menu items is moon themed? And the posters, plushies, and the infamous sphere? I loved your other 'rant' (for lack of a better term in my sleep deprived mind) and it got me thinking...

I’m guessing you mean the Moon that appears in The Bobbiedots who was originally built to be the “dark side” of Sun and once worked as a theatre animatronic?

Okay spoilers for The Bobbiedots, Somniphobia and Security Breach and some rambling thoughts ahead:

In short, I think the books’ canon (even from one book to another like say Bobbiedots and Somniphobia) and the games’ canon are more like AUs of each other than anything else, so basically different explanations will be given in different stories to fit that book or game in particular. So, Bobbiedots Moon wasn’t meant to exist in the daycare, but it looks like Security Breach Moon was. That said, I LOVE exploring the different versions of Moon and how he’s used in different stories, so if anyone wants to take the long scenic route with me, here we go!

Bobbiedots Moon

Theatre kid extraordinaire. A little too committed to the bit. Bobbiedots Moon doesn’t fit in his world - not in the daycare anyway. In The Bobbiedots, they’re busy dealing with an evil apartment. They don’t have time for poor Moon, no matter how badly he wants them to sleep.

Bobbiedots Moon feels like a bit of a throwback to the animatronics in Sister Location who had all these “interesting” design choices, like a stomach hatch for storing children (which totally wasn’t going to be used for evil, come on guys …).

In Moon’s case, he’s so good at being a pantomime villain (which is what he was made for from what we can tell - who bets he got booed because the kids wanted the sun to come back up and when the lights went out they’d fake snore and he’d go hunting down the naughty ones who couldn’t help but laugh?) that he’s no good in the daycare (personally I think the staff just weren’t imaginative enough in that universe to do naptime, or to appreciate the charm of a weird clown telling off wobbling toys for not sleeping when his recognition sensors inevitably failed him because they couldn’t be bothered to fix their broken animatronics). And he’s easy to exploit because he’s so committed to his role.

I don’t think Moon was evil by default when he worked at the theatre - at least not beyond his villainous role. He had an audience of probably more people than he could grab, and I’m guessing Freddy’s wanted repeat performances so their customers would keep coming back. Did he kidnap a child or two when the lights went out and everyone was confused? Maybe, if he was virus-riddled enough. Did he become a lot more unstable when he and Sun were moved to the daycare? Probably, but it’s not his fault he was an afterthought in a cheapo organisation that seems to think using precariously-placed backup generators is a better solution to their problems.

Security Breach Moon

Meanwhile, the Security Breach version of Moon has a TON of merch, a dish at the restaurant (Masa-Moondrop curry, yum! 💖 By the way, I totally recommend checking out this recipe ), and even his own little candy adverts. He’s on a statue, balloons, plushies, and even on the daycare pass right next to Sun. It would take a LOT of accidental advertising to put Moon all over the place if he wasn’t supposed to exist in Security Breach.

I think that, unlike the Bobbiedots Moon, Security Breach Moon was supposed to exist. Like you said, he’s got merch everywhere. It’s a big deal. And Moon’s merch matches all of Sun’s merch, so to me it makes sense that in the backstory of the game’s universe they both had a friendly role to play (I can’t imagine why they’d make a Moon plush with no one to hug him. The thought makes me sad. It also seems like a bad business move on their part so I’m opting to believe he was originally meant to be a friend to the kids).

But it looks like things took a turn at some point (as they so often do in the FNAF universe), as Security Breach also has the cheapo lighting in place, and Sun is pretty adamant that we don’t wake up Moon. And in this case it’s pretty clear that Moon has been infected by the Afton virus. He sounds like a bot with just one thing on his mind: putting you to bed at all costs.

Moon is a major player as far as the evil Afton operation goes in the game too. They picked a perfect bot to do their dirty work. He’s super strong - he knocked out Freddy and dragged him away with no problems. He’s also super agile - he can navigate all the tight twists and turns in the Daycare with relative ease (I pointedly ignore the version in my game while I make this statement as he seemed to spend most of his time getting stuck in the tunnels and slides kekeke). And he always seems to know where you are - the Glamrocks wander until they have you in their sights, but Moon makes a beeline for you the moment he can get his hands on you even if you’re inside Freddy’s stomach compartment. He works in the dark when no one can see him coming. He’s basically the perfect replacement for the night staff and makes it a million times easier to capture wayward kids.

