#so they're at least in the same generation

[winterthebeau]

Well, a central processor or CPU's core count is basically how many channels it has to do tasks in, and the gigahertz number is how fast each core is and how much work it can do (generally you don't want it to be less than 1.5 GHz).

RAM is the temporary memory that your computer uses to store information about the tasks it is currently doing, and nowadays you want at least 16 GB of RAM. You should buy ram made by crucial samsung, or the manufacturer of your motherboard (MSI, ASUS, AS Rock).

A graphics processor or GPU is a more complicated to explain, but generally the Nvidia 1080 TI, 1660, 3080 TI, and 4070 TI are good value GPUs, with the 1080 being the weakest of the list and ok for general use, and the 4070 being the most powerful and thf best for gaming (TI is short for titanium, which means it's more powerful than it's non-TI counterpart of the same number). Ypu generally want to buy a GPU with at least 6 gb of dedicated video RAM if you are going to play modern AAA games or Minecraft.

With storage, you generally want at least 1 TB for a personal computer that you will be using often and storing personal files on. Hard-disk drives (HDDs) are the cheapest, but are also the slowest and the most delicate. The spinning magnetic plate inside the drive will almost always break if the computer is accidentally dropped. HDDs are also more prone to data corruption than solid state drives. Nowadays, you should probably avoid using HDDs for personal computers. Solid state drives (SSDs) use a different storage method that is much more physically durable and much less prone to corruption. It stores the data on microchips that have no moving parts and are much too complicated for me to explain. SSDs are much faster than HDDs, and are very nice to have it you're going to play modern games or if you're planning on moving around large files. Even if you are only using the computer for documents and presentations, the difference in speed is noticable. A SATA SSD uses the same connector technology as an HDD, and is very bulky. SATA SSDs are the cheapest option for SSDs, but are also slower than NVMe SSDs. SATA SSDs much easier to install into a computer, and are much more portable than NVMe SSDs. They're a solid option for every use case. When you're buying a SATA SSD, make ABSOLUTELY sure you're buying it from a reputable seller, because SATA SSD scams are very common. M.2 NVMe SSDs have unbelievably fast data transfer speeds, and are best for modern AAA games and high-definition video editing and exporting. I have a pair of 2 TB NVMe SSDs in my PC, but even I will admit that is excessive. Data transfer speeds matter a lot to me. I would recommend only buying one M.2 NVMe SSD, if any. M.2 SSDs require special mounting screws, and have to be affixed into a special slot on your motherboard.

When it comes to motherboards, I don't have very much knowledge, but I know that AS Rock, MSI, and Gigabyte all make great desktop PC motherboards.

For cooling systems, you need to be sure that the cooler you buy is compatible with your CPU (GPUs already have built in air cooling). I would strongly recommend sticking to air cooling, because water cooling requires a lot of maintenance and there is always a chance it will leak onto your components.

With a power supply, you first need to ensure that the power supply you choose can keep up with the wattage demands of your GPU, CPU, motherboard chipset and cooling system. You also NEED to buy a power supply from a proven and reputable brand, since those things handle hundreds of watts constantly. Good brands include Be Quiet!, Cooler master and MSI. Cheap, no-name power supplies have been known to explode, burn themselves out, or catch on fire. It's either 1. buy a good power supply or 2. risk owing millions to your landlord in damages. I hope this information helps someone! Sorry I wrote so much, I didn't realize how much I had to say. If anyone wants to add anything, feel free to.

why is shopping for computer shit so difficult like what the hell is 40 cunt thread chip 3000 processor with 32 florps of borps and a z12 yummy biscuits graphics drive 400102XXDRZ like ok um will it run my programmes

[utopianparadoxist]

June Egbert, The Tao of Pranksterism, and Maid Roleplay

So we've got our first glimpse of June Egbert, shining like a star on the horizon, as of the latest upd8!

With the Warhammer of Zillyhoo at her side and the general harlequin energy of her silhouette, many are drawing comparisons to Trickster Mode, or to Nannasprite. Both of these, notably, are heavily linked to Jane.

And I'm interested in June's relationship to Jane's legacy as her ancestor, because this feels similar to ideas of classpect roleplay I've described for years. so I want to talk about it here and speculate a bit about what kind of worldview change a roleplay reading suggests might accompany June's gender transformation.

A quick bit of background for those who don't know what Class roleplay is-- It's basically the idea that a player of any class might end up roleplaying as a different class, to various degrees of success or failure, and that in Homestuck characters do so in particular when they are actively striving to live up to the legacy left by their Ancestors.

Vriska is the clearest example to argue. Early in her arc with Tavros she is actively trying to fit both him and herself into narrative roles left behind in Mindfang's journal, and in the process strives to make Tavros stronger much as Kanaya does for Eridan by giving him the wand, or Aranea herself later does to Jake.

The way she conceptualizes the endeavor emphasizes the verb "MAKE", a close synonym to the most commonly accepted Maid/Sylph verb, "Create". She kisses Tavros while wearing a fairy dress-the word Sylph originally referring to a kind of fairy. And of course she gets the dress from Kanaya, a Sylph herself.

And of course, her attempt to woo Tavros in this way is a disastrous failure. Later, when she tries to make Tavros kill her instead of kiss her--again evoking Mindfang and the Summoner's relationships--she again fails soundly, Tavros rejecting her mind suggestions and leaving her to bleed slowly to death by herself.

The reason Vriska is failing in these situations is at least partly that she is obsessively trying to be Mindfang instead of honestly coming to grip with who she really is as her own person. The way the narratives you build up in your head about who you WANT to be like distort your own self of self and lead to self-sabotage and toxic relationships is a running theme in Homestuck, and Roleplay mechanics helpfully signpost this on a mechanical Sburb Class level.

Later Aranea makes the exact same mistake as Vriska in emulating Mindfang, but fails at least partly because, as Vriska lays out, she just doesn't have enough experience doing "ruthless pirate shit"--in other words, behaving like a Thief.

But the Marquise herself poses an interesting possibility, because she seems to succeed at performing both the roles of the Thief and the Sylph. And Vriska attributes this to the fact that the Marquise is an adult, who learned to perform a role that didn't initially come naturally to her through a slow accumulation of experience.

