#this is a topic ppl care a lot about so here's the info (that I know of anyway

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - known Character Creation info Part 1

[LINK TO PART 2]

This post is just a dump collection of info and snippets that came out about CC (& some related topics). if you've been following the news or reading posts here, it's not new info or anything, I just put it together in one place here for convenience. ( ˶´ ᵕ `˶ )

if you notice anything missing, pls lmk. there's a bit of repetition of info in places as prev posts on the topic overlapped.

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CC is vast [source] and immensely detailed [source]

We will enter CC straight after Varric’s opening narration [source]

You are given 5 categories to work your way through in CC: Lineage, Appearance, Class, Faction, Playstyle. Each of these has a range of subcategories within them. There are 8 subcategories within the “head” subcategory" in “Appearance” alone [source]

Lineage dictates things like race (i.e. human, elf, dwarf, qunari) and backstory [source]

Backstories include things like factions. Factions offer 3 distinct buffs each [source]

There are dozens and dozens of hairstyles [source]

There are separate options for binary and non-binary pronouns and gender [source]

“BioWare’s work behind the scenes, meanwhile, goes as deep as not only skin tones but skin undertones, melanin levels, and the way skin reacts differently to light” [source]

CC has a range of lighting options within it so that you can check how the character looks in them [source]

There are a range of full-body customization options such as a triangular slider between body types and individual settings down to everything from shoulder width to glute volume [source]. There are “all the sliders [we] could possibly want”. The body morpher option allows us to choose different body sizes [source]

All body options are non-gendered [source]

They/them pronouns are an option [source]

Rook can be played as non-binary [source]

Individual strands of hair were rendered separately and react remarkably to in-game physics [source]

Special, focused attention was paid to ensuring that hairstyles “come across as well-representative, that everyone can see hairstyles that feel authentic to them, even the way they render” [source]

The game uses strand hair technology borrowed in part from the EA Sports games. The hair is “fully-controlled by physics,” so it “looks even better in motion than it does here in a standstill” [source]

The ability to import our choices from previous games is fully integrated into CC. This will take the form of tarot cards - “you can go into your past adventures” and this mechanic tells you what the context was and what decision you want to make [source]

In CC we will also be able to customize/remake our Inquisitor [source]

A core tenet of the game is “be who you want to be” [source]

There are presets for all 4 of the game’s races (human, elf, dwarf, qunari), in case detailed CCs overwhelm you [source]

It is the best CC BioWare has ever made in a game [source]

The faction we choose will determine who we as protagonist Rook were before they were recruited to put a stop to Solas [source]

Certain conversation options are only available to Rooks of certain factions. For example, Grey Wardens get conversation options that are focused on the Blight, as they know more about it from other people. It also impacts how people talk to Rook (reactivity from characters and then faction reactivity from plots relating to that faction) [source]

Faction choice affects a lot of things [source]

There aren’t unique missions (I think this means like the playable Origins in DA:O), but faction choice does set the course for Rook for the rest of the game [source]

“body customization and morphing. From more muscular characters, to curvier builds, and just about any shape you want to give your character, there are all sorts of toggles to adjust so you can give them any figure you want”. “There’s even features that let you choose proportions, so you can alter their height, give them wider shoulders, and much more” [source]

There are makeup options [source]

There are tattoo options [source]

The hair uses a “Strand system” to “make them behave and move in a believable way for the different races” [source].

There are 4 voices to choose from for Rook: two feminine and tow masculine (one American, one British for each) [source]

In CC, 'Lineage’ is the game’s parlance for race i.e. human, elf, dwarf, qunari [source]

We can pick Rook’s name, but the dialogue calls them 'Rook’ [source]

In CC we can “make a few key decisions that will impact how The Veilguard begins” [source]

“I really do think its our most feature-ful character creator ever.” [source]

All armor and clothing options will scale and mesh to any body type [source]

The character creator has lots of sliders for body parts and overall shape, none of which are tied to the voice or pronouns (she/her, he/him, or they/them) that you choose [source]

“Epler took special care to show off the extensive curly and textured hair options in the game, including several versions of braids and locs, noting that increasing these options in particular was very important to the team” [source]

You can change your character’s physical appearance at any time during the game, but not their class or backstory [source]

“Each individual class has some variability, too; even the mage class has some up-close-and-personal attacks, since a mage player character could still conceivably have an assassin backstory and would therefore need to have some attacks to accommodate that sort of career path” [source]

“ "We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about skin tone,” Corinne said. The character we made, a Black elf, seemed to glow in the bluish light of a nighttime scene, and under bright sunlight, I could see the richness of his color. Corinne: "We want to make sure that skin tone is reflected authentically” “ [source]

” “We have dozens and dozens of hair types,” she said. “And they’re fully affected by physics.” The quality and variety of choices I saw delighted me. The rows of bouncy, luxurious-looking hair of all curl types and textures (and yes, the annoyingly ubiquitous “Killmonger cut” was among the options, what can you do?) brought the biggest smile to my face in the hour I spent with Busche and The Veilguard.“ [source]

BioWare confirmed that even if you make your Rook a short king, the team has done work to ensure animations fit any character build [source]

“Dragon Age’s character creator has seen a massive glow-up” [source]. “The volume of choices you get here are frankly insane. As Epler noted, “you could spend forever here,” and he’s not kidding.” [source] The art and graphics teams spent a lot of time trying to make hair look amazing [source: the Discord]

In CC we can customise our “bulge size” [source]

Some more detail on the new lighting options to see how Rook looks like in CC when you make them: you can view them in “blazing forest sunshine versus the glare of an underground temple” [source]

“newly mobile, extra-hairy hair” [source]

Faction choice has statistical boons. For example, Shadow Dragon Rook deals extra damage to Venatori blood cultists [source]

Faction choice basically determines why Rook has been called to help in the fight against Solas [source]

All pre-determined character models in CC can be adjusted [source]

You can make a really tall dwarf if you want [source]

“Setting your previous world state is fully integrated into the character creator for Veilguard” [source: the Discord]

Inquisitor appearance will be re-created, there is no way to carry their appearance from DA:I into the game [source: the Discord]

Classes for Rook are not restricted in the sense that you can play any almost class, lineage and faction combination that you want. For example, a mage Rook can be a Crow [source: the Discord] (Fel note: it sounded like Rook cannot be a magic-wielding dwarf, even though the exception of Harding now exists) (Fel note: there is a mage Crow in one of the books)

“The diverse body and gender options make it an industry leader by a signifcant margin” [source]

“BioWare was keen to highlight the hair strand technology that looked very similar to that seen in FIFA and EA FC, also made under EA’s roof” [source]

“Fine tuning sliders that allowed for microscopic adjustments of nose angles, it was clear that a lot of options exist to get the smallest possible body parts exactly right” [source]

“There’s no specific genital customisation to be oversold as CDPR did but, much like Saints Row, there is an option for bulge customisation” [source]

Pronoun choice, gender identity, body type, and voice choice are 4 separate options, not tied together [source]

Height is customised on a slider [source]

Size is customized on a triangle like in Saints Row: the 'points’ are fat, slim and muscular [source]

The different lighting options are 4 different settings: clean, bright, dim, sunset [source]

In CC you can also try out what Rook looks like in their starting rags, in typical mid-game armor, and some level 50 gear (class appropriate for each one) [source]

There’s a way for you to modify your character’s look once the game has started if you want to make some tweaks [source: the official Discord]

You can be any class and choose any backstory/faction, any race, any gender [source]

The opening cinematic Varric narrates at the start of the game plays before CC. “Following character creation, Varric’s narration continues, revealing that he’s put together a group to stop Solas, having recruited our character and a handful of others so far.” [source]

Faction choice affects in-game moments between other factions and locations, as well as characters [source]

Re: using body sliders in CC - “It looked incredibly easy to maneuver around and create a body that is either close to that player’s real personage or their ideal fantasy self” [source]

“Our presenter said that each specialization was pretty much as deep as a job” [source]

“Many fans were subject to the horror of DA Inquition’s special green light, so BioWare made it where players could shuffle through a handful of backgrounds to see how their character looks in different lights. Body sliders for fully customizable bodies, other appearance changes like tattoos, and everything fans would expect from a modern Dragon Age character creator seemed to be there.” [source]

Rook always shares a background with 1 of the companions. Makes sense, the backgrounds are Wardens, Crows, Shadow Dragons, Mourn Watch, Veil Jumpers, Lords of Fortune, and that’s Davrin, Lucanis, Neve, Emmrich, Bellara, Taash respectively [source]

The CC team and character art team spent a lot of time working on making sure that hairstyles behaved appropriately, in a realistic way, and on representing a lot of different hairstyles [source]

“We were told that one of the three key pillars of the game was ‘Be Who You Want To Be.’” [source]

“Numerous selections for a wide variety of body types & skin tones” [source]

There is faction-themed gear to wear, like if you chose Grey Warden as a background, there is GW gear. [source: The Discord]

“As a faction, the Inquisition doesn’t really feature prominently in the story - your appearance options are more reflective of the factions and styles you’ll encounter in The Veilguard.” [source: The Discord]

body sliders + “a triangle for gradients of body types” [source]

“The team heard us loud and clear on hair styles”. Frostbite engine updates served them well. Hair moves with your body and reacts to the wind [source]

For pronouns and gender selections, everything you select is used in the game and in cutscenes [source]

They were asked about the customizability of Rook’s backstory. Rook has 6 different backgrounds that you can choose from. Each of them is tied to one of the major factions in DA:TV. “Each one sets up who Rook was before they were recruited by Varric. Well that sets out the broad events. As you go through the game, as you have conversations, either with members of your faction, other characters, you can define not just what those events were but what they meant to you. What was your motivation, what was the kind of person you are as you build up Rook. Because again, we wanna make sure that roleplaying is at the heart of this experience, and taking Rook, giving them background to ground them in the world and then letting you decide what that means, what that says about you, is also a big part of it.” “A lot of opportunities to really define who your Rook was and who they are now, so.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

They have taken a different approach on how we import our decisions into the game this time around. This is now fully integrated into the character creator. The devs believe that this serves a dual purpose. Corinne said that she playfully thinks of it as ‘last time on Dragon Age’, though it isn’t actually called this in the game. She noted that it has been ten years since the last Dragon Age game was released, so this aspect serves as a refresher on critical events as well as allowing us to remake those decisions that are critical to us. The system for doing this is very highly visual and uses the familiar tarot card aesthetic. “It’s a very visual and playful experience as you go through it.” It was very important to them that this system was built into the client, so that you can play this game entirely offline. No online connection is required, no linking to EA accounts is required – this was a big fan request.

