#this type of thought (of one country having all this positive traits

[graysbullshit]

ok, I feel like I need to point this out (because of some tweets I've seen), but Brazil is a highly conservative country. Yes, we are very sex positive, which inherently goes against a lot of conservative views in other cultures, and yes, we have one of the biggest pride parades in the world. But we are also the country that kills the Most Amount of Trans People in the World (for 13 consecutive years).

this idea that brazilians are all nicer and more caring and more loving comes from this deep feeling of protectiveness we feel towards our country and our people. We feel like we need to project this image to protect ourselves (because last time a brazillian President decided to be human and reacted negatively to negative comments we were forced into a dictorship that would rob us of four years of democracy and republic). I find myself constantly defensive over brazillian ccs because of this. And generaly it doesn't cause much harm. But I need qsmp fans to understand that no place on earth is perfect, and although I believe that brazillians are genuinely more friendly, we aren't all nice.

Also, be good to your LGBTQ and poc brazillian friends. They really need someone on their corner.

[bouquetface]

VEDIC OBSERVATIONS 7

Accuracy is influenced by the entire chart. These are observations from real people. Your personal chart will influence how these placements manifest for you.

Saturn in 8th H of navamsa - this indicates you will have to fight with your family or the spouse’s family on behalf of your marriage and/or kids. This can occur at any point in life, however it is likely much later. The sign can indicate what you fight about, where the ruler of 8th is placed can show if the situation is resolved/where it goes. EX: Saturin in Cap 8th H - fighting with in-laws because of tradition and expectations.

Ketu in 8th H of navamsa - this indicates pregnancy/kids before marriage. this can manifest as marrying someone w/ kids or an unexpected pregnancy. Depending on entire chart, this can become a secret.

8th H in navamsa and d1 can show what your spouse does for income. An exalted or benefic placed here shows the couple can make a lot of wealth together.

Sun in Aries in 8th H navamsa - this women’s husband’s family made a lot of wealth through manufacturing products used in weapons for law enforcement & military in their country. This is extremely unlikely to be your exact situation if you share this placement. However, sun here is exalted so your spouse and his family is likely to benefit/support your marriage/you.

KEEP IN MIND FOR NAVAMSA PREDICTIONS:

When something isn’t promised in natal, it will not happen. The D1 shows the sky you were born under, no other chart has power over D1. Navamsa can only show weaknesses & strengths of D1.

Moon conjunct Ketu - Your mother may be spiritual/religious. You may feel your mother failed to nourish you correctly. She may have neglected you when you really needed her. She may be more focused on other things/people - your siblings, her own romantic life, her career, etc. - positive aspects like conjunct Jupiter can change this.

Being emotionally present can be difficult. You may exhibit trait's of aqua or pisces moon - difficulty being vulnerable/expressing emotions, daydreaming, escapism.

Moon conjunct Ketu in 11th House - You can experience something difficult regarding social circles/friendships. At some point, you may be cut out of your friend group. You may always feel different and detached from your friend group.

This is all very general information, not looking into signs, aspects and other placements. However, I have noticed this indicates divorced parents. And/or your parent's have a distant relationship - remain married but show no romantic love or intimacy toward one another.

If they are divorced, the father can avoid seeing and/or talking about the mother. They are not the type of divorced parents to remain friends or be enemies. Instead, they are likely to ignore the other's existence as much as possible.

In another woman's chart, I noticed her parent's are not divorced but she did get divorced. The above describes her relationship with her ex and her child - she is distant and struggles to nurture/support her child. Things improved when she was able to get the help of her mother and grandma to help raise the child.

If you have Moon conjunct Ketu in 11th H, I would love to hear your experience and thoughts on this.

Saturn in 4th House - Disciplined household. Your mother could be strict about being on time, clean household, organization, etc. This can be taken to an extreme or help you develop consistency + discipline that later help you in your career.

If in a co-ruled sign - virgo/gemini, sag/pisces, aqua/cap, scorpio/aries - there is a possibility of a distant relationship with a parent due to divorce - 2 homes. Less likely for cap/aqua as this is saturn's home signs.

Accuracy is influenced by the ENTIRE chart.

Sun in 12th House - When Sun is harshly placed - for ex: in libra - these people will run into conflict with authority figures. This can manifest as issues with a parent, issues with bosses, issues with teachers, etc.

Mars conjunct Venus - this is one indicator of people who marry quickly after meeting. What one defines as quickly will vary. However, in general I think marrying within 3 years of meeting is considered quick in societies who don’t commonly do arranged marriages.

This is only one indicator and this will NOT be true for everyone with this placement. dashas, UL and d9 need to be taken into consideration for marriage timing.

ex: one women ik has this in leo 2nd H. She met her husband 2010 & married 2012. 2 years of dating, married & engaged in 1.

ex.2: another has this in aries 2nd H. She met her husband 2015 & married 2017. 2 years of dating, married & engaged in 1.

ex.3: another has this in pisces (house unknown). She met her husband 2008 & married in 2010. 1 year of dating, engaged in the 2nd, married in 3rd year of knowing on another.

Venus in Aspect to Saturn - this on the other hand appears in the charts of people ik who dated for years before marriage.

ex: Venus opposite Saturn - 7 years of dating. Married in 8th.

ex: Venus trine Saturn - 6 years of dating. Married in 8th.

Saturn DK &/or Saturn ruled 7th H - this can show late marriage too.

ex: Saturn DK & Aqua 7th H - 5 years of dating. Engaged in 6th year. Married in 7th.

Accuracy is influenced by the entire chart. This is very generic & is not considering d9 & dasha periods which are extremely important for timing events.

Personally, I don’t see Saturn DK being that strong of an indicator for late meeting or late marriage. This is easily influenced by stronger indicators.

[talenlee]

Game Pile: Kentucky Route 0, One of Three Games About America

Script and Thumbnail below the fold!

Kentucky Route Zero is a magical realist point and click game of what I’d normally call Narrative Adventure, which came to kickstarter in 2011, then came out in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2020, because you can’t have nothing for free, even things you pay for. The game is a text-driven game without any of the trappings of your typical point-and-clicker where you jam a ladder in your pants and try to work out why you want to put green dye in the water fountain. Instead it follows the haunted mind of Conway, a trucky driver and his interactions with small handful of people on a part of the Kentucky Interstate, while he to find the place he needs to do his delivery, despite being utterly lost.

I enjoyed what of Kentucky Route Zero I played, but the thing that stands out to me in hindsight is its sound design. It’s a beautifully defined game, audio-wise, with all sorts of thoughtful foley for its environments, and the way that even the pieces of the interface that Conway interacts with have their own sort of specific authentic sounds, chonks and thunks and ch-zzzzses.

It’s also visually splendid, beautiful in what it tries to represent in the heightened reality of its setting but also the format of a videogame. These places look good from the angle that’s chosen, creating lines of artwork and bars of cages, depending on what you’re focusing on, and by being a fixed-camera story of its type, Kentucky Route Zero takes on traits of theatre, with blocking and careful positioning and timing all making up part of how the story unfolds.

A story I haven’t finished.

See, I don’t feel like playing Kentucky Route Zero Act V.

Sit down, traveller. Let me tell you a story.

There’s a chance you’ve heard this story before. I’ve anonymised it here, not because I think you shouldn’t be able to work out who it is, but because the idea of focusing on the who runs the risk of ignoring the what. Plus, I don’t want to direct anyone to a person who said something stupid and encourage fights. That’s not the important issue.

This is the story of when someone perfectly represented something, and probably never realised it.

You will sometimes hear me talk about the take that ‘there are three games about America,’ with a tone of utter revulsion and derision. This is from an incident back in 2020, when a game developer and advocate for inclusive games, had an opinion, on the internet. This advocate is well-established and has a big audience, but also, he’s crucially, not a white guy, not a Christian guy, and not an American guy. These are factors that play into what he said, which was, in summary, that while Kentucky Route 0 was no doubt phenomenal, he wasn’t interested in playing it right now.

To this, an actual adult responded with:

This is legitimately the worst take you’ve ever had. There are only about three games that are actually American, and this is one of them. Everything else is designed for export. Kr0 is a precious and valuable thing. It is of immense and intense personal importance.

Now, resisting the urge to argue with a tweet, which is just generally a bad practice that leads to doing things like wanting to be on twitter, and setting aside this tweet conflating ‘this is of personal importance to me’ and ‘this should be of importance to you,’ this position describes the idea that there are only three games that are ‘actually American.’

What does it mean to be ‘actually American?’

