#so people searching the actual countries...

[bakerstreet-and-beyond]

Hey please be careful in sharing things like this because a number of these things folks are claiming you can't search/get flagged since the Ban you very much still can search and or were things that were already being flagged for review BEFORE the 19th ...

Like- did we all forget talking about this over a year ago when there was a decrease in Pro-Palestine content due to outside suppression on the app or when real time Lives of fighting in Ukraine were being taken down? There's a reason why people on TikTok were using 🍉 and 🌻 instead of the flag or actually naming the countries.

Also the majority of negative comments being flagged about these awful people is because it contains the word "Fuck" which on Tumblr y'all've been dunking on how on TikTok you couldn't/can't say, "Fuck" "Kill" "Sex" "Die" etc in comments and descriptions for YEARS... Literally if you put those words in as tags, descriptions, captions or comments you get flagged; We've known this for A WHILE.

They took 170 MILLION users offline and then back, some issues people are reporting are literally growing pains of putting the servers in weird limbo life support after taking them down (technically the app is STILL banned) like the Live Feature needing about 24hrs to come back online and quality being nuked.

Certain users are missing or aren't uploading anymore because they deleted the app not because they are "Banned", which still since the app itself IS STILL technically banned, you can't re-download in the app store currently. We all thought it was the end and some actually deleted their accounts the day of because of how sure folks thought it was over.

Also the primary editing software people use for TikTok, Capcut, isn't back either because of this purgatory the app is in so people can't even make the videos they normally make too.

Under the cut here the actual results when you type in those terms into TikTok search and what I saw for Lives literally 48 hours ago

When Lives Feature came back on literally the first Live I got on my FYP was for a MLK Day parade and it was someone zooming in on a sign a little girl was holding that said "This is the Kings day, NOT his" followed by the next Live got was a gentleman walking around his neighborhood speaking in Spanish about how he's been up all morning checking out suspicious trucks in his neighborhood worried that they may be undercover ICE vans. Next Live I saw was someone talking about how no one can see her live and yet there was 5,000 people watching 🧍🏻the next video I literally got was a Luigi Update; unfortunately I didn't realize I should've taken screenshots of all this but also,

I'm in the US and not using a VPN, here are my results for the following as of 1/22/25:

The Radio Station only comes up as a banner at the top suggesting the account but, all the results are tho what you'd expect

These videos also are still here,

And this is what you get for searching "Fascism"

And our boi is still very much here

I hit my photo limit, but I implore you to type those terms in that supposedly have "no results anymore" and see they very much do and or realize that some things have already been removed well before the 19th

I really think letting us purposely spread that the app is now overly censored and the Meta buyout rumours is a tactic to further divide us. I really think, right now at least, the only thing they had to do was put "Thank You Donald Trump" in the return message, without having to actually change anything else, and then let folks go wild with the accusations, rumors, and conspiracies so then we all turn on the app ourselves and thus we won't cry about it being gone or that it gives us some falsely created moral high ground for deleting it/not using it anymore/etc and again will keep us more divided than together.

Literally this is destabilization tactics our government uses on other countries and it's own communities...

Thankfully there are creators on there who are also pointing this out as well as, just look at the comments on this post and you will see that others are saying, again in the US without a VPN you can still search these things in the post above.

It doesn't excuse the other fuckery definitely happening by any means but, they are letting us destroy ourselves and the 3rd space we created where we were the most united we've been on a platform in a while. They know how to push our buttons and we're all being played.

Already seeing people on tiktok saying “I still hate trump but he ate with this one” like … babes … you just got propagandized … that’s literally exactly what he created this situation in the hopes you would say …

[enriquemzn262]

The wildest story is happening right now in Colombia: A couple and the girl’s mom went to climb the Nevado del Tolima mountain as an end of the year celebration, but during the ascend the boyfriend sadly passed away due to mountain sickness, and from that there should be nothing remarkable about it.

Well, since it’s the first mountaineering death in the country in years, in became national news, so curious people began to dig more and more details about it:

>When the dude got sick, his girl and her mom decided to leave him behind alone in a tent while they went to reach the peak of the mountain and take a ton of selfies.

>He was actually bleeding from his nose and even started to secrete pus when they left him alone, he apparently asked them not to, but they needed to take those photos

>They needed to because they were “influencers”

>They were influencers just so they could constantly plug their OF account

>Said OF featured both the couple AND THE MOM

>Sometimes only the women would be featured in there, although I don’t know nor want to at which extent

>The dude was actually fucking both women too, and apparently that was also a feature in the OF

So now online searches are plagued with the leaked OF content, to the point you can find it by just typing the name of the mountain on Twitter, and the tragedy and neglect behind the dude’s death has been completely overshadowed by the level of degeneracy found behind his love life.

