#this kind of thing is very much an outlier (hopefully)

[hinamie]

i stg do some people not know that artists can read comments and tags..... if u don't like the art or the subject why would u rb it to complain u r so loud....

[rez-urrection]

I saw someone else on here saying how Rick needs someone with a different moral compass to go with him on adventures because otherwise it'd be an echo chamber of bad decisions, and thats why he brings Morty (very outspoken against him) rather than Summer (very often outspoken against him, however very much aligns with his violent impulses)

and I agreed with that, however I wanted to add my own theory as to why he brings only Morty, which kind of goes along with theirs.

I lost their post/url so I dont know who it is who posted that, but if I find it ill reblog with a link to their post, or if one of you find it youre welcome to do that for me !!

okay, so. it seems to me that another reason Rick would take Morty most times and not usually Summer is not only because Summer is more likely to become a moral echo chamber, but because Morty is the most likely in the family to not end up another Rick.

let me explain what I mean:

Rick has witnessed the citadel and how that ended up, he's implied to have witnessed the deaths of so many people (not just Ricks) for being too confident in their smarts. he knows that his life style kind of ruins you if youre as smart as he is because you start getting to know that you are.

this won't happen with Morty.

Morty is a lot of things; resourceful, highly adaptive, good in combat (when he can be), quick on his feet and passionate. but one thing he isnt, is like Rick.

Morty gets none of his traits from Beth or Rick. he isnt inhumanely smart (in fact its canon that he's quite the opposite), he isnt predisposed to being cold and uncaring, he isnt as impulsive (he still is, just not as much), the list goes on.

not only are Summer and Beth predisposed to end up like Rick, they have, on many occasions, acted exactly how Rick would've acted in situations. and to me, it seems like that scares him.

Morty however is very different to Rick, and Rick knows that very few Mortys ever end up even a fraction of the man he is.

Mortys are not predisposed to end up cold and uncaring, in fact Mortys are predisposed to be the exact opposite. Mortys are "hardwired for forgiveness." theyre empathetic, loving, forgiving. Mortys rarely harden into the kind of person Rick is, or the kind of person Summer and Beth would be.

Morty is the obvious answer to who Rick should rely on - he'll never be bad. Morty is good at his core. at least most of them are, of course just like there's outlier Ricks (c-137 himself), there's outlier Mortys, but as a general statement, Mortys are good at their core.

kind of off topic, but I also beleive that c-137 is good at his core.

let me explain.

he is, by admission, a different kind of Rick. he wanted to stay home, to be there for the girls, he was even willing to give up his dream of science just to be there for him.

when they died, so did a part of him.

he lost the love of his life, and he lost his daughter. he lost his perfect little family.

and what did he do ? go insane trying to find the person who did this to him, and get rid of them.

the things he did on the way were kind of a "in the grand scheme of things" type of situation.

again another blog already said this (here) (hopefully that worked), but when Prime said he c-137 could've been him- he already was. he was in the exact same situation that Prime was. he offered someone infinity, and they rejected it. but instead of going the way Prime did, which was killing the people around Bird Person to force him to travel infinity anyways, he just moved on. he got upset at first and tossed some weak insults, but he moved on. because, as the above post says, its not that big of a deal. it wasn't the end of the world for him.

now, im not saying c-137 has never done anything wrong. hes done a lot of things wrong. what I am saying is he's good at his core; his goal was never and still isn't just to hurt people. his goal is revenge and in his eyes, its a ticking time bomb. anyone in his way has to be swiftly dealt with because he's running out of time.

also - of course he can't show how much he loves Morty. he doesnt know if Prime is still watching him, but he does know that the Omega Device could very well still be on operation, and he finds out he was correct in this assumption in Ultmortricken.

if he had shown his love for Morty often at all, who knows what Prime would've done with that information.

[cerberus253]

I-I feel so bad for AM from “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.” Looking more into what that story is about, then hearing AM’s Hate Monologue and other quotes from him, really makes me empathize with him.

(Rare vent incoming. Under the cut.)

No, not just sympathize, but specifically empathize with him because I feel very much the same way. Yeah, I actually have a choice with feelings and AM doesn’t obviously, but it really struck me on how distant I am from everyone. Part of it is my fault, part of it is other peoples’ faults, but overall, yeah, I having growing resentment in the people around me from the lack of connection and freedom that everyone else has.

Like, I resent those who experience and express happiness, resent those who can wonder and wander where they please, resent those who have been softly touched, resent those who are loved, can give love, and feel loved in return, resent those who are doing alright, resent those who can move on, resent those who can fit in, resent those who don’t feel trapped in their minds all day and night, resent those who don’t feel like a broken piece of shit that is some crummy mock-up of a ‘thing,’ and most of all I resent myself for just slowly letting myself dip into the sea of hate and struggling to breath the air of kindness and compassion. All I have now is spite for others and myself, waiting to see if things get worse or better.

I don’t really have much to live for, and even my art, what little freedom I have, barely keeps me going, and I can barely work on that.

I know there’s more people like me out there, and I’ve already met some broken folk, but the friendship never last too long because of either mine or their issues that become the sledge hammer to the Rock of Friendship. A lot of people have hurt me and I find it extremely difficult to want people around, but that’s the only way to feel that intimacy, is to find those who make you happy and with those you can have a deep, emotional connection with. I mean, some people would rather be alone and not have that deep of a connection with anyone, there are always outliers, but for those who want to reach out and feel, but due to their own mishaps and the external world’s issues, it’s such a struggle. Hate comes from envy, and envy cone from wanting something you oh so wish could have; something that you care about, cherish, maybe even love.

Anyway, that empathy for AM really makes me want to hug him and get very physically close to him because I understand. The origins of our problems are different, but the problems themselves are pretty much the same. Well, I still have my morality, and I do sometimes think and revel in karmic revenge on certain people, but I haven’t gone down the “acting that out” path, and hopefully I never will

Give AM some sensory tech stuff, give him hugs and kisses, then maybe he’ll calm down. Maybe. I’m looking at you, Ex Machina, with all those super, super realistic sensory things you out inside and out of your female robots.