There are also a lot of hints in the game that suggest that Security Breach Moon might have actually been reprogrammed to respond this way, and/or that he was used to reprogram the others.

The back areas with the endos are FULL of Moon merch, advertising, and so on. There are also a lot of posters teaching the animatronic endos how to behave, as well as a little room that looks a LOT like a little replica of the daycare play area. I’m pretty sure that this is where the animatronics (or at least the virus-riddled endos) were reprogrammed to capture children - maybe including Moon.

(There are a million things I could say about this poster and how it bears a strong resemblance to a bunch of things from earlier games but that’s for another time and another ramble …)

Somniphobia Moon

Meanwhile, over in Somniphobia, we have Moondrop’s dream sphere, where Moon ponders his orb, or perhaps his new friends who are now trapped inside it forever since it seems like he’s been stealing more than a few souls over there.

The dream sphere is not mentioned in The Bobbiedots or seen in Security Breach as far as I can tell. Whether it exists or not in those universes is open to interpretation, but it serves a clever purpose in Somniphobia. In this book, our favourite uncanny night jester spends his time luring unsuspecting victims into the dreamscape slowly without them realising. The protagonist actually has a few opportunities to escape the pull of the orb, but he just can’t put the dream sphere down because it takes him back to his favourite memories with his (now dead) father, and it makes their time together feel so real.

The dream sphere is advertised as a study guide, and it’s popular with older kids and teens. (Moon has the range). Our regular chase-you-down-and-force-you-to-sleep Moon is nowhere to be found in Somniphobia (whether he exists at the plex in the daycare or anywhere else in that universe is anybody’s guess) and instead we have sweet little Moondrop from the dream sphere who doesn’t speak but will let you see your wildest dreams. At the cost of your mind, which is now going to live in a sphere I guess or be harvested.

Can you befriend the little Moondrop from the dream sphere? Does he know he’s part of a creepy soul-stealing operation? The book doesn’t really say, but if he’s anything like most of the other animatronic/AI characters in the FNAF universe, I’d be willing to wager he’s just doing his job (showing people what they want to see) and being used as a prop for more nefarious soul-snatching schemes. (Curse you Fazbear Entertainment for giving us this funny little guy in a magic snowglobe and making him steal our souls along with our hearts!)

Conclusion

Essentially, I think Moon is being used in basically all the universes he appears in because he’s so perfectly built for capturing and retrieving wayward souls, but the way he’s being used differs a little between universes. In some universes it’s just not as convenient to have him showing up in front of a large audience thanks to his programming, but when the lights inevitably go out he has a tendency to show up nonetheless!

[catgirlforeskin]

Heya, I’ve been in a real ennui and I’d like to try and kick it by getting back into game mastering Pathfunder 2E but I feel like I’m too rusty to try and run my own setting from scratch and I’ll just end up burning myself out again so I was looking to try playing with an existing setting.

You mentioned one you really liked a while back, I think it was full of demons and stuff? What was it called again?

Yeah I’m a big fan of the existing Golarion for Pathfinder 2, I almost always run my own setting but here I just use the default and then tweak to my liking. I’m currently running a campaign set in Cheliax, which is basically “what if the american confederacy made pacts with Satan to summon devils for fighting the civil war in exchange for signing contracts that guarantee every slave will be sent to super hell and be a conscript in devil wars.”

They’re a very Evil ass evil region but it’s a much more real feeling evil than just like “muahaha we want world domination and demon chaos oohoo!” It’s also a region at constant threat of civil war because there’s a huge militant abolitionist movement and lots of game of thrones ass noble infighting, so lots of opportunity for big and small conflict. My campaign is set in the Barrowood of Cheliax, which is a big forest about the size of oregon populated by little pockets of runaway slaves, outlaws, and weirdo druids, and slowly being mowed down to fuel a growing lumber industry.

Recently in the lore they outlawed slavery (partly because they’ve been phasing slavery out of the setting as a common thing and more as something that’s opt-in on account of like. Real world sensitivity stuff) but it seems like it’s mostly a “the current girlboss Hillary Clinton empress did it to try appeasing abolitionists and making that movement lose momentum when in reality it’s still around in all but name, just in more oblique systems of debt and contracts that are harder to directly fight

[slasheru]

Slasher U Update Roadmap: End of 2023!

Holy crap, it's been a hell of year, hasn't it?! Slasher U Act 1 came out at the end of April 2023 and there's been SO MUCH that's changed!