In this way, Vriska suggests a way out of hard Classpect determinism. It *is* possible to act outside of your native Class, even to successfully incorporate the strengths and abilities of a different class entirely, but this is part of a nuanced and complicated process of personal growth and a gaining of increased complexity of perspective, experience and ability as you grow through life.

Now lets bring this focus to John. John and Jane's mutual ancestorism is explicitly tied to their shared interest in jokes and pranks. Dirk likens this to Zen, or the Tao, meaning it reflects something about their fundamental relationship to the world and approach to dealing with it and its challenges.

John invokes this connection again as he carries out the retcon, the absolute height of his impact on the plot and narrative in og Homestuck, with the retcon being literally just being a series of pranks. They're also a series of pranks he has a lot of fun with!

Even while everyone is dead and everything is completely cosmically screwed, John is able to enjoy himself as he carries on and keeps striving to Make a better future. He indulges the Zen of pranksterism in this moment, using it as a way to cope with and transcend the horrors of Paradox Space.

He's also, on a mechanical level, roleplaying a Maid.

The Maid class, like the Sylph, is associated with healing and improbable ressurection. Aradia is able to transcend her own death and act in the world as a ghost even before she God Tiers through the use of her Time-coded ghost powers. Kanaya is lethally shot and revives inexplicably as an immortal Rainbow Drinker, the only character to be immortal without even being God Tier.

This is more true of Jane than anyone, who's Maid of Life powers allow her to Make Life for herself in such a way that even after being beheaded in what should inarguably be a Just death, Jane can overpower the conditional immortality of God Tiers completely and just walk and talk around as a decapitated body and her severed head. She is Making Life for her own benefit, and quite definitely no one elses.

Jane's other major power is to offer people free resurrections, like she does in Collide. And what does John's retcon accomplish? Give Vriska a free resurrection, effectively taking a more circuitous path to achieving the same end result that comes to a Maid naturally. It's for Vriska's benefit for sure though. John is still natively a passive Heir class, and this moment represents a blurring of the lines between the roles of Heir and Maid, a moment where John's impact is not narrowly defined by just one Sburb assigned Class but is shaped complexly by his unique context and nature as John Egbert.

That said, after the Retcon, something really interesting happens.

John stops pranking.

For the rest of Homestuck and through the Epilogues, we basically never see John indulging pranksterism again. At the same time, he eschews using his Retcon powers almost entirely, seeming almost scared of the responsibility and level of power they represent unless he's directly told to use them, like Rose does in Meat. This coincides with his prolonged period of aimless, directionless depression.

Who does this parallel?

Jane, who has similarly given up "frivolous" or "childish" concerns like pranksterism and jokes in favor of deeply serious matters like Pursuing The Presidency and Representing The Gods As Respectable People To Earth C. And like John, Jane is all the more miserable for it. What that might mean for either of her iteration's arcs is a topic for another day though, this ain't about her.

While his desire to kill Dirk is honestly misguided and ridiculous, this update's shift in John's psychology does point to a kind of positive progress in his psychology that takes him closer to the ideal of June he's glimpsed in his own future. He's Making Breath--direction, purpose, momentum-- for his own benefit, nobody else's.

Which is important to do, because right now all the work John needs to do is internal. The thing about John sometimes evoking his Maid heritage is that so far he hasn't been doing it consciously or consistently. He barely knows anything about who he is or what he wants, and so he's not in a position to be good to or try to help anybody.

It's a step closer to embracing Maid as an alternate/complementary identity, along with the gendered implications that the female-specific (so far) class implies.

A fully formed June Egbert will likely take this even further, realizing the potential of and fully embracing the possibility of Making Breath herself, for her own benefit, Breath in this case being simple fun. Frivolity. Jokes. Pranks! Detachment from the pain and suffering from the world by enjoying the fun that comes with existing, even in the midst of the chaos.

She will likely be a June who fully recognizes the reality that Life is a Game to be played and enjoyed--which is why the Game of Life board from Problem Sleuth shows up in the vision of June that John experiences while witnessing the Light of Vriska's ascension.

Hence the association with Nannasprite and the design's evocation of Harlequins. Harlequins and clowns are performers on the stage, and a June who recognizes that all of life is a stage would be in a position to be a playful and self-aware performer herself--even moreso if she becomes June by going through Helltier or ascending to Ultimate herself, thereby gaining the same metatextual knowledge Dirk, Al and Vriska possess.

And if such an ascension brings her back in touch with the power of Retcon, an Ultimate/Helltier June Egbert unafraid to use her power for whatever she wants would be the ultimate wildcard. She could issue free revives to all the dead trolls. She could bring back her Dad and Rose's Mom and Dirk's Alpha Bro.

Those are just random Maidy examples tied to resurrection I'm coming up with off the top of my head that could make her happy and/or severely emotionally fuck with Rosebot and Dirk, but really, she could and likely will do way more imaginative and interesting shit than that. She'd certainly prove a lethal danger to Dirk, which could likely put her in conflict with Rosebot, Vriska, Davebot, Jake and Roxy, none of whom seem likely to want to see Dirk dead.

She's a complete chaos element! And she's already here.

I can't wait to see what pranks she's gonna play.

[cripplecharacters]

Hi, I hope you're having a good day! I have a schizophrenic OC and have some questions about psychosis:

What are moments of clarity in the middle of an episode like, as in realizing a delusion isn't true? Can a moment of clarity fully take you out of an episode on its own, or would you just spiral again without intervention?

If you get closer to where a hallucination is "coming from" in physical space, does the sound get closer?

What would it be like if you tried to physically interact with a visual hallucination? -Anon 🐝

Anon 🐝 here again with more questions about psychosis: How common is it to hallucinate (visually or auditorily) people you know in real life? Can you have consistently positive experiences with a recurring hallucination? Thanks so much for everything you do!

Hey!

I have psychosis but not schizophrenia, so please keep this in mind. I'll also say that psychotic symptoms and experiences are extremely individualized, and these answers are based on my own experience, they're by no means universal.