My tinfoil hat self is honestly believing this is a new psyops by the Colombian government to distract from the Catatumbo guerrillas uprising that has already costed 100 lives and thousands of displaced civilians, but it’s just so damn specifically perverted not to be a real story.

I can’t be blamed for thinking that though, as there’s a real government-backed psyops going on right now in the form of murals popping up in many cities talking about some victims no one is really sure if they’re even real, but since if they are they’re a consequence of the previous administration, the new one is desperately pushing for that narrative, all the while we’re actively getting new victims of the conflict, and it’s all because Petro refused to believe guerrillas were nothing more than drug cartels masquerading as left wing revolutionaries.

Don’t worry Americans, you’re not alone in baffling government decisions at the start of the year.

Man, I think I lost the sauce of this post, but anyway, fuck Petro!

[goldammerchen]

pruaus y pruhun, versión cínica, tóxica, problemática

los rasgos tóxicos de pruaus están al revés 😭, confien en los colores

solo pruaus; solo pruhun; (edit: aushun!)

[dodger-chan]

#google search "books for crotchety old women in their mid twenties who like murder mysteries and gay people"

And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling

Not exactly a mystery from the reader's perspective, more of a dark thriller (serial killer, missing girl, etc.) with mystery elements. The sequel is a much better mystery, but I think you need the character introductions from book one. There's a lot of small town drama and politics in both books, which to me is the more interesting part of the series. The main character/detective is the acting local sheriff (the election to get a permanent sheriff is a major plotline in book two) with a tragic past (a brother who went missing as a kid and a murdered boyfriend who he couldn't properly mourn because their relationship was secret)

Last Call at the Nightingale by Katherine Schellman

Period mystery set in New York in the roaring twenties. The mystery is really good and, as I recall, solvable for the reader. The main characters are really interesting people. There is a love triangle (our intrepid young seamstress/detective has feelings for both the mysterious nightclub owner and the semi-criminal fixer with police connections) but a well written one that mirrors the heroine's inner conflicts. I am very biased towards this series because it touches on so many of my interests.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

One of the all-time classics. Fantastically written mystery. I'm not sure if the reader can actually solve it, but you do get all the same information the detective does, just not any of his reasoning. And you probably know who did it because it's a famous story. It was written in the twenties, though, so its queer villains are not exactly portrayed with modern sensibilities.

The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney

Another thriller, but one that leans more into the mystery aspect. Definitely on the darker side, with cops investigating a serial killer in 1969 Glasgow. To be honest I read this book when it first came out in 2018 and I don't remember why I liked it but I really did.

Proper English by K.J. Charles

Charles tends to write queer romance, but this one is also a murder mystery. It's been a while since I read this one, too, and the romance stuck with me more than the mystery, but as I recall it's one of those murders in an isolated country estate at a house party with a limited number of suspects, nearly all of which were being blackmailed by the victim. (If you're unfamiliar with the works of KJ Charles, they're a fun author. Their Sins of the City series is also kind of a mystery, though it takes a backseat to the love stories. And the Will Darling Adventures has kind of a spy thriller/mystery plotline, though again the romance is the main point; the spy stuff is what happens while the romance develops)

That's pretty much it for murder mysteries with canon queer detectives off the top of my head but Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries are fun and very readable (they were written over a long time span so the older ones use some very uncomfortable language). I'm a huge fan of Raymond Chandler, particularly The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye (it's very easy to read Philip Marlowe as bi; The Long Goodbye is more about his relationship with Terry Lennox than it is about the murders). Hammett's The Thin Man is another really great mystery, and the main characters (married couple Nick and Nora Charles) are very sweet and in love.

Getting into reading in 2025 is a nightmare like why is everything divided into “cosy” or “spicy” and why are we describing protagonists and plots with fanfic tropes 🙃🙃

[cuzherboyfriendistherockandroll]

just a little so you know for taylor swift haters

jack sweeney (aka the guy who is tracking her jet) isn’t some poor college kid doing good for the world who is being attacked by the selfish billionaire

he has his own private jet which he bought with the money that he makes off tracking celebrities jets

yes you heard that right he is making money off giving stalkers and harassers an easy way to access women’s whereabouts. it sounds different when you put it that way doesn’t it? i’m not going to call him a stalker but he must know that he is an enabler of this kind of behaviour

also taylor swift didn’t sue him. her attorney sent him several cease and desist letters demanding that he stop tracking and publicly sharing her flight information because she is concerned for the safety of her family and friends. yk cause some men have a weird habit of trying to break into her house (this has actually happened to her on several occasions but yea she has no reason to be worried about someone tracking her)

and stop all this bullshit about it being “publicly accessible information” technically you could find out where i live by using google and combining information from various websites (which is a terrifying and bleak reality) but yk what that would be? STALKING just because she is a celebrity doesn’t mean she deserves less privacy rights

[pinkandgoldensoul]

Hi, Italian native speaker here! I don't know how in depth you wanted it to be, but I just love this topic too much not to vent about it. So... Let's start first with Charles!

