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annalacerda17 · 2 days ago

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Lan Wangji is a greatly misunderstood character in this fandom. I think it's partly because the fandom tends to misinterpret Wei Wuxian's influence on him, which has to do with how Lan Wangji's attitude towards rules changed after the time skip. In my opinion, some fans interpret this to mean that before the time skip Lan Wangji had prioritized the rules over doing the right thing, and that he changed because of Wei Wuxian. This is untrue.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have always had very similar moral compasses. However, they grew up in very different environments, and have always had vastly different social status. To me, this is why, when faced with the sects' bigotry pre-timeskip, they reacted very differently despite agreeing as to which side was in the right.

Lan Wangji grew up in the Lan Sect, a place where the rules are highly valued and enforced, and under the care of Lan Qiren who, despite his flaws, was a very reliable parental figure to his two nephews as they grew up. Moreover, the Lan sect is the one place where the rules seem to be enforced impartially most of the time (I'm not going to account for the Madam Lan's situation, because the novel never gives us a clear answer as to what exactly happened in the past).

Having grown up in such an environment, with such an identity, it makes perfect sense for a teenager Lan Wangji to believe that most, if not all problems, can be solved through the system. It would make no sense if, upon learning about what had happened to the Wen remnants, Lan Wangji's reaction had been to abandon everything and go live in the burial mounds with Wei Wuxian (and let's not forget that Lan Wangji did not actually learn the truth about the Wen Remnants at the same time that Wei Wuxian did, he had to sneak around to be able to see Wei Wuxian in person and find out the more accurate information this way). On top of everything else, his sect -his family- was actively restraining him.

So, Lan Wangji's reaction was to verbally defend Wei Wuxian and to use his reputation and political weight (which was not that much considering he wasn't a sect leader and his sect had still been rebuilding at that point) to try to sway the public sentiment in the right direction.

And at one point, it seemed doable. When Wei Wuxian was invited to Jin Ling's 100 day celebration, that seemed to be a sign that the sects might be willing to compromise. Even Wei Wuxian thought so, despite not trusting them completely.

Then, it turned out to be a trap

All of the events that happened from this point forward showed Lan Wangji that he couldn't trust the system. Outside of the Lan sect, the rules didn't matter, only power and status did. The system was skewed in favor of those in power, regardless of who was right. And that was a lesson Lan Wangji had to learn the hard way. Moreover, Lan Wangji was forced to face the fact that when the sect's interests were put in the balance, even the Lan Sect didn't stand on the side of good. While they didn't necessarily support corruption openly, they did deliberately avoid investigating anything properly. They chose to believe the information provided by the Jin sect -their sponsor- despite Lan Wangji's attempts to tell them the truth. It also exposed the Lan sect's hypocrisy, because they, too, judged Wei Wuxian based on his cultivation and his social status, which led Lan Wangji to understand that the rules couldn't possibly account for the complexities of real life - this why he refused to "repent" even as he was being whipped bloody by his sect.

So it wasn't Wei Wuxian's influence that taught Lan Wangji to stop relying on the rules, it was the experience of trying so hard to do what was right, having followed all the rules, only to be betrayed by the system he had trusted. That's why after the time skip he no longer relied on the rules. He respected the rules when possible, but he didn't take them as seriously as before.

Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, grew up very differently. His parents had been rogue cultivators - people who lived freely without being restrained by sect rules. When they died, he became a beggar at a young age, and while this experience didn't break him, it did teach him to be self-reliant. Later, he became a disciple of the Jiang sect, where the Madam was a lunatic who was obsessed with his mother and targeted him everywhere. Wei Wuxian was also placed as a companion and retainer to Jiang Cheng, who was a piece of work even as a child and became progressively worse as the story went on. By the time Wei Wuxian rescued the Wen Remnants, Jiang Cheng had grown to be a cowardly, stupid, jealous asshole. That's to say, the authority figure in the sect he had been a part of was utterly unreliable - had been unreliable under Jiang Fengmian, but became even more unreliable under Jiang Cheng.

Having grown up in such an environment, Wei Wuxian had always known that the rules apply differently to people of different social status, regardless of right or wrong. Even so, Wei Wuxian did express his point verbally at the Jin sect's banquet, only to have it dismissed by that loser Jin Zixun and his corrupt uncle Jin Guangshan, solely based on Wei Wuxian's lower social status. Therefore, Wei Wuxian chose to take action directly, because he already knew there would be no way he could get the right thing done by following the rules. He was right about that.

This doesn't mean Wei Wuxian is morally superior to Lan Wangji. They were both teenagers dealing with a problem that was much bigger than themselves, in a situation where the odds were stacked firmly against them. They both did the best they could in the only way they knew how.

Later on both of them felt that there were things they could have done differently, but that's because they had matured and gained more experience. Their moral compass did not change.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wei ying #lan zhan

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literaryvein-reblogs · 16 hours ago

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Hello! i apologize if this a strange question to get but i hope you can shed some light with this! (but its totally alright if not).

speaking as a person in the aro-ace spectrum, i have stumbled on this roadblock in my latest project, romance is a element in multiple character's story, however i have realized i have absolutely no idea how to even begin to to portray it in deep and grounded in reality way.

but i guss the simplest thing to answer would be, how do i figure out what one of my characters would find attractive in a romantic partner? how do i make their slow transition into a romantic relationship not feel out of place or jarring?

again i apologize for this strange question, and how long this question is, hope you have a good day!.

Writing Notes: Romantic Relationships

Stages of Relationship Development. In this study, 10 stages of interaction were found that can help us understand how relationships come together and come apart (Knapp & Vangelisti, 2009).

We should keep the following things in mind about this model of relationship development:

relational partners do not always go through the stages sequentially,

some relationships do not experience all the stages,

we do not always consciously move between stages, and

coming together and coming apart are not inherently good or bad.

Relationships are always changing—they are dynamic.

Although this model has been applied most often to romantic relationships, most relationships follow a similar pattern that may be adapted to a particular context.

COMING TOGETHER PHASE

Stage 1: Initiating

In this stage, when we are attracted to someone, we may signal or invite them to interact with us.

For example, you can do this by asking them to dinner, to dance at a club, or even, “I really liked that movie. What did you think?”

The significance here is in the relational level (how the people feel about each other) rather than the content level (the topic) of the message.

As the poet, Maya Angelou, explains, “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”

The ‘shades of deeper meaning’ are the relational level messages that invite others to continue exploring a possible romantic relationship.

Quite often, we strategize how we might go about inviting people into communication with us so we can explore potential romantic development.

Initiating is influenced by several factors:

If you encounter a stranger, you may say, “Hi, my name’s Rich.”

If you encounter a person you already know, you’ve already gone through this before, so you may just say, “What’s up?”

Time constraints also affect initiation. A quick passing calls for a quick hello, while a scheduled meeting may entail a more formal start.

If you already know the person, the length of time that’s passed since your last encounter will affect your initiation. For example, if you see a friend from high school while home for winter break, you may set aside a long block of time to catch up; however, if you see someone at work that you just spoke to ten minutes earlier, you may skip initiating communication.

The setting also affects how we initiate conversations, as we communicate differently at a crowded bar than we do on an airplane.

Culture can also impact the interaction. Some cultures have different expectations for interactions between people of different ages, sexes, or other situations while some cultures do not have as many expectations.

Even with all this variation, people typically follow their culture’s social scripts or interaction at this stage.

Stage 2: Experimenting

In this stage, we are getting to know the other person to identify compatibility beyond physical attraction.

We share information about ourselves while looking for mutual interests, shared political or religious views, and similarities in family background.

Common dating activities in this stage: going to parties or other publicly structured events, like movies or a concert, that foster interaction and small talk.

Small talk, a hallmark of the experimenting stage, is common among young adults just beginning to explore a new relationship by staying on polite, uncontroversial topics.

Small talk can be annoying sometimes, especially if you feel like you have to do it out of politeness but it serves important functions: creating a communicative entry point that can lead people to uncover topics of conversation that go beyond the surface level, helping us audition someone to see if we’d like to talk to them further, and generally creating a sense of ease and community with others.