Can a moment of clarity fully take you out of an episode on its own, or would you just spiral again without intervention?

This will depend on a few factors, I think. If someone is in general aware that they have a psychosis spectrum disorder, go into a psychotic episode, and realize "oh I'm Actively Having a Psychotic Episode" then that might take them right out of it, or do so gradually, or at least help them stop freaking out. If someone has the insight of knowing what is happening to them, there's a higher chance they will go back to "normal" faster.

On the other hand, if someone is unaware that they are in psychosis, or what is going on, there's a higher chance they will go back to it. But there are no hard rules - someone who is normally extremely self-aware of their psychotic episodes might spiral into it over and over if they're under more stress than usual, for example.

Another thing is whether the hallucination/delusion is "bizarre" (fantastical, literally couldn't happen, not understandable even in the person's religious/cultural context) or "non-bizarre" (possible, even if highly unusual/improbable). If someone is aware they could be in psychosis, it's much easier to clock something as fake if it's of the bizarre variety (since having an alien in your bedroom is weirder and raises more questions than someone knocking at your doors a lot). That can provide that moment of clarity if you have enough self awareness to go "but aliens aren't real, I must be in psychosis" - though it's not a guarantee by any means ("what if I'm the first person to discover aliens?" -> starts spiraling all over again).

The same above goes for "simple"/"complex" visual hallucinations - if you realize that the "person" is actually just a vaguely person-shaped blob of color, it could just take you out of it, since well, that's not very convincing after you notice that.

There are also ways to "solidify" that clarity. A really common trick I know is to take a photo of the hallucination; if it's not here then you know it's not there either. Some people also take off their glasses and check if there's a mismatch in how the hallucination should look like if it was real vs if it's made up by the brain (if it suddenly looks like an interactive object in a 2000s video game or looks weirdly HD, it's probably a hallucination), though this one never worked for me personally.

What would it be like if you tried to physically interact with a visual hallucination?

I only ever tried to do this while I was fully unaware that I was in a psychotic episode, so keep that in mind.

Looking at it now, I didn't "feel the hallucination" at all. I was hallucinating thing A, and touching real existing thing B (that I thought A was on/under), and I felt exactly what I would if it was just the real physical object B. But because I was hallucinating, I didn't pay attention to that fact, and it certainly didn't "take me out of the hallucination" that the hallucination didn't feel how it should. It obviously depends on the person, but if someone is trying to touch the hallucination and expecting it to feel like the thing, they probably won't notice even if it doesn't feel like it at all. You could be hallucinating a dog and be touching a chair, and it wouldn't feel out of the ordinary.

As for the hallucination touching the person - again, can only speak for myself - tactile hallucinations can be extremely real. Mine felt 100% how they would (if they could logically happen, since mine were of the "bizarre" variety), even looking back at it now.

If you get closer to where a hallucination is "coming from" in physical space, does the sound get closer?

A lot of the points from the answer above will be true for this one too. If someone is completely "in" that hallucination, they might not notice/care even if the sound doesn't get any closer despite them getting closer. But yes, some people can have very realistic hallucinations and be able to tell exactly where its sounds are coming from according to them. If it's a static hallucination that e.g. only shows up in a specific area, they might avoid going anywhere near there.

Also: not all hallucinations that should logically produce sounds actually do. Another thing that the brain might ignore and not question for some people, and take someone else out of the hallucination entirely.

How common is it to hallucinate (visually or auditorily) people you know in real life?

I think media makes it seem way more common than it actually is, but it does happen. This could also be affected by the person's life events, e.g. if a psychotic person has recently experienced something major regarding a certain person, there's a higher chance they could be hallucinating them - because it's Recent and Traumatic. Some people will be hallucinating people they know 24/7 nonstop, others will literally never have it, and a big portion will have a few of those throughout their life.

It is also fairly common to hallucinate recently lost loved ones after their death for people who aren't (long-term) psychotic as well. It's basically a trauma response to high stress, and can happen to anyone.

I'll say, you can hallucinate all sorts of real people: they sure could be your closest loved ones, but they could also be your classmates, your annoying coworker, the cashier at your local grocery store, a religious figure, etc.

Can you have consistently positive experiences with a recurring hallucination?

You can, though I personally never did. I'll leave this question to mods who have more experience with it, though I'll say that you can especially have a positive hallucination if it's a hallucination of something you already like (like a friend, for example).

For the end I'll also mention that there are many more types of hallucinations than just visual and auditory; olfactory (smell), tactile, sexual, somatic (e.g. pain, or feeling like you're moving when you aren't), and command ("the voices telling you to do something", it's usually categorized differently from auditory ones).

Hope this helps,

mod Sasza

Hello!

I have schizoaffective with depression and only have a few things to add because Sasza put everything so well! :)

There's a concept in psychosis you'll hear a lot called double bookkeeping. It's the idea that you both know something is delusional or part of psychosis but believe it anyways. This is something that I experience during early episodes or in the beginning that goes away as my episode gets longer. Some people do not have this at all, some people this is the only way their psychosis shows up. But a lot of how strong a hallucination or delusion is will depend on if you're truly believing it without question or double bookkeeping, or how "in" the hallucination or delusion you are, as Sasza said.

Personally, it's harder to have a "moment of insight" when I am double bookkeeping because I already know what I'm believing or doing is unrealistic or bizarre but I still keep doing it. When I am fully in the delusion, it's easier for something to pull me out (one time a very well timed text message from a friend made me start to question a very dangerous delusion) and for me to go to the double bookkeeping mindset.

As for hallucinations and where they are physically located, I've mainly had hallucinations that feel like they are anchored in place but the opposite is also possible!

I sometimes hallucinate real people, but those times have often been related to strong emotion or trauma, like mentioned. I more often see strangers.

It is possible to have a positive hallucination or delusion, or to have a hallucination that is regularly positive! I have a British voice that brought me a lot of comfort in my last serious episode. He would say very positive things compared to the other meaner voices. I actually miss him sometimes, although I am glad to no longer be hearing voices.