I'd say he is quite good! If I had to grade him, it’d be B2 level. He can manage conversations just fine; he sometimes struggles with the meanings of words (both when he’s the one listening and when he’s the one speaking) and has a tendency, especially in the last couple of years, to mash up Italian and English words (he either takes the root of the word and make it italianish or translates literally the word, though in Italian it carries a different meaning. Italian is full of “false friends”, real traps for learners). 

When it comes to accent, you can tell he’s not a native (that’s fairly normal) due to the French inflection, vowels’ placement (French-like) and difficulty in pronouncing double consonants (very common). Though, it fluctuates a lot! I remember watching some interviews back in 2019 or 2022 and being absolutely mesmerized by how good his pronunciation was, to the point my best friend - who didn’t know him - asked me if he was Italian lol. Yet, in some interviews he pulls off a heavier French accent or more English vocab mashups. I believe he gets better if he has spent some time around Italian natives (i.e. the team or friends) and he makes a few tiny steps back after spending time with French speakers (family and friends). Absorbing accents from people we listen to is very natural, we all do! And the fact he seems to get onto it so quickly, moving back and forth, hints at how good his ear is. Not surprised he loves music!

Also, something he struggles with sometimes (but I don't blame him, it's confusing as hell per se) is words' stress, especially in verbs. Not all of them, but a few. It's painful to hear, makes me smile, and it's due to a lack of habit (he’s probably less exposed to Italian than what we might think). 

Here some brief examples, especially for people who know a bit of Italian or for those who are simply curious (I could write a 300 pages essay, but can’t afford it now and nobody would read it anyway):

Bahrain 2022, Post Race team radio: SO GOOD. Adrenaline high, yet good accent and double consonants better than usual. (this is the snippet my best friend heard and she was confused… “Why is he called Charles? Isn't he Italian?”)

Los Angeles Vlog at 8:06, talking to Andrea: not so bad when it comes to accent, but two English-like mistakes. Biggest one is creating a new verb from “regret”, i.e. “rigrettare”. (Funny note: Andrea uses the neologism right after, in response)

Charity Football Match 2022: solid interview. I chose this one because I think it represents his average speech (actually average-best).

Abu Dhabi 2024, Post Quali interview: a bit messy, but still manages to get the message across (the whole point of speaking a language). I chose it because this is a moment when he’s stressed out, tired and a bit frustrated (track limits, out of Q1).  (hopefully you can see the ones from the Sky Sport F1 Italy channel even in other countries)

Now, very very briefly on the others because I have no time, but let me know if you need more specific info!

Carlos: thick Spanish accent, but that’s not too penalizing. In this case, as opposed to Charles’, Spanish vowel placements are helpful (pretty similar to Italian, whereas French is a mess); here the problem comes with consonants (especially -g- and -z-). 

Esteban: I can’t find the interview, but I remember listening to him the first time and just jaw-dropping. Gagged. Speechless. It was top notch. Only interviews I managed to find now have him good, but still slightly Frenchy sounding and using English in case of need.

Pierre: pretty Frenchy, but he’s got sooooo much better! He relies sometimes on English too. 

Fernando: Good. A bit Spanishy, but less than Carlos.

Lance (I didn’t knoowwwww, had to search it up): Englishy, a bit of struggling. But I’ve only managed to find one interview, I don’t want to be unfair to him

Ollie: slightly Englishy, but quite good! I think he can master it. 

Nico: controversial. He’s really good, especially with semantics, but at times there are some small slip ups in inflection. I know he can be perfect, and this is why I want him to be perfect all the time. 

Again, let me know if you need insights. Hope this helps!

Quick question: How good is Charles Leclerc’s Italian? Is he fluent? How about his accent? And if you had to rank the best drivers who speak Italian on the grid (Carlos, Esteban, Fernando, Lance, Nico, Ollie, Pierre), how would you rank them? I’ve heard Nico Roseberg considers Italian his first language. This is for very research purposes, so I’d love to know Charles’s specific level!

[magical-girl-coral]

Okay, what is the Internet's brilliant idea of how to stop the I/p conflict

*checks notes*

You people are planning on boycotting an entire fucking country?