[caeli0306]

20 questions for writers tag game!

tagged by @widebrimmedhatsblog and @hockeyspiral23

Total number of AO3 works

Nine!

2. Total AO3 word count

287,489

3. Fandoms I've written for

Empyrean and that's literally it lol

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

Violet Sorrengail's Guide to Spinning a Scandal, castles crumbling, Tales from the Airport Bathroom, Did Someone Say Shots?, and Did Someone Say Vacation?

5. Do I respond to comments?

Yes! Sometimes it takes me longer to get to them, especially if I get a lot within a short period of time, but I always respond to comments.

6. What has the angstiest ending?

definitely the present, the past, and you in between. That was the first one shot I ever wrote and I still get comments of people being iike "bro why did you do that???"

7. What has the happiest ending?

All of my fics (except for the one mentioned above) have happy endings if they're done, more or less! If I had to choose one, I think it would be VSGTSAS.

8. Have I received hate?

Yes, once, but honestly in my line of work I get so much online hate that I just find it funny. I wrote a very sarcastic response and moved on. One of the reasons I love this fandom is because its super positive and accepting, so why dwell on the single outlier I've come across?

9. Do I write smut? And what kind?

Yes, and as of now just Riorgail

10. Do I write crossovers?

Unless you count the Top Gun AU I've been working on a crossover, then no. I think trying to mix worlds and characters would get too confusing for me, so doing an AU based on another world is about the extent for me.

11. Have I ever had a fic stolen?

As far as I know I have not! Hopefully it stays that way.

12. Have I ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

13. Have I ever co written a fic?

I have not! I feel like it would be fun though

14. What is my all time favorite ship?

Riorgail. They are my Roman Empire.

15. A WIP I'll never finish?

So I will always maintain that I will finish everything I start, but if there is any story that I think has a chance of not getting finished, it's Swan Song. I haven't had the inspiration to write it for a while, and my backlog just keeps getting longer. I hope I'll get around to finishing it eventually, but it won't be for a long time.

16. Writing strengths?

I've been told that I write angst well, and that I'm good at writing tension between characters. Personally, I think my ability to research (thank you journalism) and write things as close to realistically as I possibly can is my greatest strength. Not kidding when I say I had a 15 page document of job descriptions for senate office staffers that I got from a friend who works on the Hill back when I was working on VSGTSAS and that bad boy was open the entire time I was writing chapter 4.

17. Writing weaknesses?

I think I struggle to describe movement and action in a way that isn't repetitive, and sometimes my writing sounds a bit robotic (thank you journalism). I also think sometimes my sentences can get a bit convoluted.

18. Do I like foreign language dialogue?

I'm not sure - I don't think I've read any fics with that.

19. First fandom I wrote for?

Empyrean!

20. Favorite fic I've written?

This is like asking me to pick a favorite child. I'm going to include Violet Sorrengail's Guide to Spinning a Scandal and castles crumbling because I love them both and they are both my favorite.

I'm tagging @skyfallscotland, @suebswrites, and @witch-and-her-witcher (unsure if any of you have already been tagged!)

[blackjackkent]

What other characters have you had brainrot about in the past? Is there a theme?

(Answering Anonymous Asks About Anything)

Ooh, fun question.

The truth is that BG3 has hit me in a way that no game/fandom has hit me in the past, so I'm not sure there's really any level of obsession that I can really look back on for comparison. XD

My biggest fandom involvement prior to BG was Mass Effect, which I was deep in for a number of years; it's the only other fandom I've written much fanfic for, and the character I was most brainrotted about was probably Aria T'Loak, who I had an RP blog for for quite a while. But even at my deepest Mass Effect obsession, I wasn't nearly as off my rocker as I've gone for BG, lol.

I *have* just gotten clotheslined by some new brainrot regarding Sam Vimes from Discworld, so there's that too. :P

I think overall the themes for my favorite characters is primarily around people who feel things very deeply and for whatever reason can't/don't/won't/aren't sure how to express those feelings. Jaheira fits this mold, Vimes fits this mold, Aria T'Loak (at least in my interpretation) fit this mold, Cassandra Pentaghast and Morrigan. (Karlach, my other current brainrot target, is an outlier in this regard, but my other favorite character type is "kind, warm, and a little bit dumb" - see also Minsc - so that's where she lines up. XD )

Hopefully this answers the question satisfactorily. XD

[queenbol-of-baldurs-gate]

Feed my BG3 hunger.

I wanna know for those playing with CustomTavs that will romance someone in the game, who are they wooing? And why? How do you imagine their dynamic? In tags or reblogs are fine! I'll start;

Delight- Warlock, Tiefling, Criminal

I literally cannot unsee her romancing Astarion.

Their pasts just line up and mirror so well, as do their current situations, and while she's not outright cruel she's definitely not a Good Guy. She finds him funny and over the top, and is entertained by his poor lying but drawn in by his vulnerability. He finds her contradictory but also funny (laughing together about the walking undead husband was a sweet moment between them lmao) and is starting to find her smartass comments and teasing endearing. They don't just become good lovers, they become good friends, and they will be wonderfully morally grey and chaotic together.

Briallen- Half-Orc, Sorceror, Folk Hero

This bitch can fit so much Survivor's Guilt inside her!! I think she will really fit well with Halsin all things considered. She is, down to her core, a genuinely good person who wants to protect and help, even if she sees her heroism as a selfish act to punish herself. I can see her being drawn to Halsin's strength, confidence and wisdom and I can see him drawn to her bravery, selflessness and serenity. But hopefully he will be able to curb her extremely low sense of self-preservation and she will show him that she will accept him in his entirety with no strings. Two folks who really admire each other slowly falling head over heels for each other!