Last little bit I'll add is please remember schizophrenia and schizoaffective involve at least 2 of 5 components, only one of which have to be hallucinations, disorganized speech, or delusions! The others are abnormal movements/catatonia and negative symptoms (asociality, anhedonia, avolition, alogia, and (blunt) affect, the beautiful five As).

Happy writing!

Mod Bert

[kimbureh]

yeah ok but actually reading through these tags makes it clear the list is lumping together several different things:

"I used software as a thesaurus"

"a software translated what I wrote"

"I used software to help with proofreading"

"I used software to research some things I didn't know"

"I asked a software to generate prompts for my writing"

"I used software to come up with a title"

"a software generated the whole text"

can you see that these things are not the same? Can we at least try to have the discussion with a little bit of nuance?

As my followers know, I am personally very critical of so-called AI, and part of the problem is that nobody defines what they're talking about. What is AI?

According to this list, using Grammarly to catch forgotten commas is "ai usage".

do people have no shame anymore?

[genericpuff]

I am relatively new to Greek mythology, and I thought I'd start from a few somewhat lore accurate retellings [even if it is a retelling of a retelling lol (LR is amazing btw, it's always so great to anticipate the episodes!)] and I wanted to ask for clarification on the timeline (despite it ambiguity). Khione, goddess of winter time (as far as I recall, please do correct if I am wrong) existed during the titans as she was classified as a titan (in my memory!) however, winter was brought upon the mortal realm when Demeter's rage and sorrow manifested. I'm still rlly confused on that. Thank you btw!

aahh so. Khione is. one of those goddesses who kinda sorta doesn't exist lmao at least not in the way people talk about her as a "goddess of snow", the same way Despoina didn't exist in much of the same ways (like, she's also commonly referred to as a goddess of winter and frost despite those terms NEVER showing up in official sources about her.)

I will go on to explain BUT as always - I am not Greek, nor am I a trained academic on Greek myth material. This is largely my own speculation and current beliefs based on the research I've done over the years, which is always subject to change and grow. I do realize the irony that this post is gonna contain my own analyses and criticisms of misinformed beliefs about certain Greek myth deities from people who are just as formally educated as I am on the subject. If you disagree with any of my points or have anything to add that I overlooked, by all means please feel free to discuss in the comments. Otherwise, take everything I have to say here with grains of salt, remember to do your own research so that you're not making the same mistakes as the people I'm subtly criticizing by relying solely on one source of information.

There are a lot of mixed sources on Greek mythology, on account of both the cultural and political mixing that was happening during the time of Greek antiquity (the largest of which was the adoptions of many Hellenic myths by the Romans, which is why there are Roman counterparts of so many stories and Gods, ex. Hades = Pluto, Poseidon = Neptune, Ouranos = Uranus, Aphrodite = Venus, etc.) but ALSO because a lot of general understanding of Greek myth nowadays exists solely through the filter of pop culture adaptions and, well, the Internet, where people do in fact tell lies, even if they're rooted in some amount of half-truth 😅

Regarding Khione, she's more alike to that of Despoina, where the actual sources regarding her existence and role are very limited and, due to how others interpreted and misinterpreted those sources over the years, has resulted in "fake" versions of them being popularized and accepted as cold hard truth.

I've talked at length about Despoina before, there's a lot of debate over whether or not she was a goddess or simply an epithet which could refer to any other number of goddesses, including Persephone, Demeter, and Hecate. Her existence was largely sworn to secrecy as she was worshipped through The Eleusinian Mysteries, a cult of worshippers devoted to Demeter, Persephone, and god knows who else (they did in fact live up to their name, we still to this day barely know anything about them or what they did, they are a mystery LOL)

That said, a lot of people still run around with the singular committed belief that Despoina was the "goddess of winter and frost", a sister of Persephone, because... I actually don't know why, but I'm sure it started from some popular adaption that chose to depict her that way. Or maybe this singular belief just comes from Quora threads and misinformed strangers telling other misinformed strangers things that aren't wholly true but citing it as fact anyways.

Khione's affiliation as a goddess of snow kind of falls into the same camp of "yes, but also no". She's not a singular "goddess of winter", she certainly was NOT a Titan according to any of the limited sources that exist, and she didn't have any sort of "domain" over winter in the same way Demeter did over the harvest or Hades over the dead. Any claims as such are merely loose speculations with words like "probably" and "maybe".

At best we know she was a nymph associated with snow in some way that isn't 100% certain, either as a daughter of Boreas (the north wind) or as his consort. In some theories, she was both, as there could have very well been two of them, possibly mother and daughter, sharing the same name which is - surprise - just the Greek word for "snow", hence why people often default her as "the goddess of snow" and not simply what she more likely was, a nymph or deity associated with snow simply through the translation of her name and relation to the north wind.

(it should be noted btw that Greek deities and heroes sharing the same name happens a LOT and it's why it's always important to not stick to any singular "canon" as oftentimes all the various sources of culturally and politically relevant information are muddied by the game of Internet telephone and popular adaption.)

And all of that isn't even getting into what "winter" even meant within the context of Ancient Greece. I've also gone into speculative rants about this, but a "goddess of winter" by all accounts probably didn't even exist, because "winter" in Ancient Greece very likely wasn't the way we tend to envision it - an annual season of snowfall, holiday cheer, etc. - but was instead a period of drought. Demeter wasn't necessarily literally creating 'winter' through the manifestation of snow and ice, she was instead creating a period in which crops couldn't grow by not fulfilling her duties as the goddess of the harvest (after all, if Demeter was literally capable of creating snow and ice, why wouldn't we refer to her as such? As you said yourself, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for someone like Despoina or Khione to be the goddesses of winter when Demeter presumably already had control over that domain.)

"Harvest" and "drought" are both seasons in and of themselves, and the story of Demeter and Persephone was to explain the fluctuations of those farming seasons, not necessarily the definitions we rely on today where winter = snow. Persephone, by extension, wasn't necessarily the Goddess of Spring because she could directly create flowers and sunshine and rain - it was because her return to Demeter brought about the end of the drought, when Demeter would allow the harvest to continue, which served as our simplified understanding of 'spring'.