Corinne added, “I don’t want to spoil anything by revealing what decisions you can import, but I will say that this [thinking about the decision import system and what decisions to include] has been a really interesting creative intersection for us, because on the one hand, this is a whole new adventure”. In this game we are in northern Thedas, in locations we have not been to before. This naturally affects “some of what will matter and what decisions they’re not using this time around, as far as decisions. But obviously there are some very, very clear connections to existing characters.” “It’s no secret that the Inquisitor is going to show up, so that’s a factor”. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

In CC, Rook’s pronouns can be chosen. You can select both pronouns AND gender, as as Corinne noted, these are related concepts, but actually not exactly the same thing. Rook can be non-binary. The pronouns available are she/her, they/them, and he/him. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

The Character Creator is very detailed and very deep. The team focused a lot on doing good hair and doing hair and skin tones respectfully. There is full body customization. They are going to show us a lot more on CC in the future, but at a time when they have the time and space to do so. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

Q. How extensive are Rook’s decision trees for companions and NPCs throughout the game going to be?

A. “Huge. It’s a Dragon Age game. We wanna make sure you have choices, we wanna make sure you can choose your roleplaying but also choose outcomes of conversations, choose how events unfold. We wanna make sure that we also react to decisions you’ve made. So, for example, you may be talking to a follower who is an elf, and if you yourself are an elf, obviously you’re gonna have a different perspective on events than someone who is not an elf. Sometimes that means different conversation options. Sometimes that’s going to mean entirely deep dialogue trees. As well as based off decisions you’ve made throughout the game, so. Again, making sure that the game feels like the it’s noticing what you’re doing is a huge part of how we’ve written out the dialogue trees in this game.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

 “There are quite a few, easily more than we’ve done before I think, tattoos from various cultures. We’re bringing the vallaslin back of course. There are a ton of different options, especially when we’re going into all of these new regions. Each region has its own kinda visual language for that. But yeah, we are bringing the vallaslin back, and then a couple of the characters have them, but we’ve kinda customized them a little bit, they’re a bit more specific to their personality.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

Corinne’s favorite thing other than the companions is the CC. “That CC, the makeup options, the range of sliders… I’m a qunari fan, so even just the way you customize the horns and combine that with the really great looking hair”. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

The Inquisitor can be customized, “include some of our new customization options”. “Yeah, they’re gonna show up and they’re gonna be your Inquisitor.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

We will get to see the Character Creator before launch. “They are laying out a roadmap for what we are going to show and when we are gonna talk about it. So, yes, you will see it, as we get a little bit closer to launch.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

In CC, the body customization can be done for humans, elves, dwarves and qunari. Qunari hair options and horn options are rad. They acknowledged that it was hard to have nice-looking hair for qunari in DA:I. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

“Related to this, your Lineage (human/elf/dwarf/qunari) gives you a lot of really unique dialogue options, so that’s a really lovely aspect of choosing your lineage as well.” “Each lineage, depending on the lineage you choose and the background you choose, there are some specific call outs to. For example, if it’s the Mourn Watch, them being a faction from Nevarra of mages, obviously your experience as a dwarf there is going to be different than say a human or an elf, so, there are also specific callouts tailored to those combinations with again, the intention of giving each lineage their own little flavor as to how they fit into that faction as a whole.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

“Rook’s last name is defined based on their faction, again, we wanted to tie that into your backstory, but also, there’s a name generator that can give you a selection of first names. Obviously if you want to make your own first name, that’s definitely something we support as well.” But if you always struggle during CC and name all your characters like 'Bob’ or something, you’re gonna be okay thanks to the name generator. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

"some of what I saw behind closed doors, as well as the way the devs spoke openly about the passion for diversity, gave me a lot of hope for this installment." [source]

"A New Peak For Progressive Character Creators. My first thought as I watched the dev take us through Dragon Age: The Veilguard's character creator at Summer Game Fest was 'okay, everyone can shut up about Cyberpunk 2077 now'." "Dragon Age, as I've written about in more depth in my full breakdown, cares. It takes elements of Cyberpunk 2077 and Saints Row, plus its own creator from 2014's Inquisition which was then best-in-show and remains a contender even today. It acknowledges the trans experience in a multitude of ways, likely owing heavily to game director Corinne Busche being a trans woman and therefore able to inject a personal perspective that most other games lack." "The dev also made a Black woman during our gameplay demo" [source]

The world reacts to Rook’s lineage and backstory. There are unique dialogues or conversation options based on backstory and lineage. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

There are glorious, fantastic dwarf beards. "I don’t know what magic the character art team did with the beards”, but they feel/look like how beards should. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

On the slider for body type selection: “It looked incredibly easy to maneuver around and create a body that is either close to that player’s real personage or their ideal fantasy self” [source]

“Our presenter said that each specialization was pretty much as deep as a job” ((job - class)) [source]

“sliding a cursor across a triangle that can make your character stocky and chubby or tall and muscular or anything in between” [source]

[beeseverywhen]

laundry and chemistry (starring: coin cleaning chemicals)

so i saw a post on here about laundry stripping and i wanted to try it out as i live somewhere with really hard water and can’t use very strong detergents day to day as i have very sensitive skin, so it seemed like an interesting thing to try and see what happened

(my suspicion is, it will leach the dye and i’ll have to redye the towels but thats no big issue as i kinda feel like a new colour anyway and am gonna make sure i only put the same colours in together during my trial)

anyway so immediately, i read the instructions and know that some adjustments are gonna have to be made, as borax isnt sold here (banned) so i’ll need a substitute for that at the least. the post directed me to use borax, laundry SOAP not detergent, and washing soda

now straight away i know i need to be on my guard here as a lot of stuff like this will have the same name as an american thing, but be a whole different product. (cleaning products are very different here, in part cause of different regulations, but i think a big factor is actually how we clean stuff? american washing machines tend to be a lot bigger, and with toploaders you can soak stuff/have cold cycles which allows you to use laundry bleach which isnt really used so much here) when i visit my family (non us country but american appliances are common) i have a complete nightmare finding like for like laundry stuff i’m not allergic too

anyway, i’m not so worried about allergies here as after the soak i’ll be rewashing anyway. so laundry SOAP i figure they mean plain soap, like castile soap; washing soda, i figure is likely the same as the soda crystals we use for cleaning, which brings me to the borax. now this i know i definitely cant get here, so i find out that i can make a borax substitute from soda crystals and bicarb of soda, as i’m already using the soda crystals, this seems like a good option.

so i go to buy myself some bicarb, and the shop are selling a product called ‘borax subsitute’ so i decide to pick up this and the bicarb and compare the two.

so soda crystals= sodium carbonate

bicarb of soda= sodium bicarbonate

borax substitute? that’s sodium sesquicarbonate

now i’ve got the borax substitute the bicarb seems a little redundant, however. if i’m mixing any kind of chemical i want to make sure i know what i’m going to end up making, and make sure i’m aware of any risks.

leading me on the the chemistry of this all. i find myself on a coin collecting site, where they explain that by mixing sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) and sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃) with water i can make sodium sesquicarbonate (Na₃H(CO₃)₂ ) AND CO₂ (so i need to ensure i have good ventilation!)

however i clearly have no need to make my own sodium sesquicarbonate as i have ready made borax substitute. which made me wonder, as i am using sodium sesquiocarbonate rather than borax (sodium tetraborate decahydrate) is the addition of soda crystals (washing soda) (sodium carbonate) now redundant? in fact, why did the original recipe say to mix washing soda and borax, when the washing soda is made of the same components as borax (minus the borate), is there a secondary reaction involved here, or is it a case of overengineering the recipe? and what about the laundry soap? will that react as well?

