#the most fucked nonsensical political system ever

[glassfag]

trying to relax by writing some tomarry except i think about the political system and economy of the wizarding world for more than three seconds and start spiraling and have no option but to open a new googledoc and start writing the lamest rant-thesis about fictional politics ever.

[stromuprisahat]

Second Army disorganization

Siege and Storm- Chapter 14

One of the most frustrating and famously nonsensical passages of Grisha trilogy, easily explained through doylist approach- the author's inability to write strategy or politics and demands of the genre, requiring a weak, unfit heroine to defeat immensely powerful opponent way out of her league:

Alina: Oh no, they dare to oppose me again! :(

Isn't that why would you want to establish a council in the first place? So you get constructive criticism and suggestions to do things better?!

My objections to the notion Alina came up with representation of Grisha can't be more obvious:

Army is a structured organization. There are ranks and councils by default. No amount of ignorant teens will persuade me calling it "Second" makes it otherwise.

Any big organization has a structure. Even if Second Army were only about education, there would be councils and posts on different levels. Hell, school system works that way.

Alina: I'm gonna have the useless ones represented, because we're not doing things like the Darkling, but that doesn't mean I'll respect them myself or abandon my prejudices. Fucking nerds. Weidos...

Another YA nonsense- you cannot put people into categories based on their physical predispositions, and expect the mental ones to fit accordingly. You can have a huge, muscled guy, skilled in delicate handiwork. You can have a tiny wisp of a girl beating the living shit out of you (popular trope by itself).

Now why should sensitivity to metals get you a spot in labs, if you're a strategic genius? Or incredibly skilled, witty rhetorician? Isn't it more likely you'd be required to complete basic training to stay healthy and prevent accidentally endangering others, while being assigned to whatever you're most useful at?

And what about those weak or less intelligent ones? Are they bringing coffee and arranging entertainment?!

It also fits this fan interpretation, that Materialki are often neuro-divegent, so they are tend to be kept away from battle for their own sake.

Alina wasn't involved in practical running of Second Army before. Just because she doesn't know about something, it's not a totally fresh idea.

I'd be afraid of a girl, who almost murdered a bunch of people for asking questions, too.

At this point, I'm gonna run with the idea that all the older Grisha are torn between face-palming and silently laughing their assess off (so Alina doesn't overhear and her clique doesn't resort to violence).

“But what do they do in there?” I asked, not entirely sure I wanted to hear the answer. “Only the Corporalki know. But there are rumors that they’ve been working with the Fabrikators on new … experiments.”

Shadow and Bone- Chapter 8

... and that says nothing about the field, or the little groups in noble houses. People tend to stick together with their own, when in strange enviroment. I'm sure such bonds dissolve immediately after their return "home".

I've also delved a little into the sitting order here.

A few lines earlier, Alina noted Materialki didn't show up to complain. Who is so horrified then?! Not them, for sure.

Ironically, this fits into Fabricator-brain theory linked above AND the most logical explanation- Materialki have basic self-defense training, but only those, who are able to, continue. Alina isn't particularly friendly with any of them, so how would she know no one had EVER bothered to teach them? Alright, there are none in her class, but as far as we know, it consists of a Squaller, an Inferni and a Heartrender. Not the most saying sample.

Having a third of all Grisha helpless doesn't fit into the picture of Aleksander's leadership:

“That’s what Botkin always says. ‘Not showy, just to make pain,’” I said, imitating the mercenary’s heavy accent. “Smart guy.” “The Darkling doesn’t think Grisha should rely on their powers for defense.”

Shadow and Bone- Chapter 17

You don't have to become another Bruce Lee, you only need a chance, when they drag you out of bed in the middle of the night.

What tradition?

This is rather well-written group of angry, disorganized people. It might start with a reasonable goal, but soon everyone talks about something else than others, and the message gets lost in the noise.

Tradition doesn't equal "the way things are done". Neither of them is the same as "the need for structure and people knowing their places". The third one is a legitimate concern, although one could argue it's exactly what Alina's attempting.

This whole scene very much reads like:

The author is desperate to prove the Heroine isn't quite useless- she has good ideas! Look! *whacks a hundreds of years old stategist and survivor par excellence with stupid stick*

[icannotgetoverbirds]

buckle up, this one's a doozy

Idk if it's actually a doozy, but this is the story of how I deconverted from a cult and got my egg cracked at approximately the same time, all thanks to... weed.

Let's set the scene, shall we?

It is December 22nd, 2021. The pandemic has been raging for nearly two years at this point. I am, at this point, still a believing mormon. That said, my attendance to church meetings has been incredibly spotty, with the most reliable method to get me to worship being choir practice.

I am laying in my bed in the evening, and of all possible things, I am thinking about weed. Namely, the church's policy about weed, and the absolute failure that is the war on drugs, and my personal belief system (and also about whether or not I should try weed for my anxiety disorder).

What's mormonism's policy on weed, you ask? Well, it's surprisingly liberal for a whole-ass cult, but still has enough nonsense for the events of this story to play out. To put it simply, you can absolutely use weed for medicinal purposes, but recreational purposes is a big no-no.

This, of course, presents a dilemma: where do you draw the line between recreational and medicinal use, especially in the case of, say, using it to medicate an anxiety disorder? I'm sure that the Church-Approved™ conclusion is "That's between you and The Lord, figure it out yourself, good luck!" I don't remember if I came to that conclusion or not, but I know for a fact that my "prove beyond a shadow of a doubt before you make an important decision based off of Feelings Supposedly From God Or The Holy Spirit" ass would not have been satisfied with that answer.

So I think about it in terms of politics, and logic, and science. After all, science is just our frail and minuscule way of comprehending all that Our Father Who Art In Heaven has created, right? So if Our Father Who Art In Heaven can't give me a straight answer, science surely can.

I come to a few conclusions. First of all, there are very few people, if any, who are qualified to draw that line. I am not included in that group of people. Secondly, nobody in their right goddamned mind would so much as try to draw that line unless they have some serious qualifications in the variety of fields that it applies to. Third of all, and this is where shit starts to unravel very fucking quickly: who in the goddamned fuck are a bunch of old white men who've probably never seen a gram of weed in their entire lives to think themselves qualified to draw that line?

The shelf cracks. The prophets are fallible, even in this day and age. Not only are they fallible, but whoever made this decision is a FUCKING DUMBASS. God must be looking down at them and shaking his head disapprovingly, huh?

So I think to myself, yknow what, this is a stupid fucking rule. And my autistic-disregard-for-stupid-fucking-rules-having-ass was not about to tolerate it. So what do I do? Metaphorically speaking, I chuck it out the window. Who cares? I'm gonna do weed for my anxiety, and if anybody tells me that I'm disobeying god, I can tell them that god doesn't fucking give a shit about weed if he's as kind and loving as the prophets say he is.

A moment passes.

Now wait just a goddamned second! If I'm chucking this rule out the window, isn't there something else I should re-examine? If I'm disregarding what the prophets have said for my own pleasure and recreation, isn't there something regarding the lives, livelihoods, and joie de vivre of countless other people, myself included, that I should be looking at?

Suddenly, the years of (pent-up and suppressed) sheer fucking indignation of the way queer people have been othered by the church hits me all at once, full fucking force. I am angry, angrier than I have ever been. Abso-fucking-lutely not. No. If the prophets are wrong about weed, then they're DEFINITELY wrong about queer people.

And in this moment, I make a decision. "Until the mormon leaders get their shit together, I'm out! I'm fucking done! I'm gonna go live it up and get blazed out of my gourd for shits and giggles, and maybe I'll try a tiny sip of beer, and by god I am going to transition-"

"HEY WAIT JUST A GODDAMNED SECOND"

[Plain text ID: Text in a large, bold, italicized red font that reads "HEY WAIT JUST A GODDAMNED SECOND"]

Shelf shattered, omelette made of my egg, life ruined for the better.

The next morning, I come out to my mom and sister. I still believe in god and mormonism and yadda yadda, I just think the leadership needs to get their heads out of their asses.

Not long after, I decide to finally check out exmormon spaces. Yknow, get the full experience.

I am bombarded with "HOLY FUCK IT'S A CULT. IT RUINED MY LIFE. IT RUINED YOUR LIFE. IT TORE MY FAMILY APART. IT'S NOT EVEN REAL. READ THE CES LETTER, CHECK MORMONISM AGAINST THE BITE MODEL. THINK FOR YOUR GODDAMNED SELF FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE."

