#shoot your own foot

[atopvisenyashill]

Cersei and Kevan are interesting because their personalities mesh kinda well, and Kevan talks to Cersei with the sort of blunt deference that Cersei would respond best to (she thinks she needs someone fawning over her but what she needs is someone who respects her mind but will argue with her, and Kevan has a certain amount of deference for her because of her station and the fact that she’s Tywin’s oldest). He has the years of training that she needs, without the stubborn mindset that Tywin has regarding the succession of Casterly Rock (he calls her Lady of the Rock, and asks to be made castellan and not Lord because he understands she comes before him in the succession and Jaime is a lost cause!!). BUT. Like Tywin, he takes her every failure and erratic move as confirmation that she’s not fit to rule instead of a confirmation that she has the drive but not the training!! So he just writes her off completely, let’s the Faith utterly humiliate her, and gets shanked the moment he gets into power. rip kevan you could have been barth or otto levels of powerful if only you could get past your misogyny and cersei’s debilitating mental illnesses.

[pestilentbrood]

VERY long Ramble incoming

honestly now that I'm looking at the auraboa lore situation, I'm just disappointed. There was such POTENTIAL in the idea of the Loop and the horror of a new generation inexplicably being disconnected from it, forcing the newly hatched children into a world totally separate from that perceived by their parents (I mean, hell, they perceive TIME differently!).... but then the writer(s?) just fell ass backwards into Icky Tropes.

I feel like I can see what the idea was, especially with the recent alterations to the Encyclopedia entry... It seems like staff fundamentally understands the true Horror potential here, but... Instead, through the short story, they proposed it through the lens of a condescending outsider character, turning the fears of the older generation into something trivial. And also weirdly demeaning the Auroboa's situation by portraying them as overreacting.

Why... why would you do that? Like, from a storytelling perspective? What's gained from that? Why not embrace the true horror and even Emotional significance of that disruption? Why instead go for "ohh we NEED outsider help we NEED to be saved because we are so helpless and it is so Silly that we, creatures who have never experienced such things, do not know what sleep is"????

And if they WANTED to have a condescending outsider, I feel like they COULD have done that, but it would have to have that character realize the horror at some point. And make it obvious that their attitude towards distressed parents and children facing Eldritch Shit and the Sudden Deconstruction of it was not cool!

(or at the very least be a bit more...idk. Consistent with said outsider character? Juniper just goes from "omg I am so honored that the fascinating creatures of the behemoth have chosen me to speak to" to "oh their wasting my time because they don't know what sleep is. I'd rather be sleeping!! 🙄" like girl... c'mon now. Why are we trivializing it like this. Do you want me as the reader to be invested in their plight or not.)

I mean come on. They're beings connected through one networked hivemind-like system, yet each still maintains a silver of individuality that allows them to move freely throughout the Behemoth that they care for. And they've got an eldritch understanding of time that no other dragon could understand. They're seeing the future, past, and present unfold simultaneously. They're witnessing the birth and death of the world at the same time, and have no way to communicate it to other dragons. The best they can do is maintain their home, and even then, they see its roots spread and decay all at once.

And then the newest generation is suddenly disconnected. An inherent link between parent and child and all dragons in-between, that has existed since the creation of their species, is just suddenly GONE for the newest births. With NO explanation for it. The children have no easy way of communicating with their parents. The children are experiencing time in a way that was not meant for their species. They've forcefully been shoved into a circadian rhythm that they are Not! Built for!

The only way a parent could communicate properly with their child would be when the latter is sleeping, something that is also completely foreign to this species. It would be terrifying for all involved!!!

They are literally experiencing eldritch horror from the perspective of the eldritch being forced into the mortal.

Like why WOULDN'T there be panic!!! And why would that panic be trivialized! Why are we only shown the perspective of an outsider who looks at this situation and goes "Oh the silly tree beasts are being so silly over nothing, it's no big deal!"