And if you need more proof of this, well, just go read the actual Hymn to Demeter. The word 'winter' is not mentioned once.

As for Khione, well... it's not that she didn't exist, there is source material about her, but it's incredibly minimal and, at best, just serves as a part of the overall picture, not the singular source. "Winter" - and all of the other seasons to boot - as the Ancient Greeks clearly tried to understand it wasn't through one single god, but an accumulation of many, across various communities, religions, and cultures that shared and adopted many beliefs from one another built on abstraction of thought and divine attribution for lack of clearer explanations at the time - through Demeter, who robbed them of the harvest and plunged them into famine for months every year; through Hades, who indirectly triggered these famines in his kidnapping and marriage to Persephone; through Zeus, who gave Hades his blessing to marry Persephone; through Boreas, one of four deities of the wind who specifically brought about the cold winds from the north; and through Khione, a nymph who was the consort and/or daughter of Boreas, whose name means 'snow' and who possibly had some affiliation with the cold and snow through her relation to Boreas who was linked to the northern regions of Greece which traditionally experienced the harshest winters and heaviest snowfalls.

phew

I realize that was a lot but I hope it helps clear up some of the confusion! And like I said in my above disclaimer, you def don't have to take everything I've said here as law or fact, more so another perspective on the matter that will hopefully at least lift the fog of confusion a bit. Being new to Greek myth can definitely be overwhelming on account of just how much there is to read and dissect, there are so many sources, articles, creative interpretations, and debates over these historical puzzles we don't even have all the pieces to because we're analyzing all of it in hindsight.

That said, it is still a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy the process of discovery and learning! I highly recommend also checking out /r/GreekMythology, Theoi, and the various translations that exist from authors like Robert Fagles, Robert Fitzgerald, and Emily Wilson :)

Good luck! <3

[iscdisc]

Platonic 2012 Capril rambling-

Because I can't do art today (I'm not at my drawing tablet today- 😔), I'm just going to ramble a bit- Lmao

I know the writers for this series dropped the ball with a lot of relationships / development of main relationships (i.e. Some of the brother dynamics like Donnie with Raph or even Leo to an extent, April with all of the brothers basically, Splinter with his kids, etc.), so I don't know how generous I can reasonably be with this specific topic here, but something I personally think is really neat (Especially if intentional-) is April and Casey's dynamic during the Farmhouse Arc !

In the first episode of Season 3 (EP 1, "Within the Woods"-), we see this turbulence between Casey and April over the situation that their in upon Casey asking April if something was wrong considering her distance towards him as of late (Mind you, they're three months into their stay at April's family Farmhouse in upstate New York-). She blows up on him a bit, believing he's being unreasonable with this question and asking too much of her (At least, that's my interpretation of her words-). I know I'm very 2012 Casey biased, so it's completely fine if you disagree with me here, but I personally don't believe Casey meant anything malicious or manipulative by this question-?

It seemed very genuine and implies the two have a close enough relationship for Casey to notice her (mentally / emotionally) pulling away- I can understand his asking personally, since I would probably do the same in his position. It also could've been his way of reaching out, and since he often gets misunderstood despite his good intentions, April took it the wrong way (Not trying to say she was "in the wrong", but it did feel a bit of an overreaction in my eyes. I personally feel like she was just stressed out and shaken up in that moment, as we see in the screenshot above April getting spooked by a tree branch in this same scene scenario, which led her to take it out on him-).

As shitty as this scene is (For Casey specifically, especially considering he was very understanding and didn't make her feel bad for it or even bring it up again at all-), I mention it because of what we see with the two episodes later. In S3 EP 3, "Buried Secrets"-

Out of everyone April could've gone to about her Mother / the ultimatum she was being presented with by said Mother, she went to Casey about it. Besides S2 EP 9, "The Kraang Conspiracy", April doesn't talk about her Mother much with the Turtles (The Brothers were only exposed to her Mother via Kurtzman as well, not April herself volunteering that information-). The only ones we've seen April open up to about her Mother (On her own accord-) are Karai in Season 1 (EP 21, "Karai's Vendetta"-) and now Casey in Season 3. This felt like such a significant moment given the interaction we see them have in, "Within the Woods". It seems like Casey was proven to be genuine in his concern for April as her friend and April truly acknowledges that better now. Why else would April choose to be so vulnerable with him after having such a shitty moment together episodes prior (Where she felt he was being very insensitive / inconsiderate of her feelings-)?

I also have a personal theory that these two were testing the waters of a relationship during Season 2 (Which I've mentioned before-), and if my theory is correct, that could also contribute to their closeness and April's willingness to share such personal things with him specifically. Also given this theory, I'm not saying it wouldn't have been surprising if April thought Casey was attempting to "weasel his way back in romantically" when he asked her about whether or not they were okay during, "Within the Woods" (Which feels substantiated by Donnie making such a emphasized point about them being "two teens who like each other going into the woods alone" a scene prior-), but like I said before I really don't think that's what Casey was trying to do at all. I think he was being genuine.

I just really like this moment that they share here, and it really seems like their dynamic is moving towards a more platonic direction- We can even backtrack a bit to the beginning of this episode when they're having the cleaning montage- Even this had a different energy to it for me personally. I feel like from this episode ("Buried Secrets"-) moving forward, a lot of the "advances" Casey makes towards April come off kind of jokey and very clearly not taken seriously by April whatsoever.

Maybe I could be wrong, but it really felt like two exes (Or rather two people who were exploring a relationship but then that fell through-)?? Casey's going to poke fun because that's just in his nature, and they both know where they stand with each other now so April's not going to really comment on it and just find these jokes "annoying" (But in a way that you find your friend annoying, you know?).

It's also the way that April seems to be a lot livelier as a person with Casey, which I think also speaks to their better grounded friendship (And possible implication of romantic closeness, since that past vulnerability could have made it easier for April to really be herself around / with Casey ! Definitely not in the way she can "be herself" around Donnie, since in my personal opinion, it always feels like she's putting on some kind of face for him-). I didn't get a screenshot of it, but the moment between them at the end of this specific episode (S3 EP 8, "Vision Quest"-) speaks to that too in my opinion. The little banter that they're having over April breaking the wood and the finger snaps thing that she afterwards- I'm just saying that we don't get this kind of energy from April outside of her interactions with Casey (In my opinion-). Lmao

Again, I don't know how much I can attribute this to the writing since I'm not entirely sure that this was an intentional thing, but I think regardless it's cool to see their dynamic throughout the Farmhouse Arc !