I check the sources provided. Well, I'll be damned. They weren't kidding, that mormonism sure can cult started by a con man. At this point, I am now beyond the point of no return. There's no going back. I have seen the light. I want out forever, I want my records removed, mom pick me up I'm scared.

My family never looks at me the same way again :>

[pluckyredhead]

Is the ideal superhero story/setting one that you would read even without villains?

I guess by definition yes, because it would be ideal?

I think this depends a lot on what you mean by "villains." I don't necessarily need supervillains in a story, but are we also talking about street crime, organized crime, corrupt cops and politicians, etc? Because I do think you need conflict, and natural disasters only go so far.

I'm not a person who cares all that much about villains, and I think modern superhero comics are way overinvested in supervillains and constantly upping the ante in showing how badass they are and endless pages of nonsense about "look at us, our destinies are intertwined, clowns are the natural enemy of bats" like SHUT UP. If I never read another story with the goddamn Joker in it again it will be too soon. There's also that old chestnut of "superheroes create supervillains" which I find fucking exhausting and contrived as hell. Like just because you dress up as a bat to stop a mugger, it's your fault someone else decides to murder people with riddles? What??? "Don't help anyone, you'll create monsters!" SHUT UP!!!

Street level heroes do particularly well in stories where they're fighting organized crime and corruption; some of the most beloved stories and eras for Batman, Green Arrow, and Daredevil focus on this. (Green Arrow should probably almost never fight supervillains. His villains are so dumb.)

Even Superman - one of my favorite Superman eras ever is the Golden Age, where there were almost no supervillains and the ones he fought were often relatively harmless and it was more about exposing their cons than fighting them (Prankster, Toyman, my beloved J. Wilbur Wolfingham). These stories, again, often focused more on corruption and exploitation - which, crucially, means that Clark Kent has as big of a role to play in the story as Superman. I'm not saying get rid of Lex Luthor and Brainiac (although I think Lex also works best as a corrupt businessman instead of a guy in green and purple armor), but I do think there are many stories that can be told about Superman that don't require supervillains. And I think that requires refocusing on the idea that Superman is not here to fight bad people, he's here to help ordinary people.

But on the other hand...I don't know what the hell you would do with the Flash without supervillains. I just don't see how anything else would challenge him. "The Flash exposes a corrupt politician" just doesn't work for me unless said corrupt politician has hired Captain Cold for protection or something, I don't know why.

So I'm not saying get rid of supervillains, because they have their place. But I think the current emphasis on them is unnecessary, and overemphasizes the importance of, like, punitive and retributive justice and heavily militarized policing. There are not bogeymen in our streets in wacky costumes murdering dozens with freeze guns or whatever, but there is widespread and systemic corruption and abuse in business, politics, and law enforcement, so if we're going to have inspirational stories about defeating evil, I know where I think the emphasis should be. Superhero comics don't always have to be drawn from life and I enjoy a silly story where the Flash fights the Rainbow Raider as much as anyone else, but I think every so often it would be helpful for writers to take a step back and think "Hmm, what is this hero actually fighting and why?"

[bitchy-peachy]

ALL MONEY ASKS GET REPORTED TO STAFF AND BLOCKED.

[mostly queue operated : 30 posts per day]

Extra socials I rarely use:

Bluesky

Tik Tok

(⬇️check before following me.⬇️):

TAGS

[ #noodity and/or #smutty (if you don't want to see artistic nudes or smutty art reblogs. I have a good reason for not tagging these #nsfw)

#spoilers (I tag anything new for any fandom coming out as #spoilers to keep you all spoiler free.)

#fandom, #fandom discourse (if you don't wanna see me complain about fandoms)

#horror, #tw blood, #body horror and #dark art (if you don't want to see fun splatter or spookiness that may be triggering since some people er... don't like it as much as me.)

#personal, #personal pics #ramblings, #rant, #rant in tags, #!!! (if you don't want to see the most random ramblings ever along with pics, long winded tag rants and me boosting things... although I would want you to boost things in the #!!! tag)

As well as #witchy things (if you don't wanna see me talking my "evil hocus pocus" stuff)]

#politics, #news, #SA mention, #true crime are also recommended to blacklist if you don't like such subjects (and my ranting violence at criminals and hating on the injustice system. I'm a huge pig with badges hater especially since I see 97% bad shit)

#me being blasphemous is pretty self explanatory.

Things That Will Get A Block

Associating with people that have hurt me and my friends

Content thieves. Art, fanfiction etc. Plagiarism and art reposts without credits to get attention on yourself with other people's work is a no.

People that start fights over literally nothing. People that are overly reactive and see "something bad" in anything and start drama about it.

Homophobic, transphobic etc people get blocked.

Right wing conservashits and western commie shits (which are just as bad as conservatives) get blocked. I grew up in a conservative family and I've heard your kind of nonsense repeatedly. None of you are creative and bring nothing new to your "arguments" so I see no point in searing my damned eyes with your uninspiring stale bullshit.

Racist twats get blocked. I ain't gotta see your dumbass. Nobody does.

Porn bots, empty accounts, business accounts, weird content that gives me ick (if you don't tag your poop, diaper and piss play, necrophilia, age play, etc... all which I don't want to see and properly filter.)Like I've got weird fictional interests and personal but even I've got my limits and people ain't even tagging it to avoid getting banned in random main tags that has nothing to do with it.

Even at my married grown hag age I've had guys act inappropriately towards me almost immediately after I made the mistake of following them back. Block, reported. I'm too old for that shit.

Don't waste your time sending me asks or DMs asking for money. Some of you spam this shit to the point of becoming overwhelming. Fuck outta my asks and dms with this. You're obnoxious and its too damn much. Tired of having 30 asks begging for money and dms from fake ass accounts asking me for money cos I made the mistake of thinking they were a legimate follower. Sincerely fuck off and away to my block list.

Minors. Like where are your parents? If I find a minor following me, I'll at least do a soft block. Follow me when you're an adult.

If I block you for any of these things you'll probably stay blocked forever unless something happens that it was a misunderstanding etc..

Random Things About Me

[Status: Taken 💍 but we share each other with fictional characters]

[🧿🔮Ecletic Bruja. Some of my stuff is closed practice but I do share generalized info. Just not closed ancestral matters..]

[Horror/Gore movie/book obsessed: I also reblog a lot of dismemberment and innards which explains the #body horror or #tw blood tag.]

[A bit of a classical art snob. I love old art, the darker and more tragic the better. You can find pretty things of this nature as well as fandom fanarts in #art]

[I ain't 100% "politically correct". I can drag both left and right and my politics can fluctuate between center-right or center-left depending the issue. Example: I support the death penalty (as long as there's no reasonable doubt whatsoever. If there is any doubt, cut the bullshit. Especially these racist ass bloody red states that execute innocent people. If you're gonna do this shit be fucking sure first. Also start executing ped0s instead of people that accidentally killed one person in robbery- ok I'm ranting) and abortion. I also support guns but not everyone having them and there being some more restrictions/background checks etc. That was just some examples of my stance on some subjects. (Made bold for emphasis)]

[LGBT+ safe space🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌈 (if you don't like that gfy]

[I have writer's block on everything sorry]

[Dark Humor galore💀]

[Perverted Humor galore🥵]

[🗡 I will only follow back if I like your content and aren't a shitty p0rn bot or some money begging bullshit. I want actual mutuals to interact with and fangirl with, not a bot or a one post blog that only wants money🗡]

[Hablo Español and can understand spoken/read Deutsch and Portuguese]

[My blog is for me. Don't tell me how to run my shit unless you're a masochist.]

[Account is monitored with statcounter]

[gaykarstaagforever]

Well! Second DMing session ended with the guy who made me do it, who was going to "help" me, hanging up on me mid-session and texting

So much for "I don't care if you don't know how to do it, I'll walk you through it," I guess.

I was very clear from the outset that I think most ttrpgs, and ALL DnD rules, are arbitrary math nonsense that you need a college course to understand, specifically created by terrible people to force everyone else to put up with their infantile, unintuitive view of the universe. I told him I hate this crap. He manipulated me into trying it anyway. Guess who hasn't changed his mind, and guess who is now throwing a temper-tantrum about it? I TOLD YOU this was a bad idea.

I read the book. The 8 books. It doesn't matter. They're math textbooks written by bad writers and my eyes kept glazing over. I don't understand why any of these rules exist. I'm just forced to memorize formulas. That I don't respect.