when i tried to investigate further i stumbled upon sodium percarbonate, otherwise known as oxygenated bleach, and made by mixing soda crystals and hydrogen peroxide. now, while i am willing to risk the dye in the towels somewhat by stripping, i’m not looking to bleach them, so i realise pretty soon that sodium percarbonate is to be avoided

i’m not intending to add any hydrogen peroxide (don’t have any, not very common here), but i do need to make sure that it isnt in any soap that i may use. i know that castille soap is made from olive oil, water, glycerine and potassium hydroxide (lye), so i need to check that mixing the lye and the sodium sesquicarbonate is not going to make anything a) dangerous b) bleaching (like sodium percarbonate). when i tried to research this, i came across a very alarming chemistry forum post in which someone mixed the two, and it lead to a exothermic (hot!) reaction producing a mystery chemical, which they poked??? noting ‘I touched the tip of my finger to it and didn't get any chemical burns.‘ i mean i know this isnt labwork, but have some awareness of health and saftey! don’t tocuh mystery chemicals.

anyway, this reaction turned out to be a one off, likely caused by the soap they’d made containing soy oil, which introduced acid in to the mix, luckily i am not at risk of this as i have a deadly allergy to soy, so no soy oil is in the building. anyway.

by this point i’m really starting to doubt the need for additional detergent, when there is already sodium sesquicarbonate and possibly, washing soda, in the mix. i’m also starting to think that american ‘laundry soap’ is not pure soap as i’d assumed, but maybe something else entirely. looking up american recipes, they all seem to mean something different by laundry soap and some of them are using detergents, honesly i’m still a little unclear on the benefit of combining washing soda and ‘borax substitute’ when washing soda is used to make ‘borax substitute, it seems to me that changing the proprotions of ingredients is unlikely to be helpful (or may be more helpful if it makes something better i guess, but this i doubt) i’ve been hoping i might come across an old web style forum or webpage, where a chemist might explain the benefit of using 3 ingredients rather than one, and explain what is being created when they are all mixed. as i’ve yet to find this, i’ve decided to go with equal amounts of all 3 and then i will experiment with removing one ingredient at a time and comparing the results, in the future.

by comparing the various laundry detergents in my house i have found that they actually vary quite a bit ingredients wise, even tho they are all sensitive non bio detergents, one of them includes optical brighteners including oxygenated bleach, so we will not be using that one with the coloured clothes (funnily enough this is actually the one that i avoid using and only use for rugs and sofa covers and stuff as my skin plays up with it. the other ones don’t seem to have anything major that’ll react with the rest, so lets see

i have also learnt that borate requires hot water to activate it, so the americans i saw using it without hot water, probably arent getting much benefit from it

[jewish-sideblog]

hey, so im Palestinian and a strong activist for my people's liberation. i wanted to ask for some info/advice on avoiding antisemitism in my activism for Palestine. im on anon bc i don't want to be called a racefaker for caring about Jewish ppl. i know antisemitism is on the rise right now (and generally over the past few years) and i want to make sure i'm not unintentionally contributing to it.

Hey there! I wanted to start by genuinely thanking you for asking this question. Partially because I don't actually get any well-intentioned or helpful questions in my inbox anymore, but also because I understand the amount of bravery it takes to reach out with a question like that at a time like this.

Next, I want to apologize to all my followers who hate long posts. Judaism is a very complicated ethnoreligious group, antisemitism is a very complicated form of bigotry, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is arguably the most complicated international issue that has ever existed. I'm going to try to go through everything as succinctly as possible below the cut-- I am also going to ask other Jews to contribute to and make edits to this list as needed.

And finally-- I'm writing this as though I were speaking to someone with very little knowledge of the subject. I understand that as a Palestinian, you probably know a lot about what's going on here. But I want to make sure that I'm covering bases for anybody else who might need to use this post. So if you're like, Yeah, Obviously I Knew That. Please remember that a fuckton of people on tumblr are engaging in Israeli criticism without obviously knowing that.

There are two primary forms of antisemitism in anti-Zionist spaces-- antisemitic conspiracy theory, and criticism of Israel that no other country receives. The first kind is the easiest kind to pick out, and it makes a nice bulleted list, so we'll start there.

Dual Loyalty. A global stereotype that has skyrocketed since the establishment of Israel, but it's been around for a lot longer than that. Simply put, it's the idea that Jews are more loyal to Israel (or some global secret kabal) than we are to the countries we currently reside in. With I/P, it manifests as the idea that All Jews are directly responsible for Israel or the idea that All Jews secretly support Israel. If you see a Jew who isn't directly engaging in I/P topics, don't ask them what their stance is. Plenty of us have never even been to Israel, and it's fucked up to assume that we're all experts in geopolitics.

The Holocaust was a Fabrication or a Lesson. The idea that Jews made up the Shoah has been around since the Shoah was still happening, and it's always been ridiculous. Today, you'll see three primary lines about this. Either it's that Jews made up the Shoah as an excuse to establish Israel, that the Jews deserved the Shoah because of what's happening in Israel today, or that the Jews "should have learned their lesson from the Holocaust" because now Jews are "the new Nazis". Frankly, I wish goyim would stop treating the deaths of millions of Jews like a TV show. Palestinian deaths are genuinely horrible, but this isn't some kind of "narrative parallel" to the Shoah.

The Kazars Theory, or All Jews are White. This is the DNA test nonsense. The idea is that Israel (or Jews at large) are only pretending to be indigenous to the Levant and that secretly Jews as a whole are actually indigenous to Eastern Europe. It's a lie, started by a German professor of Russian history in the early 1800s. Meanwhile, the vast majority of genetic, historical, and archaeological evidence points to Jewish origins in the Israeli/Palestinian region. There have been literal hundreds of genetic studies on this. Most of them suggest that Jews, even "white" Ashkenazim, are nearly genetically identical to Palestinians.

World Domination. The idea that Jews control the world began with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1903. If you're encountering criticism of Israel that suggests that world governments, particularly European or American ones, are being controlled by Jews, you've got yourself antisemitism. White supremacists like to use the term "Zionist Occupied Government" or "ZOG" as shorthand for this conspiracy. The next two points are born out of this same ideology.

Controlling the Media. The idea that Jews are in charge of Hollywood and/or major news organizations around the world. Regarding I/P, I've seen a bunch of people say something like "Western media outlets won't cover this! (Because you know who controls them!)" only to look online and see... Western media outlets covering it. See also: "My source is tiktok! I don't trust the news!" While it's obviously a fair criticism to say that some Western news outlets certainly have a pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias, it's certainly not every single one of them. Reuters and the AP are once again my go-to's here.

Controlling the Financial World. I haven't actually seen this come up regarding I/P, but considering how things have been going, it's only a matter of time. We don't control the banks. We don't control the stock market. We're not in charge of American aid being sent to Israel. HaShem knows that if we controlled all the money, I'd certainly be living larger than I am now...

Those Bloodthirsty Jews. This one arguably started with Blood Libel in the 1100s, when Christians started accusing us of stealing and eating their babies. Straight up, I have met Christians who still believe this in 2023. You see this a lot with I/P-- the Al Ahli Hospital is the biggest example. More than a month later, most reliable intelligence organizations agree that a misfired Hamas rocket landed in a parking lot, killing about 100 people. But a ton of people are still saying that Those Bloodthirsty Jews intentionally bombed the hospital dead on, killing 470 people. I want to be clear-- Israel is killing a lot of civilians. But if you see a bandwagon of people focusing on the one group of deaths that Israel probably actually didn't cause? Consider why.

Causing wars, revolutions, and calamities. Hamas has straight-up got this one in their founding charter. No, the Jews are not responsible for any major global conflicts, revolutions, or counter-revolutions that don't directly involve Israel. We didn't do WWII. We didn't do the October Revolution. See above-- we're not secretly plotting massacres on Shabbat. A lot of people are saying that Netanyahu and Likud let Hamas in to justify the invasion of Gaza... I'd be shocked if that was the case. All evidence points to a classic intelligence failure. We're not orchestrating bloodbaths.

Section 2: Criticisms only levelled at Israel

It's important to recognise that Israeli civilians are no more collectively responsible for the actions of the Likud coalition than Palestinians are collectively responsible for the actions of Hamas. No Palestinian deserves to be stripped of their rights to self-determination in their ancestral lands because of the October 7th attack. Likewise, no Chinese person deserves to be displaced from China because of the CCP's human rights violations in Tibet, Uyghur and Hong Kong. No Russian person deserves to be ethnically cleansed from Russia because of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. But plenty of people do believe that Jews should be stripped of their rights to self-determination in historically Jewish indigenous lands because of the actions of the Israeli government.

After October 7th, I've seen people argue that Israeli babies deserved to be kidnapped because of their national origin. I've seen people argue that Israeli women deserved to be sexually abused because of their nation of origin. I've seen people argue that the seven million Jews living in their ancestral homeland deserve death or displacement because of their nation of origin. Justifying or allowing brutal harm against people because of their national origin is hateful.

I want to make this part very clear-- I do not have an issue with calling out Israeli war crimes or crimes against humanity. But I do have an issue with treating Jewish civilians differently than civilians of other nations responsible for similar horrors. Amplifying bias against a particular group because of that group's nation of origin is called bigotry. Taking a stand against Israeli settlements in the West Bank is anti-Zionism. Collectivizing the label of "white colonialism", and forcing that label upon refugees forced to move to Israel, or Mizrahim with uninterrupted 8,000-year histories in Israel, is antisemitism.

Part 3: Moving Forward

So where do we go from here? If advocating for the destruction of Israel is advocating for the elimination of Jewish self-determination in our ancestral lands, but advocating in favour of the Israeli government is advocating for the elimination of Palestinian self-determination in your ancestral lands, then we must find some middle ground. A solution that allows seven million Jews and five-and-a-half-million Arabs to share the same holy land, without fear of persecution, displacement, or death. For me, this means a few things.