If your attempts at information exchange with another person during the experimenting stage are met with silence or hesitation, you may interpret their lack of communication as a sign that you shouldn’t pursue future interaction.

Even though small talk isn’t viewed as very substantive, the authors of this model of relationships point out that most of our relationships do not progress far beyond this point (Knapp & Vangelisti, 2009).

Stage 3: Intensifying

In this stage, we continue to be attracted (mentally, emotionally, and physically) to one another, we begin engaging in intensifying communication.

This is the happy stage (the “relationship high”) where we cannot bear to be away from the other person. It is here that you might plan all of your free time together, and begin to create a private relational culture.

Going out to parties and socializing with friends takes a back seat to more private activities (e.g., cooking together at home or taking long walks on the beach).

Self-disclosure continues to increase as each person has a strong desire to know and understand the other. In this stage, we tend to idealize one another in that we downplay faults (or don’t see them at all), seeing only the positive qualities of the other person.

Other signs of the intensifying stage can include:

creation of nicknames or inside jokes

increased use of we and our

increased sharing emotionally (e.g., saying “I love you”.)

increased physical intimacy

increased communication about each other’s identities

increased sharing of possessions and personal space (e.g., you have a key to your partner’s apartment)

Stage 4: Integrating

In this stage, identities and personalities are merged, and a sense of interdependence (dependence on each other) develops.

Verbal and nonverbal signals of the integrating stage are when the social networks of two people merge; those outside the relationship begin to refer to or treat the relationship partners as if they were one person (e.g., always referring to them together—“Let’s invite Olaf and Bettina”); or the relational partners present themselves as one unit (e.g., both signing and sending one holiday card or opening a joint bank account).

Even as two people integrate, they likely maintain some sense of self by spending time with friends and family separately, which helps balance their needs for independence and connection.

They are looking to measure how well their new partner fits into their lives and how other significant relationships (friends and family members) rate or respond to their new love interests.

When the “relational high” begins to wear off, couples begin to have a more realistic perspective of one another and the relationship as a whole.

Here, people may recognize the faults of the other person that they so idealized in the previous stage.

Also, couples must again make decisions about where to go with the relationship—do they stay together and work toward long-term goals, or define it as a short-term relationship?

A couple may be deeply in love and also make the decision to break off the relationship for a multitude of reasons.

Perhaps one person wants to join the Peace Corps after graduation and plans to travel the world, while the other wants to settle down in their hometown.

Their individual needs and goals may not be compatible to sustain a long-term commitment.

Stage 5: Bonding

In this stage, a couple makes the decision to make the relationship a permanent part of their lives.

In this stage, the participants assume they will be in each other’s lives forever and make joint decisions about the future.

While marriage is an obvious sign of commitment it is not the only signifier of this stage. Some may mark their intention of staying together in a commitment ceremony, by registering as domestic partners, or by becoming Facebook official.

Likewise, not all couples planning a future together legally marry. Some may lose economic benefits if they marry, such as the loss of Social Security for seniors or others may oppose the institution (and its inequality) of marriage.

Not only do romantic couples progress through a series of stages of growth, they also experience stages of deterioration.

Deterioration does not necessarily mean that a couple’s relationship will end.

Instead, couples may move back and forth from deterioration stages to growth stages throughout the course of their relationship.

COMING APART PHASE

Stage 6: Differentiating

Individual differences can present a challenge at any given stage in the relational interaction model; however, in the differentiating stage, each partner in the relationship is reasserting their sense of self and trying to discover who they are as part of a couple.

Communicating differences becomes a primary focus.

Differentiating is the reverse of integrating, as we and our reverts back to I and my.

People may try to re-establish some of their life prior to the integrating of the current relationship, including other relationships, hobbies, and interests, or possessions.

For example, Carrie may reclaim friends who became “shared” as she got closer to her partner and their social networks merged by saying, “I’m having my friends over to the apartment and would like to have privacy for the evening.”

Or, she may have liked playing golf on Sundays and abandoned it for Sunday dinners with her new partner and her new family.

Now, she will want to return to what makes her happy.

Individuals in the couple will want to have a sense of self that is independent and not necessarily tied to their partner.

Stage 7: Circumscribing

In this stage, communication decreases and certain areas or subjects become restricted as individuals verbally close themselves off from each other.

Circumscribe means to draw a line around something or put a boundary around it (Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2011).

They may say things like “I don’t want to talk about that anymore” or “You mind your business and I’ll mind mine.”

If one person was more interested in differentiating in the previous stage, or the desire to end the relationship is one-sided, verbal expressions of commitment may go unechoed—for example, when one person’s statement, “I know we’ve had some problems lately, but I still like being with you,” is met with silence.

Passive-aggressive behavior and the demand-withdrawal conflict pattern may occur more frequently at this stage.

Couples often engage in more outward conflict.

Stage 8: Stagnating

During this stage, romantic partners begin to neglect the small details that have always bound them together and their relationship becomes routine.

For example, they may stop cuddling on the couch when they rent a movie and instead sit in opposite chairs.

Taken in isolation, this example does not mean a relationship is in trouble.

However, when intimacy continues to decrease, and the partners feel dissatisfied, this dissatisfaction can lead to worrying about the relationship.

The partners may worry that they do not connect with one another in ways they used to, or that they no longer do fun things together.

When this happens they may begin to imagine their life without the relationship.

Rather than seeing the relationship as a given, the couple may begin to wonder what life would be like not being in the partnership.

They begin to assume that they know their partner and are dissatisfied with them.

Instead of communicating, a person may think, “There’s no need to bring this up again because I know exactly how he’ll react!”

Because of this kind of thinking, communication comes to a standstill.

This stage can be prolonged in some relationships.

Parents and children who are estranged, couples who are separated and awaiting a divorce, or friends who want to end a relationship but don’t know how to do it may have extended periods of stagnation.

Although most people don’t like to linger in this unpleasant stage, some try to avoid potential pain from termination, some hope to rekindle the spark that started the relationship, or even some enjoy leading their relational partner on.

Stage 9: Avoiding

Moving to this stage may be a way to end the awkwardness that comes with stagnation, as people signal that they want to close down the lines of communication.

Communication in the avoiding stage can be very direct—“I don’t want to talk to you anymore”—or more indirect—“I have to meet someone in a little while, so I can’t talk long.”

While physical avoidance such as leaving a room or requesting a schedule change at work may help clearly communicate the desire to terminate the relationship, we don’t always have that option.

In a parent-child relationship, where the child is still dependent on the parent, or in a roommate situation, where a lease agreement prevents leaving, people may engage in cognitive dissociation, which means they mentally shut down and ignore the other person even though they are still physically present.

Stage 10: Terminating

This stage of a relationship is when the relationship is ended.

Termination can occur at any point in the relational development model or follow through the phases of coming together and coming apart.

Termination can result from outside circumstances such as geographic separation or internal factors such as changing values or personalities that lead to a weakening of the bond.

When terminating a relationship, people will often follow a pattern that is typical of their culture.

In mainstream American culture, for example, it is typical for someone to start the formal termination of a relationship with a summary message that recaps the relationship and provides a reason for the termination (e.g., “We’ve had some ups and downs over our three years together, but I’m getting ready to go to college, and I either want to be with someone who is willing to support me, or I want to be free to explore who I am.”).

The summary message may be followed by a distance message that further communicates the relational drift that has occurred (e.g., “We’ve really grown apart over the past year”), which may be followed by a disassociation message that prepares people to be apart by projecting what happens after the relationship ends (e.g., “I know you’ll do fine without me. You can use this time to explore your options and figure out if you want to go to college too, or not.”).

Finally, there is often a message regarding the possibility for future communication in the relationship (e.g., “I think it would be best if we don’t see each other for the first few months, but text me if you want to.”) (Knapp & Vangelisti, 2009).

Love Styles. An individual’s love style is considered to be an attitude and describes how love is perceived (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1988).

Attitudes toward love and perceptions of love may change throughout an individual’s life.

College students may perceive love very differently from their parents or guardians because college students are in a very different stage of life.

College students are living among people their age who are more than likely single or unmarried.

These 2 factors mean that there are more prospects for dating, and this may lead the college student to conclude that dating any number of these prospects is necessary or even perceive that “hooking up” with multiple prospects is acceptable.

