Vesuvia Weekly: MC is M6's embodied impulse control
Hear me out, Julian mutters, elbow deep in ink stained parchment sheets with eyebags for days. It's moments like these that you can really understand where the "mad scientist" rumors of him started. He's been obsessing over this new article published in a Prakran journal ever since it arrived at the clinic - three days ago. You can't even tell which eye is plagued and which is just bloodshot.
"Julian, you need to sleep."
"Hear me out, my dear -"
"No."
~
Hear me out, Asra chuckles, that impish smirk dancing around their face while they hold their latest creation out of your reach. Should you have known better than to leave him unsupervised with the shipment of new sample items to add to your shop? Yes. Did it happen anyways? Also yes. Does the mystery glob in their hand appear to be gaining sentience? You don't want to know.
"Either let me see it or take it outside, Asra."
"Hear me out, my love -"
"No."
~
Hear me out, Nadia croons, two slender, gauze covered arms circling your waist. You know better than to fall for her suggestions as easily as you normally might. Tonight is a meeting of all kinds of important guests, crucial to Vesuvia's progress on the international political and economic stage, and about to be very boring. You'd like to give in and discover what her sultry tone is offering, but you know better.
"Nadia, you know how important this event is."
"Hear me out, my darling -"
You groan. "No."
~
Hear me out, Muriel grumbles, burly arms protectively folded around the bundle of muddy fur and a furious blush creeping its way up his face. You love his heart for nature, you really do. You also love your indoor living space to feel like an indoor living space. Having what appears to be a muddy, hyperactive, flea-ridden skunk with a nervous tick as your new bed mate doesn't feel very "indoors."
"Muriel, I just cleaned the hut."
"... hear me out."
*SKREEEEEE*
"No."
~
Hear me out, Portia slurs, loose curls all spilling to one side as her eyelids droop and her lips stretch in a relaxed grin. You love it when she tells Barth to "surprise her" with her drinks on date night. You love it, but you don't necessarily support it when she suggests setting fire to the ship of that one sailor who looked at you wrong several hours ago and making off with all the gold in the hold.
"Portia, that's arson."
"Exactly. So hear me out, cutie -"
"No."
~
Hear me out, Lucio whines, bottom lip jutting out and hands folded in his attempt to plead with you. It's not easy to interlace your fingers when one set of them is made of spiky gold but he does it somehow. You glance from his silver puppy eyes, to the traveling fair of curious wonders, to the absolutely ludicrous prices posted at every booth, to the half-empty coin purse hanging limply at your hip.
"We can have fun there, or we can eat for the rest of the week, Lucio."
I think this is a really important part of the article from yesterday that people are overlooking. I absolutely understand the frustration people feel about the lack of choices brought over from Inquisition, I'm also frustrated. However, they have said not just here but I believe during the dev Q and A a while back that some choices are consciously being saved for future games.
Rambling thoughts below cut, feel free to ignore
I get the sense that Veilguard is going to be a very focused game, and the focus is on Solas and the Veil.
Here is my suspicion.
I think that this game is going to set up Mythal to be a major force in the next game by decisively finishing the roles of Solas and the Inquisitor, and by tearing down or at least significantly altering the Veil. That game is when we'll see the Well of Sorrows and Kieran and the payoff for whoever we left in the Fade during Here Lies the Abyss.
Veilguard doesn't necessarily need to address any of those things if the writing is careful enough. Maybe we don't actually see Morrigan for very long, maybe the Well hasn't actually done anything yet, maybe we just don't get a chance to talk about who was left in the Fade.
This is not without precedent. DA2 carried very little over from DAO, and easily could have given us a much more stripped down list of choices than what we had. Did it matter if we sided with or against Zathrian in DA2? No. I don't think that one even got a one-liner. They easily could have asked us 3-5 questions about our choices in Origins and the game would have been functionally the same.
That all being said: what frustrates me personally is that while you can strip out many of these choices and have what is functionally the same game, the subtle continuity of your decisions from one game to the next has always been a big part of the appeal of the series for many fans.
For example, there's a minor quest early in DA2 that involves Renvil Harrowmont, the last member of House Harrowmont still alive if you chose Bhelen to lead Orzammar. This is a very small quest that, like most quests in DA2, kind of just results in you fighting more random bad boys in the streets.
But that's not the point, is it? The point of tiny cameos like this isn't the overall impact they have on the plot of any specific game, it's about the continuity they create for your world state. The little one-liners and brief cameos and bullshit quests actually do matter to fans because they reinforce that this is the same timeline they've been playing in, and give the impression that your choices are affecting people. Knowing that even these little things won't be present in Veilguard is frustrating and a bit sad.