There is no space for reputation, or politics, or combat scenario realities, or random accidents and diseases, or genuine surprises, or living in an apathetic, living, breathing world that doesn't give a fuck about your Chosen One status. It is wizards casting fire balls, because the guy doing that hates his mom, and made up a rule set where he can play his weird stupid power fantasies. His weird, stupid, RACIST power fantasies, if this last group's predilections is any indication.

I don't have patience for this. It's arcane and unrealistic and sucks the joy out of everything and it ISN'T FUN.

If you love it, great. I'll get out of your way. But it runs counter to how my brain works and I fucking hate it. I love the idea of using dice to RP events and see what happens. But at some point of complexity you are just obeying someones precious little rule-book so obnoxious math nerds who memorized it can be smug about exploiting loopholes.

Go play a video game for that. That's not a healthy social interaction. That's yet another version of a group of fucked-up people being whiney and dogmatic about random shit they made up, specifically so they can be cool in a world they specifically designed for that purpose. And what the fuck is that? I hate them, and I hate that.

My old mantra was "nerds with math ruin everything." I was always half-joking, but only half. I have zero respect for everything this is, and what people are apparently looking for from it. It is frustrating and boring and limiting and stupid to me. I don't enjoy it. And I don't even want to ever play it again, because I dread being doomed to waste my brain power sorting out weird meta game math shit that doesn't seem to take into account any defensible simulation of actual reality.

I have spent 120+ hours over the last 5 months trying to get into this. Trying to get a handle on why people like it, to figure out the secret I am missing. I have spent stupid amounts of money on stuff, to that end.

And I either lack the 3000 IQ space brain to get it, or I absolutely get it, and I just absolutely hate it. Either way, I've had enough.

I want to do a D6 system that is just "roll against opponent, bigger number wins, DM RPs what that means." That's loose and interesting and feels like real life. The rest can go jump in the river.

"YEAH BUT THAT'S UNFAIR TO PLAYERS!"

The world is unfair to life. You're not 12 anymore. I don't get anything out of playing around in a baby world made for babies. You're just mad because it isn't going to work in your favor the way I'm proposing it.

It's like Tim Cain said about programming RNG. You give them real RNG, everyone gets mad because "it's not fair." Because RNG isn't fair. They don't want RNG, they want to be autocrats of reality, then soothe themselves that they're not in fact cheating assholes by claiming "the numbers worked out in my favor."

When the reality is that the system was specifically designed over 50+ years to give them an advantage. And that isn't RNG. That isn't playing a role. That isn't being a real hero by self-sacrificing and being randomly lucky and muddling through. It's just egotistical self-delusional nothingness.

Like, maybe these kinds of games are STILL niche things for a reason? Maybe the only really popular and profitable entries are video game and movie versions where you don't see the math, BECAUSE you don't see the math? Like I don't think I'm alone in not giving a shit about this byzantine, nerfed crap.

That doesn't make me better. Do whatever you want. But if THAT'S what you're doing, count me the fuck out.

I did my time, and I'm sick of this shit.

[overtlydinosaurian]

Are you a Feminist?

Are You A Feminist, the introduction of Jessa Crispin's 2017 feminist manifesto

Do you believe women are human beings and deserve to be treated as such? That women deserve all the same rights and liberties bestowed upon men? If so, then you are a feminist, or so all the feminists keep insisting.

Despite the simplicity and obviousness of the dictionary definition of feminism, and despite years of working at feminist nonprofits and decades of advocacy, I am disowning the label. If you asked me today if I am a feminist, I would not only say no, I would say no with a sneer.

Don't worry this is not where I insist I am not a feminist because I am afraid of being mistaken for one of those "hairy -legged, angry, man hating feminists" who are drawn up like Boogeyman by men and women alike. Nor will I now reassure you of my approachability, my reasonable nature, my heteronormativity, my love of men and my sexual availability (despite the fact that this disclaimer appears to be a requisite for all feminist writing published in the last 15 years.) If anything, that pose- I am harmless, I am toothless, you can fuck me -is why I find myself rejecting the feminist label. All these bad feminists, all these Talmudic "can you be a feminist and still have a bikini wax?" discussions. All of these reassurances to their (male) audiences that they don't want too much, won't go too far - "we don't know what Andrea Dworkin was on about either! Trust us!" All of these feminists giving blowjobs like its missionary work. Somewhere along the way towards female liberation, it was decided the most effective method was for feminism to become universal. But instead of shaping a world and a philosophy that would become attractive to the masses, a world based on fairness and community and exchange, it was feminism itself that would have to be rebranded and remarketed for contemporary men and women.

They forgot that for something to be universally accepted, it must be banal, as non-threatening and ineffective as possible. Hence the pose. People don't like change, and so feminism must be as close to the status quo - with minor modifications - as it can be in order to recruit large numbers. In other words it has to become entirely pointless. Radical change is scary. It's terrifying actually. And the feminism I support is a full-on revolution. Where women are not simply allowed to participate in the world as it already exists - a world that because it was devised by a patriarchy in order to subjugate and control and destroy all challengers is inherently a corrupt world - but are actively able to reshape the world. Where women do not simply knock on the doors of churches, of governments, as capitalist marketplaces and politely ask for admittance, but create their own religious systems, governments, and economies. My feminism is not one of incremental change that is so revealed in the end to be The Same As Ever, but more so. It is a cleansing fire. Asking for a system that was built on the express purpose of oppression to um? please stop oppressing me? Is nonsense work. The only task that is worth doing is fully dismantling and replacing that system. This is why I cannot associate myself with a feminism that focuses dementedly on ""self empowerment,"" whose goals do not include the full destruction of corporate culture but merely a higher percentage of female CEOs in military officers, a feminism that requires no thought no discomfort and no real change. If feminism is universal it is something that all women and men can get on board with, then it is not for me. If feminism is nothing more than personal gain disguised as political progress, then it is not for me. By declaring myself a feminist I must reassure you that I am not angry, I post no threat, then definitely feminism is not for me.

I am angry and I do pose a threat.

-Jessa Crispin, Why I Am Not a Feminist, Emphasis mine.

Crispin, J. (2017). In Why I Am Not a Feminist (pp. ix–xii). introduction, Melville House.

[automatisma]

Discovered the allure of Topsters & made a chart of the games that significantly influenced my tastes. Not really a top 25 although I believe most of the games of the list are good. Ramblings under the cut.

TLOZ: Twilight Princess was my first Zelda as a child & while not a particularly interesting Zelda gameplay-wise it cemented my fascination with that kind of dark and decadent aesthetic.

Persona 3 is again the first Persona I've ever played. Not the best & with many larger-than-life sterotypical characters but it does have a lovely apocalyptic atmosphere and the sexiest dungeon concept bar none (sorry persona 4 tv world you were not It)

Hexcells is my favourite puzzle game. Perfect difficulty curve, minimal & functional aesthetic, little spatiality sense required to finish it. The whole trilogy is honestly brilliant.

Disco Elysium literally what is there to say about DE that hasn't already been said. Masterful dialogues and characters, deeply political while being smart and complex about it, it has one of the most interesting fantasy worldbuildings of recent memory.

Final Fantasy X was my first FF. Bizarre & unique if nonsensical world, great party interactions and often dumb but really really rich with overarching thematical meanings so

We Know The Devil I believe it's up to personal taste in the end whether you'll like this or Heaven Will be Mine more, but to me the minimal religious setup & the very realistic teenage dialogue take the cake. Also Saturn is #so me #releatable #girlsbeinggirls

Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 I bet everyone's sick of seeing it on their dash but what can I say I adore its day-to-day routine and the character subplots and its sound design and the beetle battles and

The House in Fata Morgana is maybe my favourite visual novel of all time. Often cheesy, frequently melodramatic, the epic highs and lows of its writing did not stop me from loving its intricate fantasy plot and multifacted characters.

Valhalla cyberpunk ok too long of a name. The bartending part was fun, the fauxanime thing is well MY thing and the #quiet cyberpunk adult disillusionment of its dialogues stuck with me in some way. Not great but really solid & it worked a lot for me for reasons I am not entirely sure of to this day.

Danganronpa is a terrible and complicated horror b-movie with cartoon characters and stupid but captivating mysteries. I genuinely believe the trials are absolutely cool and adrenaline inducing though & I would love more of this except better I guess

Darkest Dungeon a game in which every inch of its systems and aesthetic choices works in perfect synch to convey the hopelessness of this brand of lovecraftian horror. Also the turn-based combat is soooo fucking good

Final Fantasy VII THE final fantasy ecc ecc what can I say. One of the few games I played when the stereotypical version of the characters I saw in popular culture was so much less interesting than the actual story beats and the direction the plot went in. Packed with genre-defining moments and lovingly mystic at times.