In contrast, individuals with children who are financially tied may view romantic relationships as partnerships in which goal achievement (pay off the house, send kids to college, pay off debt, etc.) is as important as romance.

These differences in perceptions of love can be explored through John Lee’s love typology in which he discusses 6 love styles (Lee, 1977):

Eros. Eros is romance and emphasizes love and physical beauty, immediate attraction, emotional intensity, and strong commitment. Eros love involves the early initiation of sexual intimacy and consecutive monogamous relationships.

Storge. Storge love develops slowly out of friendship where stability and psychological closeness are valued along with commitment, which leads to enduring love. Passion and intense emotions are not valued as they are in the eros love style. One of the author’s uncles was in his 60s and had never been married. However, he employed a woman who cooked and cleaned for him for over 20 years. His family was very surprised to receive an announcement that he was marrying the individual who took care of him for so long. The formation of their love is a great example of love that arises slowly out of friendship.

Ludic. Ludic lovers view love as a game, and playing this game with multiple partners is perceived to be acceptable by individuals with this love style. As such, this type of lover believes that deception and manipulation are acceptable. Individuals with this love style have a low tolerance for commitment, jealousy, and strong emotional attachment.

Agape. In contrast, agape love involves altruism, giving, and other-centered love. This love style approaches relationships in a non-demanding style with gentle caring and tolerance for others.

Pragma. Pragma love is known as practical love involving logic and reason. Arranged marriages were often arranged for functional purposes. Kings and Queens of different countries often married to form alliances. This love style may seek out a romantic partner for financial stability, ability to parent, or simple companionship.

Mania. Mania is the final love style characterized by dependence, uncertainty, jealousy, and emotional upheaval. This type of love is insecure and needs constant reassurance.

These love styles should not be considered to be mutually independent.

An individual may approach love from a pragmatic stance and have found love that provides financial stability.

However, they still feel insecure (representative of mania) about whether their romantic partner will remain with them, thus ensuring continued financial stability.

It is important to remember that individuals engage in each of these love styles, and it is simply a matter of how much of each love style a person possesses.

The 5 C's of Healthy Relationships. According to Dan Heller (2020), there are a few clues into what might make a relationship work.

In a research project Heller tackled in 1983 as an undergraduate at UC-Santa Cruz, he found 5 components present in successful relationships.

Heller found that the happiest individuals in his research were those who could identify all 5 of these elements in their romantic relationships.

Communication: Effective communication is vital in any relationship. It involves actively listening to each other, expressing thoughts and feelings honestly and respectfully, and resolving conflicts in a healthy way.

Compatibility: The shared values, interests, and goals that bring people together. While differences can be enriching, having fundamental compatibility in important areas can strengthen a relationship's foundation.

Commitment: A willingness to invest time, effort, and energy into the relationship. It means prioritizing the partnership and working together to overcome challenges. Both partners should be dedicated to making the relationship work and be willing to make compromises when necessary.

Care: Care in a relationship involves showing love, affection, and support for your partner. This can manifest through small gestures of kindness, empathy, and consideration for each other's well-being. It's about being there for your partner in good times and bad.

Compromise: Relationships require compromise from both persons involved. This means finding common ground and making sacrifices to meet each other's needs and desires. Healthy compromise is a collaborative effort that ensures both individuals feel valued and respected.

Elements of Healthy Relationships

Communication. The way you talk with friends or partners is an important part of a relationship. Everyone involved should be able to communicate feelings, opinions, and beliefs. When communicating, consider tone and phrasing. Miscommunication often occurs when individuals choose to text versus talking in person or a phone call. Figuring out the best ways to express your feelings together will help eliminate miscommunication.

Boundaries. Boundaries are physical, emotional, and mental limits or guidelines a person sets for themselves which others need to respect. You and your partners or friends should feel comfortable in the activities you are doing together. All individuals involved should be respectful of boundaries. Whether it’s romantic, sexual, or platonic, consider what you want the relationship to look like and discuss it with the other(s).

Consent. Consent is important in all relationships. Consent is uncoerced permission to interact with the body or the life of another person. Coercion can look like pressure to do something, physical force, bargaining, or someone holding power over another to get what they want. Consent can look like asking about boundaries in relationships, actively listening to responses, and always respecting those boundaries.

Trust. Each person in the relationship should have confidence in one another. If you are questioning whether to trust someone, it may be important to communicate your feelings to them. Consider what makes you not trust someone. Is it something they did, or is it something you’ve experienced in other relationships?

Honesty. Honesty is important for communication. Each person within the relationship or friendship should have the opportunity to express their feelings and concerns. If you don’t feel comfortable being honest with someone, consider why and seek support if needed.

Independence. It’s important to have time to yourself in any relationship. Having opportunities to hang with others or time for self-care is important to maintain a healthy relationship. If you live with your partner(s) or friend(s), set up designated areas within your place where you can spend time alone.

Equality. Each person in the relationship should have an equal say in what’s going on. Listen to each other and respect boundaries.

Support. Each person in the relationship should feel supported. It’s important to have compassion and empathy for one another. In addition to supporting one another, it’s important to recognize your own needs and communicate boundaries around support.

Responsibility. Some days you may find you said something hurtful or made a mistake. Make sure to take responsibility for your actions and do not place the blame on your partner(s) or friend(s). Taking responsibility for your actions will further trust and honesty.

Healthy conflict. You may think conflict is a sign of an unhealthy relationship, but talking about issues or disagreements is normal. You won’t find a person that has the exact same interests, opinions, and beliefs as you; thus, at times disagreements may occur. Communicating your feelings and opinions while being respectful and kind is part of a healthy relationship.

Safety. Safety is the foundation of connection in a relationship. In order to set boundaries, communicate, and have fun, everyone must feel safe. If you do not feel safe to express your feelings, have independence, or anything else on this list, seek support using the resources below.

Fun. In addition to all these components, you should be enjoying the time you spend with others. Again, it’s important that your relationships promote your well-being and do not diminish it.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Hi, I don't think this is a strange question, no apologies necessary! There were so many ways I wanted to answer this. For the first question on how to "figure out what one of [your] characters would find attractive in a romantic partner", you may base some of it on Love Styles (+ relevant information in the other studies discussed above).

As for making "their slow transition into a romantic relationship not feel out of place or jarring", the Stages of Relationship Development is one model you can consider for inspiration. Also added some findings on "elements" of romantic/healthy relationships that I thought you may find helpful to incorporate in your story as well. Choose which ones make sense for your characters.

Another way I wanted to answer this was on common love/romance tropes in literature and other media. I find it helpful to learn about different tropes used by other authors when there are topics we want to cover as fiction writers, but have limited knowledge/experience on. But then you could always deviate or subvert those tropes/ideas once your story starts to flow naturally (+ considering your own story angle etc.). As such, here are some links to tropes related to romance that might give you some ideas: 1 2 3 4 5 6 (+ study these tropes in your favourite books/shows etc. to know more how you could also use them in your own writing).

More references:

The Physiology of Love ⚜ The 4 Kinds of Love

Love (according to literature) ⚜ Triangular Theory of Love

John Steinbeck: On Falling in Love

#anonymous #love #relationship #character development #writeblr #literature #writing inspiration #writing ideas #light academia #writers on tumblr #writing reference #character building #writing notes #spilled ink #dark academia #writing prompt #creative writing #writing resources

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maculategiraffe · 3 days ago

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there's this part in orson scott card's ender quartet, I think it's xenocide, when this sentient entity named jane who hitherto only existed as information gets a human body for the first time. and amid all the fun of it she has this one little episode where she's in a big furious argument with someone else and then she abruptly stops and runs out of the room

and her boyfriend runs after her and she's all shaky and tearful and freaking out and she's like "miro there's something wrong with me. I wanted to hurt quara just now"

and miro's like "no that means you're normal. quara is incredibly annoying" and jane is like "no you don't understand. I don't just mean I was annoyed with her or mad at her. I wanted to hurt her. physically. I actually felt my hands curl into fists. like I was going to hit her"

and miro's like "sorry baby that's just what it's like to be a thinking being with a body. your body sometimes wants things that you don't want. you just gotta be the boss of you like everybody else. but there's nothing wrong with you. you're just human now"

and jane is like "god. so you people just walk around like this all the time. and hardly ever actually punch each other in the face. I have a newfound respect"

I think about that a lot

#psir #books

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dreamerinsilico · 10 hours ago

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I do not mean this in any way condescendingly, but just as like, information for future time-spending choices: it sounds like OP and the many thousands of people who agree with them just do not like cRPG-style gameplay all that much (which is understandable, it is almost always pretty slow, and has a steep learning curve when you're not intimately familiar with the genre) and prefer a more action-y feel.