America is a pretty pervasive presence, if you’re not aware of it. Most people in the world have to know about what’s going on in America. We know about your Presidents and your Senators and your Constitution, to the point where people can be more aware of how your country’s laws work than their own country’s laws. I’ve often seen it held up as an example of how poorly educated people in say, Canada and Australia are that we believe we have, say, a ‘first amendment right,’ but the thing is you have to ask why there is that.

We watch so much American TV.

We listen to American music.

We try to make our news broadcasts look like yours, because that’s what real and legitimate news looks like. We try to retell your stories in our local languages because that’s what real media looks like. Our children sing songs in your accents because that’s the culture that a multi-trillion dollar economy has pumped into the whole world.

America demands we attend their wars and surrender our living to become their dead and when we are done America sells the survivors a cheeseburger.

This is not a remarkable or controversial statement. You must know, this is not even vaguely challenging to know about. Everywhere in the world is replicating parts of the American empire, because America exports and enforces the vision of the American empire. McDonalds may sell curry in India, but it’s very important that the curry being sold is McDonalds curry because that is how you know it’s an American style curry.

What this means is when someone tries to assert there are only really three games about America, that’s a kind of specialised brain rot that requires you to consider games that are very much about America as not being really about America. And thus we see the other thing about America, which is it’s not enough for America to be the most important place in the world that everyone else in the world needs to recognise, but also, most of America is inadequately America for this vision of America. You saw this in the wake of 9/11, and the election of Barack Obama: huge amounts of American media resurged in extolling the values of ‘real’ America, as opposed to the parts of America where the vast majority of Americans lived, which just so happened to paint a lot of marginalised people living in the cities as ‘fake Americans.’

I am not bringing you unique information. This is just obviously true things if you don’t live within the boundaries of an environment that flatters you as the most normal thing in the world. The vast majority of the world is not America. There are eight billion people in the world, more or less, meaning that America is about 4% of the world, and yet, it is catastrophically, overwhelmingly, deleritously the common touchstone for how things are ‘supposed’ to work. This is through media imperialism, which is mostly supported by American companies exporting all their media to foreign markets extremely cheaply.

‘about three games that are actually American.’

This fascinating piece of doofusry still, even now leaves me agog. ‘Actually American.’ Kentucky Route 0 is actually American, you see, as opposed to… what? Is America’s Army one of them? You know, the game financed by the American Army? What about Call of Duty, a franchise that is in part subsidised by American military complex manufacturers? What about Grand Theft Auto, a videogame that tells the rags-to-riches story of American excess in criminality, setting aside the way it’s made by a Scottish company. Actually American, because American doesn’t mean America, it means one tiny little pool of ‘America’ where the speaker can imagine there’s a realness and an authenticity to the America-ness that doesn’t involve all the messy realities of what it is to be America. It’s the towns of hard-working people, that suffer under your particular description of oppression, whether that’s cities full of nonwhite people or corporations bleeding the country dry, always eliding the social cruelties and terribleness of these places, as if giving people money stops them from being bigoted (for example).

This is then used to recruit these poor, superior Americans, the you know, America Americans, whose sufferings are noble and whose authenticity cannot be impeached and they are then used as a defense against criticism of, you know, America. It’s the same speech Charlie Daniels gave about how foreigners may think they could push around Barack Obama (a dude who bombed a lot of shepherds with the most elaborate and brutal military ordinance in the world) but they were going to have a harder time taking on Americans who wrestled alligators, who at this point have exactly zero recorded drone strike kills.

This is because America America isn’t real.

‘Real’ America is a nebulous nothing that you can project whatever you want onto, and which is also not responsible for anything terrible that America does. It’s not the American Empire, it’s not the exporter of culture, it’s somehow purer, better, a sort of individualised folk who are to be protected and extolled, shriven of all the things about America that make it anything but its perfect idealised form of America.

I could go on.

I really could.

This is something that defines the world I have to live in. I speak English. I’m white. I’m from a coloniser state. I should be able to integrate easily and smoothly into the white supremacist capitalist hierarchy of American culture, but we are told, that no, we are not acceptable. We are only valid as long as our differences are invisible. We, a real people, do not get to have opinions on America, because we do not know True America. When you spell colour wrong in a chat message, when your accent isn’t quite right, when you don’t know the difference between junior and sophomore year of high school, then you are shown, you are evinced, and you are made very aware that you are other, you are outside, you are wrong.

And really, there’s no good reason for it. We send our soldiers to America’s wars, we buy America’s submarines, and we sing your songs. Our currency mimics America’s, our culture permeats with America’s, we even have such a crushing inferiority complex about the empire that there’s an academic term for what we feel about our own media compared to the media of the truer, proper empire to which we are vassal.

The term is ‘cultural cringe,’ and it was coined by Henry Lawson, who you, odds on, have never heard of. In 1894, he wrote:

The Australian writer, until he gets a “London hearing,” is only accepted as an imitator of some recognized English or American author; and, as soon as he shows signs of coming to the front, he is labelled “The Australian Southey,” “The Australian Burns,” or “The Australian Bret Harte,” and lately, “The Australian Kipling.” Thus no matter how original he may be, he is branded, at the very start, as a plagiarist, and by his own country, which thinks, no doubt, that it is paying him a compliment and encouraging him, while it is really doing him a cruel and an almost irreparable injury. But mark! As soon as the Southern writer goes “home” and gets some recognition in England, he is “So-and-So, the well-known Australian author whose work has attracted so much attention in London lately”; and we first hear of him by cable, even though he might have been writing at his best for ten years in Australia.

This is imperialism. This is a way in which we have been induced and brought by the empires around us to accept their ways as correct, as the normal, as default. And that is the mindset you must have if you want to look at the breadth of videogames, with their American ideas like health insurance, readily available guns, the importance of freedom, the ubiquity of air travel, the branding and iconography of types of food and the sports metaphors and then say ‘yeah, this doesn’t have anything to do with America, not really.’

Anyway, this thread, this incident, was a big deal at the time, in that there were a lot of people from within the community of game developers and journalists who seemed very happy to line up and get mad at a brown foreigner for being inadequately enthusiastic about the possibility of playing a videogame. But don’t worry, after a day or two, an apology was forthcoming for all of this fracas, by which I mean, the original developer apologised for being so thoughtless as to, again, express honest lack of enthusiasm in a videogame.

For me, this was a kind of break point, where I started just blocking indie devs on sight. I don’t want to know what they’re involved in, I don’t want to promote their work, and I will hold tiny grudges against them that I do not seek to transfer or encourage in others. This was one silly incident in which a lot of people said something silly because they don’t know better, or they’re arseholes.

None of this is fair to Kentucky Route 0. It’s a game with its own intentions and its own perspective. It’s not trying to make this conversation happen. Kentucky Route 0 has been choked and gripped by this position around it, where to talk about an American game, someone put a cross on it that made it the avatar for All Things America. The wild thing to me is that I had, prior to this point, played two episodes of Kentucky Route 0. I thought it was pretty good, and I liked what it did with the negative space of dialogue options – when a character you’re controlling makes excuses, the excuses you choose show you other things you could be making excuses about that you, the player, didn’t know beforehand. That’s some good Narrative Storytelling Design, I like that a lot. But now I can’t really engage with Kentucky Route Zero because the main thing it makes me think about is how this final chapter, meant to round out the game’s story and present a conclusion and a point, became this flashpoint for a lot of people to be very casually racist.

Which kinda poisons the whole thing for me. It’s an authentic thing, I’m sure, it’s a thoughtful thing, too, but the people stepping up to say I should care about it did so in a way that made me hate them.

Any time you see me say ‘three games about America’ I’m talking about this, and the attitude of a particular kind of American that America is, as always, exceptional. It’s real easy to not realise when you’re just voicing your self-centeredness and how easy that is to ignore the opinions of people around you and what they’re saying. This is what I’m talking about when I mention ‘the three games about America.’

[fade for credit text]

By the way, the three games about America are Crash Bandicoot, Sam & Max Hit The Road, and Bust A Move.