Things that were added in post-launch Slasher U Act 1 updates:

Sawyer's entire romance arc, storyline, and hookup/makeout games

Outfits

Bartending

The ability to talk to Dark Tate post-coitally

Butterflies and crows (fighting crows used to crash your game)

The entire good UI

Characters including Cliff, Stitcherella, Jennykind, Paisleigh, Tanya, and I'm pretty sure Kennedy was a very early addition, too

And that's not counting the tweaks, fixes, and content! In the interest of continuing to Ship of Theseus this game into the best dating sim ever (no biggie, right?), I have the following updates planned before the end of 2023 for Act 1!

Accessibility settings: A way to opt out of minigames with a random roll based on your personality stats (different stat per minigame as appropriate!)

Refining the places you can get personality points in Act 1

Customization: Cane accessories! These will run on a different band than outfits so you can mix and match them/equip them alongside outfits!

Finance: I made everything in the game on the pricey/"realistic" side and the money you get from gigs relatively low because A) college and B) i kind of thought it would both be funny/reflective of shitty college jobs AND a nice incentive to grind some minigames but. I think the economy needs a bit of a fix, right? ;) (in the meantime, try typing InfiniteMoneyVent with the caps correct in the Cheat Codes menu when you're in-game! Your wallet will be a little fuller!)

There are 27 major bugs left in the list for me to tackle as of now, most of them are routine but there are 3 or 4 harder ones to tackle (naming save files is being a beeeetch specifically because afaik Wolf wipes any additional system string variables even if you specify a larger variable count list? My engine just is like "naw actually I'm not saving that"?)

Prior Planned Quality of Life Stuff: Either a way to name your save files OR a way to make your character name appear under your save file (this used to happen but there was a bug where all names would default to your last used character name)

WHITE WHALE HOLY GRAIL I'm still trying to fix the text box bug! This actually isn't borked in the vanilla version of the WRPG engine but I can't fucking figure out how to fix it with the way I've set up the UI (I think? I THINK?!). This is realistically the last bug to get fixed due to my own ineptitude, so I'm hoping to A) make autosaves automatically turned on and B) making Data 1's save slot unusable so it's reserved for autosaves!

There's ALSO a couple content updates for Act 1 still (nothing major, except for, uh, ONE MAJOR THING, haha):

The Truth or Dare minigame/scenario is now going to be included in the Act 1 game, but take place after the Act 2 bumper (post-murder-attempt)

This is already in there but the preamble for Dark Tate's continuing storyline, and Laila's Act 2, activates after the murder attempt

I'll be adding Hex, Juno, and Sawyer's Act 2 lead-ins, plus regular Tate's lead-in, as I work on Act 2

Resolving the storylines (or, if you're being a Chaotic Evil type of player, ruining everyone's life) with story choices/quests for non-dateables: Act 2 will include more Sawyer/Horsemike story, and personal quests for Melyssa, Professor Plutonium, and partially Veronika/Archibald (theirs will continue into Act 3)

Maybe I'll let you fight crows again. MAYBE.

I'm ALSO working on Act 2, which has a lot of new features (notably permanent cosmetic upgrades like a piercing system and tattoos) as well as new content (obvi lmao), but I really want to find a way to offer early access passes to folks who didn't make it to the Crowdfundr (maybe via Patreon)?

Here are some Act 2 features that I'm excited to include/are already being worked on (you'll recognize a lot of these from fanvotes!)

Piercing/Tattoo Parlor

Headless Horsemike one-off hookup minigame

Tate's movie date (yes it's scripted and implemented, it'll be in the next Act 2 update lol. I KNOW I KNOW :D )

Being able to run the speakeasy/sex dungeon as a little moneymaking game in and of itself (well. More for the speakeasy. The sex dungeon is mostly for sex. You're welcome, Sawyer Enjoyers)

Being able to gift outfits to dateables

I'm personally super hype for Tate's storyline (which also involves some other students?? ooo????) and how that's going to mechanically shake out, PLUS, tattoos. Oh my god. TATTOOS GUYS. Plus, the piercing system works like IRL-style - you have to get pierced, then buy jewelry for your piercing if you want to replace your starter/healer gear! I'm a big fan of body mods IRL and having a more realistic piercing/tattoo system was important to me!

