#they'd just use the 'tl' spelling???

[poinsciuri]

wanna see a really funny stretch?

girl. the chemical formula of table salt is NaCl

[woodswolf]

anyway im going to make some minor changes to existing chapters of DLD. im going to make a point to differentiate between the Hocotate and Hokotate pronunciations in-text since that's actually kinda really important and informs a lot about where olimar and various characters come from.

i don't think ive said this before anywhere (at least outside of DMs with my partner/ideas ducky), but the TL;DR is that both the "american" and japanese pronunciations of Hocotate/Hokotate are kind of an important background detail that inform how i see the pikmin universe Working in DLD. Hocotate ("american" pronunciation, "hawk-a-tate", rhymes with Freight) is the "standard" pronunciation across the galaxy while Hokotate (japanese pronunciation, "hoh-koh-tah-tay") is how Hokotate natives would refer to it. and this like, really really informs a lot of characterizations.

the ship for instance always pronounces it as Hocotate because it literally wouldn't know any better and nobody's ever said otherwise because it works well enough for an interplanetary business setting.

olimar also pronounces it as Hocotate unless he's specifically in a situation where everyone involved would Know to pronounce it Hokotate. however, he Thinks of it as Hokotate except in the context of Hocotate Freight.

the president is obviously from Hokotate but intentionally always pronounces it Hocotate and obviously named his company Hocotate Freight.

lamella would always pronounce it Hokotate which might make some characters (i.e. basically anyone who isn't from Hokotate) kinda 🤨 at her.

etc. like these are 4 very different outlooks that imply a lot of very different things about each of the characters.

also to be clear, Hocotatian is the "standard galactic" name for people from Hocotate. if asked by anyone Familiar With The Hokotate Distinction, though, they'd call themselves Hokotateno. but some people (such as olimar, aka Mister Nuance) would naturally have a conditional answer depending on who was asking and why.

in case anyone can't tell from the tone of this post, a lot of the reasons for this relate to some of the background lore of this universe that ive alluded to both in-text and in comment replies. i don't think it's ever going to come up explicitly in-text (so far it's mostly just been alluded to in things such as Hokotate's socioeconomics as olimar ranted about in chapter 2), but in DLD Hokotate has a history of Being Colonized and exploited for resources which can pretty clearly reframe a lot of those attitudes mentioned above if you didn't get the vibe already. it just hugely informs characterization so i think it's a change that's important to make sooner than later (even if it's mostly going to be relevant in much later entries once we start getting people Not From Hokotate involved in a major way, e.g. the Koppaites).

also blah blah blah everyone is technically speaking different languages but something something universal translators are standard features or something. i can have my really nuanced worldbuilding AND handwave things. if you're going to get mad at me about handwaving stuff though id like to introduce you to a cool game called Pikmin 4 which definitely does not handwave 90% of its plot and is 100% internally consistent all the time.

anyway ill probably make these changes tomorrow night or something. all im really gonna do is change 13 instances of spelling (the other 9 are going to remain unchanged as either part of "Hocotate Freight" or one instance in dialogue) but i can't be bothered tonight lol. i also might rewrite this post to actually use sentence case etc. since it'll be an important reference post to link in the chapter 1 author's note after making this change but i just expanded this from a discord message lmao

[merakiaes]

TL;DR - I have a lot of fanfiction-garbage and can't decide if it's worth donating in its poorly-edited, not-properly-written state, or if I should just throw it all out and let it rot in a landfill.

So, I have approximately 100k words worth of notes in my phone for fics for Top Gun: Maverick and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Like, we aren't even talking full fic skeletons/first drafts, it's just 100k words worth of dialogue snippets and vague and very badly spelled/messily worded outlines that I've thought of at random times throughout my days for the past month or two during which my brain has been in a hyperfixation sort of overdrive.

I'd say there's probably around a hundred separate fic ideas for each of the two fandoms noted above and I oh, so desperately want to post at least a few of them before my very limited hyperfixation span is exceeded, but I haven't written in so long and I'm hesitating because if I were to post one or more fics, they wouldn't be my usual thoroughly thought-out fics. A few longer ones would be a few thousand words at most, but most no more than a thousand or a few hundred, if even that, and I'd spend little to no time working on them beyond the absoloute neccessary (e.g. cleaning up my initial notes and adding some more content for the sake of structure) because I no longer have the energy needed to go into full writing mode and probably never will again. That being said, they'd be quick, sloppy and only meet the bare minimum requirements of even being considered fics - the notes in question look like they were created by someone repeatedly slamming their head on the keyboard so we really are talking bare minimum, with mostly dialogue and very little descriptive filling.

It's been so long since I wrote that I don't know if that's even something that is worth posting. I desperately want to post something because I could really use the lift-up of reconnecting with the fanfic-community, but I've become so damn insecure about my writing and I am totally overthinking it.

So, please, grant an out-of-practice fanfiction-writer some clarity by voting on the poll provided below, so that I can make up my mind on whether or not it is worth it. Honesty is more appreciated than coddling, you will not hurt my meow meow feelings, I promise.

(I might post them, I might not. I just want some clarity in case I decide to do so bc I am a dependent little bitch who needs the opinions of others before I do literally anything in life.)