[miastjames]

❀ you’re not from around here , are you? i figured because you totally just missed { AMELIA "MIA" ST. JAMES } walking by. don’t tell me you don’t know who { SHE } is/are ? they kind of look like { HANNAH DODD } and i could be wrong but i think that they might be { TWENTY EIGHT } years old right now. they’ve been living in palmview for the last { TWENTY EIGHT YEARS }. and i don’t know if anyone has ever told them this before but they kind of remind me of { MIA THERMOPOLIS } from { THE PRINCESS DIARIES }. if you stick around the town long enough you might catch them in action working at { FREELANCE } as a { AUTHOR }. you see this town isn’t really that big of a place, some folks like to call them the { THE LOVABLE ROGUE } of palmview! they took a liking to the name too after a while, go figure. oh crap, they must have heard me yapping. they’re coming this way. i got to warn you though, rumor has it they can pretty { KLUTZY} at times. i wouldn’t take it too seriously though, from the times i’ve spoken to them they seemed pretty { PASSIONATE } to me. we see each other all the time since they live in that { 1 ROOM LOFT } apartment beside me over in { MANGO BAY }. i better leave you to it. it was nice meeting you! 

►GENERAL INFORMATION

FULL NAME: Amelia Cosette St. James Beaumont Daventry NICKNAME(S): Mia, Milly LABEL: The Lovable Rogue AGE: 28 DATE OF BIRTH: September 25, 1996 ZODIAC: Libra Sun, Virgo Rising, Pisces Moon GENDER & PRONOUNS: Female; She/Her HERITAGE: English, Gharandrian SPOKEN LANGUAGE(S): English OCCUPATION: Author SEXUALITY & ROMANCE: Bisexual; Biromantic PET(S): Siamese cat named Caesar

► APPEARANCE

FACE CLAIM: Hannah Dodd HEIGHT: 5'6" WEIGHT: 110 lbs. DOMINANT HAND: Right HAIR COLOR: Auburn EYE COLOR: Brown SCARS: None notable. TATTOOS: None.

►PERSONALITY

POSITIVE TRAITS: Authentic, Adaptable, Passionate, Romantic. NEGATIVE TRAITS: Self-critical, Clumsy, Introverted, Naive. LIKES: Writing, hanging out with friends, trying new things/learning something new, sunshine rain, dancing. DISLIKES: Liars, people who put others down.

►MENTALITY

PHOBIAS: None. DISORDERS: Anxiety ALLERGIES: Seasonal (Pollen)

►BACKGROUND

HOMETOWN: Palview Grove, FL CURRENT RESIDENCE: Palmview Grove, FL EDUCATION LEVEL: MA in Art History FAMILIAL CONNECTIONS: - Poppy St. James - 55, Mother, In Contact - Sylvester Beaumont Daventry - 54, Father, Deceased

►FAVORITES

FOOD: Egg rolls / Chinese Food DRINK: English Breakfast Tea MOVIE: Serendipity TV SHOW: The Great British Bake Off, Bridgerton BAND/ARTIST: Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams SONG: Cruel Summer - Taylor Swift

► EXTRA INFORMATION

JUNG TYPE: INFP ENNEAGRAM: The Advisor (9w8) TEMPERAMENT: Sanguine MORAL ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Good SIN: Pride VIRTUE: Charity ELEMENT: Water CHARACTER PLAYLIST

► BIOGRAPHY

TW; Death mention, Bullying mention

Gharandy is a small country nestled in the corner of France and Italy. The country is mostly English speaking with French and Italian also being notable languages spoken amongst the people. They usually don’t even make the map because of how small they are. At least, that’s what Sylvester told Poppy. Did she believe him? The answer changes every time the whirlwind summer romance story is told. The product of such a thing? None other than Amelia Cosette St. James Beaumont Daventry. The Beaumont Daventry portion of Mia’s name was always dropped as she grew up. Never being able to know her dad due to his death, and no one else around them knew he was the supposed next king of a European country - Mia’s mother thought this made Mia safe. More importantly, this meant Mia could live a normal life. And a normal life Mia, in fact, did lead. She was the awkward kid who always reminded the teachers about homework. Her head was always in a book, her head in the clouds. She got bullied, but who didn’t besides those doing the bullying? Never good at sports, Mia was always picked last in gym class. It wasn’t until her paternal grandmother came to visit, that Mia’s world was flipped upside down. “Me? A princess? Shut up!” She remembers so clearly standing there in the hallway, her mother halfway down the stairs looking on. There was a face of guilt there, and Mia couldn’t take it. She went up to her room and shut everyone else out. That was, until school the next day when she was bombarded with cameras. Now aware of her royal status, Mia is still in Palmview Grove. Why? Well, the land of Gharandy isn’t safe and hasn’t been safe for her since her birth. With people wanting nothing more than the crown, her grandmother advised her to stay in Palmview until further notice. Mia is indifferent to it. She doesn’t mind not having the responsibilities she knows she one day will have to step up to. On the other hand, she finds herself coming up with plans to aid the orphanages and school programs from her balcony window.

► PERSONALITY (DEEP DIVE)

Mia is always rebelling against her princess title, ever since it was bestowed upon her. She used to be very reluctant as a kid, but now she loves to go out and get into a little trouble to try to disconnect herself from her title. She's a romantic at heart, which is probably why her journalling turned into a romance series for all to read. Though, she isn't lucky in love. Usually, people just attempt to use her for their own selfish gain - whether that's fame or fortune for having their faces splashed across magazine articles with her. She loves art and some of her fondest moments are when her mother and her would throw paint-filled water balloons at huge canvases in her mother's studio. It was her mother that influenced Mia to get an Art History degree. To this day, she still loves to wander and get lost in art museums. Kind to a default, Mia tends to give people numerous chances - even if they don't deserve it. It's a great fault of hers and makes her come off as naive to some. You can usually catch her at home attempting to bake a new recipe she finds online, or at the local book store. She loves hanging out with friends, but also values her alone time. Mia stumbles over her words very easily. She mostly gets stuck in her head and gets caught up on not ruining moments, but then ruins them cause she's so caught up on it. In the end, she's a very clumsy but lovable person who means well - she just doesn't agree with the cards she was dealt.

► HEADCANONS

Mia has a locket that was given to her by her father before he passed away. It's a heart with a cursive 'G' on it (for Gharandy). It is also a key for her journal that was given to her by her paternal grandmother.

When super anxious, Mia plays with her hair. It's a habit her grandmother doesn't approve of, but she just can't help it.

She collects snow-globes. She just loves how beautiful they are, and keeps all hers in a china cabinet.

Mia is the ultimate double-texter. It makes her want to run and hide sometimes, but she can't help but to text multiple times in a row.

[dulaman-na-farraige]

Talking to the wall here, but I've been thinking more about Nausicaa manga recently and specifically Kushana and the way she's portrayed in it. If you think that viewing the manga through queer lens is impossible just scroll past this and don't scream at me, I'm not making anyone read this or agree with me, I'm just writing down my thoughts

Anything gender related doesn't*really* get talked about in the manga (except for maybe hate towards women in Tolmekia?) but I've read many reviews/analyses regarding Nausicaa and Kushana and the way they're shown as female characters and different"feminine" traits they have, and while I don't really understand treating various personality traits as "masculine" or "feminine" I believe that we don't talk about Kushana's lifestyle literally challenging the way Tolmekian society treats gender norms enough. Just think about it. A princess born in a country where women are looked down on and not taken seriously, where they have 0 chances of gaining any power, commands an army and takes the throne. Not to mention that Kushana also had 3 elder brothers who were more than likely to become rulers of Tolmekia. She's also admired and respected or even feared by many people despite nearly being called "inferior" in the scene with her brother just because she was born a woman. What caught my attention however is that it's unusual to see a princess being given the same kind of upbringing as the princes. Kushana and her brothers were given military education and were expected to command armies, despite the fact that in many ways (gender, being the youngest in the family, not being a biological child to the emperor * according to one of the interpretations of 3 really confusing panels *, just to name a few) Kushana was not supposed to gain any political power at all. You could almost say that Kushana was treated as a prince, despite being a girl, which is exactly why I started writing this wall of text.

Kushana is everything men are supposed to be in this kind of *medieval-ish* society: a leader, a military commander, an excellent swordsman and rider, a talented tactician etc. even more so than her brothers who are never depicted doing anything she did . Sadly, the manga never mentions anything about how Kushana views her position and her responsibilities as well as the way she achieved her status. We never see how she views herself and her gender and how she's treated by her brothers (and probably other people as well). I believe that being female is not exactly comfortable for Kushana, given her rather abusive family.

It may not have been a conscious choice for her, but taking up a social role of a prince is what gave her the privileged position she had. Unlike Nausicaa who never really was limited to a certain type of social behavior dictated by the binary norms, Kushana had to behave according to these norms, but the manga does not explore that.