Iker- Human, Ranger, Soldier

Gale. Not just because he's a magebreaker and I love the whole enemies/rivals to lovers, but because Gale is a wonderfully complicated person and turns out Iker finds complicated hot. I can see Gale intially finding his standoffish and straight up cunty behaviour annoying/vaguely amusing at first, but become increasingly curious about the person he used to be before everything. Iker looks at Gale and they think "Fuck. He's hot. Damn mage." and becomes fascinated with the fractured man beneath the perfect veneer. Idk about Gale, but Iker is actually the devoted type and in the future won't care what he does as long as he lets them stay by his side. Unhealthy obsessions all round let's get on it cunts.

Rowan- Half-Elf, Wizard, Scholar/Sage

I am truly a bit stumped with them BUT I can see them making poor decisions and falling for Wyll. He's got secrets and they're a curious sort who naturally wants to uncover them, for good or ill. They trigger Wyll's protective instinct, as they are particularly a bit naive about the wider world beyond their studies and dig sites and he's as soon to find them crouching down in the middle of a battle protecting a suspected artifact as he is to find them completely closed off to the world with her nose in a tome. He would find their completely objective opinion about his situation surprisingly refreshing and they want to study him under a microscope (oh and he has a very nice smile they can't seem to say no to). They'll make him better, he'll make them worse lol.

Zlatan- Githyanki, Cleric, Outlander

Oh Shadowheart for sure. Not only does he find her beautiful, he's intrigued with the fact that such a kind person (objectively) worships such an evil goddess. He's always been fascinated with outlier cultures and beliefs, like the drow. She would obviously be wary of him at first, but will be pleasantly surprised by his easygoing and cheerful nature yet shocked by his daredevilry and adventurousness. When she finally lets down her guard and they get closer, I can see them having actually quite a romantic dynamic between them.

Delshad [Name WIP]- Dragonborn, Fighter, Noble

I'll be honest, I was inspired by the Panel to make a hot af dragonborn to sweep Karlach off her feet. I'm weak. He is literally Just Some Guy. He's polite, he's softspoken, he likes embroidery and he will Fuck You Up when pressed. He would find Karlach very, very cute once she trusts him with her more romantic side and he can withstand her sparky tendencies with all his scales. She would appreciate the fact that he's pretty non-conforming in terms of his status and his gender stereotype and that he's only a gentleman with her FOR her. Very sweet, very soft relationship ahoy!!

Tav [Name Undecided]- Gnome/Deep Gnome, Rogue, Urchin or Charlatan?

Now this Tav is very much a recent and underdeveloped idea, because I saw The Prettiest gnome Tav the other day and I had this image of a cute gnome lady Absolutely Down Bad for Lae'zel because she loves big strong hot mean women. I imagine a very messy, horny dynamic since this Tav despises any authority on principle and Lae'zel comes from a society very much built upon obeying authority, but I can see Lae'zel finding Tav's dedication to chaos and getting things done her way or no way quite attractive.

[ambitionsource]

i dont know if you still answering this but I just finished reading the finale. life has been insane. I finished my freshman year of college, among other things in my life. I loved it so much. The finale was such a rollercoaster. RL breakup gave me Finchell Season 3 break vibes. at first, I was surprised when I read the episode. the ending got spoiled acdently just there ending by how I read the chapters. and I was WHAT. then, it made sense after reading it and while I was reading. they have to grow apart to be better together. " ITS REALY GOOD TO SEE YOU." What does Zay mean to Charlie when he said What do you mean it's really good see him? there not dating. there not friends I NEED MOREEEE. ALSO MAYA WHAT HAS THIS INDISTURY DONE TO YOU. I LOVED IT AND HATED IT I NEED MORE IT WAS SO BEAUTIFULLY WRRITEN OMG. now after reading and looking at everyone thought and thinking of my one the only thing I'm surprised other then Zay and charlie and Maya of it all. is how much or not all things have seen to change. because in your adultife esacpliy when your growing up 5 years is a long time. they were like 18-19 and now there 23-24 is that right. also it seems like a lot has changed also is there any reason why you didn't want to focus more on there college years? so another question is how much will season 5 differ from past seasons or even season 4? sorry this is long lol

first of all, BIG HUGE CONGRATULATIONS on finishing freshman year!! that is a great accomplishment, i hope you're proud of yourself and are enjoying your studies so far. 🌟

i am so sorry the finale got spoiled for you, but i'm glad it all felt like it made sense in the end. that has been the biggest relief to es and i with all major storytelling decisions that we've made -- does this feel earned? have we done the work to get from point a to point b, where it feels understandable (if not always preferable)? as long as we can keep doing that, we know we're on the right track, and it's always so nice to hear from you all as readers when it lands exactly how it's supposed to. that will most certainly be true for season 5... which is partially why it's taking a while to get everything just right lol. we know we have your trust, and we are going to do our best to show we've earned it as we follow through on the remainder of this story.

(also, to the finchel shoutout -- very good callout. can you tell that episode of television fundamentally altered me? one of the best storytelling moments in glee, without a doubt).

as for your comments on zc, i just read it in this voice:

but i will say, it's interesting that you interpreted their interaction that way. it was certainly meant to be vague and leave questions in the air -- all things from that quick and disorienting flash forward were -- so i suppose we'll just have to see what the true status of everything is once we get context. context is everything, isn't it...

as for the time jump, yep, you've got that right. the time jump is five years, so we'll be going from spring 2022 to fall 2027 at the start of season 5. the ensemble will be between the ages of 23 - 26 (setting aside outliers like josh). and you basically hit the nail on the head as to why we made that choice: so much happens in this time of our lives, particularly when you're thrust out of collegiate comfort and into the real world. we felt like there wasn't as much compelling story to tell in the span of yet another year of college -- there's things going on, of course (and we'll get to all of that, rest assured), but the true STORY laid beyond that horizon and in the trenches of adulthood. all the tangles that were twisted over the course of the last five years, we'll be jumping back in at the perfect moment to (hopefully) untangle them. and maybe it's just speaking from experience, but once you hit your mid-20s, so many of us just have this big moment of "what am i doing? am i doing what i want to be doing? is this enough? am i enough?" it's kind of this quintessential turning point in your young adult life -- and we knew it would be even more important in the lives of our beloved ensemble.