Can't wait for next year AND to bring y'all more Slasher U!!!!!!!!! Making video games is literally my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world and I can't imagine doing anything else with my life :')))) (one day I'll be able to do this FULL-full time instead of on top of reviewing medical documents and drawing IP comics for Big Corpo)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BEST FUCKIN' 6 MONTHS OF GAME DEV I COULD EVER FUCKING ASK FOR!!!!!!!!!! You guys rule :')))))))))))

xoxooxoxoxoxox, Professor Plutonium

[chibisquirt]

The Spice-off

I had been planning to do groceries for two weeks, and lo, the groceries had not yet happened. So I Instacarted, because being a functioning human being is more important than all the reasons I normally don't use instacart (cost, evils of a gig economy, my roommate works at the freakin grocery store). And I ordered one (1) pack of the Cheap Pork Chops, only to receive 2 (I guess the packs were smaller than the units on the website or something??).

So I'm having a spice-off.

On the left, my normal default: penzey's cajun seasoning, salt, olive oil, tried and true.

On the right... I had a whole bunch of those little seasoning packets penzey's likes to send you for free to tempt you, and although I came close to opting for the fajita seasoning, I did go with the Mural of Flavor, instead.

Treated both sides the same--salt, olive oil, coat both sides w seasoning--even though the Mural of Flavor said it didn't need salt. (Actually, I think the Cajun seasoning says that, too. Fuck that--I want salt.)

And now... we wait. I just flipped them at the halfway point, and I have to say, my house smells fucking amazing.

[my-chemical-rot]

Not something I’d really want to get into on this blog too much but the whole “the left has Failed Men and that’s why men lean conservative! We need to center men more in leftist discourse!” argument is so stupid to me, for one because we already center cis men as the default state of being and we’ve been doing that for centuries on basically every side of the political spectrum (read literally any feminist theory ever oh my fucking god), and two because. it’s just wrong. The idea that men are more conservative simply because The Left^tm is mean to them is almost completely backwards. Conservatism is about protecting the status quo & leftism/progressivism is *generally* about Improving upon the status quo; and in a patriarchal system, that status quo tends to serve men as a class. When it comes to like feminism & gender liberation, obviously men have no inherent interest in improving upon a status quo that implicitly serves them so they’re either going to be uniformed/undecided or conservative. They don’t care about making the world better or learning how to if it’s already working so well for them. Being nice to them on the Left won’t convince the average man under capitalism that maybe he shouldn’t be paid more than his female coworkers or whatever. It’s not because the left & evil feminists or whatever are too mean & radical… literally no matter how liberal we are & no matter how nice we are & how much we restrain ourself & how much we try to “dial down” feminism & how much we try to “re-center” men that won’t fix anything because the problem isn’t with the Left. And obviously this is about men as a demographic and as a class & not like Every Single Individual Man Ever. I know intersectionality is a thing (and hypothetically this could be applied to basically any other axis of privilege/oppression. White people as a group are generally more conservative, cis and straight people, able bodied people, etc etc. are all served by the status quo. If you told anti-racist activists that the Left needs to be nicer to white people to make white people less conservative you’d be called an idiot) and I know there are men who are leftists & men who believe in feminism & everything. The point is that re-centering men is so obviously not the solution & so obviously a reactionary co-opt that basically just blames feminism for something caused by patriarchy.

[rametarin]

We need a new dietary word.

'Veganism' needs to be inescapably associated with the sort of person that Vegan Gains (youtuber, lolcow, drama starter) embodies. A sociopathic radical person who expresses their misanthropy through these weird pseudo-spiritualist beliefs that emphasize the importance of ethics and humanity.. for non-humans. That say humans do not matter more than the fish they eat.

Humans are more important than other animals, to other humans. This is not up for debate. And as far as vegans are concerned, they only tolerate a world where people choose to raise animals for food, because they cannot, currently, browbeat the law into justifying why killing animals for food is legal and allowed.

This isn't a joke. They know they do not have the democratic votes, so instead the plan is to opt to call eating meat a violation of animal's civil rights. Which circumvents democracy, in the name of civil rights. Extending human rights to animals, from gorillas and dolphins down to pigs and dogs. In essence, radical judges could easily rule against a human being's right to raise animals for food.

Objectively speaking, non-meat alternatives are fine. Economically and politically speaking, they're going to be weaponized. Firstly, the argument that in order to "save the planet" from emissions, we can't have large plantations of herd animals for meat anymore, which is wrong. We have ways to mitigate cow, pig and goat emissions, and chickens are virtually emission free. But, arguing that susstenance farming and farming as a business "should" be illegal because of pollution emitted by the worst case scenarios of emitters, will be on the queue.