First of all, the recognition that most Israelis disagree with Netanyahu's approach to Palestine, and most Palestinians disagree with Hamas's approach to Israel. And that brings up a question-- why are Likud and Hamas in charge of Israel and Gaza respectively if most people disagree with them? Without getting into the complicated intricacies of the Knesset and the PNA on an already very long post (and without explaining your own government to you), the simple answer is international funds.

Israeli crimes against Palestinians are bankrolled by American Evangelical Christians, who believe that when Palestine is gone, all the Jews will go to Israel, and Jesus will come back to kill the world's infidels. They actually fucking believe that. Meanwhile, Hamas is bankrolled by Iran, which believes that the more often Jews and Sunni Muslims kill each other, the easier it will be for Iranian Shiite Jihad to take over the world. They actually fucking believe that.

So what steps can we take during our advocacy? Not for the destruction of Israel nor the destruction of Palestine, but for America and Iran to get their noses out of our damn business. I genuinely believe that a defunded Likud and a defunded Hamas will allow Israelis and Palestinians to work together for a peaceful two-state or joint-rule solution. Something that will keep my Palestinian friends from feeling like they can't safely travel from Jaffa to Tel Aviv. Something that will allow my Jewish family to visit and pray at the Cenotaphs of Isaac and Rebecca and the Temple Mount. Something that will let Israeli children from Kibbutz Nirim and Palestinian children from Khan Yunis play on the same playgrounds together, instead of sheltering from missile fire.

Frankly, we nearly had that when the Supreme Muslim Council and the Assembly of Representatives began collaborating against the British Mandate instead of against each other. Clearly, it's possible, we just need to stop being pitted against each other by foreign powers.

[v01dcha0s]

Working with Demons - version for busy witches

I want to preface by saying that I'm slightly fed up with the witchcraft community puting a lot of pressure on other (often beginner) witches to devote themselves 24/7 365 day in a year for their craft. I mean, if that's what you want then be my guest but there's witches like me, who are very busy with everyday life stuff to the point where it's not manageable for us to do rituals etc. everyday.

Since I'm currently working with demons, I'll focus my post on those beings but the info here could be applied to any beings if they agree to. What I mean is that, spiritual beings are often very considerate about our human life and they want the best for us so unless they want you to work with them everyday and stuff, you can be chill about your craft.

Anyway.. info here is based on my experience and relationship with Demons so it might not apply to you :)

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。..・。.・゜✭・.

Most of the times Demons just want to have someone they can turn to. From my experience, they're already busy with their own stuff and humans for them are purely ment for energy exchange (this is another topic I might make a post or a video about lol). Many practiconers are working with Demons from different grimoires purely to get something from them and that's completely ok. When you choose to work with a Demon purely for quick things, you can make any kind of offering, ritual or ask them in astral projection and they can decide by themselves wether to help you or not. What I don't advise (but you still can do it if that's how your believe system works) to use any rituals from Solomonic magic (the list of demons is ok, idk about sigils I always felt guilty if I had to use them) as they're very hmm.. mean to Demons I'll say. If you want to summon a Demon and force them to do stuff for you then whatever you do you but I like them too much to do that to them. LeVeyan rituals are iffy for me but I heard they work as well. Whatever you want to gain from Demons, you have to remember that they have their own free will and they often don't care much about humans. This practice is very busy ppl friendly as it doesn't require you to do much.

But what if you want to have a longer connection with a Demon? Well, it's ok for you to not work with them 24/7!

Firstly, Demons don't have to choose you, for you to work with them. Really. That's bullshit. If you want to work with a certain Demon, make an offering and ask them. It's like, asking someone to be your friend. They can agree but they can also disagree, so be prepared for that. I haven't reached out to a Demon first so I'll say more on what to do when a Demon does the first step lol

So, it's somehow easy and not easy at the same time. When Satan first approached me, I mistook him for Lucifer (which I heard is very common). Recently I made a contact with Furcas and it was also very surprising to me, since I wanted to see Satan in the first place. Sometimes a not very known Demon will reach out to you so it's harder to gather info on them. So yeah, how to work with your Demon buddies?

Talk. Just talk to them. It's so simple but it works amazing. Talk not only to them but about them to other people. Don't be afraid to tell what they said to you or did (unless the Demon doesn't feel comfortable with you sharing something, please respect them). They love that since they have a bad reputation to many people (just don't be pushy about your believes). Plus talking is not very time consuming as you can do it anytime. Talk about your day, about your problems and just how you are. They listen trust me. If you want to listen to them, take a pendulum, tarot cards or any mean of divination you like and ask them, about their day, how they are, how they see themselves, you, and other Demons. This can take like few minutes or an hour but it's something that's not very time consuming imo.

For offerings. Candles. They love a good candle. You can write their name, sigil on it and decorate it. Use the color they like and herbs you have on you hand. I mostly use cabbage thistle (as it's been using by my grandmas for cleansing) and achillea but whatever you have on hand will work. Another one are crystals and incense. Ask them what they want and give it to them. Simple and effective.

Astral projection is more time and energy consuming so do it when you feel like doing it. Rituals are the same.

So to end the post, I just want to say that Demons (and most of the beings) understand that you are busy or struggle. If you struggle with mental or phisical health and you don't have time to work with them, treat helping yourself as an offering. Really. You're wellbeing is also important to them and should be to you. Take your meds, go to therapy or a doctor and also, they can help you with your problems. Don't beat yourself over the fact that you don't have time, if you really don't have time and energy. It's ok trust me.

[zombie-bait]

Omg i just realized I have something tiny to add to the whole James Somerton debacle. I'm currently watching the hbombguy vid (as you do when procrastinating assignments) and I remembered something that stood out to me in James' old videos.

So I used to be a fan of his stuff. I am also a fan of Hannibal and IWTV. He made a video covering both so naturally I was very hyped. It was called 'The Gay Appeal of Toxic Love.' The vid itself was fine (I don't remember having any super strong opinions of it besides being excited to hear ppl mention Interview cuz I had recently become obsessed) but one thing did stand out to me. In the IWTV section he mentions Nicki and, naturally, his death:

"After becoming a vampire, Nicky becomes nearly catatonic, and eventually slips away from Lestat entirely. And after centuries of dealing with depression and severe mental illness, Nicky kills himself."

(sourced from this transcript: https://github.com/TerraJRiley/James_Somerton_Transcripts/blob/main/Transcripts/The%20Gay%20Appeal%20of%20Toxic%20Love.txt)

To anyone who's read TVL, I don't think I need to explain that Nicki had not, in fact, been around for centuries. "Nicki had lived to be 30" has been rattling around in my head since I first read it.

And like, obviously I don't expect every youtube essayist to read several long-ish novels to have a full grasp of the series' deep lore, especially when the focus was largely on IWTV and Loustat rather than the entire Vampire Chronicles. Still, it makes you wonder a bit about the quality of the research being done here. You can find the proper info in like, 5 seconds by just going on the fan wiki so I'm not sure what his sources were. And that's the issue at hand, isn't it?

At the time I felt a tiny bit smug recognizing the error but in light of everything that's been revealed, it's kind of telling. I'm not saying this part was plagiarized (I haven't found anything but others on reddit have found issues with different sections of the same video) but rereading the transcript it comes off as someone who clearly doesn't know much about Interview.... It feels like he's reading through a loose summary of plot points rather than analyzing a piece of media that actually means anything to him. It's very much Interview for people who don't know Interview which, one could argue is fair. Especially beyond book one, VC is a niche series and a lot of elements that are important to certain characters or plot lines cannot be summarized quickly for an audience unfamiliar with it. A good writer, who's done a lot of research about the specific topic they have chosen to make a video on, would be able to balance this. There is a LOT to analyze about queerness in VC and its a shame to see one of the more popular queer media channels half-assing it just to churn out videos heavily made up of other people's work. In retrospect he had several videos like that, where he would discuss things like manga/manhua communities while clearly having little knowledge on the nuance of those subjects. He was an outsider who presented himself with a strange amount of authority.

This was content created with the sole intention of propping up queer stories and history, yet it's built off stolen work from queer authors and doesn't actually care that much about exploring the communities it features. Vids like the IWTV one weren't really fact checked because it's only people like me who would might give a shit or even notice anything is off in the first place. There's a bit of a similar vibe in some of his other vids where he undermines the experiences of queer women because he clearly has not taken the time to learn about the nuances of representing queer women in media. These are things that irritated me when I first started to notice them but I put those concerns in the back of my mind because I cared about the topics he was covering and was excited to see these discussions becoming more mainstream.

The revelations of this evening have been disappointing to say the least.

(also for the record I know he made other more recent vids about IWTV but I haven't seen those and even if his account was still up I don't think I would lol

BUT

I did look at the transcript for his 'Vampires and the Gays Who Love Them' video (found from the same link I included above) and this quote about the IWTV AMC show is sending me: "Daniel has never grappled with the complexities of being gay"

Shoutout to straight, uncomplicated icon Daniel Molloy. Devil's Minion was a mass hallucination, spread the word)

[bunny-j3st3r]

The situation revolving around Frost-can-bite

I'm not the type of person to make a call out but the actions taken by this indvidual and just how far they went to keep up this facade can not be looked over.

