#though it's been a while since i've seen them so there may be better sources 💭

[heartvisor]

it comes from a very tangential train of thought, but i got the idea of "what would a theoretical shin kr style tachibana racing club girl look like?" and now i really want to try drawing the idea

[quincy-clover]

The longest list of anti-endo sources I've ever seen

While trying to find something else using Tumblr's infamous search engine, I came across this absolute gem:

NINE SOURCES!!! That's a record!! This is incredible!

@radpocalypse, listen. I am about to tear these to shreds, but before I do, I want you to know that you have my respect for not only compiling the longest list of sources I have ever seen an anti-endo provide, and not only doing so seemingly not directly prompted, but typing out every single link by hand, on mobile, without making a single mistake. Incredible work.

And also, to be completely honest, if I had nine sources supporting a belief, I almost certainly wouldn't look into them this closely. But, hey, that's what strangers on the internet with opposing views are for.

One more thing before the debunk: Endogenic systems do not claim to have DID etc. without trauma. They just don't. Whether it could be possible is often debated as an edge case, usually just to win an argument against someone of the opposing side, but really, it's irrelevant for 99% of the community. A good chunk are questioning OSDD based on later trauma, but as far as I am aware, no one on this website is claiming a completely endogenic plural disorder.

However, I don't want to dismiss entire pages based on this alone without further commentary, and it's a fun intellectual exercise regardless. So, whenever I use green text, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate under the premise of "If I was claiming to have DID without trauma (which neither I nor anyone else afaik is), would this source actually debunk that claim?" My syster will also occasionally pop in with purple, since she was cocon while I was writing this.

My dad just walked into my room and literally said "hey how it's going". You know, like. Like that one post. Amazing.

Anyway, civility established. Now come along with me on this long long journey of ten minutes of reading. Maybe put some music on in the background, if that will help you get through it. I had Near's Theme on while writing.

Here we go.

Link 1: McLean Hospital

Ok, main thing that caught my eye was

According to a 2010 Psychiatric Times article, only 5% of people with DID exhibit obvious switching between identity “states.”

Very interesting! Even with all of the "idk who's fronting" memes, 5% is really not that high. Though maybe online spaces like these help train the ability to identify it? The reference trail leads back to a book by Kluft but I don't really feel like going through dozens of pages for this. Definitely making a note of this though; I wonder if there have been any follow-up studies on this.

Not much to say here other than that. No mention of plurality outside DID.

DID is associated with long-term exposure to trauma, often chronic traumatic experiences during early childhood.

Dissociation—or disconnection from one’s sense of self or environment—can be a response to trauma.

Dissociative identity disorder—a type of dissociative disorder—most often develops during early childhood in kids who are experiencing long-term trauma. This typically involves emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse; neglect; and highly unpredictable interactions with caregivers.

Why "associated", not "is caused by"? Why "can", not "is"? Why "most often", etc.?

Why such weak language?

Not that it couldn't be weaker.

I vaguely remember McLean getting into some hot water regarding a video they posted about DID, but didn't find anything concrete. Half-remembered anecdote aside, the author seems well-qualified.

C-tier debunk of this position. It's not nothing but it could be a lot better.

Link 2: Psych Central

It occurs in women 9 times more often than in men.

Very interesting statistic, but no citation provided.

Alters can show striking differences. For instance, one alter may speak with a different accent or have a softer way of speaking. They might have different opinions or a different gender identity, and even physical differences — like left- or right-handedness, or the need for a glasses prescription.

That's quite a stark difference here compared to the McLean article. What happened to "alters aren't that noticeable"?

But whatever, these are just interesting tidbits. None of this has anything to do with endogenic plurality. Nothing like "this is the only way to be multiple", no comment whatsoever.

DID is usually associated with adverse experiences in someone’s past and traumatic memories.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a mental health condition with strong links to trauma, especially trauma in childhood.

Bruh. This again?

In fact, the American Psychiatric Association reports that 90% of people with DID have a history of childhood abuse and neglect, based on research from the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Bruh. Seriously? 90%? You know what that leaves, right?

According to your own source, 10% of DID systems are endogenic.

But let's break this down. There's a big difference between the system being endogenic, and the DID being endogenic. This statistic is specifically referring to childhood trauma.

The wording's plenty vague though. This can absolutely be read as completely endogenic DID.

One review article from 2017 about the causes of DID noted that there was relatively little research on the condition to date.

The authors said researchers hadn’t yet investigated potential genetic and epigenetic factors. With epigenetic factors, the experiences and behaviors of your parents and ancestors can influence the function of the genes they pass down to you.

The authors of the review said scientists needed to do more research to investigate whether a person with DID might carry genes that can influence if they develop the condition or not.

This is particularly promising because studies have already shown that genes can influence dissociative disorders in general.

So you're telling me DID might be able to be passed down one or two generations? Wow. Again, this still has nothing to do with endogenic plurality, but I'm really glad I decided to play with this second angle, because it's so much more fun. We're certainly not at intentional self-inflicted DID here, but we are at this point a long way from certainly needing childhood trauma in all cases.

And also the reviewer is a military psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD. So uh. Not bringing our best here.

Link 3: Mayo Clinic

Gotta love an article that's nice and short. This is just a brief summary of a bunch of dissociative disorders. Again, nothing about endogenic plurality.

Starting to run out of things to say about this. This whole post could probably be a fifth the length if I didn't feel like playing on hard mode.

Formerly known as multiple personality disorder, this disorder involves "switching" to other identities. You may feel as if you have two or more people talking or living inside your head. You may feel like you're possessed by other identities.

Each identity may have a unique name, personal history and features. These identities sometimes include differences in voice, gender, mannerisms and even such physical qualities as the need for eyeglasses.

Hey, that reminds me of someone.

There also are differences in how familiar each identity is with the others. Dissociative identity disorder usually also includes bouts of amnesia and often includes times of confused wandering.

Again, McLean looking really odd with its declaration of DID's covertness against great detail like this. However, its author is so far the best qualified. This one just says "Mayo Clinic Staff". Can't even know which of them worked on this. Some of them are psychs, but if any of them specialize in dissociative disorders, it doesn't say so.

Dissociative disorders usually arise as a reaction to shocking, distressing or painful events and help push away difficult memories.

I won't bother quoting even more wishy-washy language because this post is already at an ungodly length (about 1300 words so far) and we're barely a third done. But yeah, suffice to say, no nail-in-the-coffin 100% link to trauma.

Link 4: Rethink

We are a trusted information creator and accredited by the Patient Information Forum (PIF).

Their bold, for once. That's an alarm-ringing corporate phrase if I've ever seen one. Also, first thing on the PIF's website is "balancing the risks and benefits of AI in the production of health information". So this article might've been written by GPT. Awesome. And yeah, a lot of this whole website looks to me like a bunch of interconnected pages with stupidly long articles written by stitching together LLM generations. Does pass GPT0's test though.

This one is so long. I'll take the ten minutes to read through every word, which I don't think @radpocalypse did, just to make sure there's nothing here, but one thing that does catch my eye scrolling down to near the bottom is that they misspelled their first citation.

A quick look at this Carolyn Spring shows a lot being sold and credentials nowhere in sight. Awesome.

So already I don't need to read this. The information here is not at a high level of trustworthiness. It's maybe better than nothing, but seriously, one can and should do better. But I'll read it anyway, just for bonus points. Thanks to AccelaReader for making this bearable.