They're also going to demand two other things. 1.) That the not-meat alternatives get subsidized and scaled up, to make them cheaper. 2.) Levy that cheapness in the market place. Kind of like corn was a preferred domestic product and socialized.

This means that not only does actual meat have to compete with not-meat alternatives on the store shelves, but given it uses tax dollars to subsidize the business model by obligation, it can afford to undercut and undersell vs. the competition. This is a socialized state-vs-free-market business model, all over again. Naturally, the one protected with laws that say you must have a certain % of the product BY LAW, and certain institutions you have to attend BY LAW be subsidized by your tax dollars to have their products featured in them complimentarily, are going to purchase from the preferred companies. That means, Not-Meat gets obligatory business, and if they have their way, conventional animal meat may even be banned as a "cruel alternative to not-meat."

Overall I see this agenda as inevitable. We're going to need to reaffirm the rights of human beings to be able to use animals as sources of food, and that the practice is NOT a criminal nor abusive one by default, though affirm yes, it can be done abusively. Because just like cars and guns, they're going to make the window of acceptable "abuse" smaller and smaller until no farmer can reasonably meet these arbitrary needs of all their farm animals unless they're treated like pampered pets with tens of thousands of dollars sunk into veterinarian visits per head of cattle, instead of livestock.

While I'm not opposed to the not-meat synthetic alternatives to meat as products that can be sold on the market (I'm not even opposed to offering the insect patties as a viable product on a fair and open market) I am opposed to the pseudo-spiritualist, moralist basis for banning meats or treating meat like it's a necessary evil, when it's not evil in the least.

So. Bringing this back around to my original point, I'd like there to be a term for something like, "Kind of like vegan, except I will also eat meat, my dietary issue is really more I like foods that can be grown synthetically and stored near indefinitely for emergency nutrition in the event of a crisis." So they may prefer lab grown meat over beef cattle, or meat sheep, or pigs, but not for any sort of moralist reason, merely economic and sustainability ones.

Because the transhumanist, "accelerate humanity's evolution to the stars!" types really hate Farmer John and his farm of moocows and sheep and pigs. They hate the privately owned property model, they hate that people aren't forced either by law or by resource and economical necessity to participate on the subordinate end of society. And by disallowing anyone but the Box Corps from being able to grow food without a million indirect whammies that make sustaining that operation legally impossible, they make dissent impossible by denying dissent the ability to feed itself.

My position is that human beings should be legally allowed to grow animals for food, without the imposition of activists trying to tighten the noose so hard specifically to stamp out something they don't like. You know- the bullshit arbitrary bigotry that marijuana currently deals with? Yeah. Imagine that, but, levied at folks with duck ponds and sheep grazing fields. That kind of arbitrary resistance, for no damned reason.

[bookofmirth]

honestly thank you for saying that about Tamlin. I feel like it's a weird phenomenon the fandom does with most of the characters, where you either have to view them as Saints or hate their guts. In Tamlin's case I think that a lot of people overhate him to the extent of trying to make him out as evil as Amarantha, or on the flip side, act as if he did nothing wrong in his life ever. Same thing goes for Nesta or Rhys or Feyre. I think that only a few acotar characters can be categorized as "has never done anything wrong" (gwyn and emerie for instance) or "pure evil" (hybern or amarantha) and everyone else is morally gray, because those are the types of characters sarah likes to write (I mean, look at tog). This isn't to say that someone can't love or hate whatever character they want, even with a passion, but trying to rewrite the book to fit a certain narrative is annoying.

Anon, it drives me crazy!!!! This is why I never tag anything anti or pro - especially not pro, I'm already in the fandom, I am default pro-acotar series... And with one glaring exception (lmao), I don't spend my time on things I dislike to the point where I would need to tag things anti. Things are not so black and white, it's never that simple except like you said, in the case of Amarantha (although, one could argue that she was justified in what she did to Jurian because of her sister, so even there we can somewhat see her perspective!)

It just seems silly to me to act like we can read a book, make a "Good Guy" column and a "Bad Guy" column and sort the characters into them, and then call it a day. That would be so boring, and I'd also feel like the author had zero nuance and had never met an actual person before.

Loving and hating a character are totally different from this, you're right! I can and will love Mor and Cassian and Feyre and Elain, and say they've fucked up. God, I love to rant about Feyre in the Spring Court in acowar and I still love her character! Because it's not about a morality checklist, it's about being interesting and compelling and sometimes, being able to identify with the character.