With that in mind! I have some recommendations...

98% of you nerds have probably played Skyrim already, but if you haven't? Well, Oblivion is in my not so humble opinion better, but Skyrim has a much more modern look, and far be it from me to disparage anyone for being turned off by extremely dated graphics (I couldn't get very far into Morrowind for this reason, which I've been in mourning about for years). Be a stealth archer, lead every guild in Tamriel, and essentially conquer the world.

Boyfriend Dungeon is a fantastic mix of reasonably challenging but low-stakes isometric action gameplay and dating sim. If you're really, really into the action gameplay, then Hades might also be up your alley (very crunchy on action, lighter on the dating sim, but what it lacks in variety on that front it makes up for in quality). Be gay extremely bisexual, do some murder.

If you like resource management sims with action gameplay, consider checking out Medieval Dynasty! It's got action gameplay that feels like Elder Scrolls games, plus, well, a city (village) building sim element, with some very light roleplay. (Watch a video or two; the village management UI is...unintuitive. Rewarding! But very, very unintuitive.) The wildlife will murder you a lot, but the game doesn't really punish you for it, except via loading screen. (Unfortunately, you cannot be gay in this one.)

If a little crafting and a lot of vaguely edgelord top-down action sounds like a good time, you might give V Rising a look. I haven't played that since several development cycles ago, but it was pretty fun at the time, and has good multiplayer support.

And I can't firmly recommend this one because it's not out yet, but I'm really looking forward to Avowed, which is the upcoming installment in the Pillars of Eternity series by Obsidian - so far it looks like an Elder Scrolls game set in Eora. I'm assuming it will let you be gay, since the previous game did.

it’s interesting how many people, including myself, share the similar sentiment that veilguard is actually incredibly fun while playing, and its the process of thinking back on it after finishing where it begins to fall apart and the holes begin to show… i think it’s especially interesting because at least for me, the other dragon age games are the opposite. i hate playing inquisition, but when i sit and look back on it i cannot help but admire how brilliant the writing and characters are. dragon age 2 can be a slog by act 3 but when i finish and think back on how the story unfolded i know in my heart that it was a masterpiece. i got bored or frustrated while playing them but these games stuck around in my head after finishing them for the first time not just for days or weeks but for years.

veilguard lacks this. i had A LOT of fun playing the game. i love the gameplay loop. i like the puzzles. i love the environments. it was probably the easiest dragon age game to blast through 60 hours of. but then the credits roll and instead of analyzing character arcs and deconstructing banter, im stuck on all the plot holes and missed opportunities.

veilguard gets worse the longer i let it marinate in my brain, rather than better. each rotisserie turn of the story over in my head reveals more and more nothingness - or just clumsy attempts at misdirection so i don’t think too hard about what’s missing. the dragon age games have always been an olympic sized swimming pool that you can dive headfirst into if you want, and you will be rewarded with a corresponding amount of depth. veilguard is one of those kiddie pools at a water park with slides and fountains and a water-based jungle gym on top - it’s fun on the surface and packed with things to do. but if you attempt to dive? you’ll crack your head open.

#i love reccing video games and can confidently do so in most* genres #video games #dragon age #dragon age veilguard #video game recs #i'm gonna go back to my cultist simulator hole now #*i'm terrible at platformers and do not like sportsball sims

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the-raven-and-the-tower · 3 days ago

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Viago: You're the client?

Fun fact: Viago knows Lace Harding from a prior quest, so I tried to bring her to this meeting and was bummed when she wasn't included in the cutscene.

Teia: This is Rook. Did you want a drink? I promise not to let Viago near it.

Viago: (Sighs)

I fucking love the way exasperated way he handles her affectionate bullying. It's adorable and I love their dynamic. I especially like that despite Viago outranking Teia (click here for a cute bit of banter between them about that), he doesn't bother with rank. If anything, Teia pushes him around.

Viago: Viago de Riva. Fifth Talon.

Quick, efficient, brief, and without boasting.

Viago: And this is Caterina Dellamorte. First Talon of the Crows.

I love how his tone shifts to one of profound respect / a call for respect as he indicates Caterina. We didn't hear any of that when he referenced himself, which I think is cool.

Rook: An honor. And you are?

Illario: Illario Dellamorte. Her grandson. What brings you here?

Also brief, blunt and to the point. Why is he here? He's her grandchild. Not a Talon, not a named assassin. Caterina's grandson, a role he sees himself as having been reduced to and is planning to break free from forever.

Rook: Right. My target is a pair of elven gods—or that's what they call themselves. They're ancient blighted mages.

Rook: My detective says you have a man who brought blood mages and Venatori to their knees.

Caterina: Lucanis.

Caterina: My grandson. They called him "the Demon of Vyrantium." He was the one who did those jobs.

Rook: Sounds like there's more to it.

Viago: Lucanis Dellamorte is dead. He was killed a year ago, now

Caterina (tapping her fingers pensively): What I say doesn't leave this room.

Caterina: The body our people brought back was not my grandson. It was dressed in his clothing, but it had been altered with blood magic to have his face.

Real quick, let's look at a slowed gif of Illario's face.

The facial expressions are pretty limited in most cutscenes, but we still can catch that quick flicker of surprise and then fearful concern on Illario's face as he checks first Viago and Teia's reactions, then Rook's. If Lucanis is alive, that means Zara didn't uphold her end of the bargain to kill Lucanis and instead kept him for her own purposes. This is the face of a man realizing his plan is unraveling.

Illario: My cousin is still alive? And you didn't think to tell me?

Quick recovery, responding to the shock with anger to cover his dismay. "You didn't think to tell me" is an interesting choice of words.

Viago: His ship was attacked. We knew someone sold him out... so you kept your suspicions to yourself.

I pulled this from the wiki for Viago, under the Eight Little Talons quest in Tevinter Nights; "Given his familiarity with poisons, suspicions fall on Viago. He declines Teia's offer to lie for him to give him an alibi, and Caterina orders for him and Dante to be locked in their room[s] as suspects." The way Viago willing accepts that suspicion points his direction then... and sees the reason in Caterina withholding information now- it's great. Unlike Illario, there is no protest, no immediate offense. Not only because he has done no wrong, but because he understands. He knows what they are and the nature of their lives. He trusts Caterina. That's enough for him. I love it. And him.

Rook: But you've brought it up now. Why?

Caterina: I've had eyes on the Venatori ever since they took my grandson from me.

Despite all her failings, I do appreciate that she refers to him as her grandson and not the Demon (of Vyrantium) or 'her best assassin' or even just his name, Lucanis. She wants her grandson back.

Caterina: They were hunting your Dread Wolf. And what you did to his ritual threw them into disarray.

"Your Dread Wolf" and "what you did" - I like the direct acknowledgement of not only how Rook's actions gave her this important knowledge, but also the direct nod to Rook's quest and the overall reason he's here, asking the Crows for help with his cause. Their goals are bound together, as are their paths forward.

Caterina: They made mistakes. And now I have a location. The Ossuary. Where the Demon of Vyrantium is kept.

Now she calls him the Demon of Vyrantium - that's who Rook's looking for. She wants her grandson back, but Rook needs the Mage Killer.

Caterina: Find this Ossuary. Free Lucanis. You'll have your god-killer. And I'll have my grandson.

I fucking love "you'll have your god-killer", the faith she has in his abilities. Granted, they're abilities she systematically beat-and-starved into an orphaned seven-year-old boy and I do not love her for that, but I do like knowing that Illario probably grit his teeth pretty hard when he heard it. I gobble the angst up like cookies.

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genderqueerdykes · 5 hours ago

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What i don't understand about people who are vehemently anti-endo is the fact that conditions like DID and plurality in general are extremely understudied.