Many people will experience dissociation at some point in their lives. Lots of different things can cause you to dissociate. For example, you might dissociate when you are very stressed, or after something traumatic has happened to you.

Some of the symptoms of dissociation include the following:

You may have clear multiple identities.

It‘s important to remember that you could have the symptoms of dissociation without a dissociative disorder.

So according to this, multiple identities can be caused by intense but non-traumatic stress, and might not necessarily be a disorder. So, while I admit this is a little bit of a stretch, we're four links in and this is the first mention of plurality in general, so I'll take it. One point for endogenic plurality. (And again, none of this really matters anyway because this is the worst source so far.)

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is sometimes called ‘Multiple Personality Disorder.

If you have DID you might seem to have 2 or more different identities, called ‘alternate identities.

Two missing closing quotes. Really not a good sign.

They suggest that DID is caused by experiencing severe trauma over a long time in childhood.

Aha! Finally, something concrete against endogenic DID! Too bad it's buried in the worst source yet. If we believed we had DID, we would absolutely not reconsider that based on a sketchy webpage with suboptimal syntax and no credentials.

Ugh, finally done with that one. What a slog.

Link 5: DID Research

Aha! The infamous psych student's blog! That's what Sophie said, anyway. Not taking her word for it though. Let's see what we can find here, independently.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is the result of repeated or long-term childhood trauma

Why wasn't this first? First sentence, so crystal clear. No two ways about this, transDID destroyed right out of the gate.

DID cannot form after ages 6-9 because individuals older than these ages have an integrated self identity and history.

Why wasn't this first? It's so plain, so refreshing after four pages of strategic ambiguity. Nothing left here for green. But still no mention of non-disordered plurality.

The author is impressively credentialed but doesn't seem to specialize quite near this area. She's certainly better than most, high above any random Tumblr user talking out of their ass, but the good stuff would be to get a DID specialist to explicitly spell out that endogenic systems are not possible.

Also should make note of this big fat legal disclaimer:

While the author strives to make information on this website as complete, reliable, and accurate as possible, the author makes no claims, promises, guarantees, or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this site and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this site.

If we did claim to have DID, this would rattle us a little but could ultimately be brushed aside.

Link 6: SANE

As usual, literally nothing about endogenic plurality. I'll just greenmode this.

The majority of people with DID have been through severe trauma in early childhood

And now back to our regularly scheduled nondefinitive language.

Fun fact: highlighting text on this website turns it invisible. Awesome.

A person needs to meet the following criteria to be diagnosed with DID:

- Two or more distinct identities or personality states, each with its own way of thinking and relating. - Amnesia and gaps in the recall of everyday events, personal information or traumatic events. - The experiences are not part of normal cultural or religious practice, or part of childhood imaginary play. For example, a child having an imaginary friend does not mean they have DID. - The symptoms are not because of substance abuse or other medical conditions.

Ah finally, a direct quote from the good ol' DSM. Notice the lack of a trauma requirement.

Funny enough, using only these criteria in isolation, we actually would count as having DID due to our grayout memory gaps when switching. DID is also listed in the dissociative disorders section of the DSM, not the trauma disorders section, so there is no implied criterion there either. However, there still remains the universal criterion of distress, which we do not fulfill. We are quite happy with ourselves.

DID is caused by severe childhood trauma, such as physical, verbal or sexual abuse.

Well, which is it?? Is it a majority association or a direct cause? Why the contradiction? Or is the emphasis on early childhood trauma?

Eh, whatever. Point is, green is once again shut down. But there is still no mention of endogenic plurality anywhere here!!

And no indication of who wrote this article, though the citation for direct cause is a dissociative disorder specialist. Does he actually say that in the cited paper, though?

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is multifactorial in its etiology. Whereas psychosocial etiologies of DID include developmental traumatization and sociocognitive sequelae, biological factors include trauma-generated neurobiological responses. Biologically derived traits and epigenetic mechanisms are also likely to be at play. At this point, no direct examination of genetics has occurred in DID. However, it is likely to exist, given the genetic link to dissociation in general and in relation to childhood adversity in particular.

I hope you have a dictionary on hand. That sure is a lot of big words that aren't in Firefox's built-in spellchecker. Still, after making sure I got everything, it's clearly not so cut and dry here. And we're back on the "it could be genetic" point.

Tangentially related: I do like the dismissal of the iatrogenic model on the basis of the brain scans.

Neurobiological differences have been demonstrated between dissociative identities within patients with DID and between patients with DID and controls. Given the current evidence, DID as a diagnostic entity cannot be explained as a phenomenon created by iatrogenic influences, suggestibility, malingering, or social role-taking. On the contrary, DID is an empirically robust chronic psychiatric disorder based on neurobiological, cognitive, and interpersonal non-integration as a response to unbearable stress.

Anyway, we're not even on the original page anymore, so I'll call it here. No mention of endogenic plurality, and the citation that claims to dismiss endogenic DID doesn't.

Link 7: NAMI Michigan

While the causes [of DID] are unknown

I'm tired. Aren't you tired?

Treatment for DID consists primarily of psychotherapy with hypnosis.

Yeah I'm calling BS on this one

And no citations on this entire page, nor even the author's name.

Statistics show that DID occurs in 0.01 to 1 percent of the general population.

Research has shown that the average age for the initial development of alters is 5.9 years old.

No sources listed. This is definitely the worst link. Literally on the same level as a rambling Tumblr user in terms of credibility.

Doesn't matter that it says

This disorder is believed to be triggered by physical or sexual abuse in childhood

Couldn't even get this dogshit source to be firm.

This one gets an F.

Link 8: The Psychology Practice

Got scared for a moment there that it said ai. No, that's AL, a name. Also this was written in 2022, so we're definitely safe. Can't actually find any other info on this AL character, but at least we can look up the co-author.

Hm, can't find anything on her, either. Well, at least this is a step up from the previous link. Let's see what it has to say.

According to the Dissociative Identity Research Organisation (2018), DID is formed in childhood due to repeated trauma in early childhood (before age 10) before the personality is fully integrated.

I do like that these later links are direct with this. They don't seem to have a citation for that DIRO, though. Unless...

No. Oh no.

Ok, so this one was written by a couple of clowns who definitely didn't do their homework. Cool. I'm getting tired of humoring awful sources like this, so moving on to the grand finale.

Link 9: NAMI

Wait, this is the same group behind the zero-citation article from Michigan! But that was just Michigan. Maybe the main site can do better.

Ugh, it's just another list of dissociative disorders instead of DID specifically.

The symptoms of a dissociative disorder usually first develop as a response to a traumatic event,

Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired?

Often these identities may have unique names, characteristics, mannerisms and voices.

Often? Wow. Sure is a far cry from 5%.

Dissociative disorders are managed through various therapies including: - Psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) - Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) - Medications such as antidepressants can treat symptoms of related conditions

No mention of hypnosis, allegedly the primary method of treatment?? (/sarc)

and there was no mention of plurality being exclusive to dissociative disorders

Oh, and no listed authors either.

So, after three thousand words of analysis, all we've come up with are nothing burgers, dogshit, and dogshit nothing burgers. Out of nine links, only one briefly and indirectly touched on endogenic plurality, and it was in favor. Even the argument against the traumaless DID strawman is weak at best. These sources are bad, to put it lightly.