This is more of a warning for anyone who may ever have the pleasure of interacting with them in the future.

Under cut is the explanation

EDIT: I don't want to bring attention to this situation by reblogging this and adding on things to it, so it feels easier to edit with additional info that has come to light.

I do not want them chased offline, do not harass them either this is to only bring awareness so people, adults specifically can block them.

They did things to me and my friends that was fucked up and it is only recently we have realized things they did was uncalled for.

Please just approach them with caution, they still are allowed to have a space here but not within adult spaces.

I was told by someone that they had remade these two accounts are what we know off, I have blocked both of these accounts as well as ppl who were affected by him.

If you are in the smile for me fandom and see them trying to engage with adult content just block them and move on.

around three months ago I made a TADC server for adults only, it was a public server made by me and a friend as a space for adults as many current discord servers cater to minors and adults, I was aware of lot of adults felt like they didn't have a space for themselves.

In enters Frost.

Frost at the time had told us they were 19, even providing ID evidence so of course we weren't going to question it, we trusted them.

Over the past few months many of me and my friends became inceadbly close to Frost, we discussed parts of ourselves to them that we've never really shared.

Frost was even the first person I opened up about just how bad my mental illnesses are, we dicussed nsfw topics with them, we had drawn nsfw with them and even provided them nsfw art and fics.

In those few months we all cared for Frost so much that we considered them a close friend to everyone, I had even had plans to ask them to mod the TADC server with me as I had just had that much trust and faith in them.

And then a few days ago the news all came stumbling out.

A situation arose and out of nowhere Frost told me they were in fact not 19, that they had gone far enough to photoshop there own ID just so they could gain our trust. They were 15.

They were 15 pretending to be 19 in an adult server so they could see nsfw content.

Not only that but many other adults had jokingly sexually flirted with Frost and they had flirted back, as we assumed of course they were 19.

I didn't know how to respond, I just didn't believe it at first and I was dissocitating as I began to inform my friends. It felt like I wasn't even there, that I was looking at someone in a dream and that I was going to wake up and tell Frost about the very silly dream I had, and I kinda still feel like that now.

Not only did they lie about there age but they also tried to implicate two people that I will not name in there actions. Only when I caught them in that lie did they admit to not telling the truth and that these two people had nothing to do with it.

I'm not sure what there thought process for that was, I don't know if they were trying to drag them down with them or what?

Many of us still feel very numb and I can't speak for everyone but I know my trust has been completely and utterly shattered that I don't know if I will be willing to accept people outside of my social circle for a very long time.

I'm making this post because Frost decided to delete all of there socials, including discord informing me and only me they were deleting.

So after I tore through them I made sure everyone else got there say in before Frost tried to run away with there tail between there legs.

They don't seem to be fully aware what there actions have done, all they get away with is running away and knowing people are angry at him, while the rest of us have to deal with these lingering and disgusting feelings we've been left with.

For three months, he could of at any time admitted the truth, but he continued to engage in nsfw content, even engaging in conversation about why minors should not be in adult spaces.

The disgust and the hurt I feel over this is just... I don't even know, I've never felt so angry and violated before and that's saying something.

Although they have deleted I'm making this post as awareness.

We think that Frost may decided to try and come back once they think the heat has died down under a new account and I am posting this as a warning to any adults with adult fandom servers to PLEASE be aware of this person in case they decide once again to lie to worm there way into spaces they don't belong.

We have been violated and our trust broken and we've been made to feel like groomers because Frost wanted to see porn.

I will be posting this as a link in my pinned post.

So Frost if you are seeing this, I don't care how sorry you are, what you fucking did was unforgivable and I refuse to let you do that to another group of people.

We think Frost may reappear under any username with either the word Frost or Berry in it.

Frost also does not like to reblog a lot but they do like to mass like posts (not sure how helpful it is but you know.)

Frost also has a very distinct style that can be caught out easily if you think they are trying to get into an adult space.

I will post an example below.

Frost's white board style.

As you can see they have a very distinct art style and the same for there regular art

PLEASE

PLEASE be aware of these styles or names they might be under, please do not allow yourself to build up a close connection like we did.

Frost I don't think I can ever forgive you, I wish I had never met you and the only good thing that fucking came out of you was that I made friends with someone amazing and you absolutely do not deserve them.

I hope for your fucking sake we never see you again.

Edit: I am still mad at them, I still don't want them near me or my friends.

They can have there space online still, they can do whatever the fuck they want but they need to leave adult spaces alone.

Frost if your poking around on another account, seek help, please get acutal help.

I am not saying this in a mean way I am saying this in a hopes you realize how you treat all of us was fucked up and you can learn and maybe not treat your friends the same way you did to us.

[plasmasimagination]

Hi hi! ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა 

I know ur inbox is probably stuffed with match up requests but if u have the time could u do me? 

You can do characters from either genshin or hsr, I don’t mind either! Whatever you feel like 

I have no preference when it comes to the gender of the character

Im agender and don’t care abt what pronouns I’m referred to as. I think I’m a infj and a Leo (I haven’t don’t deep research into both topics)

 Ngl I have a hard time describing my personality (╥﹏╥) I’m a very indecisive person, but once I start doing something I’m determined to finish it. I can be an airhead at times and very forgetful 

I like art, music, games and history. Ive also very intrigued recently with AI and how it works. I get distracted really easily and do deep dives into whatever peeked my interest.

I dislike loud people and ppl who have a temper. Although I would love to go on an amusement park date or something along the lines of that, crowded places with lots of people drain my energy

Alone time is very important to me!! I also really value comfortable silence. My love language (on the receiving end) would probably be acts of service or quality time, but any work with me tbh. On the giving end I love to give gifts. I often catch myself being a hopeless romantic and make up fake scenarios often ૮ • ﻌ - ა . My dream would be to travel the world with my s/o and a pet

I don’t have a type but I do love animals, so I’d prefer if my s/o would be chill with them 

I hope this is enough info. Or not too much!! If you feel uncomfortable or ur having a hard time deciding a s/o feel free to skip this request. Thank you for ur time!! ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚

SWEEEETIEEEE HAIIヾ( ˃ᴗ˂ )◞ •

A/n- oh if you only knew, i have so much requests in my inbox and I want to finish them till new years but it's killing me because they just keep coming everyday, but I'm not complaining I love all of my darlings a lot 🫂

Nevermind that, I already have someone in mind for you , so here is your matchup-

.

.

.

DAN HENG

Introvert x introvert

I paired you up with Dan Heng because I think he's a perfect match literally

Most of the times you guys are together, it's just sitting in the same room, each doing their own thing,not talking, just sitting in that comfortable silence enjoying each others comapny

Also your love languages align, he's very much a quality time and acts of service person, he prefers spending time and chatting with you over anything

Also expect small massages from time to time, or a small Portion of food made only for you

He's also very interested in history, and aswell in AI and generally technology, so you guys can talk about it a whole bunch and exchange thoughts.

when you're working on something important and get distracted, don't worry Dan Heng is there to get you back on track, he's very thoughtful for that

As for your animal concern, dont worry, aslong as it's like not a tiger or something he's chill with it

Especially with cats, he's a big cats person.

[kurokmask]

now that we are on Link topic. do you have any other hcs that you've not included in the fanfic? like extra info and stuff?

sorry for the late answer, college blah blah blah

there's lots that haven't made it in explicitly, but they're all still swimming in my head when im writing him. this is gonna be disorganized, sorry!

Link likes being told what to do. secretly he likes having other ppl’s expectations on him bc it gives him security, so he doesn't have to think about who he is

not Link, but every version of OoT Zelda I write is transmasc, whether thats something Zelda is truly aware of or not.

again not Link but Cremia was supposed to have a hot Gerudo pirate gf 💔 sorry girl

I kind of regret not doing more with the Ocarina of Time, and time travel in general. Like, towards the end, Link would definitely try to use it, right? I think I'm going to do a major overhaul of the Termina arc soon.

Link can cannot write more than his name.

Link was originally going to be very open about his past adventures. But i decided bottling everything up and feeling ashamed about it and letting it fester like a rotting wound would be sadder :)

sexuality was going to be a concept i explored in the fic. ultimately i wanted to keep it a T rating so i didn't do this, but. it was definitely a thing! cut things include lotsssss of Sheik baggage, boyish feelings about Kafei, weird fierce deity sex dreams and um. remember Javert?

Javert and Link wereeee... supposed to fuck! I even wrote a before and after scene LOLLL. Javert was going to play a more important role in general, being a semi-reoccurring character. He was planned to be Link's kind of """only friend""" in Castletown. Link was drawn to him because of how much older and experienced he was, and Javert took pity on Link, both in a sort of genuine but also kind of overbearing way. ultimately Link got annoyed by him pretty quickly and once he started to get to know Malon he basically ghosted him. another example of how Link struggles to balance relationships, especially those who really care for him. obviously i. didn't go further with this. but it was planned for about a year before I scrapped it. But i hope you reread their scene together to pick up on some vibes.....

since im already being disgusting um. bottom. praise kink. but he never really finds this out. how sad.

when i was first conceptualizing his character, i was actually going to write link as bipolar. I ended up writing him more adhd/autism as thats closer to my own personal experience. but its still in the back of my mind, and it definitely manifests more as he gets older. but this man has so much going on please project anything you want on him and its real he has it

OoT Link is the only Link i hc as cis bc only a cis man would fumble the bag THIS bad. put those tights on boy

i have a weird hyper-specific modern au where he's living in 1998 germany with his little brother (whos just young link). they play ddr together, he goes to acid techno raves, and dresses like this

again, in a modern au, Link would be a total audiophile. his favorite musicians would be Kate Bush, Fiona Apple, Talking Heads, the Prodigy, Devo, the Mountain Goats, Modest Mouse, Nirvana, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Bjork, the Magnetic Fields-- ok ill stop

if he was an Animal Crossing villager he'd be a gold wolf with the Jock personality

that's all i can think of right now, I'm sure more will come to me and I'll write them here. thanks for the ask, thanks so much for the interest!!!!!