I'm entering headcanon territory at this point, just a warning for those of you who have read this far. Ever since I reread the manga for the 2nd/3? rd time I can't help viewing Kushana as a transmasc character. She doesn't necessarily present herself in this way fully (the clothing aspect mainly, which isn't explored either) but behavior-wise she definitely does. Her hair could also have been an aspect of presenting in a different way than her cis gender if her decision to cut it short was less impulsive. Obviously that's not the only way to interpret that, because being a butch lesbian also fits Kushana really well. Neither of these hcs have any confirmations and that's why both of them can be valid. Her backstory is a very interesting part of her character I wish more was said about it in the manga

[meili-sheep]

so i've seen this theory that is allegedly going to be confirmed in 3.4 Basically it says that al haitham cannot feel any emotions bc he is the sole survivor/successful case of the greyscale elezar experiments run by dottore and it basically lobotomised him so he doesnt feel emotions and thats why he wants to live a quiet life as a scribe. I say a lot of kaveh/al haitham shippers talking about this on twitter as some kind of win bc aww al haitham let kaveh enter his super controlled life ect ect. 1. idk if this is an outlandish theory that has no chance of becoming canon bc i dont really have a good gage for that kind of thing so if im falling for the bait im sorry 2. I can kind of understand it for story reasons as it makes for a compelling relationship between al haitham and dottore and by extension the akademyia for allowing dottore back BUT 3. I feel really sad bc it means all that autistic coding was a concious effort to make the character LITERally unfeeling. It means all those traits I recognised in myself and in him are the result of him missing something, being less, ect. and it kinda hurts. Like obvs i never expected hoyo to come out and make him autistic in canon but it just feels like another autistic coded character that is coded that way because they are missing something fundamentally human. Whether thats an android, alien, puppet ect. Idk you are one of the few people on here ive seen talk about al haitham being autistic coded so i wanted to get your thoughts -@under-wcrlds

ahahahahahha

Yeah. (Genshin talk start at paragraph 4)

I've actually mentioned in a previous post that I don't want Al Haitham to be any kind of inhuman character because he's so humanity autistic. Like in particular, he feels a lot like my brand of autism. Because here is the thing. I'm not academically gifted. But I'm incredible with patterns. I'm very good at seeing the patterns of life and being able to predict on only people's responses but emotional responses without knowing them. And I have the same goals as Al Haitham. I want to live a simple and comfy life. Do no more work than needed, and then do what interests me. I have also turned down big leadership positions because that's not what I want to do.

And guess what. I'm a real fucking person. Yeah, I've been through some shit. But that didn't make me this way, and everyone goes through it at one point or another.

But I've always been like this. Fuck, my mom had me (at a young age) start packing the car on trips because I could just see where everything was supposed to be. I was never one who could express my emotions well. I still struggle with that, and I feel a lot of the time, I come across as a know-it-all? And attention-hogging because I just talk in a sort of weird antidotal way.

This also makes me a good storyteller because I can give a more natural flow of events. So let me country why I don't think this theory is gonna be correct.

in the 3.2 stories. Al Haitham did say he understands and knows the importance of emotions and makes it clear that he's not really the type who is good a motivating people through emotion. Never did he make any reference to not being able to feel them. Fuck I'd argue he'd have to have them to understand what the mad Scholars were feeling to imitate them as well as he did.

Also, there isn't really a reason to re-pick up the elezar plotline, as it has been pretty solidly dealt with. Like it's gone, there's no reason to look more into it. We know what causes it and what cured it. Like if they are to bring Dottore up again, it will be for another story and another experiment. Also, Dottore isn't the type to pick up something again once his interest in it is gone. Heck, look at Scaramouch. Plus, Dottore had Collie. Like that's confirmed. And seemingly, Dottore knew how to keep elezar at bay. So there wouldn't be much reason for him to expand experimentation. Let long a reason to make someone stop feeling emotions.

The TDLR is that there really wouldn't be many benefits for Dottore if this was the case, and that feels outta character. Also, we don't know Al Haitham's timeline, just that he graduated, which apparently is really hard to do and takes a lot of time.

And a point that's just hit me.

LISA WANTS TO LIVE A SIMPLE LIFE. And She's objectively waaaaaay smarter than Al Haitham is. So again, it's not a good reason?

Idk man. I'm a little heated under the collar because I HATE when people try and make an autistic-coded character nonhuman. Because I'm a human.

[malcohen]

the loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly ;

Character Name: Malcolm Cohen

Character Age: 33

Character Birthday: February 1, 1991

Gender & Pronouns: Male, He/Him

Time in Tonopah Valley: 2 years

Occupation: Bouncer at The Raven

Gang Affiliation: Hellraisers

Neighborhood: Downtown

Face Claim: Paul Mescal

BASICS.

Sexuality: Bisexual

Ethnicity: White

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Blue

Height: 5'11

Hometown: Dorchester, MA

Education: High School Degree; Completed Associates Degree in Psychology during time in prison

Languages: English

Relationship Status: Single

Children: None

STATS.

Personality Type: ENFJ-T

Moral Alignment: Neutral Good

Positive Traits: Easygoing, Empathetic, Honest, Protective, Supportive

Negative Traits: Addictive, Defensive, Paranoid, Indecisive

Mental Health: Depression, Addiction

Fears: Ending up alone forever.

FAMILY .

Father: Joshua Cohen

Mother: Marie Cohen née Doherty

Siblings: Hannah Cohen (deceased)

BACKGROUND. (tw: drug abuse, overdose)

Born in Boston to a normal middle-class family. His parents didn't make amazing money but they had all they needed never went without.

Mal struggled with depression from a young age and, in turn, started acting out. Joined a bad crowd, started experimenting with drugs, got suspended a lot. It was a cry for help but his parents, despite their best efforts, just didn't know what to do.

Didn't go to college but started bartending at a local pub and eventually got his own place in his early twenties. Parents thought this would get him to grow up but all his newfound freedom made things worse. Drug use started getting out of hand and Malcolm turned into someone his family didn't recognize. Still, they tried to be supportive.

Things came to a head in his late twenties though when his sister asked him to buy her Adderall so she could study for her law exams. He gave her a few pills from a new stash that he figured would do the trick. Unfortunately, the pills were laced and Hannah died two days later.

His parents hired a lawyer for him, but kind of used it as their last parting gift, cutting him off once and for all after his sentencing. He got a deal and plead guilty to manslaughter, serving 3 years in prison. The guilt ate at him alive, knowing it was him that should have been the one to die, but after some time, he decided he needed to turn his life around.

Malcolm has been sober for 5 years, out of prison for two. Instead of contacting his parents after his release, he thought it better to let them be. Even if they could mend things, the relationship between them could never be the same. He harbors no ill will towards them and understands that his actions were unforgivable.

Ended up moving across the country to Tonopah at the suggestion of his cousin Maeve, hoping for a fresh start. Eventually got hired at The Raven as a bouncer.

His growing friendship with Nate, his boss, quickly led to an invitation to become a prospect for the Hellraisers. Although he was initially cautious and trying to avoid trouble, the Hellraisers offered him a sense of belonging that he had been missing for a while. About a year later, Malcolm became a full-fledged member of the MC.

He finds that he's the happiest he's ever been mentally since getting sober, even if his circumstances aren't so great. He even leads AA meetings from time to time when they need someone. Tries to be very in touch with his emotions and do good deeds for others whenever he can.

He's generally pretty soft spoken, but at work or otherwise he isn't afraid to get in someone's face if they're out of line. He's from Boston, he's had his fair share of tussles.

He loves being outdoors and going on long hikes.

Has an 9-year-old french bulldog named Pepper that he adopted from the local humane society after getting out of prison. He credits Pepper with keeping him sane during those first few months.

[anryuuepic]

Test Subject: Neptune Bio

Name: Test Subject Neptune

Species: Ghiasuli

Race: Bluescale

Role: A Test Subject of Winterkill Works, formerly from the Ghiasuli side of the border. Relaxed to a concerning degree, he doesn’t seem to be concerned with any of the disturbing happenings around him. His power is one of two given to the Test Subjects that didn’t backfire. 

Affiliation: Winterkill Works

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Height: 6’3

Appearance: Neptune is a tall, thin man with a lanky, narrow build. His skin is tanned from time spent out in the sun, his eyes are the same blue as a cloudless sky, and his features are gentle and relaxed. Light blond hair falls to around his shoulder blades (with the lower half of it dyed a bright, shimmering turquoise by Apollo), and his bangs are kept pinned up. 