@radpocalypse, if you're reading this, firstly, thank you for powering through your ADHD and dyslexia to read thousands of words dunking on your masterpiece. Secondly, if you have any more sources that you think are backing you, feel free to send them my way. Just uh, maybe read them more closely next time?

And that goes for everyone here. If you think you have a better source, or if I made a mistake or missed something here, I am open to correction. I am open to the idea that I'm wrong and I have some unknown trauma to work through, but I certainly won't go digging unless I have good reason to believe it's there, and I haven't seen any good reason. And if you haven't either, maybe it's time to reconsider your position.

One last thing before I go.

Have you ever actually seen a pro-endo carrd, let alone one cited in standalone? I haven't.

Here's a much longer list of much better sources than yours supporting endogenic plurality compiled by the traumagenic Guardians System. I don't expect you to read anywhere near the whole thing; just pick a few links at random. And yes, while many of them are peer-reviewed papers, some of them are Tumblr posts, but those Tumblr posts cite peer-reviewed papers, so it's all good.

Thanks for reading.

[90selderichhorror]

Some ways to support Palestine while going through empathy fatigue and burnout:

The most important thing is to keep voicing your support of Palestine, its people, and especially the people in the Gaza Strip. The US government and the Israeli government are hoping that people get tired and stop engaging with the genocide happening right now. They want you to stop caring and to stop talking about it.

Even if you cannot handle seeing the news coming out of Gaza, continue the boycotts against Starbucks, McDonald's, and Disney. They're three of the biggest companies supporting Israel's occupation and genocide at the moment. There are people online who have detailed what other companies to boycott as well, though most people are focusing on those three.

If you can, donate to groups that are sending aid to Palestine. Even a few dollars can help, and it doesn't matter if you're only doing it out of guilt since it's still going to help people. Guilt donations are better than no donations.

And even if you can't donate yourself, I've seen a few tiktokers make videos to use the money they get from the creator fund over there to donate. Just make sure that the org you're donating for is reputable.

Engage with Palestinian culture, their foods, clothes, music, ect. Just a general show of support for Palestine as a people and culture shows more of a message than you may think. If you're going to buy Palestinian goods like clothing, buy them from Palestinian owned businesses though.

If there are protests in your area, get in contact with organizers and ask about ways you can help. This will depend on what they need, but if you can it's a great way to get involved with activist groups in your community.

Contact your reps, there're a few websites that will automatically email them for you. However if you can, try to write them yourself so they don't get filtered as spam. Call for a ceasefire and to pull support from Israel.

Stay critical of traditional news sources, as many have spread misinformation about everything that's happening and some have backtracked, others have just been disproven without retracting their claims.

You can take time to decompress, but your decompression shouldn't come with ignorance. Take some time to care for your mental health then continue fighting and keeping up afterwards. Being miserable doesn't help anyone, but by putting your head in the sand you'll just cause more harm for the sake of your comfort. The US and Israel are bagging on people ignoring the war crimes they're committing for whatever reason. Take care of yourself but stay aware and keep fighting.

Feel free to add on, and remember from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free 🇵🇸

[s10127470]

Shipping Ideas: Bart Simpson

I'm pretty sure most of you are familiar with crack-ships.

The act of taking two characters from completely different sources of media (and in some cases, from the same piece of media) and putting them in a romantic relationship.

And while this is largely seen as kind of a joke by most of the Internet, there is a strange beauty to it.

Not only seeing completely different characters being put together, but seeing it done in a way that still stays true to their respective characterizations.

And in some cases, the characters as they're presented in the crack-ship are actually better than where they originated from.

One of, if not, the best case of crack-ships I've seen is from an artist by the name of Flower Cannibal (Iris Lamour).

For the past year, she's been doing a web-comic series titled The BriBob Multiverse.

Set in a weird mish-mashed world where just about every fictional character you can think of co-exists, this series primarily focuses on various same-sex crack-ships pairings.

But the main one is the titular BriBob, which is a ship between Brian Griffin from Family Guy and SpongeBob SquarePants.

This already sounds like an insane and disastrous ship given how drastically different these two are.

But believe or not, it’s actually really engaging.

For starters, there’s the characterization of the two.

SpongeBob is what you would usually expect from him, but Brian is essentially back to his characterization from the earlier seasons, when he wasn’t a egotistical douchebag.

As for how they got together.

We see this happen in the very first part of the comic, where Brian is attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting being held by Steven Universe.

SpongeBob is the last to arrive to the meeting, where he finds himself sitting next to Brian.

The two immediately hit it off, as Brian finds himself drawn to SpongeBob’s bright demeanor.

Though you may be wonder why the hell SpongeBob of all characters is at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Well, this where gets take a real shark turn.

So basically, sometime before the events of the comic, Mr. Krabs DIED and as a result, The Krusty Krab got shutdown.

This led SpongeBob to spiral into a deep depression, and he decided to join AA as he didn’t want his depression to reach to the point where he does become an alcoholic.

Yeah, despite this comic being crossover insanity, it’s also shockingly deep as well.

The reason why these two ended up together is that they’re both aimless souls.

We already know Brian is one (and I appreciate how it’s treated in a way that makes us sympathize with him and instead of trying to make him look like a loser) and SpongeBob now since he’s lost his job (which he loved).

And throughout the comic, we see these two really bringing the best out of each other.

SpongeBob helping Brian keep his spirits up and being his motivation for him to buckle down, and Brian amazing SpongeBob with his intellect and showing nothing but love for his unique quirks.

If you want to check this series out, here are the links to Flower Cannibal's TikTok and Instagram.

But anyway, the reason I'm sharing all of this is because I've gotten into the whole concept of crack-ships.

And in honor of Pride Month, I've decided to start a series where I take a fictional character and choose 4 other characters (2 male and 2 female) that I think they would be really good matches with.

And to start this series off, our very first guest will be the pranking master of Springfield Elementary, the eldest child of the Simpsons family, and the creator of The Bartman: Bart Simpson!

So without further ado, let's get started!

Partner #1: Chuckie Finister (All Grown Up!)

I had to put these two together just because of the fact that they shared the same voice actress: Nancy Cartwright.

Basically, Nancy would be in a relationship with herself!

Talk about self-love!

But apart from that, there is another reason why I think these two would really be a good couple.

AGU Chuckie, although still neurotic and cautious like when he was baby, is shown to be somewhat more courageous and a bit of risk taker, since he doesn't want to be seen as a coward anymore.

And Bart, someone who is courageous and a massive risk talker, would definitely cater to that.

These two would basically be partners-in-crime in a way while also complimenting each other really well.

Bart helps Chuckie become more courageous and stand up for himself, and Chuckie makes sure to reel Bart in so he doesn't take things too far and get them in trouble.

Also, I could totally see this maybe even leading to a potential friendship between Skinner and Pangborn.

They would definitely be the primary targets of this couple's pranks and totally bond over their shared exasperation and frustration towards them.

Partner #2: Sakura Haruno (Naruto)

Now this is a classic!

I'm sure any of you that grew up in the 1990s and 2000s probably remember Nickelodeon Magazine.

Well during the late 2000s, they had this issue that was essentially a parody of the celebrity magazines of the time known as Toon Weekly, which focused on the lives of fictional characters (mainly cartoon, anime and comic book ones) as if they were celebrities.

And in that issue, one of the main articles was that of Bart and Sakura, who are shown to have a surprisingly close friendship in this universe.

And the article possibly hints that they may be more than just friends.