That and the way the auraboas talk to outsiders. Like. There was such potential there. Real opportunity to explore how ancient, time-bending beings would communicate to someone who couldn't even BEGIN to understand the intricacies of it.

Instead we got what feels more like baby talk (even described as though they were hatchlings enunciating their first words, which... I dunno man, maybe we don't want to compare them to children like That) and less like... Beings that experience all of time at once. I mean, the hatchlings and the adults speak the exact same way, and that doesn't make any sense given the literal time barrier going on.

I totally get why people thought there was just a language barrier and that auraboas had their own language, thus causing the disjointed speak, and not that it was because They Do Not Experience Time Like We Do. And I feel it would've been far easier to get it across by just... I dunno. Do anything else?? I saw someone on here suggest they speak in the "wrong" tenses, or using multiple tenses in the same sentence, which I think would've been far more clear.

Like, as opposed to "saplings wilt! saplings silent!" just "the saplings will wilt in silence, they've wilted in silence, they are wilting silently." Said all at once like all things are true simultaneously. And if we're going for hivemind, have each auraboa speak in a different tense, all at the same time, and have them switch it up every time. Have our outsider get confused and be like "which is it? are they wilting now, or have they already wilted?" and the cluster of auraboas respond in a cacophony of yes's, no's, and maybe's all at once.

Would've probably gotten across the "alien" vibe they were supposedly going for far better than wide-eyed desperation for an outsider's guidance conveyed through disjointed, in-world described as baby speech.

And also maybe would've had less accidental connotations. Because as it stands, I completely see why people have made the connections to the real world where they have. This doesn't read like eldritch timey-wimey intrigue, or even a respectful look at how younger generations can become detached from their families' cultures over time and the struggles that come with it. It reads like a culture being perceived by an ignorant outsider who (despite supposedly respecting these dragons) scoffs and rolls their eyes because the tree beasts with their funny words are being silly again, and that Hey, isn't it actually a great thing that the children are fundamentally different in all manners now? Because now they can join the rest of us in the "real world."

Yknow. Ick.

(I Personally think it would've been better to have the perspective be one of the Auraboas themselves, especially one of the children, to really understand what was going on here. Give us the full brunt of the mind of a creature experiencing all of time interwoven as one shape. The waters fall and the oceans crash with waves. They've now fallen to drought. The ocean has yet to be born. Caves have been carved out through the waters' currents. And when I break from this timeline, I open my eyes to see a child, the child not yet born, the child born now, the child born yesterday. Why can't I hear it? Why couldn't I hear it? Why won't I ever hear it?)

I dunno. People more qualified than me to speak on this matter have already torn the lore apart, I'm just... dropping my own two cents. Potential got weirdly squandered and we ended up instead with unfortunate implications and tropes that could be connected a liiiittle too awkwardly to irl situations.

*Also, before anyone points out: Yes, I know the hatchlings aren't COMPLETELY detached from the Loop and can join it when they sleep. But the fact is, these thangs never had to sleep before. That wasn't in their species' nature. So that's still weird and foreign for them on both sides. And since the hatchlings now have a circadian rhythm, they can't stay connected to the loop permanently. And also Also, seeing as the previous generations aren't experiencing time linearly, who's to say they even recognize when their child joins the loop? They'll speak with an echo of their child when that child was last asleep ages ago, not knowing that it's not them presently, because there is no 'present' for the older generations.

[melancholic-pigeon]

Alright, this is my last comment on the issue, for real this time.

@nerdykeppie is staffed by unprofessional, rude, cruel people who double down on their entitlement to be unprofessional, rude and cruel in public to their former customers.

You should know the sorts of people you're giving money to if you patronize them. The founder is liable to misread your words, lash out at you in anger over something he misunderstood, and generally behave like a tantruming child even if you go out of your way to be polite and give him the benefit of the doubt when he lashes out at you over his own poor reading comprehension.