[lizadale]

was rereading the delfino fic where dimentio explains true names to luigi, and a thought crossed my mind- can ancients be trans? if so, does their chosen name have more weight than just a standard alternative name? can their true name become a deadname or will they always have to "identify" with it? ...either way though, someone saying your birth name and it causing you immense negative emotion is a MOOD, dio

i sat on this ask for a while trying to figure out how to word an answer and i'm STILL not sure i'm going to explain it in any comprehensible way but i'm going to try

ancients are very...unrestrictive. they love whoever they want and they be whoever they want. they don't really have gender norms to begin with. i'm not positive they'd understand the concept of the term 'transgender' - if anything they'd ask why the heck there's a name for something like it (they're kind of a reverse of our society? labels just confuse them). in that sense they're more likely to feel envious of the opposite sex's body rather than feel actual dysphoria. even the shaman titles and cloak-types are negligible - a charmer can be either a Merlock or a Merlee, or change halfway through their shift. as long as it's the same class, they don't care.

true names are not associated with gender identity. HOWEVER - if you don't acknowledge the name as yours, chances are its use won't affect you. if you absolutely reject that name's connection to yourself then you're free from it. you can 'kill' a true name that way, but you can't ever replace it. you'll never know the horror of an enemy speaking it, but you'll also never know the euphoria of a loved one speaking it.

Dimentio hates his true name and thinks it doesn't suit him; despite that, he's acknowledged that it's his. because of that, it still affects him. even when he'd forgotten it for a time.

tl;dr speaking a true name is less like referring to a person's identity than it is uttering a spell that affects only them.

[holmoris]

spoilerfree (snes/trailer content only) super mario rpg remake impressions because i just did the entire thing in one sitting because it leaked and it's in my top five ever:

difficulty is way lower than the original, play whatever weird team comp you want, the mario/peach/ meta is dead. also mallow actually does damage now! it's a christmas miracle

outside combat it's probably the most faithful remake i've seen in decades for better or worse, it's about 95% the same as the original which isn't a bad thing at all, it's even got Ted Woolsey's script with minimal changes

some of the new remixes are absolute bangers but one very specific important one sucks intensely compared to the original, you'll know it when you hear it

the combat changes are a mixed bag and the team supermoves are very, very powerful. Run mario/bowser/geno and you basically handicap every boss

it's very difficult to fall behind in flower points, there seem to be way more flowers around than in the original so you aren't handicapping yourself if you screw up booster hill or midas falls the first time

status effects (especially bowser's Fear spell) are way more effective than they used to be

THEY RENAMED MACK TO A THROCKMORTON JOKE. WHY

there is postgame (complete with saving a clear file and reloading after smithy) but i'm not playing it until my physical copy shows up since I rushed through this on a switch that isn't mine

everything you'd think they'd remove for censorship reasons is still there.. except for mario's peace sign, which is gone and makes the scene where he talks to monstermama and conveys 'piece' with a peace sign very confusing

booster's crying animation is absolutely incredible in 3D tl;dr : if you haven't played SMRPG previously this is a great adaptation and does right by the original, if you have you might be slightly disoriented but you're still going to have a good time.

[delicehm]

what would that hatchetfield x homestuck crossover be like btw

I don't quite remember the idea

But

Paradox space isn't the whole multiverse, but a region inside it with defined laws of metaphysics, just as Black and White with all universes connected to it(the laws are drastically different)

Between them is a big void, different from Void of Homestuck or whatever counterpart is in Hatchetfield(I don't remember if emptiness was discussed there). Yes, voids can be very different with different characteristics and this in-between can have a different names, such as Abyss or Ginnungagap.

It's extremely hard to get through it because it technically has no laws, no matter, no anything and thus nothing can keep a solid form

It can be fixed by enough not reality-warping, but reality-defying powers

...

Like helding or BEING Ultimate Truth, not just conductor of Metaphysical Law, but The Law itself

And Lords in Black are all the Laws of Corruption, different aspects of it and thus can have a stable enough domain to cross the Ginnungagap

And from time to time they do(at least try, most of time, Webby won't allow them usually) and find themselves in Paradox Space

And there, they loose most of their powers... Not right wording. Their influence is not enough to warp reality that warps itself back, to redefine laws that have thousands or repairing systems and that always is overseen by being similar to them in terms of power(in other words, if everyone is a super, nobody is) and they fall from high universal level to city level

One day, Tinky sneakes into Paradox Space and began to make fun from destroying stable time in one city of Earth C. It was a huge ass anomaly that affected basically everything slightly connected to the city. Dave couldn't stand the fact that there is some idiot playing with Time believing that this is some Witch that awoken her title powers(it is possible without the game and was shown a few times in comic. It can't warp local-universal physics that much without the game tho) and now tries to revolt against rules of reality not understanding that by breaking them they'd kill everyone. He didn't know, tho, that it wasn't a Witch(bard would be closer, but not enough). The Time itself wasn't the one and only he would use in any spot of Paradox Space, but something different, less mechanical, more fluid, not defined and stable, but chaotic with no set of rules except for will of One behind it.

It would feel good, if the One wasn't so... Terrible. Dave was disgust

And now, Knight tries to adapt to new sword and navigate in Time-Storm to show that prick behind the curtain that nobody fucks with his Time, especially not to harm people.

The fight between weakened trickster-God and warrior-demigod with centuries of practice begins.