Personality: Neptune is, above all, slow-paced. He’s relaxed to the point of detachment from the world around him, seemingly lost in his own head at all times. Aimless and lacking ambition, he’s content to merely lie around and let his life pass him by, uncaring of what he misses. He moves at his own pace even if it inconveniences others, but while he’s far from apologetic, he doesn’t go out of his way to cause trouble or distress. Those who approach him are met with open, unguarded kindness, though, and he’s the type who tolerates a bit too much from people before he’ll fight back. Secretive, he doesn’t voice the things he thinks about, preferring to let his inner world remain a mystery to everyone, his true thoughts much the same.

Positive Traits: Neptune’s laid-back nature can be a benefit to him. He rarely gets caught up in stress or anxiety, and has a particular sense of confidence that comes from just plain not caring about much of anything. He’s generally an approachable, pleasant person; someone who’s easy to talk to and easy to trust. Being around him often drags others into his pace, bringing a sense of calmness to otherwise tense situations. He’s extremely psychologically resilient and good at helping others as a result. 

Negative Traits: At the same time that it’s his greatest asset, that laid-back nature is Neptune’s biggest flaw. His apathy hurts him more than he realizes, especially in terms of a lack of connection with other people and a lack of control over his own life. He’s utterly aimless, having no hopes, goals, or dreams outside of things that he fully believes are impossible. In the end, he’s the type to do nothing but lie around and daydream about better things while never actually trying to improve the situation he’s in. 

History: As a teenager, Neptune worked on a ship at a particular Ghiasuli lake. He loved the water and open sky more than anything, but a lack of money and means to live eventually drove him to accept an offer from Winterkill Works to become an experimental subject, which required him to leave the country and his job on the ship along with it. He’s never had family or friends that he was close to; just himself and the two-part world that he adores. Leaving that is what he regrets the most, out of all of it. 

Relationships: Neptune is generally tolerated by the other Test Subjects. Venus finds him particularly troublesome, though, and Apollo considers him a dear friend— they’re the only two Ghiasuli present, after all. Neptune himself is open to interacting with whoever approaches him first. He won’t go out of his way to make friends or form relationships, no matter how much he enjoys company when someone does find their way to his door. 

Interests: Neptune likes the sea and sky, long naps, and being able to do what he wants. He dislikes feeling trapped, getting caught up in conflict, and being lectured or scolded. The only thing he’s done since becoming a Test Subject is lie around in his room and sleep the days away. 

WW Role: As one of the specially selected Test Subjects, Neptune was given a particular experimental power. In his case, it was superhuman resilience— in the sense that his healing is accelerated, his needs for food and water are drastically lowered, and more. He’s one of two Test Subjects whose power didn’t backfire, and he feels some level of guilt over that. 

Miscellaneous: Neptune loves the ocean; despite how dangerous it is, the sight of it fills him with incredible joy. The blue in his hair is from Apollo; it’s grown out since the surprise “gift”, and he’s been too lazy to cut off the still-colored parts. People tend to assume he’s older than he is, for reasons he’s never been able to figure out. He greatly dislikes the weather of the Daryan country, especially how dry and windy it tends to be. He insisted on having his room’s ceiling painted to look like the sky he so fondly remembers so that he always has that familiar sight to look up at when he wakes. 

Connotative Description: A relaxed, yet apathetic man, detached from the world, who does nothing but dream of better things. Lacking connection and purpose in his life, he’s reached a point of giving up on ever having more.

[cerseiwexler]

💭 THOUGHT BALLOON🎶 MUSICAL NOTES❤️ RED HEART 🍰 SHORTCAKE <33 you can pick who to write about!!

💭 THOUGHT BALLOON — what is your oc's MBTI, enneagram, and/or other personality aspects (if known/interested in)?

i am actually not interested in any of those types of quizzes 💀 if i had to guess based on the basic rundown google is giving me, mae would probably be an enfj, and zeet would probably be an es(t/f)p. i know absolutely nothing about enneagrams and such — i don’t tend to take things that sort people into neat little boxes real seriously, though they can certainly be fun!

🎶 MUSICAL NOTES — what type of music does your oc like? do they listen to music very often?

mae likes dramatic, baroque pop the best. she has quite a catalog of throwbacks that she grew up listening to from her parents/sister but definitely forms a taste all her own. think a mix of the very best radio hits, experimental music on the outskirts of pop, and of course anything with a burlesque twist.

zeet loves country, they grew up listening to it and it stayed relevant in their life as a rancher! they also enjoy some good rock or pop with a real stomping bassline, and a few oldies here and there. they’d never admit it but they’re a sucker for a good love song!

❤️ RED HEART — what are three of your oc's positive traits?

mae: a) sense of aesthetics. i don’t just mean fashion — her whole concept of what looks good and what doesn’t just works. now, it’s not to everyone’s taste, but there’s a certain level of craftsmanship that can’t be denied. b) openness. she’s used to a wide variety of people so no matter what you look like, she’s just as liable to be your friend as anyone else. c) loyalty. this is a common theme in my ocs but it’s true for her too, once you’ve got her in your life you’ve got her for life.

zeet: a) determination. you set a goal in front of them and they will achieve it at any cost, no matter how crafty or tough or dare i say dangerous they have to be to achieve it. b) survival skills. this is someone you want on your side if you were stuck on a desert island. they spent their entire late childhood onward on a ranch so they’ve picked up some tricks! c) sense of humor. when they’re not on the job they’re real relaxed and easy to be around, and making people laugh is one of their favorite things!

🍰 SHORTCAKE — what is/are your oc's favorite sweet(s)/dessert(s)?

mae enjoys a really good fruit tart with vanilla cream, as well as pastries — she’s part french bloodline-wise and developed a taste for the sweets that are popular over there. she loves a macaron! rose is her favorite flavor.

zeet likes ice cream! really freshly made ice cream, ideally. they like vanilla with toppings, usually crumbled up peanut butter cups or oreos, though choco chips will do in a pinch. and they like spicy mexican candies too!

[eternalwakestone]

∞ Arisen & Pawn Character Introductions

I needed to make this for Agatha and Merlara (Cory and Sybil coming soon.) Template by @arisenreborn

♛ THE ARISEN:

NAME: Agatha Wentworth AGE: 28-29 RACE: Human PRONOUNS: She/Her PREFERRED VOCATION: Trickster but also Sorcerer FAVORED GIFTS: Gold Ore, Books, and Dyes FAMILY: Father, Mother (She's an only child)

POSITIVE TRAITS: Honest, Resilient, Understanding, Strong-Willed, Curious NEGATIVE TRAITS: Brash, Cold, A bit Egotistical LIKES: Books, Wine, Quiet Places DISLIKES: Politics, Ogres, Obnoxiousness, Phaesus

1. What was their life like before becoming Arisen?

Agatha used to live in Bakbattahl where she studied magic with her father, she then ends up becoming curious in experimenting different types of magic on objects and later on a little bit on living creatures. By the time the Research Lab is created her father had butted heads with Phaesus a lot regarding the ethics of the whole thing, without knowing his daughter had begun doing similar experiments. With the whole thing breathing down her father's neck, he ordered Agatha to leave for Vermund. To say Agatha disliked Vermund would be an understatement she hated how the country was run and how their politics function. How she ended up working for the Vermund military is a mystery even to her (although that might be a lie created by the Pathfinder.)

2. How do they handle being Arisen, and the responsibilities that come with it?

At first she seems to completely disregard the title, seeing it as nothing special. Later on in her journey she's more annoyed and by the time TALOS appears she's frustrated because at that point she's just done with this whole journey and feels all the things she's done up till now means nothing.

3. What are their thoughts on Pawns in general?

Since she was born in Bakbattahl her views at first was just a general dislike for them, even more so since Merlara had the same appearance of a dead woman. Over time once she got over Merlara appearing the way she did, she warmed up a little bit to her but was still wary of pawns as a whole. She does grow to appreciate pawns since she starts realizing they mean good and just want to help her on her journey, even if they can get on her nerves sometimes.

4. What's their relationship like with their main Pawn?

It's rocky to say the least. Agatha had been uncomfortable by Merlara's both physically since her appearance resembles a elf lady's corpse she discovered when she was younger. Agatha knows it's not the same lady but to her it's almost as if Merlara's like a zombie, especially by the way she acts. Over time Agatha realizes Merlara copies a lot of Agatha's mannerisms and the way she fights and at her she finds it confusing and frustrating at first, but by the time they start trying to figure out what the Godsway is, Agatha realizes it's more akin to a person trying to imitate another person they admire a lot, so Agatha finds it cute after a while. She starts enjoying Merlara's company not too long in their journey.