I also really like this particular platonic closeness between Casey and April (Especially under the context that they were a relationship that didn't work out but are still super close / have moved on from it-), because I feel like this would be a better way to explain Casey's continued "protectiveness" over April + annoyance with Donnie in relation to her. Not that I'm trying to shit talk 2012 Donnie here, but he is a massive weirdo towards her for a significant amount of time in the series and I'm sure if April and Casey are as close as I'm assuming they are during this time, April has expressed that to Casey before. So it's kind of nice to view Casey continuing to be this way towards Donnie as a means of defending April from uncomfortable interactions with Donnie rather than him still seeing himself as a viable candidate for her "love" or something- You know what I mean?

Although, I know this particular instance (From "Buried Secrets"-) doesn't exactly hold up as well as I would like it to here, given the episode prior (EP 2, "A Foot Too Big"-), April literally kissed Donnie- Like legitimately kissed Donnie. So I can't exactly say Donnie's persistence here "doesn't make sense", cause April really was giving off some weird signals / messages. Again, as always, we can thank the piss poor writing. Lmao

There's also this moment that I wanted to talk about outside of The Farmhouse Arc when they return to New York City (Specifically from S3 EP 10, "Serpent Hunt"-). Objectively speaking, this felt like kind of a weird moment from April that I didn't really understand? From a canonical writing perspective, this came off as the writers trying to still continue this, "Will they, won't they?" aspect of April and Casey's relationship-?? But maybe this thing can be viewed as April possibly reminiscing fondly about the past (If my theory about them having a failed relationship throughout Season 2 is accurate-) and appreciating Casey still being by her side? I honestly feel like I'm grasping at straws with this interpretation- LMAO

Anyway that's my ramble about those two- They just felt like a lot of lost / wasted potential as far as like having a boy and girl friendship that wasn't weird? Lmao ✨

[stellamancer]

actually my niku ……. do you have any thoughts to share about your selfships’ midnight routines? :3c in general? like roast and nikooj and roadkill (and dead meat coughs coughs) and etc….. what do you do before bed? do they lull you to sleep? what would they do if you chose to sleep on the couch…..? pls share with the hungry mice 🐭🎤

MIDNIGHT... i am never up at that time what do you mean (pretends i was not up til 5am local time today).

to be perfectly honest, i am the absolute worst when it comes to following any sort of routine on my own. i literally space out on my computer for xx amount of hours, during which i will eat dinner, and then i will go to bed where i am on my phone for a little before actually going to sleep.

nikooj and roadkill are a little more... unstructured to say the least, with nikooj literally being like... there is almost no routine. which is hilarious when it's the only selfship where living together is part of the lore lmao. but you know what isn't? actually dating in full lmaooo. it's still in the will they or won't they phase. which. makes sense given, well you know (pretends i don't have a spicy comm of that). nikooj tends to be up later though, but i'm usually asleep first. gojo is a freak who watches me sleep. next question.

there's a little more... routine for roadkill because uramichi goes to the gym after he's done with work and he works untill i get off and he comes and gets me from work. he drinks less when i move in lmao, though i tell him it's fine if he still wants to drink. we take turns making dinner and then it's kind of parallel play situation til a bit before bed. i'm honestly surprised when i find out he has a simple skin care routine he does before bed (btw as MUCH as i like to think gojo has a routine himself, i think it's funnier if he just slaps water on his face and calls it good) and so i try to do one too. i have an easier time getting to sleep than uramichi does, like far more easy, so i'm usually lulling him to sleep. like i will hold his hand to help him feel at ease! i couldn't decide to go sleep on the couch. i fear he would spiral. but if i did i would be coming back very quickly and apologizing for it.

OKAY NOW FOR THE CONTROL FREAKS.

part of me is like where i the difference? but i think that suguru is less direct than sunday is about things.

so like, it's past what suguru thinks is an acceptable dinner time and he just gently taps my shoulder and smiles and asks if i've had dinner yet (he knows the answer) and pulls me from whatever i'm doing to eat dinner. subtly reminds me to get off the computer and go wash my face by closing the book he's reading and heading into the bedroom a bit before bedtime. i think honestly suguru has me trained like a dog or something.

it's about the same with sunday, except instead of asking if i've had dinner it's more 'it's getting late you should eat dinner' and coming into the bathroom to do the skincare routine with me (i sometimes do not take the proper amount of time). sunday will also make sure i put my phone away so i don't get sucked into being on it much later than i should. if i have trouble sleeping i'll ask him to yap about something. anything really. i like his voice. owo

anyway, it's laughable to think either of them would even allow me the thought of sleeping on the couch. even if i try to wait once they've fallen asleep, the second i try to get up there is an iron clad grip on my wrist. or. if they're suspecting it around my waist. T_T

i might make an excuse and try to lie about it and say i'm going to the bathroom... but suguru conceals a threat in his words when he tells me to not get lost and sunday will call me out on the lie.