[trafficpan-ic]

It's all really about finding a sport or type of exercise that you enjoy and that doesn't require so much effort bcs of that!!

[kerosene-saint]

"Why are you worried about the fact that you share your general location on tumblr sometimes???" my friend on here that I've had for almost two years guessed Chicago when I asked them where I lived. cause my time zone is called Chicago on pronouns page. I had a mutual for months before we both found out we're from the same state.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

what’s the story about the generative power model and water consumption? /gen

There's this myth going around about generative AI consuming truly ridiculous amount of power and water. You'll see people say shit like "generating one image is like just pouring a whole cup of water out into the Sahara!" and bullshit like that, and it's just... not true. The actual truth is that supercomputers, which do a lot of stuff, use a lot of power, and at one point someone released an estimate of how much power some supercomputers were using and people went "oh, that supercomputer must only do AI! All generative AI uses this much power!" and then just... made shit up re: how making an image sucks up a huge chunk of the power grid or something. Which makes no sense because I'm given to understand that many of these models can run on your home computer. (I don't use them so I don't know the details, but I'm told by users that you can download them and generate images locally.) Using these models uses far less power than, say, online gaming. Or using Tumblr. But nobody ever talks about how evil those things are because of their power generation. I wonder why.

To be clear, I don't like generative AI. I'm sure it's got uses in research and stuff but on the consumer side, every effect I've seen of it is bad. Its implementation in products that I use has always made those products worse. The books it writes and flood the market with are incoherent nonsense at best and dangerous at worst (let's not forget that mushroom foraging guide). It's turned the usability of search engines from "rapidly declining, but still usable if you can get past the ads" into "almost one hundred per cent useless now, actually not worth the effort to de-bullshittify your search results", especially if you're looking for images. It's a tool for doing bullshit that people were already doing much easier and faster, thus massively increasing the amount of bullshit. The only consumer-useful uses I've seen of it as a consumer are niche art projects, usually projects that explore the limits of the tool itself like that one poetry book or the Infinite Art Machine; overall I'd say its impact at the Casual Random Person (me) level has been overwhelmingly negative. Also, the fact that so much AI turns out to be underpaid people in a warehouse in some country with no minimum wage and terrible labour protections is... not great. And the fact that it's often used as an excuse to try to find ways to underpay professionals ("you don't have to write it, just clean up what the AI came up with!") is also not great.

But there are real labour and product quality concerns with generative AI, and there's hysterical bullshit. And the whole "AI is magically destroying the planet via climate change but my four hour twitch streaming sesh isn't" thing is hysterical bullshit. The instant I see somebody make this stupid claim I put them in the same mental bucket as somebody complaining about AI not being "real art" -- a hatemobber hopping on the hype train of a new thing to hate and feel like an enlightened activist about when they haven't bothered to learn a fucking thing about the issue. And I just count my blessings that they fell in with this group instead of becoming a flat earther or something.

[bazelgeuce]

Is it just me or have boomer christians lost their minds

[peachybeesplease]

this page is SO MUCH to me

just like. the bed is a whole acre. two people could sit on opposite corners of that bed and they'd have to raise their voices to have a conversation. there's enough of that bed that you'd have to call a search party for a stuffed animal.

AND YET. remy has bundled himself to the very Very edge of this bed that is larger than most studio apartments to be close to jamis. sometime in the night he took one of the pillows on the cross-country journey from the middle to the end of the bed to be as close to jamis as is physically possible without actually rolling off. and he did it SUBCONSCIOUSLYYYY like I know he turned down the whole "there was only one bed" immediately but if I'm being honest with you all I think what they have going on is gayer than that

[theabigailthorn]

Hi Miss Thorn.

I was recently reading through your trans writes article about you choosing not to do PR for the NHS. In one line you mention that the medical system "exaggerates or wholly confabulates" certain medical risks, and I was wondering if you could give more of an explanation or some examples about that stuff. I tried looking it up on my own but I didn't really know what keywords to search for, and I don't want to fall into some weird anti-science conspiracy theory rabbithole (especially at a kind of vulnerable part of my transition where I'm finally giving "doing hormones" more serious thought as a Thing I Would Actually Do rather than an idle fantasy where the results magically "fix" me (or a kind of anxiety where it doesn't do anything of value at all :< )

Thank you regardless for your great videos over the years,

A Very Nervous Enby

Sure! So, I would argue that the Cass Review is a prime example of this phenomenon. It concluded that puberty blockers have caused zero documented cases of harm as long as they've been used in Britain, but they might cause some unknown kind of harm in the future, somehow; a harm that hasn't been detected in any of the other countries who have used them, whose evidence - by the way - was discarded.