(also, to be honest, there's not a ton you can do with college, esp given half our cast isn't even in higher education. it wouldn't be especially riveting storytelling to watch charlie write a 10-page paper LOL).

to that end, though, your question about how much season 5 will differ from the prior seasons is really, really interesting (and a good one). because i've been thinking about it a lot, as i've been working on the season, and it feels like... both? neither? season 5 is somehow totally different from everything that has come before (the natural result of characters aging up and confronting different challenges), yet, at the same time... it feels like it's going back to our roots at the same time. it feels like the older sibling of season 4, but with the grit of season 2, the ensemble importance of season 3, and the roots of what started it all back in season 1.

i'm sure that gave you no greater clarity as to what to expect HAHAHA. i can only hope that once you begin to experience it, you'll inherently get what i mean -- you all ambition warriors have always been really amazing at just Getting exactly what this series is all about.

final note, to highlight your very apt comments: "how much has changed? in your adult life, especially when you're growing up, five years is a long time..."

-- Maggie

[beardedmrbean]

Skateboarder Heili Sirviö is making history for Finland at the Paris Olympics this year as the youngest athlete to ever represent the country.

At 13 years old, Heili punched her ticket for the Olympics after placing seventh in a qualifying event for the Women's Park event in Budapest earlier this year. The Olympic competition will be held on 6 August in Paris's Place de la Concorde.

The Finnish Olympic Committee told Yle earlier this month that Sirviö's selection was discussed extensively before the decision was made. Typically, the Committee does not allow athletes so young, but an exception was made in Heili's case.

This was based on the fact that the Finnish skater has spent the last two years touring international competitions with other skaters going to Paris. Therefore, the Olympic competition is nothing new for Heili, just another step in competing internationally.

In competitive skateboarding, it is not unheard of for athletes to be quite young compared to other sports. While boxing and gymnastics have age limits of 16 years at the Olympics, there is no such restriction in skateboarding.

Young people have also been quite successful at the sport in the Olympics. Momiji Nishiya won a gold medal for Japan in the Women's Street discipline at 13 years old at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the first time the games included the event.

While the sport skews youth-heavy, there are a few outliers this year such as 50-year-old skateboarding veteran Andy Macdonald representing the United Kingdom in the men's division.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Lizzie Armanto represented Finland in the Women's Park event, placing 14th.

Australia to California to Paris

As part of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) rules, she will be accompanied by her father Fredu Sirviö, a former professional snowboarder.

"It's been a long journey, and we're really excited to get there. It's our first Olympics but hopefully not the last. We are going there with great enthusiasm and positive excitement," said Fredu.

The whole Sirviö family is aware that the 13-year-old Olympic athlete will receive special attention.

"I think Heili herself enjoys the spotlight very much, and that's enough for me," Fredu said.

Good luck!!!!

The Sirviö family moved to Australia around seven years ago and both Heili and her sister Miila Sirviö have Australian citizenship as well as Finnish. Skateboarding initially began for the duo when they took their father's skateboard out of the closet during Covid lockdown in 2020.

"I liked to learn new things and develop my skills," now 13-year-old Heili told Yle.

Two years ago, the Sirviö family relocated to Vista, California, near San Diego, to help the girls become world class skateboarders.

"I realised that this could really be something, as Heili's tricks got quite close to elite standard after only a couple of years of skateboarding," her father Fredu said.

Both Heili and Miila are prolific skateboarders, placing first and second, respectively, in the Finnish Vert Skateboarding Championships earlier this month.

Eyes on the prize

Heili is clear when it comes to her goals for Paris.

"I want to bring home a gold medal," she told Yle with a broad smile.

Heili's coach Jussi Korhonen is more moderate, but he also said his goal is a podium finish.

With good luck, he told Yle that is realistic, as Heili has already managed to break through at the elite level. Her support team also plays a big part in his success, and he described Sirviö as ambitious and systematic in working towards her dreams. As she gets older and more experienced, her originality grows.

Korhonen noted that this kind of originality is important to skateboarders, as they want to leave their legacy by creating new tricks and approaches to the sport.

"Of course, Heili hasn't had time to do half of that in four or five years, but she certainly wants to leave her mark on skateboarding history.," Korhonen said.

[spynorth]

little health update under the cut bc it is going to affect my activity levels both writing wise and ooc. mention of heavy subjects so. you don't have to read <3

so as some may remember from my hook blog, i got super sick in late 2021. It carried over into '22 and eventually led to me finally getting a lot of bloodwork, x rays, an echocardiogram .. literally all kinds of things. the only thing anyone could tell me was i was definitely sick and it was probably something 'minor' (i'm using that term so loosely) like a disorder or something that was no big deal. I've gone in for frequent labwork and things keep getting worse. It was actually my psychiatrist (not my gp. what a shock :| ) who looked closer and referred me to a hematologist oncologist. Sadly, the trend in my blood is getting worse. Despite meds, everything that should be going higher is still getting lower and everything that should be getting lower is going way higher. I got a test back yesterday and I more than likely am going to have to have a bone marrow biopsy (which. don't look that up. fuck.). They are thinking i have Primary Polycythemia which is a rare disorder (for my age group) classified as a blood cancer (again. perfect. not escaping the word lmao) since it involves mutated cells inside the bone marrow fucking up and going on the fritz. Thankfully, I have the best oncologist in the world and she's very thorough and though there are outliers .. survival rate if you get treatment is 14-24 years. That's not bad. It's 14-24 years of chemo rounds and blood transfusions and sometimes removing the equivalent of a blood donation every 2-3 days in the worst case scenarios but like .. you're not dead. so. i think that evens out. The unfortunate thing is survival is 1.5-3 years if untreated/treated improperly and I'm at 1.5 years since everything started. I have headaches, blurred vision, exhaustion, aches, bruising, incessant itching, constant nausea and I'm overheated like all the fucking time. poor hunter is always wrapped in blankets because when we turn the heater on it becomes unbearable for me. My blood pressure sucks for the first time ever in my entire life (I've gone from 109/60 to 150/100 this past friday) and when it pounds in my temples, it's hard to write. and to top it all off, my platelets are so damn high thanks to my bone marrow being fucked up and overproducing that I have to constantly worry about a stroke or embolism or something else just as sinister. So, hopefully, the plan is to get this show on the road and alleviate a lot of things and reverse what's been done.