[noahschnappinfs]

You know what???? I loooooOooooove the reality check this birthday picture gave some people (excuse my bad English, I’m French) who pretended that their fav were oh so so not wanting to be near Noah, or I remember when the cast picture with everyone was out (the black and white with everybody on it and Noah on the sofa) and some ppl were saying that a lot of them looked uncomfortable or tense or did not want to be there and I just want to laugh at them. They wanted Noah to be miserable and friendless and that is so messed up to act like this, and yeah you’re definitely right about the parasocial thing.

The crew absolutely adores Noah and they are delighted to spend time with him. Do people really think they’re obligated to? Trust me I’ve been in enough fandoms to recognise when cast mates just want to be colleagues and not spend time together. (Like… it’s really frequent actually.)

Shame on these people.

yeah it’s actually quite normal for cast members to act like co workers and i think it’s totally fine, nobody has to be forced to hang out if you don’t want to because at the end, this is just a job, they are in fact just co workers. it’s us that expect them to be besties when a set is actually a work place so as long as everybody is respectful, i don’t see a problem. in that aspect, everybody seems to respect noah and we haven’t witnessed any real problems (not rumors) so it’s all cool there.

now obviously some friendships do start at work and it’s clear everybody seems to have good friendships with noah and it’s funny how people wanted/expected him to be shunned by the cast when months later, we can see that he is one of the people who gets invited to everything, like one week he’s at gaten’s birthday with everybody and the next he’s the only one of the young cast that made the cut to millie’s wedding. all the young cast + joe also accepted his invitation to celebrate his birthday at the sweat tour and it’s funny certain people celebrate that certain cast members weren’t there when doing that is just setting yourself up for disappointment because believe me, they will hang out and we’ll get pictures someday and you’ll have to step down your high horse. btw i’m sure that all the cast would be disgusted at the way people talk about noah, that’s their friend while your just a person behind a keyboard being mad because your fantasy of noah being sad and friendless isn’t real.

you know, i always see people being like “oh [insert actor/singer here] we miss you so much, post something” and it’s funny because celebs are pulling away because of you all! it’s all your own doing! everybody is over analysing and policing their lives, bullying their friends, family and significant others. why would anybody share their lives with you if they only will receive fake outrage? nobody wants you to write think pieces about their lives.

it’s such a complex topic because on one hand, if you share too much, you create these parasocial relationships because the fans connect too deeply with you and i think this is what has happened with noah because he’s been reality open before. on the other hand, if you don’t share anything at all, you give free will to people to project themselves into you and that creates parasocial relationships as well and i think this happens to people like sadie and finn that aren’t online at all. you can see it so clearly in certain people get outrage when their favs act a certain way or befriend certain people because they don’t have any real info about them so they project their own moral onto them so it gets super personal because this person is a real person that isn’t following the script you’ve created in your head, that’s why we get the “i’m so disappointed” think pieces on twitter which are ridiculous because i can assure you that they don’t care what you think and aren’t reading your tweets.

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

I’m so excited you asked about them you have opened the floodgates fr

Okay so they are from the Higurashi When They Cry series!! It’s originally a visual novel but also has an anime and manga adaptation! The pictures I sent are actually from a spin-off game that is gacha I think lmao

I can’t really give much info about the story because a big part of the appeal is the mystery of what’s going on, which ideally means going in blind, but like I can tell you that things like murder and abuse happen so if anyone is sensitive to those things they should be careful if they want to check it out! But the story revolves around the members of a school club in the small village of Hinamizawa during the summer of 1983

The red-haired girl is Rena, the green-haired girl is Mion, and the boy is Keiichi! They are so cool you have no idea, I don’t think I can say much about them without getting into topics that could be spoilery but like they all care for each other so much it’s crazy. They all have so much going for their characters that I don’t want to make them seem two-dimensional by listing one character trait but that’s what I’m going to do because I really don’t want to risk spoiling anything and also I would end up writing an essay on all of them if I did anything else so here: Rena can usually be seen as the cutesy one, Mion is protective, and Keiichi is so caring/passionate in everything he does

If anyone is interested in Higurashi, the visual novel is definitely the best way to experience it but it also usually takes 100+ hours to read which I know is a lot! I’ve heard the manga is an okay way to experience the story it just still had to cut some things out, but I haven’t read the manga myself so I can’t really comment on that! The anime is usually seen as like, a starting point I think? The anime cuts out a lot of stuff, like a lot, so most people don’t think you should just watch the anime. To be fair, from what I remember the story does make sense if you only watch the anime, but you’ll be missing so much characterization and information. It’s also important to note that a new Higurashi anime came out two years ago called Gou/Sotsu and you should NOT watch that if you’re a newcomer to the series, it was marketed as a remake but it’s actually a sequel

That was my essay on higurashi thanks for reading lmao <3 to end it I will gift you more pictures of Rena, Mion, and Keiichi because I love them

thank you so much for rambling i love when ppl are passionate about their interests it brings a smile to my face :3 im a bit interested now but 100+ hours does sound like a lot hdhdgsjgsjs idk if i have the brain power. its gonna go on my list but no promises, sorry!!

[fefairys]

HOW WILL TATES HIGHSCHOOL RELATIONSHIP AFFECT HIS ATTITUDE TO FUTURE RELATIONSHIPS? (IF HE GETS ANY, IF NOT IM LOOKING FOWARD TO HIS FAILDUDE MOMENTS)?

ALSO IS GUY STRAIGHT FR FR OR HAS HE JUST NOT THOUGHT ABOUT IT. I FEEL LIKE THATS DISRESPECTFUL TO ASK ACTUALLY I’LL LET HIM FIGURE HIMSELF OUT

- YOU KNOW MY VOICE YOU KNOW ME hehe

this got a lot longer than i meant it to, as per usual so its going under the cut lol anyways i hope this ask opens yalls minds that i can actually say a lot more than u would probably guess and i fucking WILL if prompted theres only a few topics i've been banned from talking about as of yet.

oh god yes i get to talk about tates ex >:) so heres the thing: despite the fact that tate still thinks of her often and the trauma of their relationship is still very heavily with him, we will never hear of her in the comic itself. remember that psy is mostly in control of the narrative and which thoughts we get to see from everyone. there are soooo many thoughts that simply dont get portrayed in the comic because psy considers them irrelevant or tonally inappropriate. so ppl who keep up with the blog actually get a lot more context and interesting tidbits that add to analyzing the characters and maybe see them more sympathetically, especially tate lol

while tate obviously wasn't perfect in the relationship i think he was very much the victim in most instances. like. he did get cheated on. it was rough. the worst part is all of his friends at the time were his girlfriend's friends, and when they broke up, they all took her side and he was alone.

since their break up, he hasn't been in any other serious relationships. lots and lots of one night stands, a few dates here and there, but he's not interested in monogamy anymore, period. and he's convinced himself that he doesn't really want a serious, romantic relationship, and is happy just sleeping around and doing whatever, but he really really yearns for someone who cares about him and loves him fully and genuinely... so like, the result of his ex is that he is very wary of trusting someone so fully with his heart like he once did, despite so desperately wanting to... [insert entirety of not real boy by harley poe here]

as for the question about guy, let me direct you to his artfight page which reads in part, "He's a "straight ally" and loves hanging out in the pride center whenever he has the time. (He's gay and nonbinary he just hasn't had time to think about it before and he's never dated anyone.)" lol.

(check out those artfight pages if u havent... theres some extra info in there that hasnt come up in the comic yet on just about everyones pages. u can only look at them if u have an artfight acct tho, p sure, sorry :/)

[kisssatoru]

PLEASE READ BEFORE

FOLLOWING/READING MY WORKS…

˗ˏˋ welcome! i won’t make this long, so dw. there are just some basic things that i need to make known, mostly as a disclaimer. this blog will contain mature themes, often explicit.

i do not, in any shape way or form, appreciate minors reading any nsfw pieces i may release. despite this, if you ARE a minor reading my nsfw works, don’t make it obvious or i will block you. as someone in her mid 20s, you can understand the discomfort. blank blogs are not welcomed here, either. pls follow my rules, that’s all i ask. ღ

BYF / RULES :

✎… i am most comfortable with she/her pronouns. syia is my pen name and no i will not give out my real name or much of my real info unless i decide to or if we are very close.

✎… i am in my mid 20s, and only write for adult characters. if you are a writer and you age up characters, that’s your prerogative. personally, i don’t feel comfortable doing that but won’t block or shame. being mutuals is fine with me.

✎… i don’t mind a little friendly banter/harmless flirting (such as: using pet names or cute jokes), but keep it friendly. i do have a girlfriend, and don’t feel comfortable going outside of that boundary, sryy.