So we have no evidence of past harm, no idea what a future mystery harm might be, when it might happen, the mechanism for it, or why it would only show up here, now, and not in any of the other countries who have given trans kids blockers previously...

This is clearly making shit up!

And yet the Cass Review was used to justify a ban on blockers.

The only way this makes sense is if by "harm" they mean "being trans." Cass expressed particular concern that most kids who start on blockers go on to medically transition, which - yeah duh? But whereas a normal person views this as a neutral fact about the world, transphobes see it as bad - they see being trans as a bad or dangerous thing to be - and so they want to make people "avoid it" as much as possible.

This is what I mean when I say pathologization exaggerates or in some cases outright fabricates risks of medical transition to justify restricting our bodily autonomy under the guise of "care."

[foldingfittedsheets]

When I was young I was dating this absolute cocknob right as I graduated high school. More on that later.

As a present ostensibly to me (but mostly my folks) I was whisked away after graduation to spend two weeks in Europe with my parents. The plan was to see London, Paris, and Heidelberg.

I was moody and a teenager and was largely disgruntled by this fabulous adventure. I went along with sullen foot dragging and black looks. I commandeered my reprehensible boyfriends enormous black hoodie and wore it on the trip. At the start of our jaunt into London I mentioned offhandedly to my mom that it was burning when I peed.

“You’re just dehydrated, and your period is about to start.”

She was right on both counts. I upped my water content, and had my period (which may have contributed to my overall ill humors.)

So we found ourselves in a tiny hotel in Paris, a week into our jaunt, when I repeated, “Man, it just really burns when I pee.”

“What?!” my mom demanded.

“I told you like a week ago that it was burning.”

“Augh! Now we have to go to the hospital!” she proclaimed.

“What?! Why?”

“Because,” she snapped, “You have a bladder infection.”

More bickering ensued, and my temperament was not improved by knowing I’d told her I was having an issue a week ago and been ignored.

My dad heard about the itinerary shift with resignation and we trooped down the narrow stairs as a family to ask the concierge where the nearest hospital was.

The absolutely lovely man at the desk was immediately so concerned when we asked for directions. “Is everything okay?” he asked with very genuine sympathy and I muttered that everything was fine, we just needed a quick visit.

Lucky for us the hospital was only a few blocks away. We walked there and the building was massive, home to what appeared to be several separate wings but no obvious main entrance.

We wandered inside and it was like a weird dream. There was no one around. Huge echoing corridors met us as we peered in vain for a front desk or possibly signs. We searched with increasing frustration for anyone to talk to and somehow found ourselves in some tiny back offices.

A woman sat at her desk and looked bewildered to see three lost Americans approaching her. She greeted us and as a family we all simultaneously realized the massive flaw in our current course.

You see, dear reader, we did not speak French. My dad and I both spoke German. I inquired politely if she also spoke German and she shook her head looking increasingly cornered. We asked if she spoke English.

“Leetle…?” she replied.

“My daughter has a bladder infection! Blad-der?” My mother declared this at a high volume as if volume alone could bridge the communication gap, while simultaneously miming over my stomach, circling where she presumed my pelvis was under the gigantic black sweatshirt.

The woman’s expression turned extremely skeptical and she slowly repeated “Bladder…” She scrutinized me for a moment then said, “You go…. This?” And pointed to something purple on her desk.

“The purple signs?” my dad asked.

She nodded and we set off. I was stewing with resentment at my mom for having ignored my first complaint when we were in a country that spoke English. And also generalized hostility about being on the trip and the object of miming. Now here we were in a French hospital, lost and unable to communicate. I also was under no illusions that someone who didn’t know the word for purple would have any clue what bladder meant.

And slowly I realized what had actually happened as I peered at the purple signs. My mother circling my stomach with her hands, gesturing to my middle. The woman’s skeptical face.

“Hey mom,” I chirped, syrupy and smug. “I don’t speak French. But I do know that it’s a Latin based language. And wouldn’t you know, but that purple sign looks an awful lot like it says ‘maternity’ to me.”

“Shut up!” she snapped.

A few minutes later we stood surrounded by the moans of pregnant people and the cries of fresh new lungs wailing at their first taste of cold air.

I smiled sweetly at my disgruntled mother.

Luck was with us however. A nearby father noticed us and came over to ask if we needed help. With perfect English he gave us clear directions.

As we finally approached the right area for walk in services it was clear how we’d missed it the first time. A large swathe of the front of the building was covered in tarps. A huge wall sized window was broken, and construction was taking place, but at least it had a bustle of people and a clear line. We sat down in the queue of chairs.