5. Do they have any interest in being Sovran? What are their opinions on the politics of the world in general?

She wouldn't mind being sovran if it meant she could take Disa out of power, but other than that she's fine not becoming it. Like I said she hates the way Vermund is ran so if she could change it by any means she'll be A okay with it.

6. Who are their love interest(s) and/or closest friends?

Agatha doesn't really have a lover, well one from the same universe that is. Her love interest is actually my other DD2 arisen Cornelius (AKA Cory) since she likes how he goes about business while also being comedic at times (He makes her laugh okay.) Both their worlds are being held together by duct tape so these two kinda end up crossing paths with each other and camp together. As for her closest friends while she hates Disa with a passion, she cares for Sven as like her little brother as she wants nothing but the best for him (If he ends up becoming sovran she wouldn't mind.) However Ulrika is technically her closest friend as Agatha tended to stay at Melve a lot so she got to know Ulrika pretty well. Both of them tend to go hunting a lot and travel a lot. Nadinia is also a close friend of hers as Nadinia comes by her home sometimes just to chat.

7. What drew them to their preferred vocation? Do they have history with it?

Agatha always had a calling for magic so she ends up using mostly those kinds of vocations but Trickster and Sorcerer was the ones that hit with her the most. However if you asked her if she had a guilty pleasure vocation, she would definitely say Warrior.

8. Do they have any hobbies? Any way of relaxing between all that monster-slaying and traveling?

Agatha loves reading and tends to buy from the book lady under her house and spend hours upon hours in her home just reading. Sight seeing is also a pass time for her, even if it tends to be cut short by small monsters.

♟︎ THE PAWN:

NAME: Merlara AGE: Unknown, Seems to look around 27 RACE: Elf (Pawn) PRONOUNS: She/Her PREFERRED VOCATION: Archer and Sorcerer FAVORED GIFTS: Bunch of Flowers, Herbs, Fruit INCLINATION: Calm

POSITIVE TRAITS: Caring, Open Minded, Curious NEGATIVE TRAITS: Oblivious, Gullible, a bit Obnoxious at times LIKES: Plants, Exploring, Hunting DISLIKES: Hot climates, Slimes, Rotten Foods

1. What was their life like prior to being summoned by their Arisen?

Nothing special, Agatha's her first arisen so she never really had a body until she was called by Agatha.

2. What is their opinion on the Arisen? How do they view their relationship?

Merlara admires Agatha, she likes how Agatha can take on the world even if said world wants to take her down. She's a bit confused when she first meets Agatha because of how cold her arisen was. Once Agatha starts warming up to her, Merlara develops that admiration once Agatha starts viewing her as more of a person.

3. Is there anything about the Arisen they find troublesome? Be it a small quirk or bad habit? (Or are they obviously flawless?)

Despite Merlara's love for her arisen, she does find it worrisome by how cold Agatha is to people in general. Sometimes Merlara or another person would say something to Agatha and she either consciously or unconsciously ignores it. She also find it worrisome from how invested Agatha is about the Godsway, not that Agatha would ever use it but she is curious by how it works.

4. What is their specialization and is there any story behind how they cultivated that skill set?

Woodland Wordsmith! Merlara has that specialization because well, she's suppose to be an elf and Agatha finds it weird that she couldn't understand nor speak it.

5. Do they have any thoughts on the politics of the world and their place in it as a Pawn - or how Pawns are treated?

Merlara didn't really have any thoughts at first, until the coronation happen then she's upset and shamed over the fact she could be control just like that. By the time they entered Battahl she's sadden by the way her and other pawns are treated but also realizes why Agatha had acted the way she did during a good chunk of their journey. Merlara wishes nothing now but pawns being treated better than they are in both countries.

6. Does their journey with the Arisen change them in any significant way and how?

Merlara starts off as being ambivalent of the world she was called to, especially after her first interaction with Agatha. Once she starts actually seeing the world she grows a admiration for it, until she starts interacting with the people of both Vermund and Battahl, then her uncertainty of the world comes back after the backlash she has received as a pawn. By the time they enter the Unmoored World, Merlara wants to see the world in a better place as much as Agatha, no matter what.

7. Is there a reason they chose their preferred vocation?

Merlara was an Archer at first but although she did try her best, she wasn't very good at it. She then gravitated towards Sorcerer and turns out she had a pretty good talent for magic just like her arisen. She wanted to be the best so she began to mimic a lot of the way Agatha uses magic since she wanted to learn from the best after all.

8. Do they have any hobbies or preferred past-times?

Collecting things has always been a fun pass time for Mer, whenever it be ores or monster parts she tends to horde a lot of things just because she likes them. Hunting is fun for her too because Agatha and her tend to go hunting for meats.

[pandoraxrosier]

──  *✰ ۫  pandora o. rosier.

( 21. ex-slytherin. spell creator. neutral )

wild mushrooms, walking barefoot by a river, tarot cards, eyes full of stars, the month of spring, spending all your time with animals rather than people, chipped black nail polish, pressed flowers and pressed moths, unhinged quips that make your friends erupt with laughter, a leather jacket over a lace dress

BASIC INFORMATION

full name: pandora ophelia mañosca rosier

pandora (greek) "all gifts". in greek mythology, the first mortal woman, pandora, was created beautiful and delightful by the gods, such that every man was attracted to her. ophelia (greek) "help", "aid", or "advantage". best known for the tragic heroine in william shakespeare's 'hamlet'. although ophelia's story is heartbreaking and poignant, the name also represents beauty and selflessness. rosier (french) "rose bush".

age: 21

date of birth: 29th february 1961

star sign: pisces

element: water / ruling planet: neptune / spirit colour: sea green / lucky gem: moonstone / flower: water lily pisces are smart, creative, and deeply intuitive, pisces can be close to psychic. they feel things deeply, and have incredibly strong gut reactions. a pisces "knows" things from deep within, and can often judge whether a person or situation is good or bad. that doesn't mean a pisces ignores the logical part of their brain, though. deeply intelligent, pisces have a profound respect for the power of the human mind.

hometown: malahide, ireland

gender: female

pronouns: she/her

orientation: bisexual

occupation: spell creator (freelance)

language(s) spoken: english, filipino, french, gaelic, tagalog

positive traits: creative, intelligent, unconstrained, passionate, selfless, thoughtful

negative traits: impractical, indecisive, head-in-the-clouds, easily overwhelmed, naive

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

fc: olivia rodrigo 

hair colour: black

eye colour: brown

height: 5'4

tattoos: none but i might change this

scars: grazes on legs and feet and arms from running through wild grass etc etc

MAGIC

blood status: pureblood

patronus: thestral

the second most rare patronus, only an unusual individual could produce a thestral. those with the thestral patronus are gentle at heart and kind to those around them. they have an understanding nature and will often make others feel understood. they may find people around you open up to them with things they have told nobody else. having such a gentle nature does make people with the thestral sometimes at risk of being pushed around, however, it is uncommon for someone to feel negatively towards those who cast this patronus. those with this patronus often have the most gentle souls of all.

boggart: a sand timer running out

wand: 12", oak, dragon heartstring

affiliation: neutral

hogwarts house: slytherin

subjects: divination, care of magical creatures, arithmancy, charms

extracurricular activities: none  

pet: two abraxans (winged ponies) called flora and clover, a piglet called calliope, luzon bleeding-heart (a type of bird) named dibdib, thornback spider called arabella, doesn't count but some fairies who live at the bottom of her garden

QUICK FACTS

tw: stillbirth, references to infanticide, murder (dark!)

pandora was born to a rosier daughter, and a mañosca son. her mother's family was one of the oldest and most sacred in the united kingdom, and her father's was the oldest and most sacred in the philippines. growing up, she spent her time between both countries, in the lap of privilege. she experienced everything the world had to offer.

she noticed how it was kinda weird that her father's family only ever had one male heir per generation. turns out they practice poisoning their unborn male babies so that there's never any contention for the family seat!

her mother killed her dad for revenge when pandora was 8 and came back to the uk with the kids where she moved to one of her family's residences in ireland!!!

people used to call pandora weirdddd growing up, but her mother told her it was because they were jealous <3 . she had bright, starry eyes, thought she could do anything, and had never known the word no, so tended to march to the beat of her own drum. throw in all the weird murder stuff, it just made her have a lilll streak of insanity

she's very tender, very soft, whimsical almost, but definitely has a fierce side to her where she could easily kill for people she loves. very few friends.

she's a spell creator, very imaginative, head in the clouds. definitely an optimist and idealist. has a lot of self-confidence. she also doesn't really know when to stop, and has never known any limits.

also v artistic, loves painting, scrapbooking etc. she's into very sterotypically witchy things, loves herbology and plants and astrology, quite mystical, maybe pretends to be a seer and gives people fake prophecies for shits n giggles

in terms of the war, she's neutral/a pacifist. her family's big on blood purity but she's not really bothered. she's just doing her own thing

WANTED CONNECTIONS

friends! she has only a few but would kill for them.

people who she doesn't like. pandora can be vicious, sarcastic, mean when she wants to be

xenophilius lovegood....