They are actually in the stalemate situation and none can win or escape another. That is, until Webby comes and help Dave to beat the shit out of her brother and takes that goat home

TL;DR. Tinky gets into Paradox Space. Meany Horrorterrors weakens him. He fucks with random city. Dave says that he can't fuck with random city. They begin conceptual fight. Webby intervain(is it the right word? Did I even spell it right?) and takes Tinky back to Black and White

[dunkelzahn]

Another thing to look at is cantrips. TL;DR this is just going to narrow down to 5E being hyper-combat focused.

In 1E, cantrips were explicitly apprentice spells. 0-level. They did stuff like clean a room, spice a meal, create a small light, create a small flame, change the color of anything, or summon a small spider. You were expected to give them up for spells of real power and worth when you became a true magic-user at first level. (You could keep them, each first level spell could be exchanged for four cantrips, but most gave them up entirely in terms of lore.) But the idea was that these were the building blocks of real magic. Cantrips couldn't really be used in combat (unless you got very creative and lucky).

In Second Edition, 0-level spells didn't exist. They were all compiled into a single first level spell, cantrip, which lasted as many hours as your wizard had levels. (I didn't like this because it didn't feel like an apprentice thing anymore.) There was a separate sourcebook that had optional rules that turned them into 0-level spells again, but it wasn't very good. (There was a separate homebrew thing printed in Dragon Magazine #221 that turned them into a Non-Weapon Proficiency for bards, magic-users, and anyone who might have an excuse for being a wizard's apprentice. Eventually Bards and Magic-Users could reach a level of mastery such that they didn't even have to memorize cantrips to cast them anymore, they could use them as often as they'd like.) With cantrip and unseen servant, any household chore was a thing of the past. They still couldn't do damage, though.

Then came the WotC buyout and, with it, 3.x. In Third Edition, several first level spells were demoted to cantrip status. The former cantrips were now condensed into prestidigitation, which lasted for a single hour per casting. And, notably, cantrips could now do damage (though mostly 1d3 or less. They weren't what you wanted in a fight.)

In 4E, cantrips were very limited in number, but they were minor at-will spells that couldn't do any damage. I didn't play 4E, so I can't give much more information than what I remember from skimming the PHB years back.

And finally, in Fifth Edition. Cantrips are infinitely castable, and many of them have a lot of combat utility. In the PHB, seven out of the fourteen cantrips supplied are for combat use. I've had it explained to me that this makes caster classes 'competitive' when it comes to combat because now they don't need to run and hide after blowing through their higher-level spells. Now they can deal as much damage as everyone else after running dry. (Why they can't just use a crossbow or a quarterstaff, I don't understand...) They even increase in damage as you level up. Other sourcebooks even give you AoE cantrip damage.

So, over time, cantrips have gone from a student's spells designed for pranks or speeding up chores to being a replacement for mundane weaponry in combat.

I actually think applying "murderhobo" as a descriptor to the playstyle of old-school D&D is ahistorical and inaccurate. Old-school D&D actually has fewer incentives in place for players to engage with the game in a "let's just kill things indiscriminately and take their stuff" type of way. In fact, I would say that it's WotC D&D that actually, as written encourages that behavior.

Like a lot of TTRPG hobby memes this feels like once again an inaccurate meme used to denigrate older games as unworthy of engaging with while at the same time closing one's eyes to actual game design. Sad!

[herefortheships]

Well I don't know if you heard or not that Venom 3 could only be about the Multiverse and Spiderman and not about the babies symbiotes like Sleeper for example, that many wanted including me too, maybe it could be just rumors but I don't know, the source that says that it almost always said the true things so unfortunately maybe it was just about Spiderman vs Venom and all that stuff.

Hhm. Personally, I don't think that Multiversal stuff is going to happen in Venom 3. But Spider-man is very possible, and it doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Buckle up, because this answer got LONG. I do love to ramble about this stuff. LoL If you want a short tl;dr answer, scroll to the bottom. 😅

Let's start with the multiverse talk.

I think that by the time Venom 3 hits movie theaters, the multiverse stuff will be a little over-used (or if not, it will have been the center stage to at least three major Marvel or Marvel related projects--No way home, Into the Spiderverse 2, and Multiverse of Madness. And that is aside from Wandavision and Loki, which will come into play in Multiverse of Madness, I'm sure. Setting yet another project in a theme of Multiversal shenanigans doesn't seem like a smart move, especially when they'd be playing in a considerably smaller turf with Venom (we all love Venom and it IS a high-grossing, super successful franchise, but Venom is the underdog in a Marvel stage, and I am sure Sony and Marvel are aware of this, and so it just doesn't seem likely). I personally don't think we'll see multiversal stuff at a grand scale as part of the story in Venom 3.

We might see repercussions to Eddie and Venom having seen another universe, though. In fact, I'm positive they will at the very least acknowledge their brief multiversal travel in Venom 3, and at most it will affect them in a world-shattering way, which could motivate them to search for their own Universe's Peter Parker/Spider-man. Now that we're speculating in this particular point, I'm going to go ahead and say that, because of the symbiote's presence and their bond, Eddie will remember Spider-man's identity is Peter Parker (the symbiote will remember, as their memories of Spider-man traverse across Universes; I don't think Doctor Strange's spell would have removed the symbiote's hive memories, therefore, Eddie will also remember by proxy) and it would be a missed opportunity for Sony to explore a Spider-man story with Venom.