Pyre is probably my favourite Supergiant game even though Hades is far superior in gameplay terms. The peculiar worldbuilding and the choices you make are really something unique to this one and they very much stick with you during your playthrough and even after that.

The World Ends with You when I played it Neku and Joshua were on my mind 24/7 I was on that fujoshi grindset which is quite peculiar for me. Weird and fun gameplay too but to me the main thing was the killer premise, its characters and its commitment to peculiarity in the JRPG landscape at every turn.

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria weird ass sequel of a game I didn't play that spawned my love for this kind of combat. Perfect blend of tactical and reaction-based that's usually a mess but here it works and its glorious. The story was whatever but frankly who cares

Black Closet is probably the most obscure game on this list & I love it. I adore the setting, the writing of some of the subplots, the tight mechanics and even its wonky UI designs. Try it and be captivated by the playful eroticism of mystery and power NOW

Ib foundational as everyone knows. Kind of tied with Yume Nikki in my mind but in the end I played Ib more and I was in awe of its finale systems and the genuinely anxiety inducing gameplay moments. Epitome of you're a kid and something fucked up happens.

Analogue: A Hate Story my favourite Love game even though it's only vaguely sci-fi. Funniest thing about it it's probably that its title works even if it's a silly pun on her previous game

999 I like Danganronpa so this one was a given since it's even less stupid. Puzzles are ok but I was here for the characters & plot because I am a mystery junkie at heart.

Lisa: The Painful managed to work with the legacy of Earthbound without making a lol so random uninspired clone. Profoundly different in its subject matter while incorporating a lot of the bizarre & offbeat humor of its inspiration. It also deals with its themes in a quite brutal and blunt if not at all tactful way which i really respect.

The Stanley Parable is one of the first things I've played as a returned prodigal PC gamer and it blew me away at the time. Full of neat little secrets & mysteries and with a lot to say about the relationship between the player, the game and the narrative frameworks we encase our lives in.

Earthbound is my love and joy and nothing else will ever come close to recreate what I experienced playing it, which is why I never played Mother 3.

Digital Devil Saga yeah I've never played an SMT to the end but I played this duology and I was deeply impressed by its combat system and its weirdass apocalyptic world and even my party of broken people. I was on board for that Gainax ending baby

Dragon Age: Origins was the only good DA actually. I am also the only person who hasn't played it for the worldbuilding and the lore because I'll be frank it's run of the mill fantasy stuff except for some things but I adored my party and the choices I could make and some plot moments so yeah. Still a fan of the saga despite everything

Opus Magnum is the only Zachtronics game I've played but I'll have to play Hackers one of these days. I still have all the gifs saved and I am NOT a minmaxing person irl but this one sinked its claws into my skin and for thirty hours I was an engineer

[cheap-jumpscare]

Welcome to Uta's blog population like 2.

helooo I'm Uta or several other names. I go by it/void and many other prns. check my prns.page >here< !!

read this very important thing written by my meowtual please, thanx :D

a lot more detailed info under the cutt ~

DISCLAIMERS ABT ME / BYF ;;

I say slurs (only those I can reclaim!)

I rarely am ever serious!

I can be very sensitive to rejection!

I'm very apathetic in regards to other people; I wish I wasn't!

I can be very harsh or rude on accident!

im basicallt INCAPABLE of processing if/when a joke is taken too far!! :(

Pls tell me if I fuck up i will not know :(

BASIC INFO ;;

diagnosed and medicated ADHD, peer-reviewed as "def autistic" by my autistic little sister and older brother, depression (or at least some of the symptoms)

divorced parents, adopted at birth!

in general there is something fundamentally wrong/silly abt me

i LOVE homestuck, hiveswap, ddlc, genshin, hsr, crk, cats, borzois, drawing, singing, gacha, voice acting, animation, rain world, etc. (hyperfixations r bold and italic like this!!)

i like spiritual stuff (shifting realities, subliminals, etc) and i may reblog stuff like that sometimes <3

i have a bf!!!! NOT ANYMORE /silly

my fav color; tie between red, black, n white. pink n yellow are very close shared-second places

im here to be gay and shitpost man

OTHER SOCIALS ;;

spacehey - cheapjumpscare noplace - hiveswap pesterchum - hollowClown spotify - uta ౨ৎ ⋆｡˚ tiktok - qualia.automata

DNIS . . .

thin ice ;

anti-endos / don't believe in endo systems, but don't harass or fakeclaim people abt it (i have friends who are endo and they are very cool!!!!!)

post abt politics Regularly (stresses me tf out)

post abt religion christianity at ALL

if you were that one person who told me I was silencing asians by having a cute/pink/"kawaii" aesthetic blog on tumblr in like 2020. yes that was the actual reason. im being so forreal. /silly but also /gen on this being something that actually happened

DNFI (do not fcking interact) ;

anti-endos / don't believe in endo systems, and DO harass or fakeclaim people abt it

pro-contact / anti-recovery towards paraphilias

nsfw/kink/18+ centered blogs (i am a minor :/)

pro-harassment/anti-anti-harassment

doxx people or support those who do

believe/participate in cringe culture

pro 🇮🇱 or otherwise not pro 🇵🇸 (its a genocide mf)

^ post pictures of gore n dead kids in relation to the genoc¡de w/o tagging, censoring, or warning ANYYY of it (the reason i left twt)

im on your dni (respect your own gd dni)

RANDOM ASSORTED NONSENSE I THOUGHT WAS FUN !! ;;

my true zodiac is Pittarius !! [homestuck]

probably a

i tend to fixate on characters/whatever so hard i either Want to be them, believe i Am them, or both.

^ speaking of, at the bottom of this post is a list of stuff am that way about

^^ i should add here that the personality assigned doesnt contribute to this (though it certainly helps if i can go "THEY JUS LIKE ME FRR") i just. fixate so hard i go "mm i should be [whatever]" or "i mustve been [whatever] in a past life :D"

^^^ i am, most of the time, not under one of these episodes (idrk what else to call them but im not distressed rlly so shrug)

i barely ever remember to categorize things but i will remember for this blog i promise

ORGANIZATIONAL TAGS ;;

#shut up uta! - yapping. rambling even. general Posts tag. #definitely not stolen! - reblogs !~ #uta time travels (again!) - queue'd posts.. mostly going to be whatever im currently horrifically nuclear levels of autistic abt #uta; nobody needs to know this - TMI posts; complaining abt periods, personal life, etc. etc. etc. it can and will get weird here #uta hears voices part ??? - askbox....... #uta pls shut up fr this time - LIVEBLOGGING ~ #(not) uta; [ANY-CHARACTER-NAME-HERE] - for when i am Fixating So Hard On A Character That I /Gen Believe I AM Them. Temporary. pls humor me/play along /gen. #uta's sprites - Sometimes I post homestuck / hiveswap sprites! this is the tag for that :3

Characters / Things Uta sometimes IS (not exhaustive) ;;

italicized = more current / more likely to be this than not | bold = even more current | italicized & bold = almost always this