[fangsnfair]

Is that HERO FIENNES TIFFIN? No, that’s IAIN FAIR. The 26 year old BORROWER WITCH OMEGA DUAL-NATURED (HE-HIM-THEY-THEM) is a LATE NIGHT RADIO HOST. If you ask their friends, they’re known to be PLAYFUL & CHARISMATIC, but beware, they’re also known to be MANIPULATIVE & DECIETFUL. Can you believe they’re from THE PRESENT? Me either.

general statistics

name: iain fair

nicknames: none (yet)

gender: omega dual-natured male

pronouns: he-him-they-them

actual age: 26 years old

species: witch

witch type: borrower

occupation: late night radio host

pets: pope (solid white pitbull, male)

tattoo(s): left arm, right arm. (the right arm is markings that appeared the first time he used his magic, the left arm is basically permanent proof of the contract he made with the demon for his magic)

positive traits: playful and charismatic

negative traits: manipulative and decietful

a few favorites: coffee, salty and sweet snacks, energy drinks, dogs, the smell of smoke, halloween, vintage tees

a few hates: country music, slow walkers, people that talk on their phones loudly, waiting in lines, being called cute

sexuality: homosexual

position: bottom

some kinks: rough sex, choking, hair pulling, slapping, restraints, public displays, degradation, older partners, multiple partners, quickies/one night stands, fwb, oral (giving), swallowing, more to come...

anti-kinks: scat, vomit, age regression play, diaper play, food play, crossdressing

biography (tw: death)

god this world was boring. always dreaming of something else, something more, iain had a tendency to keep his head in the clouds rather than focusing on what was happening around him. most people just wrote him off as being easily distracted, or having adhd, but it didn't bother him. if people avoided him because they thought he was spacey then, at least, he'd have more time to chase after those thoughts in his head.

eventually his constant state of curiosity led him down the path that ultimately changed everything. they met a group of people, around the same age, that called themselves druids; pagans. they believed in more to life as well; in more than just humanity. he spent a few months with them, taking part in their rituals, but nothing ever came from it. it was just a way for them to spend their weekends with people that had a similar outlook. magic wasn't real but iain wished, more than anything, that it was.

careful what you wish for. one of his friends went missing. the local police, and local community, wrote it off as just some troubled teen running away from home because they were an outcast-- their whole group were outcasts and weirdos. no one wanted to look into it but iain, and the others, knew their friend didn't just run off and not call. something else happened. unlike the others, iain didn't reserve his frustration and disagreement for private conversations. he loudly stood against the local police, and community, and demanded answers from people whether they wanted to listen to him or not.

his headstrong, haughty approach to discovering the truth took him right into the belly of the beast. his friend had been murdered by their own parents and no one would listen to him. the more he tried to get them put away for what they'd done, the more they threatened him; the more they threatened the rest of his friends. in a desperate attempt to protect them, he took an old grimoire he'd found at a thrift store and started pouring through the pages of spells and rituals-- trying every single one of them-- in hopes that something would work and give him the edge he needed.

something did work. one of the rituals, that required him to use his own blood in the spell circle, summoned forth a powerful, monstrous demon from the pits of hell. it was more than willing to give him power, to make him a real witch and a real force to be reckoned with-- all he had to do was sign a contract. he should have thought it through, or asked more questions-- any questions-- but iain acted on impulse and without even bothering to understand the depths of the contract, and what he was giving up from himself, he signed with his blood.

marked by the demon, filled with power, he took out his revenge on his friends parents since the city wouldn't do anything about it for him and never looked back.

he's been bouncing around from town to town for awhile, learning about his powers and the supernatural world in general, but ultimately his goal is to find a place where he can settle in and finally feel normal for once.

when he first settled into new haven two months ago he really thought this town was going to be it, his own little sanctuary to be whatever he wanted, and then shit hit the fan; or, in this case, the barrier.

[ainews]

In the bustling city of New York in the 1830s, a new craze was sweeping the nation – astrology. People from all walks of life, from wealthy businessmen to common laborers, were turning to the stars for guidance and entertainment. And one form of exercise quickly emerged as the perfect complement to this mystical practice – rowing.

Rowing has long been known as a physically demanding sport, requiring strength, endurance, and coordination. However, in the 1830s, it took on a new significance. As astrology became more popular, many believed that certain astrological signs were more suited to certain types of exercise. And for those born under the sign of Cancer, which was believed to govern the chest and arms, rowing was the perfect choice.

Not only did rowing align with the physical characteristics of those born under Cancer, but it also had a spiritual significance. In astrology, water is associated with emotions and intuition, and rowing on the water was seen as a way to connect with the spirit world. Many astrological enthusiasts believed that rowing could help them tap into their innermost thoughts and feelings.

Additionally, rowing was seen as a way to balance out the negative traits of those born under the sign of Cancer. People born under this sign were thought to be moody and sensitive, but rowing was seen as a way to channel that energy into something positive and productive. It was believed that rowing could help calm the mind and promote a sense of inner peace and balance.

Rowing also offered a sense of escapism from the bustling city life. As New York City grew in size and complexity, people were looking for ways to escape the noise and chaos. Rowing on the serene waters of the Hudson River or one of the city's many lakes provided a much-needed break from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Furthermore, rowing was a social activity that allowed people to connect and bond with others who shared their interest in astrology. Rowing clubs and teams were formed, bringing together people of all ages and backgrounds, united by their love for both rowing and astrology.

But rowing's popularity as an astrological exercise wasn't limited to New York City. It quickly spread to other cities and towns across the country, as interest in astrology continued to grow. And while its association with astrology may have faded over time, rowing remains a popular sport to this day, with a rich history that can be traced back to the 1830s and its connection to astrology.

[deerydear]

Returning to an analysis of the Captive Mind:

pg. 215

"The judgments of an individual man can always be wrong; the only solution is to submit unreservedly to an authority that claims to be unerring.

But what can the doctrine do about the unformulated longings of men? Why does a good Commu­nist, without any apparent reason, suddenly put a pistol to his head? Why does he escape abroad? Isn't this one of those chasms over which the scientifically constructed bridges pass? People who flee from the people's democracies usually give as their chief mo­tive the fact that life in these countries is psychically unbearable. They stammer out their efforts to ex­plain: 'The dreadful sadness of life over there'; 'I felt I was turning into a machine.' It is impossible to communicate to people who have not experienced it the undefinable menace of total rationalism. To forestall doubt, the Party fights any tend­ency to delve into the depths of a human being, es­pecially in literature and art. Whoever reflects on 'man' in general, on his inner needs and longings, is accused of bourgeois sentimentality. Nothing must ever go beyond the description of man's behavior as a member of a social group. This is necessary because the Party, treating man exclusively as the by-product of social forces, believes that he becomes the type of being he pictures himself to be. He is a social monkey. What is not expressed does not exist. Therefore if one forbids men to explore the depths of human nature, one destroys in them the urge to make such explorations; and the depths in themselves slowly become unreal.

I should like to clear up in advance a possible misunderstanding. Personally, I am not in favor of art that is too subjective. My poetry has always been a means of checking on myself. Through it I could ascertain the limit beyond which falseness of style testifies to the falseness of the artist's position; and I have tried not to cross this line. The war years taught me that a man should not take a pen in his hands merely to communicate to others his own despair and defeat. This is too cheap a commodity; it takes too little effort to produce it for a man to pride himself on having done so. Whoever saw, as many did, a whole city reduced to rubble - kilometers of streets on which there remained no trace of life, not even a cat, not even a homeless dog - emerged with a rather ironic attitude toward descriptions of the hell of the big city by contemporary poets, descriptions of the hell in their own souls. A real 'wasteland' is much more trouble than any imaginary one. Whoever has not dwelt in the midst of horror and dread cannot know how strongly a witness and participant pro­tests against himself, against his own neglect and egoism. Destruction and suffering are the school of social thought.