[ozmodai]

If you had to organize the blood caste from favorite to least favorite how would it go

HMMMM! HMMMMMMM! i'm going to pop a tier list here and then rant on some reasons for each one down below! granted, none of these are a "i hate this caste" rather than more of a "i dont think about this caste much".

ofc, these are also usually what castes i'm drawn to making fantrolls of LOL

teals: self explanatory if you've followed me long enough. i like narratives about struggling with conformity and autonomy and with the detail from tyzias that teals by mandatory-or-die order must be part of the legislacerator corps that play as a status quo upholding middle man... i think theyre fun. also the color is one of my favorites already.

purple: who doesn't like clowns? also chucklevoodoos are fun. i also see them as working closely with teals (legislacerators and subjuggulators go hand in hand) so i like the connected association and how those relationships would play out.

jade: i didn't think about them Too much until i started talking more with my friend who is resident Jadeblood Guy (@kimquatz), now they're really up there for me. similar themes with teals where they have their role for them all planned out by the empire. dweeb city. cloistered jades being so isolated from other castes is also really good food for different kinds of narratives.

burgundy: with them being the lowest in the hierarchy, i think they're interesting whether they're characters who are just so fed up with their lot in life or embrace it bc it's all they know and escape just doesn't seem plausible. or both!

cerulean: jack of all trades sort of type where they don't really have much canonically instilled on them by the empire that they're free to sort of do. whatever they want LOL which i think heavily applies into their general vibe of kind of being a bunch of little shits. i enjoy little shit characters.

fuchsia: i really like design aspects of the seadwellers, so they get pretty high on that alone LOL. i also like there being very VERY few fuchsia hatched at a time and how they deal. they have a territorial instinct at the sight of each other but it's like a foregone conclusion that once any of them are old enough to go off-planet, they're doomed to be cut down by condy. what a life.

violet: fish design points. also imagining violets as being similar to a sorority/frat house with a bunch of nepo babies is hilarious to me.

lime: to be honest, this goes up a little higher just because by zodiac, i'm a lime (hell yeah canries), so i'm biased. i do like speculating though what they would have been like before they were obliterated by condy and ofc, the rare surviving lime or mutant in hiding or other circumstances is a romp.

gold: neat, but i don't think about them very much! i do think the idea of them having a few different types of kinetic abilities are fun (hydrokinesis like my fantroll novaya, pyrokinesis, electro, aero, etc), for the ones that actually are born with psionics.

indigo: they're very funny, i also like them being a bunch of rich blueblood noble types even though they ultimately hold little authority up against purples and up. insane strength but doing nothing with it really because they're comfortable in the system. unless...?

bronze: also neat, i just don't end up thinking of them often!

olive: on the same coin as ceruleans, they have so few rules set on them by alternia but they also don't have a possible psychic gene so they have even less traits to make them stand out to me FKJDASF they're like the forgotten stepchild. it's like having TOO much freedom to work with so i end up with very few ideas that scratch the itch in my brain.

obviously, these are moot if you don't work with hiveswap's canon, but that's always been a big part of the fun for me, working with how to twist and explore the few "rules" sprinkled around. it'd likely be the same tierlist for me regardless anyway!

[the-sage-libriomancer]

I wonder what Kyoko would've thought of Shigure. She's the only non-Sohma adult in the series who's also in his age group (albeit barely - she's about a decade older than him) and I feel like her optimism combined with her no-nonsense sensibilities would've been an interesting foil to Shigure's morally grayness hidden under a cheerful exterior.

They probably could have bonded over pursuing socially unacceptable relationships and being outcasts in their family (if Shigure was ever able to be even slightly honest with her, that is). I don't think they'd have hung out often, but in a Kyoko Lives AU where Tohru befriends Kyo and Yuki, it's likely they would've had to meet at least once or twice. I can't tell if they'd like each other or if it'd be more of a "polite acquaintances" sort of thing. Probably some awkward mixture of both lol.

[funnyscienceman]

Oh gosh— i just woke up and am not an expert on their game counterparts (and i phrased it weird in my original tags, but i'll clarify what i meant as we go along), but the long and short of it is: if it came down to one of them dying, it would be Viktor who'd disregard boundaries/autonomy/personal wishes etc to bring Jayce back from the dead, or technologically modify him to the point of unrecognizability, if it meant keeping him by his side. Jayce i think would be the one who'd search desperately for some loophole to save both Viktor and the world, and failing that, he'd stay by Viktor's side and hold him close as he passed.

This isn't to say that Jayvik (arcane) are literally 1:1 inverse of Vikjayce (game), because their conflict in the original lore is them being unable to reconcile differences in morals/ethics/stances on augmentation and bodily autonomy, i.e., conditional proximity and partnership. Like the love is there, for sure, but they can't be in the same room as each other without starting a dustcloud brawl (affectionate)! Compare that to the show, where they're more fighting the narrative than they are fighting each other.

However, given that and the scope of the above post, while there isn't exactly anything out of the ordinary for Viktor to unquestioningly support of Jayce, it is Jayce who's holding Viktor to a moral standard that the latter just can't seem to meet. Really, of the four of them, Jayce Giopara (game!Jayce) i think is the least willing to compromise or disregard morals, even if for the sake of a loved one.

What they all have consistent, though, is that no matter what happens, they'll always gravitate back to each other. If MH (game!Vik) and AH (arcane!Vik) have anything in common, it's them always going back to Jayce with the intention of working together again, even when ostensibly deep in villainy.

*cough* together we can rule the galaxy-type shenanigans *cough* jayce having to fight tooth and nail not to fold so disastrously in the face of his villain boyfriend for the sake of a greater goal *cough cough*

Like, seriously, when old mage Viktor said, "In all timelines, in all possibilities, only you could show me this," he wasn't kidding!

(These comic panels — from the PvE adventure Jayce had in the card game during Arcane's initial release — is definitely a lighter and softer version of PnZ, but the core of it is still relevant I think!)

Um. So. There's not really any concluding point, like i said im not an expert on the boys' game counterparts 😅 if you wanna know more about them, the vikjayce codex here on tumblr is a very good archive of all things game!Jayce and Viktor! This is just generally what i meant when i said Jayvik are the inverse of Vikjayce ahaha... sorry for the rambling dhsnhs

Underrated JayVik moments/lines (15/∞)

"You had a vision?"

This entry is very loosely inspired by a post I saw about how Jayce really ought to be more bewildered by the fact that Viktor just told him he had a vision while tripping balls on his own lung-blood inside the HexGates. /paraphrased

I know on this blog we like to lovingly rip into Jayce for being a serial fumbler at supporting the casual love of his life (or no, I don't really like to do that - I love both my boys and just wish they didn't have to stay miserable until two minutes before annihilation is all), but this made me think of how there is one way in which Jayce is actually much "better" at supporting Viktor than the other way around.