I'm talking about that scene with Chris' birthday party because I just have to.
Eddie is trying so damn much. He sets up a whole party for a facetime call because he can't be there in person. Brings people to celebrate with him and surprise Chris. Since Chris probably hasn't spoken to or seen Buck since he left. He thought that maybe if he brought him, there might be a reaction. There might be something.
I understand why Chris is mad. He has every right to be. Eddie fucked up, there's no excusing that. We just know the full context, so we can give him sympathy. Chris hasn't given him a chance to explain, and even then, who knows what he would believe or accept. For a moment, he thought his mom had come back, just to have the reality that she isn't here, that she left again, brought back up. It doesn't matter how old he is, that pain will live with him for a long time.
If Eddie had the chance to explain it to Chris, I would like to believe that he would understand. They have the mutual experience of believing that Shannon had come back, even for a moment. That's the whole reason Eddie entertained the idea of going out with Kim in the first place.
A part of me wishes that Chris would have said something other than "uh huh." I wish that, even just for that day, he could have said something else. No matter what, it was his birthday and his dad wasn't there. Again. Chris would probably still have the pain of Eddie not being there for the first few years of his life, all those birthdays he missed. Even if it's just from hearing stories about how Eddie wasn't there, it would hurt.
So I wonder if that is hurting Chris again now. No matter how mad he is at Eddie, he is still his dad. There is still that love Chris has for him hiding beneath the anger. A part of him was probably missing his dad, even if he refused to acknowledge it.
And Helena. Oh my god, Helena. That jumpscare of her being there when the screen froze what awful. Her jumping in and immediately going on a spiel of how happy Chris is there. How he has new friends and a new hobby that Eddie isn't there to experience. How they're thinking of putting in a pool, just for Chris. Because she doesn't see him ever leaving. Ever going back to Eddie.
All while Eddie's entertaining a smile while his heart just breaks. Knowing he's missing everything again, and this time there's only him to blame. No job, no need for money, just him and everything that's broken.
It makes me wonder what Helena is saying to Chris every day. How much she dotes on him with the snide comments of "your dad never did this for you did he?" Pushing the idea that living with her is so much better than with Eddie.
People like Helena are sweet in their words but sour in their meaning. I know many people who act the same in real life. Most of the time, not realizing what they what they were really saying until many years later. Still, as an adult, I look back on situations and realize how naive I was to not see what they really meant.
Chris is still a kid, he's only fourteen. I can't imagine how much he believes what Helena says about Eddie. How his anger agrees with her judgements, and lets it spread.
I truly don't know how their going to continue with this storyline. I don't think we're going to get any real movement in it until episode four, since the plot will mainly focus on the opening emergency now that it's in full force.
All I can hope is that Eddie works on himself the way the articles imply he will. That he will take a deep look inside himself, and no matter what he sees, tries to be better. For himself, and more importantly, for his son.
POV: this is what my life should’ve looked like but I was born 30 years too late (I made this for my future therapist to visually elaborate) (jk) (or am I)
In honor of Rachel Pollack's life, here are two personally meaningful pieces of writing she did on transgenderism, archived on the WayBack Machine. They are companion pieces to each other in their exploration of transgenderism. I've linked them along with their description by Transsexual Women's Resources.
Archetypal Transsexuality
Rachel writes eloquently about transsexual spirituality, emphasizing the passion, power and transcendence of our experience. This article, which appeared in Issue #9 of TransSisters, is a concise introduction to many of her ideas.
Abandonment to the Body's Desire
One of the issues Rachel explores in this important essay is the way genital surgery can allow us to experience our true selves -- including our androgynous or masculine aspects -- with authenticity and acceptance. "Abandonment..." was first published in the Fall 1992 issue of Rites of Passage, the original newsletter of the New Women's Conference.
When the news of her loss comes—and even though I'm afraid it's going to come soon, I am also unfortunately sure of it—I hope we can celebrate her life by revisiting her writing and sharing in the joy of transsexuality together. Here is my favorite passage from Archetypal Transsexuality:
"I would argue that transsexuality arises from a passion so powerful that it transcends issues of happiness. The word passion originally meant suffering, not pleasure. The suffering of transsexuality, however, is like that of religious ecstasy, or even orgasm -- overwhelming, intense, and ultimately joyous when we surrender to it and let it carry us into the power of the experience."
Follow the news. The Folkwang Museum's cancelling of Anaïs Duplan's exhibition (and still profiting from his work) is not the only institution overreacting preemptively in light of the current crackdown of israel-critical voices on a slippery slope to fascism.