How can someone say that "its impossible to be plural without xyz" when we barely even know anything about dissociative disorders, let alone plurality as a whole?

Asking you cause you seem smart and would understand where the other side is coming from at the very least + also seem like the least likely person to be mean about it

that's what i've been saying for a very long time, it makes no sense. I believe dissociative disorders are very well, but they're very poorly studied. and i do believe some of the things present in our current studies are heavily flawed or biased in nature because i don't agree with some of the more nitty gritty aspects when it comes to system structure and function.

i was diagnosed during an unrelated screening to apply for disability in 2017. i was relieved to finally have it acknowledged by a professional who knew what they were talking about. he knew a lot about plurality but we were still limited to what the DSM-V said and it's just a book. it only has so much info. it's not a bible. it's flawed. there's still outdated information in our medical reference boxes. research is constantly changing what we come to know about human health and psychology

How can someone say that "its impossible to be plural without xyz" when we barely even know anything about dissociative disorders, let alone plurality as a whole?

good question, thanks for asking! it is ignorance. people who say these sort of things generally refuse to interact with different plural oriented spaces and instead stay in their comfort zones and small bubbles. as a result, they don't learn anything about other types of plurals. they will refuse to because they have an attitude that tells them they are right about everything.

a lot of people virtue signal and try to look like they are a Good Plural or a Plural Ally by bulling plural people who don't have DID/OSDD. it's people trying to suck up to mean, rude plurals who think they know everything. a lot of people are doing this in various communities. it's pretty easy to spot once you've been there for long enough. it's very hollow. they don't back up what they're actually saying. they just say things to blend in and gain acceptance. they're not concerned about uncovering the truth about plurality, it is an attempt to find a place to call home

there are studies on non dissociative plurality, but they're under funded and poorly preserved and researched. medical studies do not occur unless there is money to fund them, and investors want guaranteed returns. they are not going to waste their time with something they think won't be profitable. this also isn't about exposing the truth about plurality. this is just an attempt to make money and nothing else. the medical industry is nothing but a cash generator

thanks for stopping by i appreciate it! plurality is varied. it's not a one size fits all experience. there are many ways to be plural

#asks #answers #plurality #plural #did #osdd #endo safe #endo friendly #endogenic plurality #pro endo

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mqriuss · 2 days ago

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04 | Now playing: Good Girls

from 'bad girls that haven't been caught' series

note: do i like this or not i dont know anymore guys

playlist | series masterlist

rindou likes you.

even ran has started to notice it. this guy is literally going to school everyday just to see you and teach you basketball after school. and the more he attended school, the more he learned about you.

he learns that you're not actually a loner and you have a few friends from different classes that you hang out with during lunch, and the first years think you're more reliable than the entitled student council president.

also, you were so good at english that nakajima sensei gets you to help her check homework answers for fun? and you just casually speak three other languages. crazy. now he just likes you even more.

all this time, rindou also thought you were the type to snitch and remind the teacher they assigned some homework, but you've never done anything of the sort. in fact, it was always fumio doing that kind of stuff. so most of his classmates have more to say about fumio than you.

"fumio's the teacher's pet, y/n's just a smartass," they'd say, in a nutshell at least.

another thing rindou finds out about you is that you've never been a part of any club in school. you just join a random one each week, which is why you're pretty good at everything—swimming, archery, chess, football, volleyball, sewing—the list is endless, but basketball will never be on it.

speaking of basketball, you stopped getting lessons from rindou after ten days. "why do you wanna stop? getting a bit too challenging for ya?" he teased you that day.

"i'm getting bored of it, and i need to focus on studying more," you told him, and your reason made sense. mid-term exams were approaching after all, but you were nowhere to be seen during free periods.

now imagine the terrified faces of the poor girls from class 2-B when rindou came barging in to the home economics club, no tie, first few buttons undone, hands in his pockets, and chewing on an empty candy stick.

"where's y/n?" he asks, unaware that he was practically glaring at them.

"w- we don't know..." one of the girls stammers, gripping onto her friend's hand under the table.

"i know you know. you're her friends, aren't you?"

"the library!" the other girl exclaims, and her friend tries to stop her but she shakes her head vigorously—as if warning her to just stay quiet. "y/n is always at the library any chance she gets when exams are coming up. i suggest you don't bother her while she's studying," she informs him and panics when she sees his eyebrow twitch upwards. "i- i mean, i'm sure she'll understand if it's an urgent matter!"

"please don't kill us!" the other girl chimes in and her friend's eyes widen at her.

rindou makes a puzzled expression, "why would i do that?" he mutters before turning around on his heel. "anyway, thanks for letting me know. see ya." with a lazy wave, he walks out of the classroom and the girls let out a breath they didn't realize they've been holding.

"what does he want with y/n?"

"i don't know, i hope she'll be okay!"

when rindou steps in to the library, he's immediately greeted with a "shhh" from the librarian, making him freeze in his spot. he glances at her before taking another step- "shhh," she shushes him again with a glare and finger over her lips.

"i was just-"

"shhh."

rindou squints, his lips part as he glances around as if there were invisible cameras filming him. he scratches his head, moving on to find you in the maze of this library.

he swears he's passed by every table they had, but you weren't there. even your belongings weren't laying around anywhere.

"excuse me-"

"shhh."

rindou closes his eyes shut, inhaling deeply before exhaling a long breath. "y/n, i'm looking for y/n," he whispers.

"oh, she's in here," the librarian talks for the first time, and rindou deadpans upon hearing her voice. it's loud. almost earsplitting, even.

"um, i don't see her anywhere?" rindou glances around and the librarian shrugs, taking her glasses off to wipe them.

"she came here and hasn't walked out."

"you talk really loud for a-"

"shhh."

rindou sighs and goes venturing back into the library. this time, he weaves through the aisles, and he finally finds you. and honestly, he was expecting you to be sat on the floor with a textbook on your lap.

but what the hell were you doing standing around with hayashi fumio?

you lock eyes with rindou and waste no time dragging him away, completely leaving fumio behind with a dumbfounded expression.

"what the-"

"don't tell anyone," you firmly tell him, but you remained calm.

rindou blinks at you, putting two and two together. "you and fumio..." he trails off, sounding unsure of himself.

"we're dating," you say with a nod, and rindou's mind flashes back to that day fumio and the basketball team walked in on you guys using the indoor court. "you better not tell a soul."

← prev chapter | next chapter →

→ bonus chapter

#bad girls that haven't been caught: series #tokyo revengers #tokrev #tokyo rev #tokrev x reader #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyo rev x reader #rindou haitani #haitani rindou #rindou x reader #haitani rindou x reader #rindou haitani x reader #tokrev rindou #tr rindou #tokyo revengers rindou

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geminiperson · 2 days ago

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First they came for my jewish neighbor. Then they came for my gay neighbor. Then they came for my disabled neighbor. Then they came for my black neighbor, and my hispanic neighbor, and my muslim neighbor, and my trans neighbor, and my woman neighbor. And finally they came for me. And as I stood for none when they needed my protection, there were none to stand for me when I needed theirs. This adage is old, and has changed many times, and while being an ally is meant to be achieved without the need of exchange, the purpose of allies is to achieve community. Fascists despise community for it's key component, unity. Organization, Allyship, understanding, education, and communication are the keys to defeating fascism. Fascism seeks to disrupt communities by interrupting communication, such as the banning of a heavily used app that was previously not beholden to the US government that allowed for people to discuss and learn about things outside of their personal community in order to create better understanding. They seek to utilize misinformation as a weapon to destroy allyship and miseducation so those most susceptible to it become a tool to disrupt the community. They use violence against the organized as a means of suppression. But when fascists take power, they have the best opportunities to cause harm. They will show you information that sows division and distrust. They will regulate and deregulate to damage communities economically and ecologically, thereby limiting their ability to oppose. They will ignore fact, and create their own rules, powered by self assured belief and in spite of logic, reason, humanity, and decency. The rules they create will not apply to them, only to the communities they intend to oppress. They will send their agents, both willing and unaware, to create chaos and insight violence. The fascist is a plague against the good, the decent, the kind, and the reasonable. Their only goal is amassing power, and their only true motive is destruction and abuse. Right now, especially to my younger generations, I want to say this to you. You are not alone. You need only to look around to find allies, and if you do not see them where you are, I invite you to go and find them. A massive number of Americans, recognizing that their government was lying to them, chose unity through the simple action of connecting through a different social media app, which sounds incredibly small, but it was, without question, an immediate act of protest that made legitimate change. Now people from across the world are connecting, communicating, and finding allies in a place that they previously believed was their enemy. They are seeing that what they have been taught is not only untrue, but in direct opposition to the truth. There is positive and legitimate change happening. So on the days when it seems deeply impossible, understand, that is a challenge that you can and should overcome.