PROJECT SEKAI ; Minori Hanasato, Airi Momoi, Emu Otori, Kanade Yoisaki, Mafuyu Asahina, Ena Shinonome, Mizuki Akiyama VOCALOID / VOCAL SYNTH ; Xi Yi, Hatsune Miku GHOST & PALS ; Tamari [RECKLESS BATTERY BURNS], Say [CHATTERING LACK OF COMMON SENSE], Cakey [APPETITE OF A PEOPLE PLEASER], Teto [PATHOLOGICAL FASCADE] HIVESWAP & HOMESTUCK ; Charun Krojib, Dave Strider / Davesprite, Jade Harley, Karako Pierot, Meulin Leijon, Nepeta Leijon, Tyzias Entykk GENSHIN ; Collei, Fischl, Furina, Hu Tao, Kirara, Lumine, Qiqi, Xingqiu, Yae Miko, Yoimiya COOKIE RUN ; Peach Blossom, Caramel Choux, Linzer, Mozzarella, Affogato, Strawberry Crepe, Cream Puff, Kumiho, Espresso, Vampire, Stardust, Black Pearl, Whipped Cream, Roquefort, Butter Pretzel, Scorpion, Bellflower, Sour Belt, Crowberry, Pizza, Black Garlic, Coffee Candy, Baguette, Gim, S'more, Strawberry Cream, Astronaut, Starch Noodle, Strawberry Stick, Lotus Dragon, Lychee Dragon, Sugar Swan POKEMON [SPECIES] ; Absol [MEGA], Bewear, Blacephalon, Breloom, Carbink, Chatot, Cramorant, Cursola, Darkrai, Dedenne, Delcatty, Delphox, Eevee, Furfrou, Furret [SHINY], Galvantula, Glaceon, Hatterene, Iron Valiant, Jirachi, Kommo-o, Leavanny, Lucario, Lurantis [TOTEM], Luxray, Lycanroc, Maractus, Mareanie, Meowscarada [SHINY], Mew, Milotic, Mimikyu, Mismagius, Mudkip, Nihilego, Pheromosa, Pyukumuku, Raichu [ALOLAN], Rayquaza [SHINY], Sandslash [ALOLAN], Scoliopede, Scorbunny, Serperior, Shaymin, Smoliv, Sneasler, Solgaleo, Sylveon, Tapu Lele, Thievul, Tinkaton, Torracat, Tsareena, Vaporeon, Wooper, Wynaut, Xerneas, Zoroark [SHINY] POKEMON [HUMANS] ; Justy [JELLOAPOCALYPSE DOGS IN LOVE], N, Ingo, Emmet, Roxie, Clemont, Lisia, Lillie, Ilima, Mallow, Acerola, Marnie, Allister, Klara, Sabi, Florian, Penny, Iono, Rika, Ortega, Kieran, Lacey MISC ; wip.... sorrgy :(

Uta's Glorified Kinlist [IN THE KINNIE WAY] ;;

CHARACTERS ; Kanade Yoisaki, Mafuyu Asahina, Ena Shinonome, Mizuki Akiyama, Charun Krojib, Dave Strider, Fischl, Yoimiya, Strawberry Crepe Cookie, Espresso Cookie, Sprigatito, Ingo, Emmet, Iono, March 7th SONGS ; Born2Run [PENELOPE SCOTT], Hammerhead [PENELOPE SCOTT], Sweet Hibiscus Tea [PENELOPE SCOTT], Baxter Ward is Under Fucking Siege [PENELOPE SCOTT], anarchy [EGG], Digital Girl [KIRA], Nobody [MITSKI], Gay Jokes [RIO ROMEO], Mirror Man [JACK STAUBER]

[acorpsecalledcorva]

Did I ever write an essay here on Edward Bernays and propaganda? Dissociative amnesia go brrr so I'll see if I can quickly bash something out to distract myself from cramps. This post is going to be completely uncited and I'm barely gonna fact check myself so if any of this sounds interesting I strongly recommend looking this stuff up and if I'm wrong then yay! You'll learn something by doing so.

So who is Bernays? No he is not a sauce made out of butter, egg yolk, and white wine vinegar, he is the nephew of Freud and regarded as one of the most influential men of the twentieth century and the father of Public Relations.

He was very interested in his uncles work, and worked in the fields of psychology and sociology. His main schtick was that he viewed humanity as deeply and fundamentally irrational, illogical, emotional, and needed to be controlled lest they fall into chaos. Through Freud's work on psychoanalysis he devised a way to influence the masses by playing on their emotions and insecurities, something which we should all be very familiar today in politics and advertising.

Before Bernays, advertising was very, like, practical. "These shoes will survive up to a thousand miles of walking, they're comfortable and hand crafted with fine leather" kinda thing. People were interested in what products could do for them and made informed choices. Now though advertising is much more about lifestyle and aspiration. No joke in 2021 I saw an advert for a company that sells kitchens that said you needed to drop 20k on a new kitchen to prevent "zoombarrassment" when you work from home because all your colleagues will think you're a bad person and shame you for it.

Where we're at with this stuff today with algorithms and stuff is that engagement is key. If people are talking about you, if you're trending, then that's good. And the best way to get people talking about you? Controversy. Budweiser, Gillette, and I think a brand of coffee machine?, all jump out as recent examples of companies capitalising on a hot social issue to generate free advertising by whipping the masses up into a frenzy. Rainbow capitalism isn't only bad just because they hope that if they put a trans women in an advert that you'll buy it, it's also much worse because they're actively trying to piss off conservatives and fascists and incite flame wars as the official sponsor of transphobia. On the one hand, yay representation, but on the other, every time this happens I get to see just how many people in the world fucking hate me for existing. They're actively contributing to a global pandemic of deepening division and increased risk of violence.

And politicians cottoned onto this too. Boris Johnson is particularly good at this, and it's called the dead cat technique. If he ever feels like things might get tricky and might actually have to do a politics, he throws a dead cat on the table in the form of some inflammatory or bizarre remark because it shuts down the conversation. I mean, there's a dead cat on the table, how can you talk about anything other than the dead cat? His go to increasingly became trans people towards the end of his political career, just constantly talking about penises, absolutely obsessed with penises, but there's this really incredible interview he did where an interviewer asked him what his hobby is and he started talking about making London buses out of milk crates. It's absolutely nonsensical but you can also tell he's choosing his words very very carefully. Why? Because during the Brexit referendum he put a massive lie on the side of a bus and he wanted to manipulate the search results for when you search "Boris Johnson Bus".

Another technique politicians absolutely adore is being completely contradictory in your positions. Say you're committed to providing an inclusive and compassionate asylum system while actively dismantling said system. Say your committed to reducing wealth inequality while actively increasing it. Say you're committed to reducing national debt while actively increasing it. It keeps your opponents confused and unable to oppose you because they never know what your true position is and therefore what theirs should be, and it also provides you a get out clause. If someone accuses you of being against something? Just point to all the times you supported it. If someone accuses you of supporting something? Just point to all the times you condemned it.

So why am I writing any of this in the syscourse tag? Because a lot of syscoursers use these techniques to grow their own popularity and reach. It honestly doesn't even need to be a conscious effort, those who engage on syscourse over at Twitter are rewarded for doing this whether they know it or not, and then it gets brought here. Thankfully Tumblr isn't as bad, but we still feel it's effects. Whenever I see absolutely deranged "anti endos do this" or "pro endos do this" stuff I just assume it comes from Twitter because I struggle to find it here when I look, but the beefs and long standing arguments are still very twitteresque.

I do think it's important to be aware of this stuff though, because when you understand it all becomes deeply unserious. You may not be immune to propaganda but at least you can learn to recognise and step outside of it. When a syscourser admits to openly trying to be inflammatory to the other side and enjoying watching them get upset over it, or if you notice them restarting old arguments after not being talked about for a few days then you can finally give yourself permission to let go and not get involved. You can no longer take anything that person says seriously, because you can't ever know if they are being serious. They literally told you that they do it on purpose, therefore anything they say fails to be credible or sincere. If it pisses you off? It's meant to. If it's factually incorrect? It's supposed to be. Feel like writing a call out post to denounce them? That's exactly what they want you to do because you're talking about them. Keeping them fresh and trendy at all times.

[pissdykebutch]

TW: discussion of transmisogyny, Bigotry it’s a pretty heavy rant

Man I really tried to keep these takes of my dash but they’re like fucking cockroaches and I can’t get rid of em. Do not fucking reblog or share this to a large audience, I’m probably gonna be taking a break from tumblr for a good while. 

Hey if you only ever mention transmisogyny to engage in the discourse in the discourse of who it affects, or you only bring it up to discredit the oppression trans women face, you’re a rat bastard. We do not focus our discussions about oppression towards people who might get caught in the crossfire, and for good reason. Yes, it is important to help people when they are battered and beaten down by oppressive systems and bigoted behavior, regardless of context. But we do not fight homophobia for the betterment of heterosexuals, we should not denounce transphobia on the case that it might end up hurting cis people, and I know that a lot of y’all understand how blatantly awful it would be to only discuss misogyny through the lens of how it affects men.

and yet, this website is full of people who are far more concerned with hashing out the petty specifications of who transmisogyny affects, than doing anything meaningful to combat it. This website is full of people who think that transmisogyny is a big fancy word those “crazy trannies” use when they don’t get their way, who think it’s just some nonsensical obstacle to transgender unity. I want to be fucking frank, if you think like that, you’re missing the goddamn point. If you think you understand transmisogyny and believe it to be functionally the same as transphobia, you do not actually understand transmisogyny.

 it is an insidious and constricting net of policy, attitudes, language, beliefs and behavior. It is the reason that transgirls have to be polite with their tongues and gentle with their opinions, if they’re even allowed to formally exist. it is the reason I’ve seen so many blogs by transwomen disappear overnight with baseless accusations of predatory behavior. It is the reason I heard coworkers and friends brazenly talk about their suspicions to our peers who were closeted trans women. It is the reason they jumped to the conclusion of predatory behavior with no evidence. It is why I personally know at least 5 trans girls who were framed as predators and kicked out of my college queer student cultural center overnight, without even talking to them. It is the reason the queer community objectifies us, holding our predatory and powerful caricatures in reverence while they harass and frame us the moment we get too uppity. It is the reason trans girls have the most to loose with the current wave of legislature trying to ban drag in the US. And I’m fucking done, this shit is too real, too much of my fucking life, and I’m tired of y’all repeating the same preschool ass takes for years, dragging an important ideological concept through the slur discourse mud without saying a goddamn thing about how to fight or challenge transmisogyny.