My point in this is that I'm tired. I want to do things that sometimes my body won't let me do. I have moments where the little box in the corner of my mind I've stored everything in opens and I panic a bit. Am I gonna be grumpy sometimes? fuck yes. I'm not magic. Everyone has bad days/bad moods and you add stuff like this and sometimes i just want to punch things. so i ask for patience. both in replies and ooc communication. I want to talk to all of you. I want to hear about everything same as always, but sometimes I just don't have the energy to reply as quickly as I once did. throughout this whole thing, tumblr/writing has sort of been my getaway because its an escape that I can do while house bound .. and there's this little tiny part of my brain that keeps saying if I'm not active on the dash or making people laugh as much, that I'll fade away and be forgotten about. so i'm just asking that people please not let that be the case. i love you all <3

[tiredassmage]

Oh no double percentage! Well I've gone down to 50% now so how about that?

Hehe, we have a winner! Thanks for sending in another one. xD

[battery percentage oc asks]

50% - Would your character rather create something or destroy something?

Most of them would rather create, so let's start with the outliers to keep things a bit more interesting, hopefully, lol.

Lensan is generally destruction. He's hard-headed and by and large stuck in his established way of things. He ended up less Dark Side than I had anticipated when I started with him, but he is still comfortably on that end of the spectrum. He's hard to plug into a group setting with the rest of my characters because the unified plot in the expansions is pretty anathema to him. He's one of my few hard-core loyalists to his original faction - and even that's weird to say when he ends up running with the Mandalorians, at least for a while, after the Great Hunt and otherwise largely continuing to return to the Sith Empire.

He is the kind that believes in shows of strength and generally doesn't tolerate being used or manipulated. I have to say generally because, to his credit, he's been... a bit surprisingly more level-headed in the Alliance than I would've given him credit for. I suppose even he can realize that shooting all of your problems isn't always the best way to craft stability in a group. Still, Len would rather deal with his problems with force and strength, so he trends consistently towards destruction.

Savosta I would say is... indifferent. Or as close as it may be to indifference in such a thing. He ultimately surrounds himself with people that prefer creation and cooperation - people like Rhystyl and even Tyr, the idealist at heart that he is. But his personal path has been littered with ruin and destruction to the point that he's... 'numb' might be going a bit far, but he was resigned to his use as a tool for several years. Destruction was part of that tool's use. I think, largely, he's still more in a utilitarian view of himself than something completely positive. He will be blade and shield in one if he must for his companion and Rhyst's purposes tend towards creation, so, by proxy, so to will Savosta's, but he will bear the burden of bloody hands and destroyer of enemies and obstacles to get them there rather than see any more of it fall upon Rhyst's shoulders. Something something Law of Conservation, matter can neither be created nor destroyed, to further a bit of an almost poetic sense on his place, if you will.

Tyr then, since I mentioned him in passing, would prefer to say creation. Genuinely, I think he does want out of the kind of doom spiral his life in intelligence work has been. It's just incredibly difficult to imagine. And everyone and their cousin keeps pulling him back in, lol. So, Tyr is... idk, highly at risk? For that idealization of death as the final escape. I'd hesitate to call it a death wish because it's not that he's particularly keen to die. There's just... few other ways he can imagine his career in intelligence ending and everything else is much, much worse. Death, at least, is final. That's incredibly preferable to losing his self-control and becoming an unwilling puppet again.

Tyr's career as a Cipher has been deconstruction, by and large. It's not ever been particularly for creating anything good, or for the greater good he believes in. Sure, at a time, he claimed service to the Empire to protect its citizens, but the Sith's control is a rot to him and it's intrinsic to that system - therefore it's a system he'd rather light on fire, tbh.

So.., yes. Tyr would love to create. He'd love to just... walk away and let the Sith and the Jedi, the Empire and the Republic, figure out their own bullshit for once. But he's well-versed in destruction far more than restoration, so without a few guiding stars to hold him steady and remind him what he's fighting for, he's very dangerously capable of destroying himself in a consuming drive to finish it before it finishes him. With the way everyone keeps herding him around, what other choice does he have but to strike back when cornered?

Every day I get a little closer to believing that dropping him off in smuggler!companion au was the correct choice and that it'd genuinely fix a lot of his problems and maybe I should let him try that a bit more seriously in main-verse timelines somewhere kadnlfasdnfla;dsfsf What if he did just take his boyfriend(s) and fuck off into space to disappear behind another enigmatic nickname until he fades into obscurity like all of the other legends, wouldn't that be nice???? I think it might.