But in all honesty, I could actually see them canonically being a thing.

Although Sakura is primarily compassionate, determined and courageous, she's also incredibly short-tempered and aggressive.

I could actually see Bart being attracted to that.

He definitely strikes me as a guy who, in the words of Spike Spiegel....

As for why Sakura would be into Bart.....

Well, Bart is, in all honesty, is a really kind and caring person.

While yes, he does prank and mess with people a lot.

He is by no means a malicious person and he does know when to stop before things get taken too far.

And he's willing to stand up for others.

Not to mention he's pretty confident, something Sakura exactly wasn't at the beginning.

And since Sakura is an honor roll student, this relationship honestly writes itself!

Sakura would help Bart buckle down and help him think about his future and become the best student he can be instead of coasting on a D- GPA for the rest of his life

And Bart would help Sakura become more confident and far less narcissistic, making her realize that she's already pretty and shouldn't have to worry about what others think. Along with that, Bart would definitely encourage Sakura to hone her ninja skills, which he would find totally cool.

Also, two things to note before we move on.

Bart would definitely have a good future with Sakura. Since let's be real, I think we're all sick of having every potential future for Bart being him ending up as a total loser.

Bart would be a FAR better lover to Sakura than Sasuke ever was. I mean, my God, it isn't that hard of a feat to accomplish.

Partner #3: Cricket Green (Big City Greens)

Now this one literally writes itself.

Cricket is incredibly mischievous and fun-loving, which would jive really well with Bart.

As you expect, the two would definitely be partners-in-crime when it comes to their pranks and antics.

In addition to that, Cricket would just find Bart really cool to hang around and smart due to him being more knowledgeable about the outside world than him, while Bart would find Cricket really endearing and kinda cute because of his optimism.

Also, I just feel the multiple aneurysms coming for Homer and Bill.

Not because they would be against their sons being a couple.

(Well, maybe expect for Homer...)

But because of the absolute mayhem and chaos they would be causing together.

Partner #4: Reggie Rocket (Rocket Power)

We all know Bart is a EPIC SKATER!

So why not give him a love interest whose also an EPIC SKATER as well?

Apart from that, I can just see these two having really strong chemistry.

I’d imagine that Bart would probably gain an interest in the much greater world of extreme sports thanks to Reggie.

Reggie would definitely make sure that Bart doesn’t do something stupid, which she would be a master of thanks to Otto.

I’d could actually see a moment between these two taking place after Reggie saved Bart’s ass from something he caused.

Reggie would be furious and Bart would apologize and try to calm her down.

And I’d imagine it would accumulate with Reggie finally calming down and saying…

“You’re lucky that your cute….”

Also, how do you think Raymundo gonna feel about Bart and Reggie dating?

After dealing with Otto all the time, I’d imagine his tolerance for antics are really fucking low.

Well that’s all I have for now!

Let me know what you guys think about this little series I’ve decided to start and the characters I chose for Bart.

Also if you could, send me some ideas for who you want me to talk about next time!

But until then….

[beatrixacs]

My final thoughts on Shogun

Overall rating: 9/10.

The show has its ups and downs - the downs mainly being the way they handled the romance in the show that could have been much better and much more impactful for a casual viewer, and the ups everything else.

I have never read the book - actually, I'm reading a copy I was lent by my colleague right now - but I have seen the 80s version many, many years ago and fell in love with it. By 'fell in love' I mean that I was up to 4:30 AM on Saturday because for some reason, the airing time was in the middle of the night.

I've always wanted to read the book (in my native language which is not English) but it was one of those that is rarely re-printed or found in second-hand bookshops. When they finally re-printed it in 2009, I preferred a different book with the money I could afford to spend, thinking that I would buy Shogun later when I save enough money.

Well, it was a mistake I regretted for long 15 years because the copies were quickly sold out and begging for re-print went unheard. It has a good ending, though. I can buy a new brand copy in May.

And I have FX Shogun to thank for that because they revived the interest.

When the news about the show broke out in 2018, I was excited but of course that my second thought was 'please, don't suck'. But then it seemed that the project was called off or something because I heard no news about it. You can imagine by happiness when the airing date was finally announced.

From the cast and photos to the trailers, podcasts, making of videos and the episodes themselves, the whole ride was amazing. The attention to detail was exceptional. The cast was superb. The whole feel of the show and the story was magnetic. Shogun Tuesdays rightfully became a concept people were looking forward to.

As I described above, I can't really comment on the changes as opposed to the book since I'm in the process of reading it for the first time but from my understanding, some of the changes were actually pretty good some of them less.

While I am the fan of "don't take too much liberties with the source material", one has to keep in mind that the source material might not be always as perfect or as easy to translate on the screen. That is why I am open to changes if they make sense. Since I haven't seen much outrage from the book fans (aside the romance), I suppose most of the changes were okay. At this point, I expect the book to give me better insight on the characters I saw on the screen because that is something only book can do.

As for the 80s show that has a special place in my heart, I actually want to avoid comparing them. You can feel that FX Shogun has a great respect for the legendary adaptation but they were bold enough to go their own way in some points and I'm glad for that. I don't want to watch a modern copy of something that has been already filmed, I want to watch a new, fresh adaptation of the book that shares some similarities but it's not the same.

Boths adaptations deserve praise. Both adapations are excellent in their own right. Those who haven't seen it yet, I say - do it.

All in all, I want to thank FX for bringing Shogun back on the screen (and on my bookshelf) and giving us one of the best series of 2024. I hope gets a lot of awards so the creators get the appreciation they deserve.

Arigato gozaimasu.

[kitsunerokko]

"When destruction came for our lonesome island, the Turaga knew it would be time for a new group of heroes to arrive. They would be our protectors, our champions... our Toa. But surely something must be afoot. Those chosen by the stones surely cannot be Dosa Nui's heroes! They had, and continue to have, many... problems, that don't inspire confidence in the Turaga, or myself. Their forms even seem as if the Great Spirit saw our image of the ideal Toa and twisted them. They are not the heroes we wanted, but they are the heroes we've got. And so I must, I must believe in them. Or we are all lost." -Chrouhi the Chronicler

So in the past two days I decided to give my OC Toa team a bit of a facelift, reflecting more of what I've learned of using stud.io since my older renders of the team!

Background Image in the Group Photo is edited from a Creative Commons photo by Horia Varlan.

And for individual character blurbs (written from the perspective of the Chronicler character, and so adescribe them before their character development), can be found after the jump!

"Takara is the team's Toa of Fire. His Toa Tools are the Grand Firestaff and the Flare Buster. As I've chronicled many, many, MANY times, he's long been something of a troublemaker, with pranks, ill-thought-out plans, and plenty of disruption. Including intruding on the duties of yours truly. He initially was considered the leader, until his boneheadedness led to disasterous results and lost him the team's respect. Being a Toa has not changed him one bit, much to my dismay."

"Kaumi is the team's Toa of Water. Her Toa Tools are the Mariner's Boneblade and the Zamor Soaker. She is very headstrong and stubborn, never giving up until she gets her way, no matter whom she may anger. Despite her butting heads with, well, anyone, she has at least proven she has a good heart. I've lost count of how many times she was the head of positive social change in our island's history. No doubt this is why she is leader of the Toa Dosa now."