[mostspecialgirl]

more mercedonius rambling. extra long ramble

think i will give these posts little banners now since i liked doing the hastur one from a while back

this is a real ramble post because i dont even really know where this is going to go. ive just got little quarks and shit buzzing around my brain and i have to get them out. i’m going to be really cringy about this.

of course, i primarily want to talk about ptah and the high calamities in general. no one’s going to read this anyway so i can be as confusing as i like.

SOMETIMES i get SO obsessed with my little calamities that i forget what the mercedonius ranking truly means until the pieces slide into place. i fucking LOVE things beyond hunan understanding. i love “cosmic horror” shit because what i truly love is “the fear of the unknown”. initially, the whole planeswalker association and sea of stars business was meant to serve that purpose in the relicverse.

that beyond all the tales that take place, there’s some kind of foreign council in god knows where who are so far beyond any measurable scale despite the crazy shit that takes place within the stories that they don’t even bother to pay attention to what takes place. who cares. even if multiple planets are destroyed they won’t do so much as blink unless it’s an allied location. and in that case, they send forth lone soldiers through holes in space whose abilities are so far beyond comprehension that they’re able to tackle these issues without much of an issue.

and to most extents, that’s still who they are. that’s still what they do. and that’s still their placement for as much as anyone should ever rightly care. but see with me fleshing out all the information about the politics of the sea of stars and personally demystifying the P.A. ESPECIALLY with the introduction of the Hundred Nights Guild, they became way less of “look at these mysterious freaky guys” and more of “the government can be kind of cool if its fictional”. it’s not like i regret it or think it was a mistake or anything. this shit rocks. i love the planeswalker association to death and everything that came out of the shift in the way i considered their writing.

but it left a void! a void for Writing Freaky Mystery Guys As Freaky Mystery Guys. and so, through the typical course of action of “let’s comb through some older loose ends” it was only natural i settled in with the mercedonius. the council’s vaguely defined ranking system and the presence of a uniquely distinguishing ranking that went above the existing 12 (each names after the months of the year) was too neat for me not to fuck around with.

considering that alejandro was given the rank to distinguish the fact that she is incomparably powerful compared to everyone else, i started to puzzle “well, just how big IS that gap between Decembrian and Mercedonius?” and ran wild with it. from there, the mercedonius were selected extremely naturally to me. demiurge was already established as the most powerful with mystifying complicated nonsense abilities, mr.Anchorkeeper 'Father' Nero Titor has always some kind of bizarre multidimension wanderer who had the power to go toe to toe with achamoth, and Azathoth’s just been sitting around in Voidgulf doing little much of anything.

the mercedonius rank was a way of getting me interested again in my powerful little pawns i set off to the side, and with time, the most important of them became the high calamities. But i’m done talking about boring fucking developmental shit. I want to talk about boring character stuff now.

PTAH!!!! Sitting around thinking about ptah tonight is why i’m even typing up this stupid fucking post because i need to get this shit out. what an A+ character for feeding my illness. his concept has been bred to make my brain ROT.

the first born architect of the ancient race, and a disgraced member of the kailash clan. because like. what do you mean DISGRACED MEMBER OF THE KAILASH CLAN. what do you mean MINETTE wants him GONE. the kailash are fucking psycho killers dont get me wrong but to inspired true ire out of them ESPECIALLY as a member of the Kailash Clan yourself has always been something alien. get it. alien. because they’re like. space pirates. even when their goddamn child of prophecy turned out to be some piece of shit who hated their guts they did not give two fucks. they are beings who do not treat emotions in any way that is human. any perceived humanity by the Kailash of Genesis Earth is bur a mask they wear in order to manipulate their victims. like fucking hyenas of bestiary legend who mimic the voice of humans in order to devour their victims and their beloved dead. so of course i had to jingle some fucking keys in front of my own face by going “buhhh but what if they really DID hate ONE motherfucker.” because mary sue shit gets me so excited.

i could easily go off about the kailash clan in another post. expect that to come eventually.

and fuck he’s so good a the mary sue shit. i made him the master of the wandering eye of the sea in a stroke of Tie Up Loose Ends Genius. the wandering eye of the sea is one of my favorite pieces of batshit insane relicverse lore and attaching it to ptah makes it even crazier. it’s total nonsense that impresses no one but me. a unique primordial pool formerly used by horos during creation that was eventually handed off to azathoth due to their connection that was eventually abandoned due to its growing instability and azathoth’s total lack of giving a shit, letting it wreak complete fucking havoc on the rest of the developing sea of stars at large, and creating some absolute monsters that would come to define the politics of the future… and now, despite being far less of a threat, it’s still a wandering galactic storm of pure creationary potential. even trinajm veloc could only make a single half-baked sinai child from it before going “well. fuck this. This thing fucking sucks to work with And fuck the aeons too”. but ptah gets it. Of course he does. he’s seen beyond the veil after being getting mindfucked by nyarlathotep and despite rhat initially being used to control him, not only did it drive him to being too crazy to be a useful pawn to nyarlathotep, it allowed him to intuit the mechanics of the wandering eye of the sea due to understanding the more esoteric qualities of the mystic. all those nonsensical unexplainable bits of knowledge and lore he could not apply to his own reality perfectly completed when coming across something unknowable to even the greatest mind in the sea of stars. like im sorry thats kind of cool as fuck to me.

and naturally. That drives the planeswalker association and the hundred nights guild fucking crazy. because there’s this weird unregistered planeswalker going around building “art” wherever he goes. but oh my god. he’s a kailash? those guys we hate? his “art” is proven to be pieces to multiplanar weaponry whose mechanics cannot be understood? he’s utilizing the wandering eye of the sea, the very pool that hundred night’s leadership was born from? the tools of the gods who created all that is to ever be known? even the KAILASH want him dead? and they dont know ANYTHING???? Oh bitch they are going nuts. to reiterate, the branch managers of the planeswalker association are so far beyond everyone else in terms of knowledge and capability. beings who are supposed to be unshakable pillars.

and yet they can’t seem to grasp a single fucking THING about ptah’s existence. they can’t understand how he does what he does or why. they barely even know WHAT he is, with the kailash being relative unknowns in the inner rim. these people who carry the weight of the entire sea of stars on their back and yet there’s just some guy out there doing whatever the fuck he wants and they don’t know how he’s doing it, how to stop him, or ANYTHING!!!! they’re left in the DUST and have to suppress information about his existence on the off chance something goes awry and he decides to just go psycho murder on everyone.

even the hundred nights guild is only slightly less clueless. they have their own disgraced kailash who somehow STILL finds himself struggling to find the right words to explain ptah to them despite holding ZERO allegiance to the kailash clan. their ace confident swindler and unsympathetic manipulative bastard getting clammy at the hands and avoiding their gaze, stuttering and stumbling through his words as his usual silver tongue fails to weave even bronze. and understanding more about the kailash only makes ptah far more fearsome. because they know that unfeeling, indifferent iron claw of power they use to cordon off their space, they know of the King of Voidgulf who surely must be the greatest sleeping threat to the sea of stars, and yet somehow, one lone kailash has made them freeze up. one individual who these cruel masters want to kill at any cost and yet are far too fearful to approach. a man ironically resembling a scarecrow, scaring off the formidable unknowable crowd the guild struggles to even gaze at only to protect his crops through methods that can’t be understood.

and of course he has the Red Book of the Pierced Tome Set. none of them know it yet! but they’re totally going to shit themselves when they find out! of course him and trinajm have an alliance they don’t know about! they aren’t even entirely sure if trinajm exists but of course ptah’s shared a few drinks with them.

that’s my guy for real. i need to finish his video. This is what i crave. i make strong characters so they can make my other characters afraid. my whole OC process is just throwing someone onto the Fear Pyramid and the ones at the top are my favorites.