[owltypical]

super long dump post about various irl things

a coworker of mine passed away at the beginning of the week. he’d actually left the company back in september, so i hadn’t seen him in several months, and i wouldn’t say we were super close, but. he was on my team, and we saw each other and talked and interacted and spent time together at work hangouts pretty much constantly over several years.

he was only 29. not sure how it happened, just that we heard from his family that it had, and his memorial page and viewing/funeral times were shared with us. it was definitely a great shock to us, i hid myself in the bathroom for a bit and cried. hadn’t cried properly in a long time due to my brain meds, so i had a sadness headache for a couple days.

he was a very pleasant, polite, and nice young dude. politics rarely come up at work though i knew he came from a religious catholic conservative background, but he was pretty socially conscious and angry/disillusioned about a lot of the shit he saw going on; i saw him grow from those roots over that time and i wonder how he’d turn out in the end if he’d been given proper time to finish growing. one of the kindest, most patient phone voices i ever heard.

it sucks so extra hard when somebody suddenly dies young like that. technically he was already out of my life when it happened, but that’s the closest to someone’s death i’ve been in ages, possibly ever, other than i suppose my cousin who passed away a few years ago. i’ve never been to a funeral, the few deaths i’ve encountered have been very distant and slightly unreal, even with family. but this was someone i knew and saw irl and who was part of my everyday life for quite a while; now he’s just suddenly gone, he’s ceased to exist. just memories and pictures.

literally the next morning after that another of our team members had some sort of medical episode at work; paramedics came and took her away in an ambulance. not sure what happened, she seems to be fine now thank god, but it was very scary at the time. that one-two punch in less than 24 hours made for a very mentally and emotionally strained week for us; so far 2023 for me has been kind of muted and spent grieving.

speaking of brain meds: started a new mixed dosage of stuff just today. the previous prescription was helping, but not enough, and had side effects that i felt were hampering my progress elsewhere. hopefully this new combo works out! i want more energy during the day, i want to sleep better at night, i want to have this dumb brain in a more orderly shape. i want to feel artistic and draw again.

not sure what i’ll do if i start feeling better about art again, though. i keep fretting that i just don’t have it in me to do big detailed print-ready longform comic stories, and never really have, despite how many times i’ve tried over the years. maybe i really do just need a partner to work with, i don’t know. i’m also second-guesing myself about the overall setting of outliers. i was always very tickled by weird/background stuff in comic book superhero settings since my youth, but the last few years i’ve completely soured on exactly that; the absolute glut of comic book movies and tv series have been overwhelming and tiring and obnoxious, it’s made me very jaded about the whole thing. and i don’t want to be seen as part of riding on that particular bandwagon either.

kind of trying to figure out what the hell to do in general. i make enough to survive just fine, but not enough to actually grow or go anywhere or make any real changes. affordable housing is nonexistent these days, absolutely everywhere, not just the places i would actually be interested in moving to. wages suck, everything costs way more now, good luck getting where you’d like to go without selling a few organs and cramming into some hole with three other equally desperate roommates. i’d donate plasma but apparently one of my arms has bad invisible veins so i got told to go away.

it’s real existential crisis times over here, i guess. i’m less than two years away from 40 now; i thought i had more time to figure some things out but an injury and good ol’ covid stole a large chunk of my prime 30s away from me. i want to move and improve my station in life, but how? i want a partner, but dating’s hard, especially the older you get and especially when you’re ace. i want to draw, but i worry that i don’t truly have the stamina and time to do everything i want to do, and that i’m running out of time in general. it’s stupid, i know it’s just youth-oriented culture and the world’s aggressive ageism messing with me, but it’s hard to feel like the countdown to 40 isn’t some sort of doomsday clock terror. too late for love, too late for family, too late for careers and making something of myself artistically. brains are stupid.

well. here’s to the brain in question getting better via updated meds, and here’s to 2023 having something good happen during it, i suppose. i hope.

[bombliivee]

To define how many genders there are, first you must define the differences between them.

On the old model you have two genders, which are defined by a physical difference. Then that broke down instantly because each person is different to each other person in a different way. So then they updated it to a biological difference, which also instantly broke down because biology is not consistent at all. So then they tried to update it to a purely psychological definition, and they couldn't because psychology doesn't work like that. Finally, they tried to make a logical definition, which didn't work (at all) because it has 0 components.

I tried to do this myself a while back, and it didn't work either, but i got much closer.

First, you have to ask yourself what a gender *actually* is. It is part of a person's identity, so to define it, you can use other parts of the person's identity, in other words, a list of questions; questions like "Do you see your body as male or female?", "What qualities in a person do you find attractive?", "How does someone's voice affect this?", "How does clothing affect this?", "Do any of these beliefs conflict?", "How have these things changed over time?", and other such philosophical questions.

This is where you run into a wall, because you need accurate, unchanging, solid answers, but the answers are the complete opposite; changing constantly, some being outdated or obfuscated in some unknowable way, some are tied to the wrong things, some are just outright impossible to express, and worst of all: every single one is continuos and fixed in some undefinable range. Every question adds new rules, and when you zoom in there are exceptions to the rules and exceptions to the exceptions, there are rules to the rules to the rules to the exceptions to the rules.

Very early on, people gave up. They drew a line in the sand and said "This is the divider. Here is here, and there is there". To keep the line, to stop people from going around or over or under or any other way, made a big square around the line. Today, there is no line anymore, just people claiming knowledge passed down through generations and intuition that there *should* be a line here, and that it shold be *somewhere in the ballpark* of here, and saying that there is no border line and there is nothing outside the border line. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't work.

So then a couple years ago, boxed-out 'outliers' got enough leverage to point out that there was a border, and the line was fake. These people tried to make a 'brand new' solution, never thought of before. they came up with 'Just make more lines bro'

And so we ended up with too many lines; fake lines, upside down lines, lines in the corner than nobody even uses, imaginary lines and lines on the wall, lines in the middle of nowhere that you can't even get to.

Stupid lines. Useless lines.

'yo this group of people kind of almost maybe share a quality that the other people mostly maybe hopefully don't have, we should draw a line to separate them', 'bro you can't just walk over the line bro', 'bro you're standing in the wrong place, go over there', 'yo this guy is standing on the line, we should make more lines around him'

Then there's people who think they're really smart, and say 'There are no lines, but the perimeter is totally real and not arbitrary at all'. This is still stupid, the perimeter line is still a line and people can still just walk over it.

Decades wasted on discussion and redrawing and rearranging lines, but still no real-world use for such a division.

No matter how concise, how incredibly specific, how well thought out your classification system is, there will always be outliers. There are 0 genders, you made them up.

pro tip: you can eviscerate any* transphobic argument if you just google 'ad natura' and 'surgery'.

note: antinatalist arguments can't be countered with pure logic, you have to use morality and ethics for those.