Look, we all love our Eddie Brock and Venom symbiote as envisioned and brought to life by Tom Hardy, and the Venom movies do not necessarily need to have any involvement with Spider-man to sustain themselves as their own thing. But, there is a fact about Venom that we cannot so easily ignore, and that is the truth that Spider-man is a huge, huge thing for Venom. I think it's inevitable that at some point, our dear, quirky, adorable, dorky Venom and Eddie are going to have to fight Spider-man. Maybe they will be the villains, or maybe to their perspective they are the heroes and Spider-man the villain, but they will meet, and they will fight each other. Whether it is in a Venom movie or a Spider-man movie, it's going to happen, and after that mid-credit scene in Venom 2? No doubt about it. It's going to happen.

Here is where Andrew Garfield might come in.

I don't believe that there needs to be a multiverse explanation for the two to meet--I'm sure at this point they share the same Universe. You'd ask, why does Eddie not know a thing about Spider-man then, if they are in the same Universe? And the answer is super simple: Do we Know for sure that our Eddie doesn't know who Spider-man is? Eddie didn't react to Jameson's report, he didn't get a chance to before the scene ended--we only saw Venom's reaction. Eddie was drunk in No Way Home and was just trying to make sense of everything and his only starting point to make sense of anything at all was Spider-man, the Spider-man of that particular Universe, but apart from him saying "maybe I should go to New York and see this Spider-man" there's nothing indicating in that scene that Eddie doesn't know of a Spider-man from his own Universe. That scene doesn't reveal anything about whether or not Eddie knew of a Spider-man from his own world before all of this multiverse madness happened.

In fact, the only canonical connection our Eddie Brock has ever had to New York has been this scene from Venom 2018 when Anne and Eddie are talking at the restaurant: "We don't want a repeat of the Daily Globe incident. You were run out of New York, I don't want you to run out of San Francisco" (I'm paraphrasing, but Anne tells Eddie something like this). I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turns out this incident involved Spider-man in some shape or form.

So we have this to connect the dots:

1) Eddie Brock has been involved in an "incident" with the Daily Globe in New York, which resulted in him having to leave New York to continue working as a journalist. (<-This must have been a huge deal, so I really, really want to know what this "incident" was. If you ask me, here is the hook they need if they want to give Eddie Brock some beef with Spider-man. What if Eddie secretly blames this incident on Spider-man's involvement? Hm? It would even be accurate to the source material).

2) Spider-man does his thing in New York, where Eddie had some major, almost career-ending incident some time ago.

3) Andrew Garfield's Spider-man wants to fight an alien. (Hello! They wouldn't toss in that line if it was going nowhere).

4) They are very likely in the same Universe.

5) Spider-man vs Venom is pretty much inevitable, and we have a solid setup now, when we didn't have it before. (They will likely team up later to defeat Toxin, maybe? The setup is right there for all of this to happen now).

To ease the fears about the movie focusing on Spider-man, I will say this: Spider-man has appeared often in the Venom solo comics, but he is never the center of attention--these are the Venom stories, after all. (Maybe except that one time during the first Lethal Protector story, but it was brief lol). Spider-man will not come into Hardy's Venom movies to steal the show--he will appear as, first, an enemy (our babies are bound to have their asses kicked by Spidey at some point, I'm sad to say), and then as an ally. We don't need to worry about Spider-man stealing Venom away either--when Spidey comes into the mix, the bad water is already there between Spidey and the symbiote.

Lucky for us Eddie and Symbrock fans, the Venom movies removed the whole origin story of the symbiote feeling like Spider-man's spurned lover, and Eddie being ill with hatred towards Spider-man and becoming psychopathic and all that because of it. Yes, our Eddie still does have those dark, murderous tendencies, which I wish the movies would explore some more (the guy is ok with cannibalism as long as it's "bad guys", there's no world in which that's normal behavior), but Eddie and Venom's bond and the foundation of their relationship is not forged in this deep seated hatred of Spider-man. Their bond is forged in their mutual understanding and the similarities the two share. The love is there pretty much from the beginning, while in the source material, it took a lot for them to get there; to get to the point where they love each other and Eddie can even call the symbiote "my love". It's very unlikely that the presence of Spider-man will disrupt Eddie and Venom's love for each other and their relationship. It might shake it up a bit, but there's no way Spider-man is tearing them apart or representing a threat to their relationship in any shape or form, or “ruining” them in any way.

There is not going to be a black suit Spider-man storyline in which Venom will corrupt Spidey or anything like that. As I said, their bad water is already there, as Venom remembers all these things from parallel Universe versions of themselves. If anything, our Venom will be initially hostile towards Spidey rather than friendly and won't want to "go back" to him or suddenly prefer Spidey over Eddie. The symbiote's hive memories are enough for the symbiote to have a reason to want to fight Spidey or consider him a "bad guy", without having to go over that whole story again so that our Venom can live through it--the hive memories are enough. It’s not going to be as personal, but that is a good thing. We can remove all that drama and go straight to Venom vs Spider-man without it being a love triangle type of thing. 

And for Eddie's reasons to want to fight Spidey, if my prediction is correct (remember this is ALL speculation) then Eddie's New York "incident" had something to do with his own universe's Spider-man. It had to.

I personally would love to see them become villains at some point, if at least briefly. I think it would be interesting.

Now, about Sleeper and the other Venom spawns.