AND NATURALLY, HE’S CHILL BROS WITH LOCAL “HIGH CALAMITY MONSTERFUCKER” IRVING MEDULOSK. BECAUSE, A. OF COURSE HE IS. AND B. IT’S REALLY FUNNY. TEN POINTS TO IRVING!!!! and fuck if it doesn’t have great lore to it as well. local shiteater mindscaper kailash from starshot is only fucking watching margaret medulosk in that series because of the fact ptah visited her so much when she was a baby. of course the kailash have to send their dreamwalking manipulator to try and curry her favor and control her. because why in the WORLD is their mortal enemy ptah so interested in her? what is he doing there? surely he can’t just be there for no reason. ptah? that monster? making friends and playing house? preposterous!

motherfucking irving medulosk. just a stupidly charming guy with no strings attached to that. he’s just likeable, honest, and truthfully stupid enough to treat the high calamities like normal people. something they don’t get from anyone. and of course being a charmer on top of that OF COURSE HE BAGGED A SWEET ALIEN WIFE!!!! a sweet alien wife who threatened the death of his universe and later found out after he put a baby in the oven that she might actually threaten the death of every possible universe. he didn’t even know those existed. And of course, that leads me into talking about nayra.

nayra fucking medulosk. miwa the flower of evil. look at that old ass art from when i was a FETUS. i’ve been thinking about her FOREVER. (she isn’t a space pirate anymore, that honor MIGHT go to margaret’s dubiously canon older sister. i’m working on it)

she used to be named miwa medloski but im like irving doesnt seem like a medloski i’m going to make it sound stupider. and it worked.

nayra’s another fun character to me because she’s the only true “alien” in the traditional sense in the relicverse. a being from “space” who is “beyond understanding” in the typical Sci-Fi Alien Movie Way. it’s simple and clean! it can be as scary as it needs to be, or funny and inoffensive too. it’s a nice position that allows her to be the silly alien wife of irving when need be, and the murderous unknowable foreign entity when its called for. and i don’t think it detracts any from the quality of her character. i think.

i honestly don’t have much to say about her aside from “oooh i love herrr”. so i’ll talk about someone else.

collux pyrety. bet you didn’t expect that. that’s right, some mercedonius aren’t high calamities. what does your bitchass know about the 15 stars of the dacian zodiac. what does your BABY BRAIN know about omnipath logos and the extinction children. NOTHING!!!!!

well i lied because i’m not really talking about collux for too long. this is a gateway into talking about the mercedonius rank in general again. but i’ll talk about her a little.

collux is what i love about writing for alejandro (the series) and reminding myself that the relicverse can just be some stupid shit sometimes. because yeah of course there’s a threat on the level of the high calamities working as an indentured servant in space walmart to seek political asylum. who are they seeking asylum with? A dude whose power is to make people poop on command. And you have to take him REALLY seriously because hes really good at making people poop.

but really collux’s existence (along with the extinction children in general) make me think about how much i love the suppression of information as my overused narrative trope thing whatever the fuckthe word is. because blah blah blah the unknown or whatever. here’s an excerpt.

The council found the need to create the ranking of Mercedonius to assign to their former leader, Alejandro Steamship Nihilo, an honorary ranking they believed was only needed for her due to her extreme level of power that far exceeded Decembrian. Though initially believing such a role was too useless to put into practice within the Planeswalker Association, eventually with the rise of the Calamity, the Planeswalker Association has come to understand the need for Mercedonius.

so, yeah. the association co-opted the ranking system after making contact with the council and whatnot bleh bleh bleh. but of course, with the council seeming unwilling to know more about the mercedonius rank at first blush, they didn’t divulge any more info. and then seeing how much they feared someone like trinajm… they looked at eachother and thought “well we probably shouldn’t tell them we have like 15 of these guys just in our plane alone right” Ahhhh……… look at that suppression of information…..

BUT HOLD!!!! because that doesn’t mean there’s 15 beings on par with the high calamities!!!!!! because only 12 of them have been born. and two of them are already high calamities. so really there’s only 10.

okay jokes aside they also just… don’t fill that niche. and luckily, the lore i’ve written explains that away too!

Though both systems are mostly the same, The Council holds rankings to much higher scrutiny than to the Association, and defines what constitutes a 'threat' much more broadly.

so no. they aren’t all high calamity level. they’d probably be able to survive against them, but honestly that goes for most people in NIHILIC EARTH. which. i probably havent posted much about . that’s where the council is and the extinction children snd where alejandro’s set and all that other bullshit it’s a whole thing

i totally just zoned out for like 10 minuyes. so that means i’m going to wrap this up and come back to talk about father ging trinajm and demi some other time. expect a part 2. and. Apart 3 and a part 4 im gonna be talking about this forever. i was gonna talk way more about collux but honestly their lore is buried under such dense character lore that its hard for me to even ramblepost about it without feeling like a complete total dork. Rhat should really say something if youve managed to read this far. It’s a lot.

collux is a stupid big headed bitch. ptah is cool as fuck. nayra’s my little baby. what else is there to say. Fuck you!!!

[thestrangestthlng]

Hear Me Out...

When I say Defund the Police, this is what I mean.

For fiscal year 2023 (July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023) New York City paid out 1.45 BILLION (with a b-b-B) in settlements from 13,227 claims and lawsuits against the NYPD. This is ALL directly from the tax payers pocketbooks. In a city that had to cut over five million from HIV funding and over 50 million dollars from the public library system. In a city with the highest cost of living AND the highest unhoused population.

This number is down only slightly from FY 2022, which was 1.56B. While it may look like it's heading in the right direction, the number of claims increased for 2023 from 12,188 for the 2022 FY. So they paid LESS for an increase of over 1,000 claims.

The NYC taxpayers are on the line for these because the department isn't responsible. Their officers are able to do whatever the hell they want for the most part and are not only held accountable administrationally, but the department has a free and clear card.

You want to see excessive force and misconduct claims go down and an actual change in accountability within the police? Make it so those claims and lawsuits have to come from their union. Once they see their dues start to skyrocket (like our car insurance rates) you'll see a massive change. Increase their dues and actually make it so that it doesn't take an actual arrest of an officer to dismiss them from the force. You don't have to get arrested to be fired from any other job, why are the people who are allegedly there to serve and protect us - civil servants - except from this?

One tweet about a political stance an employer doesn't like gets people who are professors, doctors, teachers, cashiers--anyone really-- get fired, but physically assaulting, wrongfully searching, coercing, even killing someone doesn't?

Why are police the exception to the rules they supposedly are supposed to enforce? If I slammed a person's head into the sidewalk., I'd be in jail on felony assault charges, but a cop gets a paid vacation to appease the public and gets to go back to work the next Monday?

That 1.45 billion is in ADDITION to the 5.83 BILLION dollar budget the NYPD had for FY 2023.

Now before you come into my messages and comments with some bootlicker nonsense, I know in a city with over 8 million residents there is going to be more spent on the police department. But, how about we relax with the overtime.

Before y'all even come in my comments with the racist/homophobic comments about several ISOLATED incidents yesterday at the park, remember that white men celebrating a fucking sports team winning a game causes more chaos.

Anyway,

I was at NYC Pride yesterday, and there were more cops than I think I've ever seen at any Pride event they have had. They were flooded in the streets and the subways. They were even riding the subways with us. I wonder what cost all those extra and unneeded officers (who were mostly standing around talking and just giving attitude all day) cost the city.

This isn't to say that police presence shouldn't be at crowd control and safety monitoring events, especially in today's political climate. Still, the fact that the majority of the officers that I encountered yesterday were giving people attitudes and being aggressive in their presence for no reason is astounding. If you can't handle a crowd of people behaving like a crowd of people, maybe you shouldn't have a job that involves dealing with crowds.

That being said, if that money that was taken from the city budget to cover these lawsuits for excessive force, misconduct, and wrongful deaths, wrongful arrests, etc. had to be paid by the police officers directly, not only would we see accountability and liability, we'd see the amount of their crimes go down. Now, if we used that money and funded mentorship programs, anti-recidivism (especially for youth/young adults) community actions, programs to ensure that people's basic needs are being met, job readiness, affordable job training, addiction services, veteran's services, mental healthcare, affordable healthcare, and other community-based programs that could do a world of change if they had the funds) we'd also see a lot of crimes start to diminish as well because the fact of the matter is that a lot of crimes that we tend to associate with urban areas are crimes of poverty. If we help solve the root of the issue, you'll see many of the chain of events start to ebb.