These developments didn't just start with Hamas' attack on Israel of Octobre 7th:
But the political landscape is using its performative solidarity with Israel to restrict fundamental rights more and more especially with the rightwing parties heating up the migration debate again and the Ampel dropping all semblance of a backbone. And they aren't nearly done - keep in mind the upcoming elections where everyone wants a piece of AfD's fascism pie as they are projected to reach majority in three states.
normalise saying "I don't have enough information on this topic to have an opinion on it"
and then staying out of it completely rather than going along with wtv opinion u imprinted from three random posts/reels/tweets and having weird misinformed debates with full confidence
Hey bestie, no need to answer this, but I saw u reblogged something from roach - works, and I just wanna let u know that she's a major terf
oh!!! thank you for this fr. i'm answering this bc i just wanna say that i don't have shinigami eyes and i'm on mobile most of the time, so these pointers are much appreciated <33
1.0 : discovered concrete avenues for diagnosis and treatment of the boxing-related knuckle injury (+1)
1.2.0 : the boxing-related knuckle injury could have been easily identified as the condition known as “boxer’s knuckle” at any point in the 5 years since the first onset of the boxing-related knuckle injury (-1)
1.3.0 : the research process revealed a previously unknown potential new injury to the same finger (-1)
1.3.1 : the potential injury in question presents with a complete absence of pain or dysfunction (+1)
fully aware that a night of sleep might be enough for me to realize it's garbage and still majorly lacking BUT I JUST WROTE A QUERY DRAFT FOR MY MERMAID STORY AND I THINK IM FINALLY ONTO SOMETHING. IT ONLY TOOK, WHAT, 5 YEARS TO FIGURE OUT QUERIES?!?!?!
ouguhhh just read the summary and article from this post about alexandre baril's work on suicidism (oppression of the suicidal) and the opening paragraph of the conclusion in the full article. thoughts. rotating
i was thinking about the. thick white gloves. while reading. remembered that one post about how csa being horrifically taboo to talk about compounds survivors' trauma and shame and went Maybe something similar re: suicidality and suicide... the suffering multiplied by the silence, the risk of dismissal or instant change in perception in anyone you tell... and even in 'mental health' spaces the perception that suicide as a topic is dangerous to talk about- that it could be triggering instantly and automatically- is like. i think there's some paternalism there and there's some shamefear and there's some oversimplification and there's the fact that it plays well into the existing well-taught impulse to avoid the discomforting. but like. this post also about how getting through suicidality is maybe only possible by considering the option thoroughly. i am just thinking. idk. yall know me yall know i think about this topic a lot
Really really don't get why so many people seem to have this burning hatred for Ukraine where they'll just... bring them up randomly purely to drag them through the mud and it's like... ok... but... do you actually know a single thing about Ukraine or what's been happening there?
Do you for instance remember when a major dam was destroyed by russia causing massive ecological damage?
Like I'm dead serious here, can you tell me a single thing that's happened in Ukraine in the last 2 years? Can you in any way demonstrate any basic understanding of the situation?
Cause if not... why do you think you should have an opinion on it, especially if your opinion is gonna be how awful people getting bombed are?
Just legit bothers me and... even more so bothers me the number of smart and caring people I see doing this. Basically I'm not even trying to be rude here, I'm trying to remind you to pay attention and remember that not everything you read on the internet is true, a tumblr post isn't a source unless they're giving you a reputable source
Cause like me? I can go track you down articles about the Nova Kakhovka dam being destroyed, and I can talk about all the reason why it's pretty clear that russia destroyed it
Can you do the same for me? Can you back up your claim about Ukraine with something concrete?
In many ways I'm not even asking you to support Ukraine, I get we have a limit to how much we can focus on, it's ok if you focus on your cause and I focus on mine and... both of us giving our undivided attention, maybe we both make some small impact on the world
What I'm asking is you don't be an asshole for no reason. You don't need to throw Ukraine under the bus. Don't you think your cause stands up on it's own two feet?
And again I'm not Ukrainian, I don't know as well as someone there, though... I spare you a lot of the stuff that crosses my dash because I don't want to burn people out with horrible stuff, but please understand it's worse than you probably think
So no, not Ukrainian, but I'll tell you why I'm still worth listening to: I've followed this every day since the invasion began. I keep my ear to the ground. I do know a fair bit and again can back what I have to say up
Anyway, my plea is to just not be a dick to people for no reason. The correct number of bombed civilians is zero, that's my stance