Yet, if the literature of socialist realism is useful, it is so only to the Party. It is supposed to present reality not as a man sees it (that was the trait of the previous realism, the so-called 'critical'), but as he understands it. Understanding that reality is in mo­tion, and that in every phenomenon what is being born and what is dying exist simultaneously - dialec­tically speaking, this is the battle between the 'new' and the 'old' - the author should praise everything that is budding and censure everything that is becoming the past. In practice, this means that the author should perceive elements of the class struggle in every phenomenon. Carrying this reasoning fur­ther, the doctrine forces all art to become didactic. Since only the Stalinists have the right to represent the proletariat, which is the rising class, everything that is 'new' and therefore praiseworthy results from Party strategy and tactics. 'Socialist realism' de­pends on an identification of the 'new' with the pro­letariat and the proletariat with the Party. It presents model citizens, i.e. Communists, and class enemies. Between these two categories come the men who vacillate. Eventually, they must-according to which tendencies are stronger in them - land in one camp or the other. When literature is not dealing with pre­fabricated figures of friends and foes, it studies the process of metamorphosis by which men arrive at total salvation or absolute damnation in Party terms.

This way of treating literature (and every art) leads to absolute conformism. Is such conformism favorable to serious artistic work? That is doubtful. The sculptures of Michelangelo are completed acts that endure. There was a time when they did not exist. Between their non-existence and existence lies the creative act, which cannot be understood as a submission to the 'wave of the future.' The creative act is associated with a feeling of freedom that is, in its turn, born in the struggle against an apparently invincible resistance. Whoever truly creates is alone. When he succeeds in creating, many followers and imitators appear; and then it seems that his work confirms the existence of some sort of 'wave of his­tory.' The creative man has no choice but to trust his inner command and place everything at stake in order to express what seems to him to be true. This inner command is absurd if it is not supported by a belief in an order of values that exists beyond the changeability of human affairs, that is by a metaphys­ical belief. Herein lies the tragedy of the twentieth century. Today, only those people can create who still have this faith (among them are a certain num­ber of Stalinists who practice Ketman), or who hold a position of lay stoicism (which, after all, is prob­ably another form of faith). For the rest there re­mains the sorry lie of a safe place on the 'wave of the future.'"

-- Czesław Miłosz

[8054yamato]

03/19/2024

I have a bone to pick with humans. Excluding shock video links and.. well videos/context tweets in general, I went to Twitter for the first time in a long time. By that, I mean genuinely browse the trending or current hot topics and not see my favorite band's tweets because that is what Twitter is primarily used for nowadays.

Holy shit, what the fuck. Are people this mentally deranged? I swear to god every "yapper" on Twitter preach these positive virtues onto other people and never fucking follow it. It is like they want to portray themselves to be these "for the good" type of beings, and they are so out of touch and far from it.

It really is easy to say what you think you are and what you want to teach others, but executing those 'traits' only because it sounds good and caters to the general public for the sake of likes is a whole 'nother story. Every active Twitter user I have seen are hypocrites and I thought I was bad. I will tell you some examples I have seen.

I have seen multiple #MLK Twitter accounts primarily from black folks. No, this is not an attack to all black people, shut the fuck up. Anyways, the people with these hashtags are the furthest from MLK and closer to Malcolm X more than anything. MLK wanted equality through peaceful means while Malcolm X originally wanted segregation between the whites and blacks. These types of users literally berate on white people for giving their opinion on a subject of matter when it regards to ANY TYPE of political justice and even made a "slur" for them calling them "yts" LMAO.

I am against attacking other people's traits especially amidst a debate. That is universal. I do not give a fuck if you are disabled or retarded, white or black. If you are debating, regardless of whatever topic you are arguing, respond that relates to the debate.

Anyhow, these motherfuckers have the audacity to add MLK to their bio and become the complete opposite. Guarantee you that they do not know jack shit about what MLK preach. They did not do their own research. Also, why do they blame the entirety of today's whites for the slavery and racial injustice that happened decades back? Somehow, it is always the white's fault and does not look at any other race. They just do not hold the same standard to any other race. I feel bad for the whites.

Do these social justice fuckers not know who allowed and willingly sold fellow Africans? Multiple African kings. Do you also know where these slaves were sold and used? Both South America and North America. Yet, I do not see any of these social justice runts attacking Hispanics. It is not a competition. Every party involved with slaves are fucked up. The European whites distributed and auctioned slaves, the American whites used slaves. The Hispanics used slaves. Western Africa sold slaves. Yet, all the blame points to every white in the world, including today's generation.

I hope anyone fighting against other people thinking it is a race battle realizes they are undoing what MLK wanted. Whether you are black, white, hispanic, or whatever the case may be. MLK and the movement did a ton for the diversity of America and peace to everyone in general. I believe he is the middle ground of this entire debate as he truly wanted everyone equal. I believe that is a very respectful and possible future that everyone can agree on. I hope we can work towards this future.

Both sides of social justice, whether you are for or against, must realize that this is not a race problem, but a culture and person one. People who think this is a race problem has to realize that this is the wrong battlefield they are fighting on. This can only lead to generalizing which is very dangerous.

This concludes today's venting session. Do not think this is over. I have a bone to pick for every type of people in this world. LGBT community is next, then probably one of the Asian countries after.

Bye, ching chongs.

[ecsundance]

What is Indie Film?

One of the main goals of this winter term course is to identify what exactly an indie film is. Coming into this course I brought with me some presuppositions that I believed to encapsulate indie film with a satisfactory level of description. Some of these preconceptions included a low budget, a very small crew, unknown actors, experimental or unconventional techniques, unique aesthetic choices that are not typical for a blockbuster film, and the separation from massive entertainment corporations. After reading the assigned course material I am not entirely convinced that these traits I had come up with should be left out of consideration of what indie film is, but they are certainly not requirements.

To shed some light on the conflict of the traits I have laid out in relation to whether they are required of a film to be considered Indie, I turn to Searchlight (2004). The film cost $16 million dollars to make which does not at all fit within the idea that an indie film must have a small budget, and simultaneously it was backed by Fox Searchlight so it is clearly not separate from massive entertainment corporations. For this reason some people would not consider the film indie. Interestingly enough this film went on to have great success, and some regard it with high esteem as an indie film, so much so that the film, "won six 2004 Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture" (Newman 12). What is noticeable here is that multiple groups of people can have legitimate claims to the "indieness" of a film. Some hold things like the economic backing and connection to larger production companies as a large part of considering something worthy of the indie title or not, while others are more interested in the stylistic approach. With these conflicting points of view being the case, it seems that if you were to wonder why someone, or a group such as a festival or an art cinema, is considering something indie you must understand their engagement with texts and the medium of film itself.

Naturally this can feel overwhelming, but it is something worth noticing and tracking as the medium continues to evolve. I myself am just being exposed to this world of indie cinema, and have not fully fledged my thoughts on what exactly I am looking for when I say, "I am going to go see an indie film" and to be honest I don't know that I ever will have a concrete definition to provide for anyone.

What I can say is, I have noticed that festivals all around the country that are putting on these indie films have a certain taste that is unique to their geographical area. This unique taste is often the attraction for film festival goers. I imagine these differences in showings have evolved over time and will continue to evolve as that is the nature of film itself. I notice these unique tastes, which is part of the brand of these festivals, by questioning a guest speaker at one of our class sessions. The guest speaker was named Jolene Pinder who has held positions such as festival executive director for the New Orleans Film Festival. She is also, in the year of our Lord 2024, a current Sundance producing fellow. Since the concept of "indieness" varies depending on groups, and more specifically person you are speaking with, I asked her if the New Orleans Film Festival was looking for a specific type of film. She provided an answer, and I am doing her no justice by relaying her answer back to you, that fell along the lines of the festival's focus was on southern and LGBTQ film makers. She then went into detail of the other festivals around the country and their "brand", that is the types of films they are showing. I imagine each of these festivals have valid reasoning to call the films they screen indie, and most likely there is great difference between any two films in regards to style or economics.

It seems to me that a good way to understand indie as a category is to read what others are saying about it, and be sure to read up on what they have said about the concept in the past. In his book Indie: an american film culture, Michael z. Newman also provides some viewing strategies to determine a film as indie. One of these strategies that stuck out the most to me is, "When in Doubt, Read as Anti-Hollywood" (Newman 42). As I understand it currently, it can be a good marker of an indie film if it is unconventional compared to the blockbuster films you see in the theater. This is a feedback loop in the modern day I believe. Indie films seem to be something more people are seeking out, and Hollywood seems to have noticed this and have begun to adopt stylistic conventions of indie films that have done commercially well. This in turn causes film makers to come up with creative ways to subvert Hollywood, beginning the cycle again.

Ben Wilson