I want you to remember:

The fascists hate you too and they just will pretend otherwise until after they've killed the rest of us, before they turn on you.

#community building #international #queer community #intersectionality

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starberry-cupcake · 2 days ago

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I'm trying the post-it method and it's really messy but, if it helps, I'll keep it up, because I feel like live-reading doesn't help me out with processing this as much as going back on notes does...god, I sound like palmolive...

previously, in nona del 9:

this happened

this is the general tag for all the recaps I've done

CHAPTER 8 (third house skull, which, I guess, but tangentially)

sriracha girlie from school is still on the case and asks nona to up her game in the surveillance task and pretend she's on a radio call

she doesn't elaborate but I doubt it'd help nona understand much anyway if she does

she's just happy to help

nona has to put little boots in the six-legged dog's feet before going out into the scorching heat, though

it's the summer here, so I feel you, noodle

(bonus info: our new puppy apparently has been aptly named because she has 0 fear and is trying to jump into the pool head first like a maniac)

so nona, because she has no preservation skills either, just like our puppy, thinks is a good idea to pretend like she's talking to coronabeer

she still calls her "crown", but it doesn't make me feel any more ok with her pretend calling coronabeer of all people

wasn't she with BOE and whatnot? what if the enemy is listening?

she invites her to her birthday party on the beach

and I might be too cautious but I know better than to share so much information in the wild outdoors where someone could listen

like 'I'm gonna be in this location at this day, please come steal from me or whatever'

maybe it's just my latine self talking, but be careful out there

how do they trust this girl to not be a hazard on her own?

she's like 8 years old

oh, great, I sound like mercygirl now

nona starts drowsing off and a bible chapter comes in, which people have told me is her sleeping

gonna remind everyone I didn't find that out on my own

that's not a victory for me

JOHN 15:23

"Whoever hates me hates my Father as well" is the bible verse in this one

well, then

I haven't read the bible this much since I was in my second school (out of 4)

so here we are again with dr. reverend emperor john buttface's monologue

there's a distraction tactic possibility to get him killed, if we ever need one

he mentions the eye color change as things get weird with their experiments

and says cassiopeia?? potentially? or cyrus? told him he looked like edward cullen "from that old movie twilight"

like I'm not gonna clock dr. reverend emperor john having read twilight with his own two changing eyes

so dr reverend emperor john the menace and his terrible lyctors start doing awful things to the corpses that aren't rotting

allegedly due to dr reverend emperor john "loving them"

whatever that means

and the corpses remain undamaged

what I'd like to point out here is that these people are deranged and god awful even when they hadn't been 25 million years old

this is them brand new from the package and they're all either terrible or complicit in being terrible

I think cassiopeia is the only one visibly suffering but still, man

these people were always like this, this isn't some "we've been out in space so long we've lost touch with our humanity"

happy out of touch thursday, this is you, this has always been you

dr reverend emperor john starts talking about touching the corpses' hands and feeling them even when they aren't there with him

mercygirl is doubting his sanity

yet still they all followed him to hell, so who's crazier here

they picked two corpses, a guy and a gal, to make more specific experiments on, and he named them ulysses and titania

titania after the shakespeare character

ulysses not after the greek hero

and by controlling their hands from across the room I guess they discover necromancy

he's still talking to harrow through all this

CHAPTER 9 (sixth house skull, but at what cost?????)

sriracha girle tells nona that, after her imaginary phone call with coronabeer, the ceaseless watcher left the building

literally

nobody knows what this means but sriracha girlie is still on the case

then they start hearing shots outside and everyone has their safety precautions but they're all bored about it instead of afraid

wish this was just a fiction thing and not the current world

so everyone gets picked up except for sriracha girle, as ush

camilla comes to pick up nona from school and gets pastries (aka facturas, where I'm from)

camilla is doing the lord's work here

she got them by selling out pyrrha's cigarettes, apparently, which I find a great exchange but I don't smoke, so I'm obviously team facturas

then, we get a nona flashback from a month prior, about the Event which prevents them from going swimming anymore

they used to go to the sea at dusk to have some private time with the water

and by them I mean nona went swimming, because the sea is filled with deadly jellyfish, so they'd kill a regular person, but not nona

she can swim with the jellyfish, which sounds beautiful, actually

the whole swimming description is so relaxing and beautiful and I am hating this heat but I'm grateful for the swimming opportunity it provides

swimming is great

swimming with jellyfish without dying must be great

relaxing moment for 3.5 seconds for everyone

of course things can't be relaxing for too long, this is tlt we're talking about

nona sees some people surrounding camilla and guesses it must be the police

which, in every universe, is a Problem

tons of police men surrounding one woman, yeah, doesn't look great

but I was fine because this is camilla fucking hect we're talking about

no cops at pride, just camilla and knives

nona can't hear their conversation but, at one point, she can hear camilla say "speak House"

which ??????????????????????'

doesn't sound good AT ALL

nona sees one of them pointing a gun and warns camilla, which earns nona a shot through the shoulder

so then, when nona resurfaces, she finds everyone lying motionless and camilla squatting on the sand

and I was like "of course my baby did that"

youtube

but then nona looks at her and she's got one camilla eye and one palmolive eye

and is talking like camolive is some sort of dragon ball fusion

they ask nona not to freak out

I'm freaking out

camolive's timer starts going like crazy and they ask nona to drive them home

camilla comes back to herself at this point BUT

she's bleeding everywhere

like, blood coming out of her skin

it's everywhere

nona asks her to get palmolive but camilla says they can't

so nona has to drive them home in the middle of the night with the blood and the salty water and the potential police following

nona thankfully can manage and pyrrha says camilla is in thanergy shock

she says they can never do that again and that if palmolive wasn't sharing a body with her, she'd be kicking his ass

AND I WOULD BE TOO

PALMOLIVE, I SAID IT LAST RECAP, MAN

YOU HAD ONE JOB

KEEPING CAMILLA SAFE

WHAT ARE YOU DOING??????

camilla asks them to not tell palmolive she was "weak"

pyrrha drinks in camilla's honor while she's recuperating and nona asks her why she said goodbye to her if she's gonna be fine

to which pyrrha asks how does she know she was saying goodbye

basically, camilla is not dying but she's also not fine

which I got from the very heavy bleeding, thank you very much doctor pyrrha

if something happens to camilla I swear to whatever god that isn't the monologuing prick in the sleeping chapters I'm gonna go feral

PALMOLIVE I'M GOING TO CHASE YOU DOWN

AND THAT'S IT FOR THIS RECAP!!! I think the post its system is better for me?? I'll figure it out as I go. See you on the next one!!!

#luly reacts to tlt #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #tlt #tlt spoilers #long post #gif cw #death cw #suicide cw #Youtube

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two-entire-bits · 2 days ago

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Deaf Outsiders Headcanons

I'd like to preface this by saying I'm hearing, and I've only been studying sign language, deaf history, and Deaf culture from a Deaf professor for the past couple months, and I do not know everything. I've researched the medical backgrounds for the genetic conditions and injuries mentioned, but some information might be incorrect and/or I might've misunderstood some things. If it is or I have, please tell me! I don't mean any misinformation or disrespect and I apologize if I cause any offense.

These also include some other disabilities!