While I love and wish with all my heart the Sleeper plot could be the main storyline for Venom 3 (we do have that pregnancy hint in the mid-credits scene in Venom 2) I don't think it's likely to happen in the live-action Venom movies, at least not yet. If anything, Sleeper might come in at the conclusion of the Venom movies. I think that might be a nice way to end things, with the revelation that they are going to be parents. But bringing in the child, at this point in the story where Venom and Eddie are at the very beginning of the relationship, and starting out as the Lethal Protector, it just doesn't seem likely that they will bring in their child and a storyline for Eddie Brock to become a father--I think movieverse Eddie and Venom have still a long way to go, and what I'd love to see in the third movie more than anything is them really exploring their relationship as a romantic love relationship. What it means to be in love with an alien creature who inhabits your own body, for Eddie Brock, and what it means to be in love with your host, for the Venom symbiote. I think it would be delicious to really go there and say "these two are in romantic love with each other and it's not all flowers and chocolates".

I'd love it if Tom and Andy went really deep into their relationship first, before bringing in their child and a parenthood storyline (but if they do, I will welcome it, because I do think there is a foundation already there with that midcredits scene to bring in the Sleeper storyline).

As for the other symbiotes like Scream, Agony, etc, unfortunately they were already dealt with in the first movie (it was loosely based on Lethal Protector 1993) so I don't think we'll be seeing them in the movieverse beyond what we saw in Venom 2018. They were unnamed, so it's not completely out of the question they will appear later. But it seems their origins were completely changed. Riot wasn't a venom spawn in Venom 2018, and instead was "a team leader" in their Earth mission, for example.

To finish these very adhd rambles in a tl;dr paragraph: I think the rumors might be close to the truth, but I don't think a multiverse plot will happen. I think it's a real possibility we will be seeing Spider-man in Venom 3, but I might be wrong, and it will happen in a separate movie event--Andrew's The Amazing Spider-man 3, where Venom could appear as the main villain, is a REAL possibility, especially with the hype surrounding Andrew's Spidey right now and Sony not being stupid to let that pass without doing anything. The set up is right there, and Venom has always been a villain at some point, even if later they become an anti-hero. Our Venom is more likely to always remain an anti-hero, but they could always become the villain at some point even if briefly. What I don't think is very likely, unfortunately, is a plot centered around Venom's babies (they already did with Carnage, there's that to consider, too) and while I wish we could see Sleeper 💚, I don't really see it happening any time soon. If anything, at the end of the Venom movie series. Because a parenthood plot might truly complicate things, especially if Sony plans on doing crossovers with our Venom, unless they do it like in First Host and adapt it well, with Sleeper leaving at the end to explore the cosmos. Who'd be Sleeper's host? There’s that too, for example. Sleeper can't remain caged forever. That is one of the complications of bringing in that storyline.

[valentinesparda]

HELLO ive actually been WANTING to ask about your dmc insert since i read your doc but i keep forgetting! anyway it says gabriel is an occult collector what does that MEAN. what does gabe have in this Collection whats the Prized Possession tell me all about it

@juneships OH THIS IS AN EXCELLENT QUESTION. essentially what gabe does is collects anything from haunted or cursed items (like paintings, books, fountain pens), to actual artifacts related to demons / angels / etc, to just random body parts from said things that can be sold to other people for money. they travel and read, and they take after the previous "mentor" that they had who lifted the veil for them into the demon world, so to speak. with said job they also inherited a sort of warehouse / 'museum' to display the things they get but they have to prove themself to earn access to it.

it's just, after they were just a small-time dealer, they turned into a collector and got a little greedy and started to actually look into the things that they were getting.

if you asked them, they'd say it's because they're neat, but in reality they do it to make sure said pieces don't end up in the wrong hands. they're essentially just a black market dealer-turned-collector but for the cursed and demonic. which, in all reality, makes them a target for demons and spirits, but they knew that when they got the job.

some things that gabe has in their collection includes like. demon teeth and horns that people use for spells and enhancing their own weapons, someone's spirit trapped in a fancy belt buckle that can only speak in rhymes, and of course, the crown and weapon that the demon haures was previously bonded to that - to make a long story very short - sort of kick-starts the main storyline for gabe.

TL;DR - lil bassard sweeps in like a crow to collect the shiny and keeps it. sometimes they sell it. sometimes they give it back to whatever it came from. most of the time they don't.

[20dollarlolita]

So they told her why she was banned.

I'm going to let her tell the story and then I'm going to say some more bullshit.

Part 1

cw for talking about self harm:

Part 2.

Okay so I'm going to say that I'm going to vouch for this lady quite a bit. Like many of us who are in some way neurodivergent, many people in our lolita community express and interpret speech, body language, and tone of voice differently from the "normal" way to do so. As friends, we often have to say, "that sounded really offensive the way you said that," or "it was impolite to eat that when she was in the room," or other stuff. None of us want to make someone else uncomfortable, but asking us to understand that without telling us is completely unfair. Our copies of the "what that little frowny face and clearing your throat means" book were stolen by Amazon porch pirates. None of us want to ever make someone uncomfortable, but expecting us to know that from a "subtle hint" is unfair to us. I'm saying "us" there because there's four other people in the group who I have asked for permission to loop them in on that statement, and I know there's probably more who I didn't ask. This is my assurance from everyone that if any of the listed problem behavior had been brought to her attention by absolutely anyone, it would have stopped. This is the same way that people have to tell me that I'm talking too loud, because my hearing loss disability makes me unable to tell that for myself. Autism doesn't make you an inconsiderate ass, but it does mean that some people's "you're an inconsiderate ass" code words don't always alert the way they'd alert a neurotypical. tl;dr number 1) a pattern of problem behavior begins because no one was willing to alert the problem behavior-er that they were a problem. If that had been spelled out at the beginning, the problem would have stopped.