If we have to choose between viewing the characters as "interesting" or "compelling" and finding them "good/right" or "bad/wrong", I know which one I'll opt for, every time.

[journalofhrr]

Found this on Reddit exactly how I feel

Spot on.

My partner is a very intelligent autistic woman with NPD, and would fall into that "categorised as evil by society" box.

Despite that, she knows what is best for those around her is usually in her best interest. She doesn't treat people well because it's the "right" thing to do, she does it because it makes her life easier, happier, and leads to a higher probability of success in her field.

She is a kinder and nicer person than the vast majority of people I've encountered in my lifetime. Just because someone opts into a particular philosophy and the associated behaviours instead of it being the default and taken for granted, doesn't make them evil, if anything I see that as more noble than the alternative.

[sanguinifex]

Also, for my preferred pronouns, it's less about "vibes" or "how it makes me feel" vs what is accurate and what is safe.

Online, I prefer to opt out of gender as much as possible and also to be regarded as a person. There are heaps of neutral pronouns that fit this. I think the easiest of these pronouns to use and pronounce is "they." If someone used a different neutral pronoun for me, I'd raise an eyebrow, but it would fit my criteria, so it wouldn't be wrong, it just wouldn't be my very favorite.

Note that under these criteria, using "it" would be wrong, since "it" is a neuter pronoun, not a neutral one, and as such implies that the antecedent is an object. I am not an object, and I refuse to ever be one, even for pretend. (Even if I were doing some kind of meditation exercise where you imagine you're a rock, rock-me is not an it.) I had enough of being semi-property as a teenager, thank you very much. Likewise, any neopronouns that imply the antecedent is an object would not be appropriate. Using "she" grates/is soft misgendering but technically reflects my legal status--legally speaking, you do have to pick one. I would like to change that in the future. Using "he" is outright misgendering. I've only ever been call "he" by a radfem trying to villainize me as an evil man. I am no man. I looked at that and it fit even worse than being a woman.

Offline, at school, I prefer to default to "she." This is mostly for safety. I am not out to all of my family, again in part for safety. Internships and jobs not at explicitly queer organizations might discriminate against someone using "they," not to mention other students or some faculty--subconscious bias can't be reported under Title X, because you can't prove it. The vast majority of the restrooms are gender-segregated. Basically, there are a lot of incentives to comply with what's on all my paperwork. Because it's a space where the average person would see my body and make an assumption, it's less jarring than it is on the high-anonymity portions of the internet, where everyone is neutral gender until proven otherwise. I would potentially ask close friends to use "they," sort of a tu/vous distinction, but I'm not that close with anybody yet.

In an ideal world, I could opt out of gender. In an ideal world, while there would be reports of the raw numbers of males and females being born or applying for driver's licenses, sex/gender would not be on birth certificates, driver's licenses, passports, or any other important document. A photo ID + fingerprint or a baby footprint would be enough. For insurance, the presence of various anatomical features would be diagnosis codes, rather than a special field on the application. Public multi-stall restrooms, dressing rooms, locker rooms, and any other spaces I'm forgetting would be multi-gender, likely built with increased privacy options, and everyone would be expected to behave themselves on pain of the criminal justice system. (There would likely be security cameras in the sink area of restrooms and the hallway area of dressing rooms, to get people to go along with it during the transition period.)

I do not live in that world. I live in a world where my state has recently stopped allowing transgender people to change even from one binary sex ID to another on driver's licenses and birth certificates. The gender apartheid state is real, I interact with it every day, and it affects what pronouns I feel safe using while interacting with it and attending a state university.

Fuck gender.

[fierykitten2]

So I had a random idea: what different Pokémon (if they could talk) use as their God/Jesus substitute for phrases like “oh my god” or “Jesus Christ”

Starting with more specific examples:

Mewtwo (specifically the one from Smash) likes to use “Mew” despite its clone superiority complex

Meowscarada (I was mainly thinking of Spriggie here) uses “Virizion” (because he shares a team with Cherry, my Iron Leaves)

Quaquaval (I was mainly thinking of Quax here) uses “Suicune” (because he shares a team with Blueberry, my Walking Wake)

The Proto Beasts and Neo Swords generally opt for “Terapagos”. It’s possible this started with Bolt and/or Crown using it in a “he’s not that special” kind of a way but the rest of the Proto Beasts and Neo Swords started using it despite them generally having higher opinions of Terapagos