"Okolu is the team's Toa of Ice. His Toa Tools are the Ice Axe, Zamor Snowshot, and, bizarrely, the Hot-Plasma Launcher. He's... eccentric, is the nicest way to put it. He's got lots of positive energy for sure, but seems to have absolutely no filter and other people always seem to be bothered by him. It's actually kind of sad... especially since he's the source of the current singular friendship among the Toa. Granted, this friendship is with Takara so who knows where that influence will end up. Hopefully Okolu's version of 'annoying' wins, personally."

"Kraani is the Team's Toa of Air. His Toa Tools are the Exoskel Shield and the Airblaster. I've heard complaint after complaint about this guy and his snooty, better-than-everyone-else attitude as a Matoran. And much like the others, no change seen so far as a Toa. While he claims to be more effective and smarter than the rest of the team, he has displayed no such standout prowess, though he blames this on his teammates. A Toa really needs to understand the value of teamwork or the team.. will not work."

"Opuro is the Team's Toa of Stone. His Toa Tools are the Twin Dirk and the Chain Ripper. Opuro is extremely competitive and I've written many incident reports where he took things very far when playing sports, doing tasks... if there's a measurable way to outperform someone at something, he'll do it. Sort of like, if Kraani could actually back up his ego. That's Opuro, though at least Opuro is nicer, somewhat. He seems to at least want others to 'get as good' as him, relishing worthy challenges. As such, after becoming Toa he has been very excited, perhaps even too excited, to fight. We'll see if he can last like that..."

"Leonu is the Team's Toa of Earth...? I think. I've never actually seen him use his elemental powers, and apparently no one else has either. Kaumi thinks he might be of another element entirely, and I may be inclined to believe that. I actually don't have much on him compared to the others, he's almost never come up in any news or events I've covered. And interviewing various Matoran around Dosa Nui doesn't yield much either. He's just, very quiet, very keeps to himself, to the degree people just don't know much about him. Anyway, his Toa Tools... the Inika Staff and the Laser Drill."

[bmscribbles]

If I may, I'd like to start off the New Year by being very honest with you guys

Heads up, this is going to be long. It's not going to start good. I try to keep these things off of this account, but I think I need to say it for a few reasons that I hope makes sense as I go

I'm not around much and keep being slow with a lot of things because I am not doing well. I have not been doing well for quite some time. I frequently shrug off my absences as being busy, but I'm not busy so much as I spend most of my days wrestling with freshly planted and frequently, almost daily unintentionally, reinforced trauma while simultaneously adjusting to this being a part of my life in the first place. It has only been some months since one of the last major sources of these scars had stopped, and it has been an uphill battle against the fear responses I've learned over the past 10 years from multiple traumatic experiences being reinforced in my day to day life

This is why I don't have a regular schedule for things, why I swing between finishing art pieces quickly and taking so long to make progress, and why I suddenly vanish for chunks at a time. I don't beat myself up about these things and I continue to do my best around the issues, to be clear with people about my accessibility, but, as I'm sure you all have seen with reoccurring absences, I don't always win those daily battles

I ended up taking a break from a couple of spaces I'm in to try and really focus on what's going on in my head and what I need to do. My winter was primarily trying to make myself look at things I never wanted to look at again in order to resolve them while also keeping it together the best I could during the bustling holidays. When I came back, when mention of how long I've been gone came up, I got many pats on the head and told that "they know I get busy." People made the excuse for me before I could even try to say the truth, then carried on. It made me realize the depth of the hole I've put myself in, with how good I am at keeping my problems to myself

I don't know if this is appropriate. I don't know if this is the right thing to share in this sort of space, but I feel like I'm at a point where I need to stop pretending and taking advantage of how people make excuses for me if I play the right act just enough to seem like I'm fine, "just busy." It leads to me getting left alone a lot. I get left behind and projected onto about unexpectedly invasive things a lot. I don't think it's that people need to get their shit together, though. I need to figure what to do with myself from here, with the baggage I now have not just being tugged behind me, but nailed to my legs

This isn't meant to be a Woe Is Me post or me looking for attendance to a pity party. I wanna wipe my table clean of everything I've put on it to cover its damages, and I want to start by being transparent, and to better apologize to anyone who might feel dismissed or deemed unimportant by my radio silence with friendships and stop-and-go pace with work

With this transparency though, I'd also like to talk about the good things that have happened and that have realy helped me through these years. There isn't only bad things on the table.

I'm estatic there's folks who like what I do so much that they want to support me in the ways that they do. I don't think I'll ever be able to properly put to words just how much that means to me. I know I've said it before, but not once have I meant it lightly, even if said on a laugh. I'm honored. Seriously.

I've been trying to focus on directly approaching my issues instead of trying to do them on the side of other things happening, putting them first and foremost, and as painful has it's been it HAS been working. For the first time in a very, very long while I have been able to reach out and ask for help with problems that have completely overwhelmed me and reinforced what has happened in those ten years. I've started being able to feel like I can be there for others around me again too, not as a measurement of usefulness, but in recognition that I have the energy to so again. To do something as deeply important to me as to be there for those I care about.

I'm starting to get back to how I naturally make art over what I feel people are more interested in seeing, and I actually look forward to sharing them someday. I have a much better idea of how I'd like to approach my work in the future as my job and have the energy to start seeking out others with experience where I don't for consulting. I have projects planned out that I'm excited to jump on sometime this year, including a full comic and maybe starting to write a book I've been picking at for some years.

I'm working to get back in touch with my family and have been able to be more open with them than I've ever been in my life. I'm working to be my authentic self outside of certain circles and make it more of my everyday life over only in spaces where I only kind of fit in.

The past number of January 1sts have been harrowing as I reflected each time on the years that preceded them, with no actual end to the spiraling cycle in sight, but I find myself eagerly excited about whatever this year may hold. So yeah, I'm roughed up to hell and back and I'm still pretty battered, but there's a future, and despite everything I'm still one of the strongest people I know. I'm exhausted, but I'm getting better. I'll get back on my feet and not hit the floor as hard. One day I won't hit the floor much at all.

I don't plan on making another post like this ever again. I know I'm actively doing it, but it goes against a few principles of mine. It feels inappropriate to share so much in what is technically my professional setting, but I think this is one of the few times where I find an exception for transparency.

I'd like to spend the beginning of this year tending to my wounds so I can start putting all I've learned over the years of doing what I do as a business, as well as entertainment, to really do something spectacular this year. Both to really start getting the ball rolling with what I want to do, but to also give back to everyone that supported me all this time. Not out of obligation, but because that's something I have always wanted to do.

If you've read this far in, thank you. Thank you for your time, your attention, your patience, and understanding. It's been hard as sin and it's going to continue to be such for some time, but it's getting easier. I'm not looking for anyone to swoop in and try to save me. I'll ask for help if I need it. I promise.

I'm excited to get the show on the road, not just with work but with doing better and spending time with folks more, but please bear with me while I still sort these things out back behind the curtains. I'll be around, hit me up if you wanna hang or anything, I'm down to vibe. Hell in all honesty I'd actually love the company, regardless of if the faces are new or old.

I hope everyone's had as good of a start to the year as they could.