I'm done getting into this. No, Spider is not ~required~ to be professional on his (public) personal blog which is closely tied to his business. I just think it's extremely stupid to double down on his "right" to be unprofessional on his public blog when he owns a business that is clearly tied to said public blog, because it reflects very poorly on both his personal character and his business. I think it is hilariously foolish and an extremely poor decision to openly advertise and defend your founder's unprofessionalism, which speaks of general lack of professionalism and poor judgment throughout the whole business, not just from Spider (though his lack of good judgment and public unprofessionalism is the most obvious).

So. Best of luck in the people involved resolving whatever problem in their lives that they're taking out on me, and beware interacting with them in any way because they will absolutely be rude as shit to you and then smear you in public and private for (/checks hand) apologizing for a miscommunication because you didn't mean what they incorrectly interpreted you to mean.

I can't fucking believe they still think they're in the right here and *I* am the one who needs to be ~asked not to contact them again~. You answered me THREE TIMES *after* I had blocked you because you cannot let go of the fact that you were wrong about a stupid fucking plastic pumpkin and the fact that I went OUT OF MY WAY to give you the benefit of the doubt.

(two of those three asks were frantic apologies because I genuinely felt terrible, and they were both met with meanness and scorn and snide insults about my communication failures.

Lol. Me. I'm the one who is failing to communicate and has poor reading comprehension because you misunderstood me and started lashing out like I personally strangled all of your pets for having the filthy nerve to apologize and try to clear it up.

Yeah. I'm the villain here. Sure, Jan.)

I'm done now, but enjoy having your unprofessional, cruel, immature nonsense publicly exposed. I stand by my actions (the ones I actually took in real life, not the fake pretend ones you made up because you misunderstood what I wrote) and I look forward to you experiencing the natural consequences of your own.

Don't give money to childish jerks.

[stanfordsweater]

happy wincest wednesday! how do you think sam and dean pay for sam's grass fed or wild caught meat necessitated by his trad paleo diet?

[braceletofteeth]

Still trying to understand why Nick, Mr. He Must Not Hate Me, would help Mew (someone he barely knows) to get revenge on Boston (someone he confessed loving and would like to be forgiven by), not for a hidden agenda/his own benefit (which would be selfish, but understandable), but for... What? Solidarity?

For disgust? Disgust for the free spirit guy that he liked exactly for who he was, and for whom he allowed Nick to be without judgement when they were together?

Nick... What was the reason, Nick? Why would you disclose information that could ruin Boston's relationship with his father to someone who showed clear intent to hurt him? Why would you take the risk of doing something that could make him hate you forever? How is that helping you, or him, or anybody?

WHAT WAS THE REASON, NICK?

[greghatecrimes]

chase and thirteen are so brother and sister and i wish they had more screentime :((

[rawliverandgoronspice]

oh no I stopped working for five minutes and remembered I love he...................... ;;

[corvidcorgi]

On Making Appealing Recommendations

Something that I think about periodically re: telling people the thing they like is worse than the thing you like, and the thing you like would make them so much happier if they only just tried it, is--

Not only is this ineffective because it makes them resent you, so they are less likely to try your new thing, it also makes them doubt you.

Specifically, they'll doubt your taste.

Sure, you know all the reasons your thing is good (objectively the best, your thing is perfect, so much better than their thing). But they know all the reasons their thing is good.

If I like a book, and you tell me, "That book sucks, you should try this book instead," what I am hearing is, "We don't like the same things, so the thing I am recommending is not something you will enjoy." It's not just that you sound like a jerk and I don't want to associate with you, it's that you are telling me that the book you like is substantially different from the book I like. You're putting down my taste, which makes me doubt yours.

My opinion on good, intensive recommendations is that they are a lot of work, because I'm a perfectionist. I like to do something along the lines of this format:

[title]

[work type if this is not a specific list of books/shows/etc.]

[link to the work if it can be found legitimately through the internet, like a podcast, fic or webcomic - otherwise, resources on how to find it, like Bookshop.org or Libro.fm]

[genre - I personally like to include information on both tone (YA, comedy, drama, etc.) & content (romance, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, etc.); I'll also usually put LGBTQ+ main/supporting characters here]

[a short, informative summary, 3-4 sentences max. If you can be punchy that's good, but prioritize info over style.]