✎… i am a black writer, and will not tolerate any kind of poc hate here. i will rip you to shreds, i can promise you that. be supportive of ALL writers on this platform, and keep it a safe place for everyone to read/write.

✎… this section of my blog will come off a bit intimidating, but i promise i am nice and super friendly to talk to! in saying this, my dms are always open for off-to-the-side chats, and/or talking about non-anime/writing topics. i am the mother in all of my friend groups, and have no problem with ppl reaching out to me to lend an ear. safe space, rmr? i’m always here if you need me!

✎… pls try not to spam like. it helps me as well as it will help you bc getting shadowbanned is not fun. for either of us lol.

✎… i will only mutual back active writers or active rebloggers. this isn’t high school. i pick and choose my friends here.

✎… if you follow me only to unfollow, i will know and i will block you.

✎… i reblog a LOT of nsfw content, so if that isn’t something you’re comfy with, then don’t follow me lolol

✎… i want to reiterate that i am a black writer. therefore, most of my work will be black reader coded. my works usually consist of a non-specified reader, but there will be times i will write a black reader. do not come and disturb my peace with “be inclusive” because i will eat you alive. don’t test me. i write what i wanna write. cry about it.

✎… i am not for the drama. do not bring any kind of discourse onto this blog, for ANY reason. i do not care what’s going on with other ppl. my only concern is this blog, and my bbs over here. if you do, i will ignore you.

✎… i write at my own pace. i work, and have a whole life outside of this platform. do not rush me, or ask for a part two. i will ignore you and if you spam me with that bs, i will not hesitate to block you (the way i be utilizing that block button chileee). just use your common sense, idk. i got stuff going on, and writing is a current hobby. i can’t make it my main focus right now, so just be patient. all i ask.

✎… i accept constructive criticism. however, if you are going to be mean about it, you can take that shi elsewhere because i will block you, on sight. i like to keep the peace here, and will not tolerate disrespect. period.

✎… as of right now, i do not take requests for fics. i DO take requests for headcannons, so send those in if you have any!

✎… when it comes to a posting schedule, i don’t have one. not currently… but i would like to have one! i just have things going on, around the clock, so it’s hard to pin down a schedule that works so for now! i apologize but i will be posting randomly (meaning, whenever i finish). a schedule is in the works tho, promise!

✎… last, but not least. i do not write incest, stepcest, a/b/o, pedophilia, rape, race-play, water sports, furries or aged up characters that are minors in their respective series. (will probably add to this later…)

side note: i’ll be writing for a dom/mommy reader so if you don’t care for that, you are not obligated to read it. ღ (not often, but here and there!)

KISSSATORU © 2024. do not copy, modify, or translate my work, and do not post ANY works of mine outside of tumblr.

[coulsonlives]

Who is behind rpcanonymous? I've followed roleplayerconfessions and damn, I miss it. But rpcanonymous looks so damn wrong to me and I have to block them on ALL my accounts because they keep following all my RP blogs. It's so unnerving...

fam, i really couldn't tell you who's behind rpcanonymous.. judging from their asshole replies to ppl and the way they stifle some of the biggest topics affecting the rpc right now, they're not someone you wanna follow anyways lmao, and i think a lot of ppl are just holding their noses and following them bc they miss rpc and want sooome kinda confession blog that isn't coar lol. whoever is behind rpcanonymous they remind me exactly of mod sky from coar

and ya it's creepy. rbf rpc followed me on my rp blog but at least she had the courtesy to not follow every single other blog lmfaoo, and she actually had explanations and pages and shit for everything and she seemed nice and like she cared about the roleplay scene even when ppl were bitches to her (i really hope she didn't actually do what everyone is saying).. this blog is a slapdash, dash only blog with no mod info or anythinggg and the mod is a douchecanoe. idek how long they've been here for but they already made a lot of ppl angry and for good reason. we don’t need more pretentious twats running blogs supposed to help ppl but who are actually bullies, that’s how we got coar

[otherworldly-locos]

My thomas design is finally done oh my god (1/7)

Here is the boy! I’ve procrastinated for maybe like 5 months now on trying to get my ttte designs done. I have no idea why, but my body physically wouldn’t let me draw the train men 😭

But now since Thomas is done, im gonna start working on edward pretty soon.

Some info on him under the cut :))

•Thomas Graham was born in the uk and loved everything trains. His father worked on the gwr so he was a very big inspiration for little Thomas. He took the time to watch his father work and tagged along with him if he could.

•Thomas was friends with Percy Lewis growing up, a kid who also really liked trains but also liked knitting and other activities like that. They always played a game where one of them was a conductor and the other was a passenger. The train was usually made out of a wooden box.

•They both went to the same junior high, high school, and university centered on engineering and robotics. Both of them were practically inseparable.

•Then after university, they moved to sodor to become engineers and the fat controller gave them both their own engines.

I’m not that good with the biography stuff so I’m gonna move to hcs lmao

•Thomas is very famous on the island due to the multitude of heroic deeds he had performed for the past couple decades.

•very much a big prick. He can be kind and respectful on rare occasions but to mostly everyone (even sir topam hatt) he is very rude and annoying. Hiro and Percy are the only exceptions though. He cares for them too much.

•He likes playing sports a ton. He plays a game of football (soccer) with the steam team when they all have their break days.

•This is just a quirk that my ver of sodor has but people who are born on sodor or have moved to the island are gifted/cursed with sorta eternal youth. But it varies from person to person. This is a phenomenon that’s never been explained.

•That specific quirk effected Thomas when he moved to the island. When he arrived, he was 26. But as time went on, he noticed he never aged physically. So thomas is pretty damn old considering how he works on the railway for decades. But he still has a childlike attitude.

•Thomas has the biggest, fastest crush on Percy. He loves his best friend so much. But he can’t bring himself to tell Percy. He fears it’ll ruin their relationship.

•him and Percy like to pull pranks on the steam team and other ppl on the island that they know

•This mf has a record collection and loves listening to billy Joel and the Beatles. Although he was born in the uk, he likes American music very much.

•He hates Diesel 10 so so so much. Like a grudge type of hate. He feels this way because d10 did some not very good things in the magic railroad and dotd. There’s definitely no way he’ll change his opinion on him anytime soon.

•other then Percy, his other close friends have to be Anne & clarabelle, hiro, skiff, lady, and the rest of the steam team ofc. He has a rocky relationship with the strike trio but still loves them very very much.

•dude snores so loudly. Gordon’s room in next to his and the man wants to throw him through a wall sometimes.

•very very proud of his shitty stubble

•saving this for last but Thomas is fatherless. His dad died of an accident whilst walking to work. Very sensitive topic for him :(

All this info probably sounded a lot better in my head but I hope this is alright! I’m really excited about making my own human au. I’ve been thinking about this for awhile :))

Edit: fuck the whole thing about the island having a weird age thing, I’m not gonna mess with that since it’s complicated and I’m lazy so they age normally now.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

it’s kind of bizarre to see people tweeting free jungkook as if he’s not a grown man that makes his own decisions about who he associates with. What are you gonna free him from? Himself? 💀 Jay Park is extremely problematic caption was odd but jungkook didn’t seem to have a problem with it when he reposted it to his story so I’m not sure why army is up in arms on Twitter acting like jungkook was held hostage against his will. I know a lot of people are joking around about it but there are some people that are genuinely serious

We cant know if his friendships are meaningful to him or not though can we? It all can be for his standard of connection. And yugyeom has been a common factor linking jk with all these problematic friendships and they’ve been friends since forever too so obviously they are close (they have a huge ass matching tattoo even) Maybe people should just come to terms that jk does align with these kinda ppl in the way he thinks. Most of what he has been doing is somewhat questionable for awhile now and this is him being restricted a lot by the company. (with extra protection against any rumours to come out too yet there are still some tea from ppl with common info on the companies he likes to hang with etc.) I hope you’ll post this as i’m not throwing hate around or anything, ppl need to be open to real critical thinking. I keep seeing armies or jk fans making excuses or jokes about jk’s own obvious decision to hang out with that racist trash in the man’s studio when the kinda ppl he links with mostly have been these kinda problematic folks which is a pattern and not a coincidence anymore. He’s a grown ass man i wish fans would just stop making excuses for every distasteful thing they see. And it’s beyond me that despite being uncomfortable most are saying omg no jk doesnt know lol as if, he just don’t care is all. I don’t understand all this selective blindness anymore.

---

First of all, this morning when I woke up I remembered last year after muster I said a lot of times that JK was channeling Jay Park with the way he acts and looks and I laughed a bit. Those comments are probably still out there on the blogs I said it. Maybe it was foreshadowing.

Army is so ridiculous, honestly. While reading the quote retweets of an update account about Jay Park's instagram post, one person said something like "we're here fighting and cursing these people while they're over there actually being friends with them" and it's so real. It's what I always thought, too. Not only about fanwars but also shipwars. You're "fighting" for and trying to prove jikook's relationship only for JK to ignore Jimin and the next second go and hug Taehyung. FOR YEARS armys have been cursing and hating on Blackpink, forgetting that Jungkook used to dance all their choreos and sing his lungs out to their songs at award shows; then Taehyung literally goes and follows Jennie lmao. Twitter is not real life. I think fighting is sometimes funny lolllll but people should learn that it doesn't have any effect on BTS themselves. They're still gonna be friends with people you hate, they're still gonna do things you don't like, say things you don't agree with, etc. They were sending death threats to James Corden for -rightfully- calling them 15 year olds and then BTS were hugging him and going to his show and laughing with him. Billboard has shaded BTS lots of time, even to the point of being racist and they're still working with them. They do not care T_T and armys should stop thinking that they care as much as they do.