Second, we have had people in our community go through difficult times. Last year, one of our members was run over by a semi truck at 70mph and almost died. A member of our community had to have emergency surgery and almost died on the table. FrilledCriminal has a mental illness with psychotic episodes and almost killed herself during one. I was expelled from college 10 years ago after trying to kill myself. We talk about these things when they come up. A lot of us also have mental health problems that make things difficult. "My anxiety is a mess and I'm not coming to the meet," or "selling a dress because I just got a hospital bill from staying in grippy sock jail" or other statements mentioning mental illness are very common. Discussing this is uncomfortable, and I can understand someone talking about that. However, when there's no guideline for talking about what's appropriate (physical illness almost killing you) and not appropriate (mental illness almost killing you), it's very hard for someone to tell what conversations caused discomfort. tl;dr number 2) it's really hard to tell when it's okay to be the right kind of disabled.

Third, the claims of doxing are garbage. As made apparent by the fact that the mod in question said that posting a private message with someone's avatar and screenname in a screencap was doxing, it should be clear that the moderation team doesn't actually understand what doxing is. For the record, doxing is collecting or collecting and posting personally identifiable information about someone. Doxing is not "I told you something in a PM and then you sent a screencap to someone else." tl;dr number 3) you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Let's have a quick reminder of how this has been handled, if we take everything they said as completely true. Tell me if you think that the actions taken by the modmins are the best way to deal with an autistic young woman who recently developed a severe mental illness and uses discord and lolita fashion as her way to ground herself and connect to a community:

Part a) "Multiple community members" come to the moderation team and complain about Sarah going to events. The moderators allow "multiple" complaints about a singer person to collect. They do not speak to her. They do not allow anyone to know that these complaints have happened. They do not make any vague group posts like hi guy so we just want to remind everyone that talking about mental illness is a thing you should be careful about or any kind of notification to anyone that any kind of issue was brought up to the mods. Also known as "people complained and the mods didn't do shit even as the number of complaints grew."

Part b) The modmin team ban Sarah from both the Discord and Facebook groups. They do not talk to her to tell her that she is being banned, and definitely do not tell her why she is being banned.

Part c) the mods make a big post to all 250 people in the discord and facebook comms, saying "we did a thing, but we won't tell you what, so don't ask."

Part d) the discord community finds out what, and asks. Mods are unable to tell the community why she was banned. Mods say she doxed someone. Mods say she is severely mentally ill like that's a fucking answer. Mods say they "won't tell her why she was banned because it's not fair". Mods state that they have no intention of talking to her. After literally three hours of discussion, mods say they will reach out to Sarah.

Part e) Mods do not reach out to Sarah. One full week passes.

Part f) Sarah and the people standing up for her get tired of waiting and start making posts to remind the community that this hasn't been handled or addressed. In the span of two weeks, two people who are not Sarah make one post each on the sacramento.egl instagram account.

Part g) literally two weeks later, one mod sends Sarah a note listing the reasons why they permanently banned her with no warnings, no notification, no appeals: she is awkward to be around, doesn't know when to stop talking, an actually completely erronious claim that she touches without asking because she compulsively asks to the point where it annoys some people, and people not liking how she conducts herself when she's not at events on in sac-egl spaces (I don't know what conduct they're citing, but that was a complaint).

Which, that last one, like, just a thought, but if you're a threat to the community because of who you are outside the community, that should be taken into consideration, but where's that line? I'm not allowed to be naked at a meet, so am I banned for taking my clothes off to shower? How much of my life has to be correct and proper in order for me to be allowed to talk to these people on facebook? Am I allowed to have a twitter where I post furry inflation art, or does that outside activity get me banned even if I never bring it up at a meet.

And now let's get to the other part: there has been no evidence of any of this. It literally took the mods two weeks to come up with this list. The contents of this list went from "we banned her because she was mentally ill" to "we banned her because she's autistic" so, you know? Maybe if y'all had some reasons, and if this happened online they maybe some screencaps, people would be more accepting of this.

The following paragraph is my own opinion and I have no told Sarah that I hold this opinion, and definitely have not told anyone that I would be including this. My family is very heavily involved in their church, and I grew up watching this. Something that I've seen happening a lot before is something that I think is happening here. When someone is very heavily involved in an environment or situation, and then withdraws their involvement, often someone new will come in and become well known by the other people in the situation. Then, when the absent one returns, they see that there is a new and popular person who they do not personally know. The moderators in my community have admitted openly that this happened with Sarah, since nearly half of these mods don't actually go to events. What I've seen happen in the church is that the formerly absent members will take out frustration on the new and popular member. I've seen children do this and I've seen 80-year-old choir ladies do this. I'm not going to make a statement that follows that. You're all smart.

Anyway, so that's the absolutely insanely bad moderation of my local community to attempt to remove a member for no fucking reason at all, openly claiming that they repeatedly ignored community member's request for them to talk to a member and then just waiting a couple months and banning her without talking to her instead.