[cometconmain]

You understood the post re: what happened to middle eastern Jews around 1945 PERFECTLY and thank you thank you thank you for doing so. It feels like I've been going crazy. I'd like to add that when non-Jews come at us about Israel, It's also not immediately obvious that they don't know what happened to the other Jews in the region, or the long history of Dhimmi. We're used to being treated like we deserve to be killed for breathing, so it just looks like more of the same antisemitism - and when we try to explain it, we're told we're centering ourselves in someone else's tragedy. I do not have the words for saying what it feels like to see someone non-Jewish understand this. It gives me a kind of hope I hadn't anticipated seeing since I was little and believed in miracles, makes it feel like I can meaningfully work towards a solution without condemning my people to be horrifically killed, again, and told that it wasn't happening and if it was we deserved it. Thank you for giving me this hope.

This has really made my night and I am so happy that me trying to learn has made a difference for you in a world that's weirdly and horribly obsessed with opposing and ending your very existence.

I got here because some really REALLY patient Jewish people chose to sit me down and check where I was actually trying to come from, then helped me identify that my activism had been infiltrated by both bad faith actors and other history-ignorant people alike, and in my intention to help Palestinians without first being educated in the full history properly I was being dragged into the radicalisation rip without even realising it.

I am very sorry to anyone I made feel unsafe while spouting things I didn't understand and I'm really glad even this ultimately bare minimum act of trying to listen for once may have done something to hopefully start making up for that.

I'm going to keep trying to listen and learn because while what's happening to the Palestinians is also still fucked up and needs to end (and I want to listen to Palestinian voices on horrific things that are being done to them by their own military and the Israeli military I just need to figure out what's truth and what's Al Jazeera propaganda which those Jewish people I mentioned are currently helping me with), spreading incorrect history, denying that Jewish people are also indigenous, refusing to recognise our (non-Jewish Westerners') massive part in causing this conflict and continuing our oppression of Jewish people doesn't achieve that in any way and just adds more horrors into the world, both for Palestinians and Jewish people, a group who have never seen an end to their persecution and many of which have understandably given up hope in seeing.

You're not imagining it, you are being gaslit about your own history both by already-bigoted people who are doing it intentionally and slowly-radicalising people who don't know any better (but who really need to stop and check where their info is coming from; it's not like we don't know about propaganda on the left or that misinformation is rife and we have a responsibility to try to filter it out. There's no excuse to keep insisting on not looking when people ping us about issues in our activism and information), and you are entirely valid in feeling hurt, angry, endangered and betrayed by that.

We are out here and we genuinely want to help everyone. Unfortunately, our ignorance of history, politics and how to find reliable non-extremist news sources is being leveraged by shitty people who see an opportunity to take our anger at what's happening to one group to sicc us on the other, a time honoured fucked up but horribly effective tactic of bigots the world over.

We can be reached though. There is hope. And when we're reached we will try to reach others (I have an overdue conversation with a good friend coming up neither of us are looking forward to because I'm pretty sure she thinks I've been hijacked by the evil totally-all-the-same-beliefs Zionists who want us to turn a blind eye to war crimes against Palestinians so they can push them all out and take everything for Israel or whatever, when I literally just want her to learn the actual history/different types of Zionism/etc with me and stop applying settler-colonial theory to a place where the problems are actually very different in nature and require a different approach neither of us know how to do yet because we need to remove all the antisemitism bugs from our activism database on this first or it'll keep infecting the rest of our system until it takes over and whoops when did we become Nazis? Fuck. I know she wouldn't want that so I'm hoping to use the same approach that worked with me without her deciding she should just throw out our over ten-year-long friendship. Wish me luck. 😆 )

You are also valid in trying to make sure you're safe. Deradicalising people is always a risk and you are so valid in not being able to pick good-faith-but-ignorant people from the raging dickheads when we all share and spread the same stuff. We usually can't pick out the differences either; that's why we fall for it slowly without even realising it's happening.

One last thing.

You never deserve it. It did happen, it is happening, and you NEVER DESERVE IT.

Anyone saying otherwise has been radicalised and needs a serious wake-up-call kick up the arse. All the best intentions in the world of helping other people who are suffering and don't deserve it do not suddenly make it ok to attack Jewish people or say they deserve oppression, disenfranchisement and genocide. They do not and they never will. That is bigot talk. That is actual Nazi talk and it is never warranted or remotely justified.

(I, too, am ignorant of what Dhimmi is. Do you want to tell me about it? I'll look it up now too but I'm open if you feel safe to share. DMs are fine too if you prefer.)

[multifandom-disaster-18]

(The SMG4 fans making theories are getting to me...) Ok, you know what? Why not. Let me throw a theory dart of my own. I feel like while another Adware encounter is too soon, this current timefeame is close to the WOTFI, which is known to be used for critical climaxes in previous Arcs. That is to say, maybe WOTFI might be used this year not to end an Arc but to start one instead. We saw that 4 and Wren were targeted for Reasons in the previous encounters, so what if Adware's next target is SMG3? But in order to get to 3's head, Adware has to gain information. What better source than 3 himself? Whoever made Mario steal 3's diary notebook might be connected to the Adware, and no one would even know it because we don't have information on what Adware even truly is!! As for another reason why target 3, redeemed villains are some of the characters who can have A LOT of personal things used against them selves!! Which is why 3 is freaking out so much, like cmon, he used a paper notebook instead of making diary videos or an online document to prevent hacking or data theft.

Oh wow! I wasn't expecting to get an ask, especially about SMG4 theories but LET'S FUCKING GOOOOO!!!!! Also, while I'll try to be pretty clear ans provide sources, forgive me if some parts don't make sense, I tend to word things weirdly sometimes, especially when theorizing like this. Anyways-

I'm gonna start off with the first idea you presented, that being the idea that this WOTFI could be used to start off a new arc instead of end one. As for now, from both what I've seen, and from what I've read/been told, it seems too early to figure out which direction things are going to take, although I will point out that during the outro for the "It's Gotta Be Perfect" movie, Luke did mention that this whole storyline is going to be different, so at this point I'm preparing for anything! (Exact Quote: "And no, this isn't just an arc, this is something much different.")

And as for the TV Adware's next target being SMG3, I'm actually pretty certain this is the direction the current storyline is heading in. And most of your reasoning is pretty solid, and basically what I've been thinking about since first seeing yesterday's episode. Such as whoever Mario gave the notebook to being connected to the TV Adware, and the idea of the information inside of 3's notebook being used against him. Although I do have a few additional ideas I may mention later once I have a bit more evidence for them.

I know I'm basically just typing out a long way of saying that I mostly agree with you, except for being a bit unsure on the first thing, and mentioning that I do have other ideas. But I'm basically just winging this entire response hahaha, I'll defintiely be posting more in depth rambles and general jokes as things continue to happen though lol, because HOLY SHIT I AM HYPED!!!!

Thank you for sending in an ask by the way!!! I love rambling about things like this so it just made my day to hear that someone was interested in my bullshit lmao-

[vergilsama922]

(人◕ω◕) I'll give you two options for this "question" - although you're certainly free to answer both.