See, Viktor - by virtue of being a person of uncompromising principles - is prone to the pitfall of... not being very generous with regards to other people's perceived failings or weaknesses. Or his own, for that matter.

Jayce isn't exempt from this - furthest thing from it, in fact.

Yes, Viktor does always quickly forgive (and doesn't forget) Jayce's numerous blunders. But that doesn't negate the fact that anytime Jayce ventures outside Viktor's expectations of who he is - or who he could be, ought to be -, the dissatisfaction is immediate, sharp and unfaltering. While Viktor's love for Jayce is unconditional, his approval most certainly isn't.

That's not a bad thing in itself; Viktor is (generally speaking) entitled to his disapproval, and as I said, it is merely the flipside of his strong convictions.

However, compare this to Jayce, who doesn't seem to have any set expectations whatsoever as to who Viktor should be. Or the decisions he should make. Jayce will happily go along with any twist and turn in Viktor's thought processes and actions, not only because they are fascinating to him, but because he trusts and admires Viktor implicitly.

(To my knowledge, the only time Jayce expresses discontentment with an action taken by pre-Herald Viktor is during their argument on the bridge, which is driven by immense worry and fear on Jayce's part, and he also backpedals immediately.)

Here are some examples of Jayce not beating the golden retriever allegations embracing Viktor unconditionally:

You're suggesting we should amplify the power of the thing that blew up half a building yesterday? Let's roll!

You're snapping at me for taking my new job too seriously? Yeah, guess I deserve that...

You had a vision? (While tripping balls on your lung-blood?) Tell me more!

The thing that came to you in said vision is making plants scream now? You're so cool, Vik.

You carved runes in your skin and started experimenting on yourself in ways your mentor said would make everyone hate you? "I did my best using the notes from your leg, recorded everything!"

Those experiments pulverised our only assistant? ...We can fix that.

You're leaving because affection isn't holding us together anymore..? Well, I'll stay and sleep here in case you come back, I guess...

You've lost your mind and got me in the exact position where I already saw my future corpse? Eh - I'll close my eyes and trust that you'll come to your senses in time.

The fact that - for however subject to change most of everything else about Jayce was - the love and acceptance Singed told Viktor he would have to forfeit in order to live never once wavered for even a second... it just kind of gets to me, okay?

Part 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16

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[4bsurdcreature]

Narrative Foils

Based off of This Post

[eelclaw]

stupid fucking bastard. i am not coping with the leaks

[maddragonfruit]

In my mind the original Creativity and a Roman/Remus fusion would be entirely different sides

[maryasmorevna]

can't believe a show based on a videogame (usually games adaptations are notoriously bad, which isn't the case here tho) gave me the beauty and the beast/twisted mirrors/enemies to traveling companions/ruthless antihero+optmistic but still badass heroine who takes none of his shit/age gap but make it sexy dynamic of my dreams. as much as i love maximus and i think he deserves the best writing ever because 1. he's a clever deconstruction of the aspiring Knight bro who's actually a bit of a loser and, as much as lucy, sees the world in black&white at first and then doesn't get what he thought he wanted but what he needs (or at least i hope he'll eventually get it), and 2. he's a cutie and i want an epic love story for him too, it's very funny how they tried to give us a puppy kind of romance and the tumblr girlies still fixated on the "toxic ~she bites his finger off and he cuts hers off and sews it on his hand in what we'll pretend it's a symbolic marriage rings exchange or whatever~ asshole who used to be a nice guy/good girl™ with a lot of spunk and hidden anger but unshakeable morals" kind of relationship.

[thesummerstorms]

The other thing that I think I would want in an Annabeth Wayne AU that I don't think I've seen so far is Bruce being absolutely pissed at Athena.

It was bad enough with Talia and Damian, but Athena is a literal god of wisdom who should know better AND he doesn't even have the "culpability" of having slept with her.

She one hundred percent saw Batman, tactician of the Justice League, was drawn in by her aspect of the Goddess of Strategy, and proceeded to create a child without his consent, a daughter who she didn't even raise before the child became a weapon.

And like whatever else, however fucked up Damian was by his own training to become a child-weapon, at least Talia loved Damian.

Whereas Athena loves Annabeth in the way a Goddess loves, not the way a Person loves, and I don't think Bruce, whose entire identity is so fixated on his relationship with his own parents, would recognize that as love at all.

And, like, Talia put Damian through a lot of shit. I think Bruce would be angry there too. But when push came to shove, she at least at some point brought him to Bruce because she thought it was in her son's best interests.

Athena actively lead Annabeth away from Bruce and into the streets at the age of seven, which Bruce would never see as in her best interest, whatever Athena's godly perspective is, however badly he reacted after Jason's death, even though he couldn't see (and dismissed the idea of) the spiders and the monsters. She was seven. In the streets of Gotham.

Athena let Annabeth fight a major role in two wars back to back without being there to train her or protect her or love her or even advise her. Athena advocated for the cold blooded murder of the other children who had actually tried to keep his daughter safe. Athena sent Annabeth against Arachne when Athena's children have universally died on that quest for a thousand years.

Athena let Bruce think he had gotten Annabeth killed because of his own inability to handle his grief. Let him think his daughter was dead or worse for years. Would have let him keep thinking that if the Fates didn't have other plans.

And just, in true fashion for all of my ideas on a PJO x DC crossover, everyone really comes out more traumatized than before. This includes Bruce.

Because now he wasn't just used unknowingly for a child just once, but twice. And in both cases he's going to have to live forever with the guilt of not having been able to protect his kids from what their other parent wanted to make of them

(On top of all the ways he has directly failed them and made any complexes worse, of course )

[menstits]

I feel like genshin's bad writing issues aren't really the same as other gachas just because the structure of the game itself is very different compared to card collection-based ones. It's not really a matter of retconning character development for the sake of sales, there IS absolutely dogshit writing in this game but imo it's not really tied to the gacha itself in the same way because the entire storyline including the characters' individual ones aren't really gated by owning them and the developers are fully aware that the characters will sell themselves regardless of what their story is as long as they're cute anime characters because a significant chunk of the fanbase doesn't even know how to read