HOLD THE POLICE DEPARTMENTS AND THE POLICE OFFICERS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

If you're going to sit here and cry about not all cops or some nonsense, then you should be the first person who would want the "bad apples" out of the picture. If you're a "good cop" you should want the ones who make you look bad and ultimately make your job harder to be held accountable. The good ol' boy culture HAS to end. You want the public to blindly "back the blue" while you literally kill us. I am aware the many officers who try to report misconduct by their coworkers are harassed and threatened, often to the point where they leave the force. Is that what we are supposed to be backing?

AND THEN THEY HAVE THE AUDACITY TO WANT TO PUT A COP CITY IN QUEENS? Why should tax payers be on the line for 225 MILLION DOLLARS to continue to militarize the police? The price tag could fully fund multiple community-based non-profits for a year or one for multiple years. Make it make sense.

Make them pay where it hurts the most: their wallets.

[medicinemane]

I'll say it again, I think the biggest problem... or one of the biggest at least, is people's total unwillingness to accept a little grey

They have the true perfect answer and everyone else should just go along with them, because if they don't or if this answer doesn't actually provide the definite comprehensive solution to this or that problem... well that would be a real fucking bummer

And like... yeah man... it's a real bummer

The world's kind of a sad place. There's plenty of good, but there's plenty of sad stuff too

It totally is sad when a cute little mouse gets eaten by a bird but like... we can't be going and trying to find a way to teach predators to... eat lab grown meat or whatever (I forget what their insane solution is, but there really are people who think we have to fix nature having meat eating predators and it's like man... if I were all powerful I would stop it cause it does make me sad, but I'm not so I just live with it)

And there's just so much stuff like this, that's not silly and goofy like this anymore, but actually legit serious stuff, and people take these super simple reductive views of things and just... turn a blind eye to all the issues with it and just state it'll work out because it's right

It could be the most morally upstanding thought ever had, and it's still not much good if it's not practically feasible

We live in an imperfect and messy world, within broken and often malicious systems that are echoing out of the ages. If your solution involves "well if everyone would just..." well they won't

We have complex problems, we need well thought out comprehensive solutions that honestly no single one of us is probably able to make a solution for that won't miss some really important factor that's gonna throw a big wrench into what we thought was a great idea

So talking with people who disagree with you is great, because you can both look at a problem and you can cover each other blindspot because what's important to you they never considered, and you never noticed that massive flaw that's a personal bug bear for them

Except... no one wants to do that. You sit down to try and find a solution, they say "this is the one solution", you say "well... here's the problem with that", and they say you're a monster for not just agreeing with them

Cause too many people these days can't accept grey. They can't accept people having good intentions but different methods

And like... you tell me I'm not describing actual people from across the board, from crazy anti carnist nonsense to actually serious political issues across the spectrum. You tell me this is a strawman

Of course we need to strive to improve but man... I can tell you what the roadblocks to a lot of stuff I want to see happen are... which also means I've got some slight ideas on ways we might get around them, but I'm aware that the things I want to see aren't perfect and will take some amount of compromise, that they have things like logistical hurdles

I don't know... I just want to be able to have civil conversations with people without worrying they'll turn on me the moment I'm not in lockstep with them, cause damn if I don't know a lot of people (nice people even) who are exactly like that

I want to see these problems we have solved but... damn is it hard when people are so damn rabid, and once again, I argue it's the unwillingness to accept a complex world where there's not always a cut and dry answer that's making people so rabid

[littlejackiepapercut]

I don't want to talk about politics on this account. Ever. I am not going to tell anyone my opinion on any politician because that's not what I'm here for. But I have to say.

Really? People believe this? People actually think that Donald Trump has a plan, with a chance of success, to completely subvert the entire electoral system in perpetuity? That's retarded. I mean that is six different kinds of retarded.

First off most of the people saying this were saying for the last four years that you can't rig an election. And you know what? They're right. The system can be cheated a little bit by individuals on either side, and one has to assume that some cheating does happen on both sides for exactly that reason, but to completely rig an election to the point of disregarding the vote entirely is absolutely impossible and you're stupid if you think it's possible.

Second, if it could be bypassed that would require a massive conspiracy. Do you think Donald Trump has enough friends on the inside to pull that off? Do you think he's even smart enough to pull it off? I fucking don't and fuck you if you do.

Third, why would he even do that? He'd have to be elected a second time first, and he can't be elected three times. It doesn't benefit him in any way. And if he needs to be elected to do it, what makes you think he'd be able to keep it in place after his term is up?

Fourth, who exactly would he be rigging future elections in favor of? He runs as a Republican but he doesn't actually have a party. He doesn't really appeal to a "wing" of politics. The Congressional Republicans are at best fifty-fifty on him, most of the time much worse. He pisses off the right as much as he does the left with his trade wars and comments about taking away guns and free markets not working. If anything Trump's policy preferences benefit from the pendulum continuing to swing.

Fifth, this is from a Scottish source. Relying on this is exactly as retarded as if your primary source for information on American politics is the BBC or Sky News Australia or, I don't know, Computing Forever.

Sixth, I don't actually want to make a sixth point, I just want to call anyone who believes this nonsense retarded one more time.

Vote for whoever you want. Red, blue, yellow, I don't care, doesn't matter one fuck to me. But this fearmongering has no place in the discussion. I will not be taking questions or comments. All of you shut up. And, yes, go touch grass.

US followers, you need to deny Trump the presidency at all costs.

There’s a lot more work to do on top of voting but you need to get out and vote against him.

Here’s how to check your voter registration status.

[officialcreature]

Journalism is so fucked in the US. Like the only good news sources are small time operations (at least compared to major news companies).

I just got thinking about it because of the "aliens are real" shit being reported on right now. Yes, some guy who worked for the air force said something about UFOs and "non-human biotics," but that's literally nothing!! Like this happens at least once a year at this point and nothing ever comes of it.

Non-human biotics means any organic matter that isn't fucking human. It could even mean human tissue that's contaminated or unable to be identified. Like, it literally in no way shape or form means aliens, but even major news sites are like "Aliens Real?!?! (NOT CLICKBAIT)(EMOTIONAL)!!! 😱😱😱"

Then the articles are just stating very blatant facts about what was said, but with no context. I think the OBSESSION with impartiality is one of the worst things to happen to journalism. Like I'm not saying I need everyone to be Fox News (cause fuck them), but in the event of something like a guy in a congressional hearing talking about UFOs comes up there should be context about the meaning of what he's saying and how fucking common this is and how it's never amounted to anything in the past.

Journalism needs to become more explanatory and less just blatant facts thrown out into the wind. Especially when you consider the average informational level of the general public. Like not to be full of myself, but I think the average person lacks a lot of knowledge on MOST subjects. Like watching people answer basic questions on anatomy, politics, geography, chemistry, etc., should make you see how giving context could be helpful.

For example, what good is an article/news story about a plastic recycling initiative if it doesn't give context on the viability of plastic recycling as a long term (or even short term) solution? Most people I've talked to don't know how most plastics aren't really recyclable (whether due to design/quality of the plastic or lack of infrastructure), plastic recycling has basically never been profitable (and thus sustainable in a capitalist system), and even high quality plastics can only be recycled once or twice at most before they breakdown too much to be used again. So if I write an article about the city spending money to put in bins to collect plastic around the city it may sound nice until you realize it's a waste of time due to the CONTEXT around recycling plastic. Like if the only things ever getting recycled are plastic bottles and some other specific plastics, and even a lot of those end up in landfills regardless of if you put them in the recycling, does it matter that much if the city is spending $1mill on a plastic recycling initiative. Well, it does, it just matters that they're wasting $1mill.

You'd never see the context though. CNN would just be like "The city of Houston is spending $1mill on a myriad of projects to increase plastic recycling city wide. The governor has called it, 'liberal nonsense.' Meanwhile city councilman Bob Bobberson said, 'The environment is the future #votebluenomatterwho.' A spokesman for Keep our Cities Trashy (which we won't give the context is run by big landfill) says, 'Actually ALL recycling is BAD for the environment and trash is good cause we cover it in dirt to make big hills and hills look nice.'"

Like obviously a bit satirical, but they'd really just run it like that devoid of context. Just boring facts and quotes without any attempt at truth telling. Plus, they'd throw in the governor's response despite the fact it has no bearing on the initiative at all and it's just basic culture war shit because it would help spur future clicks. PLUS, they'd even make no attempt at refuting the blatant lies from the pro-trash lobbyist or tell you who is paying for the group he's lobbying for.