Option A) What was Angie-chan's first impressions of her senpai, Iroha? (人◕ω◕)

Option B) What is Rei unbiased analysis of Rei (Mekaru) of each teacher currently at Hope's Peak? (人◕ω◕)

Hmmmmmm yes. Interesting questions. ;;;;;;;;;;;;(人◕ω◕) A.) Angie was.....well she was definitely curious. Iroha is pretty well known and very popular amongst current-generation painters. Angie wanted to get a chance to actually meet the person behind the painting (and not to scout out the competition in talent and if she had a relationship with makoto). Much to her surprise, Iroha was a ball of positive fluff. Of course, the only thing holding her back is her desire to NOT donate blood to Atua but besides that, Angie loves Iroha. Although some have wondered if Iroha is the Kouhai given Angie can be a TINY bit overbearing extremely rarely ;;;(人◕ω◕) Hmm. Yes. Well it doesn't matter since the two are best friends (even though Iroha keeps weaseling out of donations) and Iroha has helped Angie's painting skills increase more while Angie has given Iroha better general art tips and sources of inspiration which has helped her painting. Yes. These two are best friends. (人◕ω◕)(人◕ω◕)(人◕ω◕)

They're so close they even have matching eye colors. (人◕ω◕)

B. ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;(人◕ω◕) Why ask such a divisive squesti-

Rei: No. (╬≖_≖)(╬≖_≖)(╬≖_≖) SOMEONE needs to speak up about the ineptitude of our staff. Well, MOST are, there are a few members who live up to their status as a teacher.

;;;;;;;;;(人◕ω◕) But-

Rei: Let us begin.Let's start with Sakakura-Sensei of Class 77-A. He is rude, obnoxious, too overbearing, and is clearly not suited to the lifestyle of a teacher. Yes, he knows how to wrangle in the troublemakers but his temperament means he matches Anger with more Anger. Hmph. Fortunately, his class is decent as far as classes go in this insane asylum.

Rei: *Checks notes* Yes. *HER*. Yukisome-"Sensei". I use the term "sensei" because not only is her class a problematic bunch, this poor excuse of a teacher spends more time around Makoto than she should be wrangling her students. (╬≖_≖) Yukisome clearly seems to have an unhealthy obsession with a STUDENT and needs to be put on probation or let go. As a teacher she does a DECENT job however she is far too lenient and isn't taken seriously by those who know they can exploit that. Still......despite her unprofessional behaviors, she does care about her students and puts in the work necessary to learn the material to teach to her kids.

Rei: Garbage. Let us move on. (╬≖_≖)

Eh??? B-But....you haven't- ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;(人◕ω◕) Rei: I SAID let us move on! (╬ಠ益ಠ)(╬ಠ益ಠ)(╬ಠ益ಠ) *Takes a deep breath and calms down* It's fine. Makoto deserves a far better tutor and professor. Despite Kizakura's incredible buffoonery and drunken stupor, it has provided an opportunity for me to take over Naegi's teaching. Outside of him, however Class 78-A is one of the most troublesome bunch. Only rivaling 79-A and 80-A/B. The fact that this imbecile hasn't been fired says everything about the "integrity" of this school (╬≖_≖)

Rei: Dogami-Sensei. Hmph. Finally, we have our first REAL teacher who takes her job seriously and does a decent job at it as well. Dogami-sensei may lack nuance on certain subjects and as such philosophical subjects tend to be her weak spot but she makes up for it with her ability to control her class and have enough compassion to regularly check up on her students and ensure they are properly prepared for graduation. Dogami-sensei may be strict but that's not a bad trait especially when her class is the most terrible bunch I've ever seen. Psycho's all of them! Dogami-sensei easily passes as the standard as to what all teachers here SHOULD be like at a minimum! No showing interest in male students! No trying to be best friends or big sisters for students! Yes. Dogami-sensei is a true teacher.

Rei: Ah. Yes. (╬≖_≖)(╬≖_≖)(╬≖_≖)(╬≖_≖) Hagakure-"Sensei". I know not which is more inept. Yukizome or Hagakure? Hagakure or Sakakura? At this point, it doesn't really matter. *Sighs* I'm being a bit too uncharitable. Hagakure-sensei has.....the same obsession problem that Yukizome has with Makoto. I must iterate that fraternizing with students is illegal and these two need to be reminded of this lest they find themselves in a jail cell! Hagakure does tend to get the job done. It's no secret her class loves her (although yes you could say the same about Yukizome-sensei) and she does a good job at teaching subjects. However, calling everyone nicknames and trying to appear as a "Big Sister" instead of a true authoritative figure worthy of respect takes points off her! Not to mention not doing much to handle that scum Ouma. (╬≖_≖)

Rei: Hmph! Our teacher is next I see. Yes. Okoshi-Sensei. She is....adequate. Not too incompetent like Kizakura and not exactly ideal like Dogami-Sensei. It is worrying she has shown interest in Makoto but it doesn't seem to be as problematic as with Hagakure-Sensei and Yukizome-Sensei. But as far as a teacher goes she has moments of insecurity and is worried that I'm doing most of her job, however, when she's not in that mindset she does a......ugh.....FINE job. She does put in the work learning material like Hagakure-Sensei and Yukizome-Sensei but she also makes sure to be observant not just for the troublemakers like Taira and Iranami (Satsuki) but to also have an open door policy and help those who struggle. Although she still understandably relies on me to help her. Who wouldn't? <(￣︶￣)>

Rei: Fubuki-Sensei.....Hmmmm. Fubuki is a good teacher despite her looks. No nonsense. Takes her job seriously, and does everything by the books. Given that she has the unfortunate task of handling class 80-A, I'm surprised how receptive those knuckleheads are not only to her teachings but their willingness to open up to her. As a former lucky student, I can't help but wonder if this is a byproduct of her talent, but still like Dogami-Sensei it helps to have a teacher who isn't obsessive over Makoto and knows general education surprisingly well. Yet, admittedly there's something off about Fubuki-Sensei. She seems to be more than meets the eye and even though she has an off-putting appearance she has compassion. In short, her true goals are a mystery to me if she has any, to begin with. Regardless, she passes but given that the bar is as low as the ankles I suppose it's not much of a feat.

Rei: Musashi-Sensei. Ughhhh. (╬≖_≖)(╬≖_≖)(╬≖_≖) Let me start with the positives and this will be brief. Musashi-Sensei is......determined. This does mean that she excels with her material because she has shown an incredible level of research and dedication to teaching. Not surprising given how she's a movie director, part of the job I suppose. Let's start with the negatives. (╬ಠ益ಠ) Class 80-B is a problematic bunch and Musashi-Sensei is....also very determined and headstrong in the wrong ways! Not only does she have a fascination with Makoto like Hagakure and Yukizome-Sensei but given her nature as a director, she seems to value only her opinion! Teachers must be sensitive to the needs of the students!!! Do not misunderstand me. She does have great leadership qualities and knows how to take charge, especially during tense moments but she needs to stop being so goal driven at the expense of all else. (╬ಠ益ಠ)(╬ಠ益ಠ)(╬ಠ益ಠ) This includes trying to undermine my position as Makoto's tutor!

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;(人◕ω◕) Whew. I guess that's ove- Rei: Don't be a silly fool. There are still quite a few "teachers" left.

Rei: (╬≖_≖) Ah yes. The four stooges. Well, I'll get this out of the way. I do not trust any of them around Makoto especially Shibuya (Ariana) and Akiyama-sensei (Izumi). Nakano (Mitsuru) and Suzuki-Sensei (Yukiko) seem to be decent. As far as teachers go, I will admit when it comes to their specific subjects they are great. General education seems to be a bit weak for them and they each struggle with finding their own style when it comes to teaching. Despite their own shortcomings they do tend to be there for students at the most unexpected times. I'll put them above Hagakure, Yukizome, and Musashi-Sensei but below Okoshi-Sensei.

Are we-?

Rei: No. (╬≖_≖) There's still the reserve course.