So, if you're in greater sac and you want to join a discord community, I'm no tsaying we have a new one that's better but that's exactly what I'm saying and message me for an invite

EDIT: The group added a new mod and they immediately messaged sarah to say they have no clue what's going on but want to find out. This is a good turn. let's see how it goes

(BTW yes, you can reblog this)

brb watching the people in charge of my local egl community continue to ask for more than two weeks to handle the loss of a loved one before they can go up to someone and say "we banned you for x", after forcing a 19-year-old to deal with these people creating the situation and specifically targeting her, less than an hour after said community member came down from a health episode that almost ended her life.

When someone demands a concession from you that they did not grant you, take note.

[mishkakagehishka]

Ooo okay so. Under the cut so the post doesn't get too long but tl;dr: anime logic♡

Mika: has a habit of stealing his darling's things. It escalated from digging through the dumpsters to breaking in and digging through their trash directly + in general stealing random items. If he breaks in during the night and manages to not wake them because he needs a flashlight to see, he's taking advantage of it to watch them sleep for a few minutes before he leaves... and might as well collect their spit if they happen to drool. He's also not above picking up residual spit from anything that was near his darling's mouth.

Mayoi has the same habit of breaking in, but he does it exclusively to watch them sleep. Will chide himself while holding his darling's mouth open to let drool out that he can collect.

Niki works in the ES restaurant as well as café so he has access to both the food that goes out to the darling as well as all they used to eat. He will often suggest them order food known to increase saliva production, and he's not above tampering with food and adding medicine to it. He can pick up the residual spit from the cutlery and glasses, but he'll sometimes "let them know" that today's special can cause increased saliva production and that, if they'd like a glass to spit in, he's more than happy to help. And he speaks the truth! He's always the happiest when they call him over and say they'd like that glass after all.

Natsume just gives them the little bottle and tells them to spit in it tbh. He very much openly says he needs it for a spell, but he doesn't tell them what sort of spell it is. He makes sure they leave more saliva than he actually needs so he can show them an "actual" magic trick, aka a chemical reaction with spit where the liquid changes colour. Cool, right? Anyway, he then mixes his own spit with his darling's and puts it in the little charm/bottle to hang around his neck. As a "love spell".

Leo also asks them directly, but he doesn't give an excuse. Just asks if they can spit into a container for him. It's entirely up to them to refuse, but he tries to guilt them by saying he's working on something and needs the inspiration, and he thinks watching someone spit would inspire him. You'd think "Weird conclusion to make," but it's Leo, his words don't often make sense

who are ur other top5 yands

Oh, do you mean in general, in enstars, or specifically talking ab that tag where I said "top 5 yands who'd try to collect your spit to keep in a little bottle/necklace charm"

Currently my top5 yands in general are my top5 enstars (per my headcanons of them as) yands since I'm really into enstars rn, so those are Mika, Hajime, Izumi, Chiaki and Shu. Mika is personal bias lol, Hajime and Chiaki would make for interesting yands, and Shu has the bonus of dollification which is a trope I like in horror-adjacent media like that. And Izumi's just Izumi.

As for top5 (also enstars) yands who'd keep your spit. Mika. Mayoi. Niki (he replaces it regularly because he. Well. Drinks it/puts it in his food). Natsume (it's a "love charm"). Leo.

Bonus: Ritsu keeps blood in a necklace charm.

[absynthe--minded]

so! I actually went looking at a script of the movie for this, because I'd never considered it (and because my most vivid pertinent memory was the song "Kiss the Girl", which doesn't mention True Love at all) and it seemed a very quick and easy way to break the spell

however, Ursula is devious af

this is what she says to Ariel during "Poor Unfortunate Souls" about her deal:

"Now, here's the deal. I will make you a potion that will turn you into a human for three days. Got that? Three days. Now listen, this is important. Before the sun sets on the third day, you've got to get dear ol' princey to fall in love with you. That is, he's got to kiss you. Not just any kiss - the kiss of true love. If he does kiss you before the sun sets on the third day, you'll remain human, permanently. But, if he doesn't, you turn back into a mermaid. And - you belong to me."

So short answer: no, it wouldn't work.

Long answer nobody asked for: this actually ties back in to the greater themes of the movie? (prepare for meta nobody asked for)

There's a v subtle thing that happens in this song and in that little speech that I want to draw attention to. When you look closely, you see Ursula gamed the system from day one - she tells Ariel that it can't just be any kiss that frees her, it has to be the kiss of true love, borne out of falling in love with someone. Not only that, but she's only got three days (well, less than three days, actually - it seems to be "the whole of the afternoon/evening/night after the transformation, the next whole day, and only daylight hours on day 3, because the spell is forfeit when the sun sets") to pull this off. Which is hard but not impossible - three perfect days with somebody as charming and intelligent and determined as Ariel could easily lead to some kind of love between her and Eric if she worked at it and they hit it off - except for the fact that Ariel's voice has been taken.

Through the whole movie, she's used words and song to express herself, and it was her voice that drew Eric to her in the first place. She even mentions to Ursula that without her voice (without a means of expressing herself, since she seemingly can't read or write human) she doesn't know how she can get Eric to like her. Ursula basically suggests seducing him and insists that human men don't want women who speak up, and we the viewers learn pretty quickly that's a pretty bold lie on her part because Eric regularly engages with Ariel and wants to know how she feels and what she wants, even when she can't use speech.