[optional: plot-relevant fanfic-style tags, like Enemies-to-Lovers, Found Family, Fake Relationship, etc.]

[optional: similar media, and a brief description why*]

[optional but polite: content warnings (I sometimes include the Ao3 style options "No Warnings Apply", "Choose Not to Warn", or my personal addition, "May Have Forgotten Some")]

* for example, if I'm recommending the podcast Wolf 359, which is an audio drama about a small group of bickering coworkers trapped on a space station by their evil megacorporate bosses, I might mention the show Firefly (rag-tag found family of misfits traveling together on a spaceship) or the podcast Girl in Space (space station isolation audio drama with explicit anti-corporation messaging)**.

** I have not seen or heard all of Firefly or Girl in Space, and what I have seen/heard was a long time ago. These are just examples.

As I said above, this is obviously a fuckload of work. This is why I don't make a lot of recommendation lists (there is one on this blog that I made five years ago, and a couple that I made for friends in college, also several years ago). You don't have to do this.

Because what the idea boils down to is this: if you want me to like your thing, do not talk shit about what I like. If you do that, I no longer trust you to tell me what I'll enjoy. Tell me the positive aspects of your thing and what to expect from it. That's it. That's all.

[astralpenguin]

i'd never in a million years consider myself to be Good at social interaction but you'd be amazed at how far you can get simply by being polite and friendly to others

[ranvwoop]

if trying to mix little video game covers gives me a shred of knowledge on post production i may even return to utau (very scary) But there were like seven other problems as well... On account of the tryhardism

[presidentalpaca]

you have got to be kidding me

[rocicrew]

"redundancy of avatars" you mean the things people use to identify each other on dash,,,,,

[nanamis-bigtie]

btw, didn't want to add to op's take (scroll down a few posts on my page, if you want context) but, honest to sun god nika, it's much harder to write captivating sheer, non-suggestive fluff. I am feeling this so much when scribbling the kiss drabbles on side. and mind you, I chose the list myself because I love the prompts.

smut itself is an action filled with a lot of emotions, movements, all those situational little steps you need to describe before you get to those dirty, dirty moments.

fluff is...fluff. kiss or hug can last only as long. if you don't have any particular plot in mind, you become a slave of words, forced between very tight walls. it's objectively harder to maneuver in such conditions...well, unless you don't mind spilling words and description that carry no actual message nor meaning. I am a word fountain even without such extra prompting lol

and please, don't throw "but asexuals-" bullshit at me. i'm ace, plus i rarely get the horny worms when writing because of focus on text. i'm talking about sheer technicalities here.

[the-yearning-astronaut]

I was going to open up a few commission slots as a way to help fund a trip to a professional development workshop in June buuuuut I saw more than a few commission posts going around today where people are underpricing their work to a distressing degree.

There's no way I can compete with those prices -- but I'm also unwilling and unable to put my own prices that low. So it's like. Why bother lmao.

[jaythelay]

God I hope like hell Valve doesn't kneecap Steam because of the influx of chinese users. Idunno how they would but I've seen this song and dance before.

Is unlimited money truly great when ya don't get it immedietely from a government? That's gonna be weighing on their minds forever now. Horrifying what could happen over time if they sell out to the chinese government bit by bit. Horrifying the arguments people will have when it starts becoming innevitable.

Glad I pirate but damn, I do not look forward to what business decisions they decide to make with this influx. Keep the cultures seperate, we don't need a government invading our games.

[x-i-l-verify]

#not saying consent and self control shouldnt be valued#because fuck yes they should be #but it completely destroys what their characters are supposed to be #and totally destroys the concept of a sin

Sins Being Neutered By People Who Don't Understand Sins

The embodiment of lust caring about consent and the embodiment of gluttony caring about self-control is the adult equivalent of this.