While we sat some police officers came in. They walked up to a man ahead of us in line and with few words exchanged they handcuffed and led him politely away.

I was genuinely so out of reality. Every new thing that happened was like a bizarre dream from the empty hallways to the maternity ward and now this tarp strewn waiting room in which people could just be calmly arrested.

It was a shock to me then when we reached the front and the nurse spoke with perfectly unaccented English to assess me. Not only did she know bladder but a whole slew of other medical words I couldn’t guess at. I peed on a stick and we waited.

When we got the results she told me it was good because they could give me antibiotics today for my now confirmed infection, but bad because I’d need the doctor to sign off. I nodded and my mom and I were escorted to yet another small room to wait.

When the doctor arrived I felt suddenly gangly and awkward. I’m not tall but I towered over this tiny French woman who radiated calm composure. She seemed to be around my grandmothers age. She looked up at my blushing face and said, “Bladder infection?” Her English had a much stronger accent than the nurse but with the same medical competence.

I nodded.

She nodded too and we sat in a still contemplative moment on my UTI.

“Do you have… boyfriend?”

My face was on fire, every cell of me wanting to flee from this tiny perfect old woman. I nodded.

She nodded too. We sat still in the knowledge that I had a boyfriend and a UTI.

“Do you and your boyfriend do… it?” Her delicate accent stretched it into “eet.”

I don’t know if she didn’t know the word for sex or if she thought saying “it” was kinder but I wanted to melt into the floor and cease to exist to escape my increasing mortification and her meaningful pause. I nodded.

“Okay,” she said kindly. “When you and your boyfriend do… it… you must make pee pee.”

I writhed slightly under the psychic damage of this elegant medical professional saying “pee pee” and I nodded more emphatically hoping she’d desist this torture.

She continued. “If you and your boyfriend do… it… five times? You make five pee pees. If you do it ten times, you make ten pee pees.”

My face had never been hotter, all the blood in my body had volcanoed to my head, pounding in my ears and valiantly attempting to give me an aneurism to end my suffering. There is no mortification as acute to a teenager as an adult talking about sex and here was this medical professional telling me about… it.

Meanwhile, my mother. Who should have been regretting her poor parenting and reflecting on her neglect in failing impart this vital part piece of sex ed to her kid. Alas, she was laughing herself sick the corner. She added to my embarrassment by quietly repeating “pee pee” and “it” under her breath as she wheezed and chortled.

The doctor patted my hand kindly and handed me the antibiotics. I got to spend the rest of my trip in Europe avoiding direct sunlight and listening to my mother parrot “Do you do… eet?”

[maniculum]

A post of mine from several months ago about the Perlesvaus self-rearranging forest just wandered across my dash again and made me think about it some more, so I wanted to talk about it a bit.

Perlesvaus, for those who don’t know, is a 13th-century French Arthurian romance. It’s intended to be a continuation of Chretien de Troyes’s Perceval, but it’s mostly known for being completely batshit when it’s known at all. (There’s an old book on Arthurian texts that dedicates a chapter to Perlesvaus and repeatedly speculates that the anonymous author had Something Wrong With Him. This is the longest scholarly treatment of Perlesvaus I’ve been able to find & read.)

Anyway, there’s an odd worldbuilding detail in the text. See, it’s a Thing in chivalric romances that the questing knights happen upon castles & lords & damsels & such that are unfamiliar to them and have to be explained. You know, “this is the Castle of Such-and-Such, where the local custom is as follows. It’s ruled by Lady So-and-So, whose character I shall now describe to you.”

This is a genre convention that largely goes unquestioned, but it’s a bit odd if you think about it. All these knights are at least minor nobility. They don’t know the other nobles in their region? They don’t know what castles are where? Don’t they have, like, diplomatic relations with these people or at least attend the same tournaments? Even if they’re all fully committed to the knight-errant lifestyle and don’t really engage in courtly diplomacy, you’d think they would share information with each other and get the lay of the land. But instead, to use TTRPG terminology, it’s like they’re all on a hexcrawl that was randomly generated just for them to have these adventures.

The author of Perlesvaus decides to address this. In what’s kind of a throwaway paragraph late in the text, he explains that God moves things around so knights always have new quests to do (and, presumably, is also making sure they always arrive at the right narratively-significant moment). So the reason they’re always encountering people & places they have no knowledge of is because those people & places really weren’t there yesterday. They didn’t know about the Castle of Such-and-Such because it’s normally a thousand miles away and the forest path they followed to get there used to lead somewhere else.