Some world-related stuff:

There's no deaf schools in Tulsa, but the Oklahoma School for the Deaf was founded in 1908 so the time periods would hypothetically work out

In this alternative story there would be a deaf school in Tulsa and the Curtis brothers would all attend/have attended said school

I know it's Gallaudet University, but before 1986 it was a college

For the Curtis family: all of them are deaf. I think they'd have Autosomal Dominant Non-Syndromic (DFNA) deafness, maybe a variant in the MYH14 gene, which causes those with the variant to progressively lose their hearing within the first 3 decades of their lives. The Curtis parents taught their boys how to sign ASL, which they'd use at home, speak English, which they'd only use for hearing people, and lip read, also for hearing people, to an extent when they were young. The Curtis parents encouraged their boys to talk in sign as much as possible, but also were very upfront about ableism and how the world is built for hearing people.

Ponyboy:

Completely loses his hearing around 7-10

He's good at talking but doesn't like to, and very good at lip reading so he can watch movies

He still likes to write and caught onto English spelling and grammar quick

He often carries a notebook around to write in but mostly writes quick in ASL's grammar

He also uses it to write things to hearing people when he doesn't want to speak

He signs REALLY fast, he has a lot of things to say and good motor skills and sometimes even his parents have to ask him to repeat himself

Lexicalizes words all the time on accident

Signs to himself all the time, especially when he's alone

Likes to try and figure out what the actors are saying in movies and figure out the plot without the dialogue and sign along with the lines he can follow

VERY visual storyteller

Darrel:

Completely loses his hearing around 12-15

He can talk and lip-read very well, which he doesn't prefer but it's useful at work

Always kind of dreamed of playing football at Gallaudet, but always knew it wasn't really possible

Also signs to himself, but only when he's alone

Soda:

Completely loses his hearing closer to 3-5 and struggles with speaking compared to Darry and Ponyboy.

He always had hard time understanding English, and that plus being deaf and dyslexia contributed to him feeling stupid and dropping out of school (especially compared to Ponyboy)

He and Ponyboy talk in tactile sign at night before bed when everything's dark

His parents told him "Darry" rhymes with "Dairy" in English when he was really young and half the time he just signs "milk" instead of Darry's sign name to tease him. He got Pony in on it too

Johnny:

Hearing, but has apraxia of speech and selective mutism

His parents hate him for it and sent him to public mainstream school anyways

The Curtis parents taught him ASL after they met him

His apraxia and mutism contribute to why his teachers "give up on him" and to him having to repeat a grade in addition to other learning problems he was having and struggling to get the material quick enough for the curriculum

One reason why he was so scared in the hospital was because his hands were so burned he couldn't sign

Steve:

born with x-linked recessive deafness to hearing parents. His mother carried the gene and passed it to him

An especially good driver because of this

He goes to the same deaf school as the Curtis brothers and met Soda when they were in grade school, same as the book

Doesn't know how to speak English and doesn't want/care to learn it

When he was younger, he almost got caught stealing a car's hubcaps because he didn't realize how loud it was until he was telling the gang later about how the owners came outside and spotted him and Two-Bit told him that they probably heard the clattering of the metal hubcaps on the tarmac

Two-Bit:

Hearing, but his mom and sister (Tammy) are both deaf, he just didn't get the gene

Speaks English and ASL fluently but still stutters while signing because of motor skill issues

Purposefully messes up his grammar or signs sometimes just to annoy Tammy

Dallas:

Born hearing, but has Ménière's disease because he was jumped or in a car accident (something that wasn't his fault) when he was around 13-15 and the head trauma caused bleeding in the inner ear and his hearing is fluctuating at the time of the book

He's scared and angry because it'll get better and then worse and he never knows how or when it's going to change

He gets annoyed by the tinnitus and dizzy spells, and will often hole up somewhere when he feels a vertigo episode coming on and won't leave until it's over

The Curtis parents start teaching him basic sign and things to expect and things to know if he ends up permanently loosing his hearing, but he stopped trying to learn anything after they died

On one particularly shitty day when he didn't realize how loud he was being and Two told him he was yelling and he got so pissed at everything and that he didn't even realize he was being loud that he punched Two in the face

He's angry that it was something he could've stopped, that it happened when he wasn't actively looking for a fight or driving recklessly, or that it wasn't genetic because then he'd have someone/something to actively hate and blame. He never found out who jumped/crashed into him

Bonus: Socs!

Marcia:

Acquired hearing loss due to a recent head injury while barrel racing

It's not too bad at the time of the book, but they don't know if it'll get worse or not yet

She's not too worried about it, but every once in a while when she thinks about it a lot she gets really scared about what will happen if she loses her hearing permanently

She's scared she'll have to quit dance

Her mom kept her in high school and got her hearing aids eventually when it got worse

When she starts dating Two-Bit, it's another reason why she gets along with his mom and Tammy so well

They help teach her some basic sign and about Deaf culture, and kind of quench any fears she had about not being able to be happy/live if you're deaf because she didn't know anything about being deaf

Once she's learned enough sign to have conversations, she starts taking her hearing aids off at their house

Cherry:

Hearing

She was there when Marcia crashed and comforts her when she gets really worried about her future, but she doesn't really get it or know much about it

She wasn't rude about the way Pony pronounced things or later that night, when she was waiting for Ponyboy to write out what he wanted to say at the Drive-In and he got tired enough he didn't want to have to speak, which really surprised him

Bob:

Hearing

Knows nothing and could not care less about d/Deaf and generally disabled people

Thinks he can make Johnny talk if he beats him hard enough (partial motivation behind him and the Socs jumping Johnny before the book)

He knows Marcia's losing her hearing and is kind about it

Rolls his eyes sometimes when Marcia asks Cherry to repeat herself

Randy:

Hearing

Has no clue how to deal with Marcia's crash or her losing her hearing

Just tries (key word) to comfort her but doesn't do much else, just kind of goes on as normal

Similar to Bob, he'll get annoyed if she asks him to repeat himself too many times but feels a little bad about it

Paul:

Hearing

Learned some signs when he was friends with Darry

He didn't care to remember them when they stopped seeing each other

Felt "betrayed" when Darry said he dreamed of going to Gallaudet to play football because Paul just always assumed they'd go play together at some hearing mainstream college and he doesn't want to "learn all that shit" or "be around those kinds of people that much" just to play football at the same college as Darry

Bev:

Hearing

Knows about Marcia and says she doesn't care, but every once in a while she'll say something or make a joke that's just rude and shitty

Like Bob and Randy, she also doesn't cut Marcia a lot of slack if she doesn't hear something one of them says (Cherry is pretty much the only one that does)

She purposefully tries not to think about Marcia's future because she knows she'll get really upset about it, cos she thinks (and pretty much all the Soc's and hearing population, including Marcia) being deaf means you can't live or be happy

#two-bit talks #deaf outsiders you are so dear to me #deaf outsiders #I'm not sure how the shepards would add into this although I think it'd be interesting if they/one of them were blind #I feel like this is kinda preaching “deaf people have to learn how to speak”#let me be very clear that that is not true #but it was the 60's #and that would've been the expectation from hearing people in that area at the time unfortch #the ADA wasn't even signed until 1990 #but anyways yeah! if I got anything wrong or said anything rude I'm sorry and I very much did not intend to #and if you have the time please tell me and I'll fix it asap #the outsiders #the outsiders 1983 #the outsiders musical #ponyboy curtis #darrel curtis #sodapop curtis #johnny cade #steve randle #two bit mathews #dallas winston #marcia meyrink #marcia the outsiders #cherry valance #bob sheldon #randy adderson #paul holden #and yes that can definitely be parrel #bev the outsiders #headcanons

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beesmygod · 1 day ago

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Yo Bea,

What are the best sources for reading up about fromsoft lore? I know we’ve got your meticulously batshit blood borne book (thank you very much by the way) but what about the other fromsoft entries?

Also what’s your general opinion on the Japanese vs English translation with Fromsoft entires? How much nuance is lost/how many misunderstandings arise from the way things have been changed over? I distinctly remember people thinking that with Elden Ring the English ending monologue for Ranni made her goals sound way more sinister than the Japanese translation

this will have an unsatisfying answer: in my opinion, there really isnt any. bloodborne is the most centralized of them all, imo, and i really chalk this up to it being a more self contained and western narrative (at least on the surface level) compared to games that are either spread across multiple games (dark souls) making them fuck huge to consider or they're elden ring which is also fuck huge lol. theres just a lot of information to process. these stupid games and the collective understanding of their story really comes from disparate random reddit and forum guys who just pipe in with their evidence and its up to a jury of their peers to decide if it passes the smell test or not. its an imperfect system that allows some crap through. but as the whole, the collaborative research efforts have proven to be an excellent example of a community coming together to solve problems that don't matter at all lol.

unfortunately the research method is usually looking up questions and characters as they come to you and seeing if anyone else noticed or followed your own train of thought. trawling a wiki until you see something that makes you go "hey what is that all about" and seeing if anyone else knows or at least has a lead. and then you go from there.