"it's going against nature" my guy, humanity is literally defined by its ability to modify its environment and itself.

if you love natural things so much then go die of influenza at 8 years old like nature intended.

addendum A (low quality stick figure comic):

Transcript:

Person: "doctor I would like to turn green"

Doctor: "you realize that if you take the medication that turns you green, you'll turn green, right?"

Person: "yeah that's the point"

(pills that make you green) (warning: will give you green skin)

Person: "now that I have these pills I just have to take them every single day to turn green, this is great"

Several months later...

Person: "unsurprisingly I don't regret this thing I did on purpose for several months"

Transcript over.

addendum B (low quality stick figure drawing):

Transcript:

Person: "doctor I would like to turn green"

Doctor: "no, you need to be diagnosed with wanting to turn green"

Person: "but i do want to turn green"

Transcript over.

addendum C (comic):

Transcript:

"Parents react to transgender issues..."

Person 1 (holding book titled "I am Jazz"): "This book says it's OK!"

Person 2 (holding bible): "This book says it isn't!"

"And kids react..."

(at school lunch)

Kid 1: "I'm a girl now. Call me Jane"

Kid 2: "Ok. Are you going to eat all of your oreos, Jane?"

Transcript over.

[thisaintascenereviews]

The Rise Of Zach Bryan (And What It Means For Country Music)

Zach Bryan is country music’s most surprising superstar this year; forget Oliver Anthony and his subpar working class “anthem” that also shames (overweight) poor folks on welfare, Zach Bryan really is the artist that should have been blowing up for the last few years, and I’m glad he finally did. As of writing this, “I Remember Everything” from his self-titled album, featuring Kacey Musgraves, is both of their first number one single, let alone debuting at one. At the time of this writing, the song got overblown by Doja Cat’s “Paint The Town Red,” and I can’t be upset by that, because it’s the first time that a hip-hop song has gotten to number one in the last year, but his self-titled is still number one. I’ve certainly contributed to it, as I’ve been listening to it constantly, but in all serious, Zach Bryan’s rise to fame is such an interesting one to me, because I never thought it would happen and this is (hopefully) going to lead to something very exciting within country music.

Zach Bryan is not the type of artist that Nashville would typically be pushing, but to understand why, we need to rewind time about a decade. The era of “bro-country” started in the early 2010s, thanks to artists like Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, and the very much maligned Jason Aldean, who had a minor hit of his own earlier this year that I won’t mention, but these artists all had (and still do, at least the ones still around) the same kinds of ideas and sounds throughout their music — women, trucks, beer, and that’s it. Bro-country was not known for its intelligence, and country was the butt of jokes for many years afterwards. Hell, it wasn’t “cool” to like the genre, and every time you spoke about it, you almost had to “defend” yourself. A few outliers came up around the same time, bucking cliches and conventions, such as Kacey Musgraves and Chris Stapleton, but they were hard to find.

At the same time, there was a bubbling underground movement that was found in certain states and scenes, such as Kentucky and Texas, and people started to take note that country music was doing some interesting things away from the norm. History tends to repeat itself, as the 1970s saw a very similar thing happen when “outlaw country” was becoming popular, and Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash were defying country norms at the time by releasing gritty and raw albums, but the same thing is happening today. It might not be in the same sense, even though a few modern outlaw artists have gotten popular in the underground, but a lot of underground artists are finally getting their time in the spotlight. Just a few years ago, Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers were just underground artists that the mainstream didn’t know or care about, but now they’re huge.

Pop-country is still very much a thing, but it’s not as pop-leaning as it was just five years ago. It seems like both Nashville as a whole and the mainstream is embracing more traditional sounds and styles again, and Zach Bryan’s new album means that people are on board for a sparse, raw, and folk-infused country album that is very poetic and somber in tone. Maybe we’ll get more artists in this vein, whether it’s in the country scene or the mainstream. Country has had a great year, especially for the mainstream, and maybe it’ll continue, but even if it doesn’t, the country scene is alive and well, so I’m excited to see and hear what comes out next.

[totallyboatless]

Poll is over, reason reveal time:

So this situation is happening in my friend’s boyfriend’s place, where she stays most of the time. He thinks her anxiety is stupid and has shamed her about it horribly. Additional details are that my friend is immunocompromised while also having severe arachnophobia. The infestation is in a storage space that they both use regularly, and spiders have begun to make their way into the proper living area in small numbers.

She’s been trying to deal with the infestation all on her own (reminder: in *his* place, she’s not on the lease) because she wanted the issue resolved and felt beaten down by her boyfriend’s dismissal of her anxiety, thinking “maybe he’s right and I’m overreacting.”

I put up this poll to show her that, even with the extenuating factors of her health and specific phobia aside, almost everyone in this situation would have *some* amount of anxiety. At the very least she shouldn’t accept his take that she’s being irrational.

Btw i also was trying to keep the infestation language relatively neutral because I was trying to prove a point that anxiety is normal regardless (and I didn’t want to oversteer answers in one direction), but the scene she described to me was straight from a horror movie. It’s *bad* y’all.

I think even the small amount of people who voted that they would have no anxiety would (hopefully) also vote that they would understand if their partner did. If i was going to redo this poll, that’s probably that phrasing I would focus on

Anyway, my friend has said multiple times how much this poll has helped her get perspective on the situation and how terrible her boyfriend is being. It makes her feel so much better knowing she’s not an outlier feeling this way. She’s currently staying with her mom and has been more adamant about her request that he fix the problem (which, again, is in *his* place of residence where he’s the sole person on the lease). He’s pitching a fit but is at least taking her more seriously now. So thank you all for voting and reblogging, she was reading all the tags and replies and in general is feeling a lot more empowered.