And I think that would be a really interesting thing to stick into a novel or a TTRPG or something. When a knight rides into the forest with the intent of Going On A Quest, at some point they go around a bend in the path, cross an invisible barrier, and wind up in the Forest of Narrative. This is a vast forest with no set geography, filled with winding paths and populated almost entirely with questing knights, damsels in search of questing knights, friendly hermits, strange creatures, and allegorical set-pieces. Then, at the narratively-appropriate time, they cross back over the invisible barrier back into the regular world, and find themselves wherever the Narrative has decided they need to be. This could be a different country, a different continent, or a different world entirely.

Whether anyone involved is actually aware that this is how it works is… optional, really. Though if it’s not a Known Phenomenon, the people whose jobs it is to handle trade & diplomacy & god forbid, maps, are going to end up tearing their hair out in frustration.

[astroismypassion]

Astrology observations 🎅🎅🎅

Credit @astroismypassion

🎅❄️ Taurus Juno or Juno in the 2nd house, Juno at a Taurus degree (2, 14, 26) cares a lot about partner having a pleasant personality. But isn’t superficial in looks, instead they go for someone who has personalised and well-developed personal style, nice clothes.

❄️🎅 People might say that Gemini Sun women changed a lot of partners throughout life, but is not out of Gemini boredom or lack of mental stimulation, I noticed. Instead Gemini Sun women really notice the bullshit (excuses, lies, poor communication skills, poor time management skills, not making an effort in trying to connect) coming from men quickly and they just don’t accept it at all, they just move on.

🎅❄️ Aquarius Sun natives have experienced in their life at least once that one dream, aspiration, long-term goal of their wasn’t achieved due to obstacles, obstruction, restriction or last minute sudden change. That’s why they are so adamant later on of pushing through goals no matter what.

❄️🎅 Neptune in the 5th house, sometimes even Pluto in the 5th house, Pluto in the 3rd house natives love watching erotic movies, erotic thriller or straight up porn movies.

🎅❄️ Aries Juno, Aries Jupiter, Aquarius Jupiter, Pisces Vesta are one of those people that find it much easier NOT to be in a partnership, they are really whole on their own and usually have developed hobbies and interests with bunch of friends! They are definition of self-love, if you ask me.

❄️🎅 Leo Lilith attracts a lot of people, potential partners, but had troubles actually keeping them.

🎅❄️ Sagittarius over the 4th house people can be problematic when it comes to their partnerships. It’s like this person changes their partners often or can’t stick to them, making it seem like they pick bad partners. When in reality all of their previous partners were ideal (opposite sign Gemini), but they themselves have hard time sticking with one partner for a long time.

❄️🎅 Capricorn Lilith people when younger have been restricted and controlled by their parents (especially the father) and they tend to act much more controlling with age themselves.

🎅❄️ Gemini over the 7th house, Gemini Descendant are anxious once in a partnership.

❄️🎅 Capricorn Sun people are those people from a small country that end up going world wide. Many influencers, singers, musicians, artists that are Capricorn Sun are followed globally. Capricorn rules the public, broadcasting so they have a higher chance than other placements. One famous example is Italian singer from Måneskin Damiano David.

🎅❄️ Leo Aphrodite natives love the attention coming from many people, yet are reluctant to compliment others themselves. They love the spotlight and others finding them charming, charismatic and sweet.

❄️🎅 Ruler of the 7th house in the 5th house natives sometimes dress more modestly, because they feel like otherwise clothes overshadow their personality. And they personality is extra on its own.

🎅❄️ Chiron is so powerful in a Natal chart, so telling and revealing of what people are doing the most in life and what is important to them! Gemini Chiron always hanging with friends and not prioritising partners, family members. Libra Chiron always socialising, wanting to them up with people, always searching for the next partner. Capricorn Chiron: a workaholic basically. Aquarius Chiron: chronically online, always networking, always hanging out with acquintances. Sagittarius Chiron: reading, constantly on trips or planning them. Taurus Chiron: oh here we have a shopaholic, also someone who is always thinking and chasing after money, someone who does a lot of self-care and loves grocery shopping, watching films. Scorpio Chiron: spends A LOT of time on their own, a loner basically. Leo Chiron: either chasing a new crush or investing time into creative hobbies. You can tell so much from a person’s Chiron, about how they are spending their time. It also shows that you feel most confident doing, so if it’s in Aries/Scorpio Chiron, you actually the most healed, confident when on your own. If it’s Libra Chiron, you feel the most healed when you are spending time with someone meaningful one-on-one or when being part of a team, duo.

❄️🎅 Pisces Venus is unaware of their own beauty. They don’t see the value of beauty, because the value of intelligence, education was forced on them since young age. They internalised they need to be the smartest in the room to be noticed, appreciated, not the prettiest.