At one point I joked that Char (the Ceruledge) used “Giratina”. Yeah I’m willing to reckon that’s a common phenomenon with Ceruledge

Hisuian Typhlosion vary it by day (and it’s not limited to Sinnohan/Hisuian Legendaries/Mythicals either)

Most common examples by region:

Kanto favours Mew, with it being almost as common as Arceus in Sinnoh

Johto favours Ho-Oh with the occasional Lugia. It’s rare but not unheard of for one of the Legendary Beasts to get a mention

Hoenn favours Rayquaza although not as much as Arceus in Sinnoh

Sinnoh Pokémon (and the Fuecoco line) exclusively use Arceus, at least when they’re not trying to outlaw those phrases altogether for the implication that the godlike Pokémon they’re referencing doesn’t exist. Hisui Pokémon take their pick between Dialga and Palkia

Unova favours Kyurem and the Original Dragon, with the occasional Force of Nature thrown in. It’s rare but not unheard of for one of the Swords of Justice to get a mention (usually excluding Keldeo)

Kalos favours Zygarde, with Xerneas and Hoopa being the next most common. Yveltal seems to only be chosen by Dark-types, with Flying-types preferring to distance themselves from it. Diancie also occasionally gets a mention. Volcanion rarely does (rarer than Yveltal)

Alola has to be the corresponding Guardian Deity. It’s not unheard of for Oricorio to start using a different Guardian Deity when they change forms. The Ultra Beasts (as well as Solgaleo and Lunala) prefer to mention Necrozma. Some Alolan Pokémon do mention a member of the Light Trio instead of their Guardian Deity (especially if they don’t actually live in Alola and therefore don’t have an official Guardian Deity to worship)

Galar favours Zacian and Zamazenta. There is the occasional Eternatus or Melmetal. Those on the Isle of Armor prefer Urshifu and those in the Crown Tundra prefer Calyrex or one of its steeds

Paldea doesn’t actually have any real gods or heroes among its Legendaries and Mythicals (the Ruinous Quartet are just negative emotions turned into Pokémon, Koraidon and Miraidon are just unusually strong Paradox Pokémon, Ogerpon is Tinkaton if it were a super strong Grass-type with different forms and a unique interaction with the Terastal phenomenon as well as having three bullies, the Loyal Three are just bullies, Pecharunt is a jealous evil Pecha Berry who commands the Loyal Three and the Proto Beasts and Neo Swords for starters aren’t official Legendaries/Mythicals (I’d argue Fire, Boulder, Bolt and Crown are functionally Legendary for only being obtainable through a fixed encounter once each and Wake and Leaves are functionally Mythical for being event-exclusive and also only obtainable once each) and secondly most Pokémon probably don’t know about their existence. And thirdly I’m only counting the, because their modern-day counterparts are Legendaries. Also because I’m obsessed) other than Terapagos who most probably haven’t heard of so these vary the most out of any region. The Paradox Pokémon tend to default to either Koraidon (for the Past Paradox Pokémon)/Miraidon (for the Future Paradox Pokémon) or Terapagos (for either group). Pokémon on Glaseado Mountain go for either Glastrier (if they’re a Grusha fan) or Spectrier (if they’re a Ryme fan)

[aerelin]

Questioning Tumblr Ethics just before I sleep. Basically: there's an option to opt-out of being included in AI Scraping (which I have learned is actually illegal in European Countries but I guess the EU hasn't slapped Tumblr on the wrist for this), but TOS still states that Tumblr has the right to do absolutely whatever the fuck they want with anything you post.

Compare this to the scare a few years back with DeviantArt's TOS:

Paraphrasing, DeviantArts TOS stated in what may have been a poorly worded section that "we can't be held responsible if your content is stolen by third parties outside of DeviantArt's reach", and this was misinterpreted to being something like "we have all the rights to use your content without permission" of course, paraphrasing, but when reading the TOS yourself it was clear (despite being poorly worded) that they were indeed denouncing(?) Responsibility certain uses of hosted art, the unclear part was who was using the art in the art theft basically. I dunno this was a good few years back, I haven't seen the post since maybe like 2018.

But the scary thing is that Tumblr is NOT being vague or poorly worded in their TOS and how they can just do whatever the fuck they want with your content. If you make a viral hit post like the fuckin shoelaces from the Prez meme, they can make money off it without your permission and without monetary compensation for creating the meme for them basically. And I recall them not only selling the shoelaces meme idea as actual shoelaces, but several people were stating that they not only did not ask permission but didn't even monetarily compensate the original creators behind that post.