Jay Park used the hashtag and laughed about it, it's what he does . He does controversial shit that people gets angry about and discuss on social media and then he laughs about it, he's done it lots of time. I don't know if Jungkook knows that, he probably does tbh but I don't think he cares.

As for the other ask, it's a more delicate topic and I might say some things that maybe some people won't like but the truth is that not everyone has polarizing positions about politics. This doesn't make someone a bad person, it just makes them neutral and other stuff that I'm not sure how to say in English. Jungkook himself is not a polarizing person at all, he's not someone who goes 100% this way or the other, he's always been so neutral about a lof of things. Jungkook is not a racist, but him being friends with, working with, liking people who have done racist things or said racist stuff is just because it doesn't actually damage him. He's not black, he's not muslim. If he knows, he obviously doesn't feel hurt by Jay Park's comments about BTS, which is something that touches him and is personal to him, why would he -or any BTS member- feel hurt about JP doing cultural appropiation. This is not only about JK tho, it's about so many other idols too and BTS as a whole and just about people in general. It's also cultural. Like for example, Koreans are extremely colorist; even BTS are scared of getting tanned and have made unnecessary comments about their skin getting darker during Bon Voyage. Idols say colorists comments all the time, and they don't see anything wrong about it, it's normal for them, it's what they're used to. It doesn't mean they actually hate black/brown people, it's just that they don't have the same polarizing stances about being politically wrong or right. In our everyday life I'm sure all of us have family members, friends, acquaintances that make distateful almost hateful comments and we don't completely cut them off of our lives. Seeing it from the outside, it's easier to say "this is wrong, this is right" but when you're actually in real life, inserted in a particular cultural context, in a particular socialeconomic class, things are not as black and white. I saw korean armys asking why does the international side hate Jay Park... I saw JK solos saying that Jay Park is extremely popular and loved in Korea, and they are right; the man recently collabd with IU. They have no idea, and even if they've seen or heard about him and his racist, misogynistic tendencies, they don't care because it's not that big of a deal to them. The things that are bad for westerners, are not as bad for them. The same as maybe xenophobia or racism against asians would never feel as bad for black people as it feels for asian people. And the same with a lot of other things; transphobia would never feel as bad for a cis person even if they're queer too, etc. You might understand it, empathize with the problematic, stand up against it, but it's hard to have deep, polarizing feelings or emotions about something that you don't actually experience firsthand.

As much as army likes thinking that BTS are sooo into politics and activism, they are not. BTS are not activists. They are respectful and mindful of other cultures, they are not hateful or bigoted but they're also not the SJW that people have convinced themselves they are.

Also it's true that we don't know if they are actually close friends or just acquaintances, working together, or what. But Jay Park is literally the kind of guy that Jungkook has been hanging out with since 2019, it's the kind of guy that Jungkook looks like, too. They are so similar in an ~aesthetic sense, Jay Park does music that Jungkook loves. I am really not surprised that JK seeked him out to hang out with him. That's the vibe of the people he likes. That's pretty much Jungkook's own vibes right now. I don't think he cares a lot about Jay Park being kind of a dick as long as he's nice to him, honestly. I don't buy also that JK "doesn't know". That's why I'm inclined to believe that he doesn't really have deep important relationships with a lot of the people he hangs out with. I feel like I'm repeating myself but yeah, again, JK doesn't seem like the type to see things in black or white, to stand up for or against something completely.

I'm not making excuses for Jay Park, I really don't like him, but personally it doesn't change what I think of JK or at least it doesn't make me dislike him. Yeah I think he doesn't care and that's, uncomfortable at best but it is what it is. I never thought BTS were neck deep into activism or political rightfulness. What I'm trying to say is that idols, BTS, Jungkook, are not as "woke" as a lot of armys think they are, and I personally don't think that makes them bad people.

[kendrixtermina]

Simple Tritype Finding Redux

So remember how a while ago I made that post about how to find your tritype, which was somewhat popular, but also kind of rambly and theoretical? 

Apparently the peeps at the Big Hormone Podcast had an episode which did sort  of the same thing of looking at the “setting” of each individual center, but they expressed it much more concisely & punchy & much more useful

So, for those who don’t have time to listen to 2 hour of pod-cast (which honestly, includes me too, I should be doing something else rn), here’s a summary: 

Heart Center

2 fix

basically more warm compared to other ppl with the same core type 

casually touchy-feely, way more likely to hug, put their arms on you etc. (this can be very obvious in cultures where that’s less usual - ie, easier to spot on a North American man than a French woman)

4 fix

more guarded compared to others of same core type

stresses their tastes & preferences (ie, rant about music they really don’t like)

suspicious of hype & overly popular things - some tedecy to be the contrarian voice in a conversation

3 fix

especially if it’s the 2nd fix this can show as being more positive and/or better at self-motivating and a tendency to follow trends or fads

but it’s just as likely to show as just less obvious emotional coloration, or just adaptiveness/ social perceptiveness, or even ‘icyness’ - so you’ll often arrive at this by principle of exclusion.

2 Methods/ ‘cheats’ you can use here: 

Typing someone else: 

Apparently useful question here is to look at how people introduce themselves, cause the heart fixes represent different parts of identity & it’s all about what someone stresses. For example, the people who will open with something relationship-related (”Hi I’m soandso, I’m a parent”, “I’m a wife”) are probably 2-fixes. If they start out mentioning their job or some kind of accomplishment (”I’m a doctor”, ”I climbed X mountain recently”) they probably have a 3 fix. Whereas a person with 4 fix will not reference anything external but mention their tastes, interests and sentiments. (eg, “Hi, I’m Soandso, I like reading, writing & nerd stuff”, “I live on a farm where I keep peacocks.”)

Typing yourself: 

Think of this as a ‘should’ that you feel. A person with a fix doesn’t run around all day helping people (especially if their core type is something very different), but they might feel that they should be a source of help. Someone with a 4 fix might feel they ‘should’ be suspicious of anything that’s too hyped and popular, while someone with a 3 fix might kick themselves for not mentioning some archievement to their friends when this might have impressed them. 

Head Center

Basically, just look at what they do when they don’t know something. Like, imagine for example that your little sister has a question and you don’t already know the answer. Do you immediately ask someone, google it or point her to a trusted source? Six. Do you first speculate based on your preexisting knowledge & maybe then google it if you’re not confident? Five. Do you list multiple ideas for what the answer might be or where to find the info? Seven. 

6 fix

Checks external sources first, thinks second, may then corroborate the conclusion before accepting it

try not just to get the answer, but a sense of who thinks what. May warn you against other PoVs - this can lead to bringing morals/ politics into it even when it seems out of place. 

Other people need to learn to look at sources and ‘cui bono’ questions at some point, six fix ppl often do this immediately & pay attention to sources from the first. 

At best you get 15 year olds with scarily excellent bullshit detectors, at worst, middle aged ppl whose opinions are entirely copypasted. 

5 fix

Reverse of 6: Always speculates first based on whatever knowledge they already have, and checks sources second, if at all. Internal resources dominate.  (eg if the question is about tigers, they might say ”It’s like this in cats, so it might be similar. It fits with how Tigers live in jungles, too”)

Might just make a theory & throw it out there to see what happens

Might bring up a dark/macabre/disturbing topic without realizing. (6: “Are you defending cocaine addicts?” 7: ””Please don’t talk about murder on the table, we’re eating!”)

Tend to look for a point of distinction or underlying principle

7 fix

List multiple ideas or facts rapidfire 

while the other two sit down to launch into a treatise, the 7 either keeps the engagement level high by focussing on the more exciting parts, or just moves on. 

Cares less about cohesion, hanging on to a point or arriving  at a final conclusion so there can be a ‘kaleidoscopic’, multi-perspective  quality to the answer

Similar to how the 6 might think about the moral implications, the 7 thinks about the entertainment value & novelty . In the example with the little sister, the 7 fix person would say stuff that the child will find exciting. 

Body Center

This where it might be useful to listen to the podcast yourself cause they talked a lot about body language cues that would be much more apparent if you were a core body type or at least a sensor in the mbti. I have no sense of this so I can only relate the parts that I understood

8 fix

gives whatever the core type is a bolder, more unapologetic vibe

tend to “just do stuff” & more confortable doing it without mapping out all the consequences. Think the one person who says which restaurant to go to when no one wants to make a decision or gets bogged down on discussing pros and cons

More likely to get physical. If you’re a withdrawn type & it’s your last fix you might not actually throw down, but you might feel like you want/should if you could get away with it. Or you might just curse like a sailor.

9 fix

generally softer compared to others with same core type. They might be the most assertive & energetic 7w8 or 3w4, but still want to hear the other sides’ point. 

have an accepting, nonjudgy vibe

listens/connects more, much more able to be convinced

1 fix

sharper, precise, discerning vibe - feel satisfaction or repulsion in their body as ‘alignment’ or lack thereof

speaks a bit like a teacher or art critic with the intention to improve things

persistent, especially about complaints. Might bring up the thing that bothers them over & over again; may come off picky

I also warmly recomend the tritype roast podcast. 

I did indeed get roasted, and so can you~