🎅❄️ You would think that 12th house shows how you like to sleep. But instead I noticed 8th house shows that. Aries 8th house: no pyjamas, Taurus 8th house: likes to sleep beside their partner, Cancer 8th house: teenage pyjamas or really light, summer pyjamas, Pisces 8th house: invests in quality sleepwear etc.

❄️🎅 Taurus Lust love other people sucking on their neck, ear, finger, anything really.

🎅❄️ Libra Suns have the most love hate relationship with Leo Suns. But usually they really like them and get along well due to both Libra and Leo Sun being confident and have unique personalities.

❄️🎅 Aquarius, Leo, Gemini and Virgo Eros love explicit films that have a lot of sexual scenes.

🎅❄️ There is the most chemistry when someone’s Mars touches your Eros and Lust asteroid. You are mosty likely to want to start something with them immediately.

❄️🎅 Taurus Lust, Libra, Taurus Mars, Taurus/Libra 7th house natives have their sex drive affected by whether they ate already or not. The first time after is also they always grab water or need something to eat.

🎅❄️ Jupiter tells not only what kind of wife/husband you attract, but also how you would behave as a spouse! Pisces Jupiter: you could make a lot of sacrifices for your person, Cancer Jupiter: you take care of the home and children, Sagittarius Jupiter: you may re-enter higher education after marriage or travel more.

❄️🎅 Sun in the 7th house attracts partners who after early stages of dating and after entering a partnership with them, become arrogant, selfish, demanding, bossy.

🎅❄️ Despite thinking otherwise, Capricorn and Aquarius Aphrodite people are attracted to younger partners.

❄️🎅 Scorpio Jupiter, Jupiter at Scorpio degree (8, 20) natives experiences a dramatic shift of power after marriage. Usually before the native is the one more in charge, but after marriage the power is likely more in the hands of their partner.

🎅❄️ If you have Aquarius, Capricorn MC, your career with pop off after first Saturn Return.

❄️🎅 Cancer Rising, Rising at Cancer degree (4, 16, 28) people get in the best shape of their life after first Saturn Return.

🎅❄️ I’ve noticed a lot of Scorpio Juno individuals having dysfunctional marriage, also having a partner that changes in a matter of a few hours.

❄️🎅 Cancer Jupiter can be really traditional. Thinking the main purpose of their marriage is to start a family after getting married.

🎅❄️ If you have hard time deciphering whether you would get along better with older or younger partners, look at your 8th house! Cancer 8th house: younger partner, Capricorn/Aquarius 8th house: older partner, Taurus/Libra 8th house: same or similar age, Sagittarius 8th house: 6 years difference, Virgo/Gemini 8th house: 3 years younger or older.

❄️🎅 Nobody talks about how in 8th house Synastry, we things are going less great, you get literally annoyed by everything they do, like how they chew, how they walk, tie their shoes, everything. You get literal physical reaction.

🎅❄️ If you have Taurus Moon, you have a mom that always asks “Did you ate already?”, but discards your emotional needs.

❄️🎅 If you have Virgo Moon, you have a mom that was always “a good girl”, punctual, a perfectionist, but wanted to be a bad girl so much.

🎅❄️ If you have Aries Moon, you have a mom that kinda “excused” physical violence, but not in the public, only in the home, in private to not cause a scene in public, it was normalized to her.

❄️🎅 If you have Pisces Moon, your mother is a bad listener, scatter-brained or has poor focus/concentration. She probably also felt like she doesn’t get much help from others at home.

🎅❄️ If you have Gemini Ceres or Ceres in the 3rd house, your mother asks you A LOT of questions.

❄️🎅 Sagittarius Chiron always has a partner who’s more educated than them! And they love hanging around well-educated people.

🎅❄️ Aquarius Jupiter could marry on the impulse after first or second Saturn Return! They might not be thinking of marriage, but then they suddenly marry. They also have very striking, out of this world beauty, they rarely look like some other person. They just look like “themselves” if it makes sense, they don’t have lookalikes.

❄️🎅 Pisces MC might have a fallout with their father after first or second Saturn Return and Pisces IC might have a fallout with mother.

🎅❄️ Venus in the 8th house Synastry: Venus person could come from a poor background, 8th house person comes from a more well-off family background.

❄️🎅 For Aries/Scorpio Moon natives often rings true the saying “how you get them is also how you gonna lose them”. I noticed they are prone to steal away people or their newly partnership is “overlapping”. For Capricorn/Aquarius Moons this saying is also true, but they usually date people out of their league, for status.

🎅❄️ Libra Suns love loud people in bed, they hate it if their partner is quiet. 🙈

Credit @astroismypassion