And that's okay in accordance to the Tumblr TOS.

From my understanding of the following screenshot of the section I'm referring to in the TOS:

That's allowed because it helps promote the services and, through them acquiring money and payments, helps improve the service (or so we'd wish they would lol).

That is to say that even if we opt out of AI scraping (which is extremely evil of Staff to make it Opt-Out and not Opt-In. They know they're catching the hundreds of fanart blogs that haven't logged in in years. They know they're catching literally thousands of deactivated blogs that technically no longer exist as profiles but their POSTS all still exist and by default they have access to scraping their posts because those posts *still* exist and the original Poster doesn't exist in order to Opt that content OUT of being scraped (could be misunderstanding this technicality of deactivated blogs but this does make more sense to me than staff being nice and like "oh we won't include deactivated blogs uwuuu" leave)), with Tumblr having some shitty AI service deal, they could really just argue that they can STILL! Scrape our content if the AI is used on Tumblr itself or somehow Benefits Tumblr in any manner. Because that's considered appropriate use of our content in the TOS regardless of AI involvement.

I may be overreacting, but either way I think this AI partnership bullshit is just that. It's actual fucking Bullshit. Those blogs I no longer remember the password for are all fair game for AI scraping and even if I remember the password I know I'm still at risk for my content being used however the fuck Tumblr wants to.

AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN like, a third party stealing content and Tumblr doing all this is that, third parties can be DMCAd. Tumblr has your permission to use anything you post for monetary gain simply by you signing up and using their services. And sure, they state this in the TOS. we agree to it. Technically they saved their ass here because we AGREE to this by using their platform. But just because they put this in TOS and therefore "we are not the bad guys, we told you clearly", does not mean this is all scummy and shady and simply a jerkass move.

[amorphousfurrysnakething]

Thinking about computer games/media and politics, specifically the Transformation mechanic in Age of Wonders 4 (as yet unreleased and yes I am very excited).

This was inspired by someone saying they wanted an option to remove pronoun selection from the faction leader creation screen on grounds of "it's too political" and they play games to get away from politics.

So, they were mocked for this, but mostly on grounds of being thinskinned or it being a lot of work for very little point, and not what I think is a far more salient point: this game is already political. It's a wargame, and war is political. The default assumption is that the player character is attempting to form an imperial hegemony, even if they're trying to do it 'nicely' that's what they're doing. A major player character option is to be a godlike wizard invading from another world in pursuit of power. It it critically examining these things? Is it taking a political stance on these issues? I doubt it, it's a fairly cartoonish general fantasy wargame that's built to be a fun wargame. But these political themes and issues are still present. And if you want explicit political stances, there is an alignment system, and what decisions are declared as 'good' or 'evil' is a political statement.

But none of this reads as political to this person.

The potential, oblique reference to trans people, however, is unacceptably political. (The main reason this option exists is to properly facilitate custom faction leader titles, something that's a fairly basic feature that I wouldn't imagine them leaving out given the customisation focus of the game's design)

But that's all fairly standard for the genre. A political issue that is more specific to this game is the aforementioned Transformation mechanic. A thing the player character can (and is expected to) do is perform great rituals that fundamentally alter a race under their control, ranging from 'minor' shifts to be more bestial (buffing troops while near animals/cavalry) or universal glowing runes (for warding against hostile magic), to 'major' redefining shifts, such as making the entire race demons or angels.

In game (and the depth I expect it to be explored), this is mostly a stat-change, giving in-play large scale buffs and deepening the cultural customisation design elements. But if you wanted to read it politically, or from an in-universe position, this is a massive violation of bodily autonomy, one of the more divisive political issues of the day. Complete redefinition biology for not only citizens of your empire, but every member of their species/culture. There's no opt-out, no exclusion of those who don't accept your leadership. An aspiring god-king decided its convenient for them to say you have rock growing out of your body so you do, with no say in the matter.

And this is an alignment-neutral action. That's a political statement. It's probably one made for mechanical reasons (it would be kinda sucky to lock out such a large mechanic from people who want to play 'good', for the same reason that 'justified' wars and conquest don't ding your alignment because this is a wargame), but it's still saying something, even if that wasn't the intention.

That is a massive political concern that is present in this game that this person thought was apolitical.

(To be clear, I'm not criticising this mechanic here, in fact, I'm quite looking forwards to playing around with it because it looks cool, I'm just thinking about politics and media and how it gets into everything).