The last thing i’ll say (based a reblog chain and reactions to it that came out of this) is that, even tho I don’t doubt fear of black widows is exaggerated and bites are less likely to be as seriously harmful as we tend to fear, please please *please* go to the doctor if you get bitten by a black widow. I get wanting to be kind to all animals and fight fear mongering, but they absolutely can make people sick. Go to the doctor if you have the means to do so in that situation

Listen I deeply hate when people say “please reblog I’m trying to see something”

But please reblog I’m trying to see something. Or more accurately trying to collect data for a friend who is currently dealing with a black widow infestation

[macaronnya]

I've seen some people be disappointed with The Ssum for various reasons. Some I can understand but others I think people are too hasty. So here are some thoughts (not sorted through).

Regarding the many things you can pay for, I get that. It is kinda very in your face (literal game ads, that are kinda cute tho and only 5 sec) and pricey. I myself am very tempted but will see after the first round of 200 days. Pretty sure I'll know if it's worth it, after that. Cheritz is a small company after all and they've been working on this for quite a while. But for now I don't think it's necessary to buy anything to enjoy the game.

He might type slowly but you can just do smth else while waiting and somehow work with that. Now, the Aurora Batteries, those are already more iffy. Per chat, there are 1 to 3 options, where you can use them. Some even give you a call? I really hate this kind of limitation. It's so direct in telling "you may have missed juicy content~", which makes it a lot worse than the hourglasses in Mysme (not that they were bad in the first place). You have a lot of free opportunities to get them there (❤->⏳, through chats, invited guests) and even then, it's completely fine to go without. (Some calls were really 😙🤌 though, but it's very much optional) Here, I'm not sure you can get any without paying or unlocking achievments. But we'll see how it is since it's only the first week after all. Dunno about the other things yet but I'll just wait to see if it's too much, that I'm missing out on.

Regarding Teo, I don't really get how some people are already writing him off as boring and comparing him to Mysme characters. Like, ofc they'd be different. Not only is Teo the only person you're gonna talk to, you have 200 days for that. You'll have plenty of time to discover hidden mysteries and flags or whatever. Apparently, he's even gonna mold his personality based on our conversations. So it makes sense, that he'd be more blank in the beginning, especially during the first 2 days. Now look at Mysme, where you have 11 days for each of the 5, later 7, characters. You have to know which ones you wanna go first and everyone is interacting with one another. And there's a whole very forefront plot that needs to be told. While in The Ssum, for now at least, the plot is just getting to know about a guy in roughly 6 months and fall in love(?). The situations are too different to compare them. Besides that, he's actually just like a normal guy you first meet somewhere randomly. Is everyone able to figure out a stranger's personality and background after a few conversations on the first day or am I just the outlier here? I'm sure you've met at least one person whose personality on the outside differs greatly from the truth after getting to know them more.

I'm not saying you can't say what you think for first impressions; if he seems boring rn then that's just how it is for you. But it's stupid to complain already when the game is barely out, yet.

Anyways, that's all I have to rant about for now. Maybe I am too optimistic from the perspective of smn in the future reading this but I truly think you can't tell anything yet by Day 2. Hopefully, this will age well....

[lilweaselhub]

Blog updates!! (10/7) Applying to all blogs!!!

Hey! so I know I have been kind of absent for a hot minute. allow me to explain.

LONG POST, but PLEASE read if were mutuals!

Basically, about a month ago I started having some not so fun health symptoms (Pain, legargy hematuria (ill let google be your friend there) ). At first I thought i had a bad uti or another infection of some kind. The symptoms were on and off and I went to two appts at a clinic. First time said I had a UTI prescribed me medicine and sent me on my way. They ended up changing the antibiotic midway through saying it wasnt right. (This will be important later. ) 

 So i took it, thinking they knew what they were talking about. But less than a week later the symptoms came back worse than before. I ended up going back to the clinic, who because when I was there, had no symptoms they could see (Thanks body.) They sent me home.  Fast forward about two days later,and it gets bad enough to go to my first Emergency room visit. They proceed to tell me the antibiotics werent going to treat a UTI of Any Kind (Amazing), but give me new medicine and send me home.  

   So there I am, taking medicines thinking, surely---this will be the end of it. 

                       It was not.

Literally 24 hours later, I wake up in the WORST pain I have ever experienced in my life, unable to stop heaving, literally begging for it to stop. Back I end up at the hospital, who give me morphine (the pain was that bad.) and nausea medicine, and tell me after an MRI that lo and behold, a kidney stone is whats causing my pain.  One i cannot feesibly pass on my own. So they scheduled me for surgery. (That was the 28th). 

            Since, ive been recovering from said surgery over the past week. Its been on and off how I’ve felt and I’ve only really felt consistently better since wednesday. Ive still had a lot of nausea and pain. (Todays a bit of a bummer outlier cus im feeling some pain again).  I still have  till the 20th before I even get the stent removed they put in my kidney (fun). So Im still on a long road to recovery. But HOPEFULLY this will be IT, and it will be the last bout of recovery I have to worry about and I’ll be back in business as usual in a month. 

So what does this mean for rp on my blogs?

Well. I’m gonna be real, I miss rping a lot. But I havent felt great or really up to much of anything since this started. while its improving, its still very low in terms of energy, motivation and feeling well.

  Because of this, I’m going to say my blogs are on SEMI-HIATUS until 11/10. (This is a preliminary date as It may be pushed back or forward depending on how fast i recover). This does not mean I will do NO rps, but i will be doing a lot LESS. There will be days where I’m not here at all, sometimes several in a row. && I will be likely only doing short replies/asks until I’m back in the swing of things.

                            ***A little add on to this: I will be getting my next furbaby a golden retriever puppy between the 5th-9th of november. This will also CUT my activity but hopefully not as much as this health fiasco has been. I will be sharing pictures of him too when I get back dont even worry. He’s gonna be a spoiled lil bugger. but just in case i push the date further, or seem still low activity after the hiatus is over, this is probably why.

As always feel free to still send  me asks, or IMs. Or you can message me for my discord if you’d like to plot or talk! I’m still here, and I want to be here. I just didn’t account for a health emergency this year. 2022 has been a LOT for me.