Of course, Ursula knew this - she never intended Ariel to win at all. By insisting that the key is True Love's Kiss but denying Ariel the very tool needed (honest, open communication) to get that true love and denying her time that could be used to learn to communicate, she made it so that the game was unwinnable. In fact, even if Eric had kissed Ariel during "Kiss The Girl," she probably would have rightfully claimed that it wasn't true love, because they'd never really exchanged thoughts, and she'd get her endgame anyway. (The reason I say that ties back into the greater themes of the movie is that for all the screaming about how Ariel changed herself for a man!!!! there's a really interesting and deftly handled message in how the story is told, and that message is 'listen to women and what they want'. If Triton hadn't overreacted and heard Ariel out when he found her grotto, she wouldn't have gone to Ursula in the first place. If Eric had tried to win Ariel's heart by forcing his way in, not by doing what she wants and letting her be excited about her environment without judging her, he wouldn't have proven himself worthy of her. And Ursula's plan hinges on convincing Ariel that she doesn't need to be heard, that her value isn't her voice but her looks.)

tl;dr - Ursula had The Best Disney Villain Scheme, bar none.

so like if prince eric had kissed ariel’s hand in greeting would that have counted

[ansixilus]

Alright then. If they didn't need someone bringing rationalism into their thoughtscape to build a utopia with their vaunted magic... why haven't they done so yet?

EDIT: Apparently, you haven't read the "infamous" HPMOR, because in that story Harry discovers that, aside from clever applications of existing spells, he can't actually bend magic to his will and make the world perfect, because the system is difficult.

However, you said "the blindingly obvious implications of their own technologies and practices" but I have to stop you there. Clever implications are never 'blindingly obvious'; they had the technology, so why didn't the Romans invent the crossbow? Nobody thought of it. Fractional distillation is an uncomplicated process that any alchemist could do (in smallish quantities, at least), so why wasn't naphtha refined into its more useful distillates until the 1800's, despite naphtha's use stretching back 4000 years? No one noticed that it was an option. Clay tile roofing is easy enough to fabricate and employ, even for the poor, so why did medieval peasants have thatched roofs to go with their homemade pottery jars? They didn't realize.

People might argue that the protagonist wouldn't realize all those different options, they're just one person after all... but the author is just one person, too (excluding shared stories, but you get my point).

People might instead argue that someone from that civilization wouldn't think of such outlandish things... which is my point exactly. The locals wouldn't think of such things, because they're used to thinking the same way. Barring strokes of genius, invention usually only occurs in societies that prize inventive thought, like Classical Greece & Rome, or Renaissance Italy... or most modern first world counties.

This is exacerbated by fantasy settings with long-lived peoples. The longer a person lives, the more complacent they're likely to be. Think of the LOTR elves: highly intelligent people with a little green magic and all the time in the world. Imagine what they could have wrought if they'd just had the drive: establishing schools or colleges to help the humans understand, using their magic to ensure bountiful harvests (or at least reliable ones), heck even just breeding plants to have desirable traits (like say, larger fruit). The dwarves are constantly portrayed as master smiths and engineers... so why didn't they so much as develop clockwork? Crossbows? In the books they're described as having magic that they use to secure their treasures, so why didn't they act as bankers for humans (talk about profit)? All these are "blindingly obvious" to 21st century folk... but those peoples simply didn't think of the option.

That's what rationality fics are, explorations of "what if they thought of...?" They're not really much different from any other fic, which all go "what if...?"

Finally, some of the cardinal rules of fiction consumption: if it doesn't entertain you, don't read it. If you don't read it, don't complain about it. Basically, take your complaints up with the fic itself, not the genre. If you read something with a "smarmy nu-atheist fuckboy" then complain to the author, or those who read that fic, about the crap character. Don't lambast the entire category to which it belongs. I have a vicious personal hatred for the over-hyped idiocy that is the Twilight series, but that doesn't make me hate the paranormal romance genre, or even have anything bad to say about the genre itself. It's just that one series (among others) that I'll gleefully shred into little bits.

Of particular note is that rationality fics (in general, obviously not all) encourage rational thought... which encourages working together, mutual benefit, a number of other good things... Basically I'm saying that the genre is a good thing that deserves the respect that any literary genre deserves.

TL,DR:

Rationality fics are plausible, because things that seem obvious to an outside observer are often not obvious to someone within

If you don't like a category of fiction, don't consume it

If you want to complain about a work, do so within its venue

Don't hold the genre responsible for the failings of the work

Don't disguise your dislike of a particular work with a supposed critique of its genre

I love genre bending as much as the next guy, but there’s a difference between mashing up tropes to see what shakes out, and [nerdvoice]exploring the logical implications of the setting[/nerdvoice]. I understand that kids are calling it “rationality fic” these days (i.e, after the infamous Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality), but the genre itself is old as dirt, and I’ve seen enough of it to last me a lifetime.

Like, I grant that bad writing exists, but absent some compelling evidence to the contrary, I’m gonna give a work’s worldbuilding the benefit of the doubt. I am magnificently uninterested in anything that starts with the assumption that the only reason a fictional setting exists in its present state is because its inhabitants are just too stupid to work out the blindingly obvious implications of their own technologies and practices, and that all they need to set them on the path to technocratic utopia is for some smarmy nu-atheist fuckboy to wander by and show them what’s what.

This is not what cleverness looks like.