HOWEVER: shetani's lair has the best sekiro breakdown i have ever seen in my entire life and greatly influenced the bloodborne doc. her work is phenomenal and REALLY gets in the nitty gritty of the translation work. i don't think people can do much better for sekiro than her work. its very good and very long. great reading imo.

this kind of dovetails into translation: i tend to look at both translations when i look at the games. this is because of a peculiar oddity in how the games are made; most of the games (sekiro excluded) are intended to have english voice acting. so at least a major part of the game's text is english only and was intended to be that way. as is inevitable with any translation job, some nuance gets lost. it is hard to convey a lot of the nasty doublespeak and pointed ambiguity in the original jpn item descriptions, which is why i try to hold the fan-provided japanese translations up to the english translations to see what carried across, what didn't, and if anything was missed.

but this doesn't mean the translations are bad. if anything they are shockingly good considering the conditions the translators have to work with (the japanese they translate is is like. archaic apparently lol. with tight turn around before launch). sometimes i am blown away by the translator's ingenuity at threading what must often feel like an impossible needle. ranni's ending speech is def way crazier than it was intended to be and might be the biggest example of a scuffed translation in a from game. she says some insane shit implying she's about to annihilate all life on earth with the cold instead of taking the cold away with her lol. oops!

and as always, if you have questions i would love to try to answer them. or at least say "i dont know" lol

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morgana96 · 3 days ago

Text

(Okay, I don't mean to drag this out, but there's actually a LOT of other misinformation in yumeijin's claims that contradict what actually happened in-game.)

"Let's ignore the matter of it being a written contrivance that the Endless require more aether than exists on a shard seemingly primed for rejoining."

There's really nothing contrived about it at all. G'raha Tia explains the root of the problem very consisely when the group first arrives in Living Memory: "All men eventually die. If you make Endless of everyone, you will never have enough aether to sustain them. You but prolong the inevitable".

And if anyone would understand the insustainability of keeping disembodied souls corporeal, it would be G'raha. After all, it wasn't Dawntrail that introduced this concept to the narrative. It was Shadowbringers.

When the Scions' souls were accidently brought over to the First, the Crystal Exarch had to use extremely powerful magics to keep their souls from dissipating. But this was a temporary solution used to buy time to develop a means to return their souls to their comatose bodies back on the Source.

Alexandria's Endless were not detatched from still-living bodies: they were memory data collected from corpses in an effort to circumvent the natural process of death.

The Endless are, to put it in biological terms, parasitic entities. The reason why they need so much aether is because they are fully constructed from it and can't replenish it other ways, unlike actual living beings who have physical bodies made up of cells. They can't even maintain corporeal forms without those large amounts of aether. And the more Endless that are created, the more insustainable the parasitic relationship becomes.

"The people in Living Memory aren't shades any more than any sundered is compared to an Ancient."

They ARE shades. And there's one Endless in particular that really solidifies that fact: Otis.

The Otis we befriend in Heritage Found had lived a long life following his transformation. Yet once we get to Living Memory, that Otis isn't there. Endless!Otis has no memory of his life as a machine, taking care of Gulool Ja, or sacrificing himself to protect us and Endless!Sphene.

This is because Endless!Otis was created from memories stored before Otis' transformation: his robotic body wasn't equipped with any sort of regulator, meaning that none of his post-transformation memories were collected.

This moment in the story showcases that the Endless aren't actually the people they're based on, but rather imitations functioning on stored memory data. If memories of events a person experienced aren't collected, the simulated version of them in Living Memory will simply operate as if those events never happened, even though they absolutely did.

"Imagine shutting down a whole ward of people on life support because a handful of them would rather pass on."

The Endless are not on "life support".

Life support is the use of various medical treatments and techniques to counteract organ failure and temporarily postpone organ death. The goal of such treatment is to give the body extra time to potentially recover, and is only meant to keep someone going until their body can keep itself going again.

In Alexandria, an Endless is only created after a person dies permanently. You can't put the disembodied soul memories of a person who's already dead on "life support". They're dead. There's no recovering from that.

~~~

Again, I'm not trying to be a jerk or whatever, yumeijin. But your argument is littered with incorrect information and misconceptions about how the Endless work, and that's important to address.

i have seen people be like "if you think what the dawntrail protagonists do in zone six is valid you have to conceded emet's approach/perspective was valid, what you do is basically what he does" and it's like...nah. it's obviously intentionally very similar ("it's like poetry, it rhymes") but there's some key differences:

emet is disgusted by sundered life, which he sees as inhuman, and longs to return to the unrecoverable past. so he does seven(ish) planet-wide genocides. the endless aren't new life, their ability to grow and learn is specifically in question (at the very least they are fundamentally incapable of taking in new sensory experience of certain forms), they're shades from the unrecoverable past, and you are destroying them in favor of those still alive.

also, we aren't disgusted by them nor do we think anything is fundamentally justified if done to them (everyone pretty much no-sells cahciua "we aren't alive so it doesn't matter if you kill us :)," in fact). we don't have like 12,000 years and the most advanced magic known to anyone alive. we are forced by serious exigency to destroy them due to a political impasse with their leadership's policy re: resource extraction. this tonal difference is in fact extremely important.

the endless themselves seem pretty ambivalent about the whole deal. they're bored or they're wary of the way their world keeps shrinking, and it's very explicitly neither a functioning society by any recognizable human terms nor a paradise.

related to the above, basically every named endless turns to the person most relevant to them (cahciua to erenville, krile's parents to her, namikka to wuk lamat, otis to you) and is like, huh, i really appreciate having this moment of grace at the end of my journey to see that it was all worthwhile and to resolve my lasting regrets, but i understand what you're here to do and yeah, it's probably time for us to go. (does the writing put a finger on the scale by doing this? sure, but the writers also designed and built the scales and everything they're weighing on them, so i find it hard to discredit any one aspect for being the writers' invention.)

finally uh no one in the party has kids with the endless or lives a full human lifetime as one of them lol.

it's important to remember that emet was definitely at least somewhat lying about not seeing the sundered as real people. the fact that he has "lived a thousand thousand of your lives . . . broken bread with you, fought with you, grown ill, grown old, sired children and yes, welcomed death’s sweet embrace" makes everything he did soooooo much crazier than what you do. if i managed to convince an endless to fall in love with me and i had a kid with them and i loved that kid so much that their death threw me into a permanent grief spiral then like. yeah i guess i would have to be like "well hats off to emet, folks." but luckily the game doesn't make you do that.

even if you insist everyone in living memory was a full living person that we killed, you're still weighing like a city of people versus 7+ planet-wide mass murders. you do not under any circumstances got to hand it to him.

living memory absolutely is evocative of everything that happens in shadowbringers. but rather than placing us in emet's shoes, it forces us to relive what we already did, to really fully face up to what we have done by promising to remember emet's culture after destroying any chance of its return. after two games going hard on the hope part of the game's central theme of hope arising from grief, now we're doing grief. we are forced to see the past of our memories not as a cold, ghostly art deco cubus-plagued socratic method hellscape but as the most beautiful technicolor theme park where everyone's happy and no one's sad and there's parades every day and your parents are alive and they love you so much. and then the game's conclusion is, yeah, you were still right to let go. in fact, you were and are morally obliged to let go. the living were and are worth more than the dead. our grief in letting go of them may be immense and turns our world to bleak nothingness for a time, and that is important to recognize, but at the end of the day our most pressing duty is to those we can yet save, not those we have lost.

#Final Fantasy XIV #FFXIV #Dawntrail #Shadowbringers #Dawntrail Spoilers #Shadowbringers Spoilers

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