Rei: Yoruzu-Sensei. Or rather "Sensei". (╬≖_≖)(╬≖_≖)(╬≖_≖) Another teacher who needs to be on probation. As far as a teacher goes, she surprisingly goes above and beyond which is necessary for the reserve course given how as I was told they were formerly segregated from the main course. Despite her "hands-on" nature which I've filed a complaint to the headmaster about regarding Makoto, I must admit she did a good job trying to foster a positive nature under the circumstances she and her class were under. Many teachers from what I've been told were pretty disinterested and crummy. Her specialties definitely revolve more so around General Ed than anything specific but that's more of a positive than a negative. Just keep her on probation and she is fine. (╬≖_≖)

Rei: Uozumi-Sensei is interesting. She's....different. I can't quite place my finger on it but I have a feeling she's not just a teacher. Her knowledge of Finances and electives is surprisingly great even if she's the complete opposite of Yozuru-Sensei in terms of general education. Despite her coldness, she is overly protective of her students and fosters confidence in her students. Yes. Uozumi-Sensei is a good teacher and not problematic as some of the others although she is definitely hiding something. I've noticed her interactions with Kirigiri. Hmmmmm

Rei: (╬ಠ益ಠ)(╬ಠ益ಠ)(╬ಠ益ಠ)(╬ಠ益ಠ)(╬ಠ益ಠ) I've saved the worst for last. Shimizu-san..... She isn't a teacher but yet despite her cheery and bright facade, make no mistake this vile woman is the complete opposite. I've seen how she looks at Makoto and while that's not necessarily unique, her interest in Parasites and true personality reminds me a lot of Tsumiki. Terrible person. We're done!

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;(人◕ω◕) Are we done? Rei: Obviously. (╬≖_≖)

Okay. Ummm....Well yeah. (人◕ω◕)(人◕ω◕)(人◕ω◕) Rei can be harsh but makes good points as well!

[pinchinschlimbah]

tysm for ur text post about noel... I'm seeing SO many people immediately hating on him and it's exhausting. he's not usually the type of person to speak up about things like this really (at least from what I've seen) so I doubt he's gonna say anything, but his comments on insta are now turned off/limited so its safe to say he knows what's happening and is probably horrified :/

Yes of course! Like I said in my previous post, I think it's incredibly dangerous to start condemning people purely by association and vague connections you've made in your own head without having any actual substantial evidence. I'm not going to assume Noel's current thoughts on the matter as much as I hope that he is indeed horrified, but I do know that it's fairly par for the course to close off public lines of communication and take longer than most would expect to formulate an official statement on something as sensitive as this because to do it right one should be consulting with their lawyers and agents and other knowledgeable people to make sure the statement is as airtight and well-informed as possible without room for further misinterpretation or complicating any possible legal endeavors at play, so it is absolutely not evidence of guilt that he hasn't said anything yet. As much as it would be nice to see him formally denounce Russell and support the victims, I agree with you that it's definitely not guaranteed and we shouldn't be holding our breath since he's generally such an offline and private person with very good reasons for mistrusting the tabloids still looking to demonize him whenever possible, and if he does end up not saying anything there's a million other reasons besides him being complicit as to why he did not speak out. And yeah, people assuming that the comments being turned off means he's definitely hiding something is absurd. First of all I think it's worth noting that most celebrities don't have exclusive access to their social medias and often have whole teams helping them run things because they themselves have better things to do, so it's very possible the comments being shut off wasn't even done or directed by Noel himself. Second, it would be extremely unwise right now for him to start responding off the cuff to random people in the comments just because they demand it. And third, my initial thought when I heard about it was well wouldn't anyone turn the comments off if they were being bombarded with harassment lobbing horrible accusations at them and pressuring them to speak publicly about something before they were ready? But hearing from multiple people that the comments were shut off after Russell's supporters started flooding the posts arguing Russell's innocence makes it make even more sense why the shutoff was done and less evidence of guilt. Also while I'm here something else I wanted to speak on is that since my previous post, a clip from BFQ 2007 has been going viral and reported on by tabloids as ~evidence~ of Noel being involved because rape jokes were being made that involved him, even though the only thing Noel says in the clip is "how dare you, we're not rapists" in response to Jonathan deciding for Lily that she needed to be forcibly kept away from Noel and Russell. (and if I may editorialize for a moment, news sources reported on Lily looking uncomfortable in the clip as a condemnation of Russell and Noel, but personally I think she seems more annoyed that Jonathan has declared this decision for her rather than letting her decide what she felt comfortable with, especially since later in the show she giddily brings up crimping and is clearly somewhat of a Boosh fan.) I hate to pull out the "it was a different time" excuse but I need y'all to remember or understand what things were like back then for context of what was going on there. Me Too hadn't happened yet and actual accusations of sexual misconduct were generally spread in whispers and kept pretty hush hush, it was unusual for such things to be made super public because public blame was much more likely to fall on the accuser than the accused. Since the recent accusations have come out, multiple people close to Russell at the time have gone on record as saying that while they were well aware of the scope of Russell's aggressive sexuality, they had no idea at the time that it was veering into nonconsensual behavior and were horrified to find out.

Rape jokes were, unfortunately, very common at that point, with the word "rape" being used pretty flippantly and not always accurately to how serious of an act the word is meant to convey. The push to eradicate rape jokes from comedy didn't start until several years later, my memory says somewhere around 2010-11? And at the time, "slut" (and similar terms) was one of the worst things you could call someone and promiscuity was highly demonized in popular culture. Again, the concept of "slut shaming" and push to normalize safe and consensual promiscuity didn't come up in popular culture until several years later. So what I see in that clip is Noel and Russell, who were both known for being sluts at that time, being demonized for that behavior (which was well known and well documented in the documentary) with what was meant to be a lighthearted joke that they wouldn't be able to help themselves around Lily, and Noel's internal thought process at that point was most likely something like "Well, I'm a slut who's been demonized for it but I'm not a predator, so I assume the same is true for Russell." I don't believe this clip shows any reasonable guilt or association on Noel's part.

I understand the impulse to not want to support anyone who's done anything terrible, but if we're deeming people guilty by association so anyone who's ever worked or been friends with someone who did something bad is also bad just purely by that association with no other hard evidence, soon you'll have boxed yourself into a corner of having nothing that's safe to enjoy or interact with, and that's no way to live. Like I said previously I'm fully ready to jump ship if actual problems directly involving Noel do arise, but for the moment I do believe the panic and vitriol towards him is unjustified and I'll be continuing business as usual until further notice.

[flecks-of-stardust]

Pinned Post Eyyy

Call me a name enough times and I'll probably start responding to it, which is what happened to me with Fleck. I also go by Stardust. Pronouns are yes and whatever is funny, but as a general rule of thumb, please use neopronouns and they/them for me if I don't know you. I also use mirror pronouns.

Not a spoiler free blog. I can and will post full spoilers of the stuff I'm interested in. Most commonly blogging about Rain World (including Downpour) at the moment, with a smattering of Hollow Knight and Bug Fables stuff. You can blacklist the main tags if need be.

I may occasionally talk about politics related to my home city. If I do, it'll be tagged with #hong kong rants for blacklisting purposes.

If you talk about hating any sort of arthropod and wanting to kill them I don't want you here. I don't care if you have a phobia or if you have a legitimate reason to be afraid, I don't want to see bug hate. Yes this includes wasps, yes this includes mosquitoes, yes this includes generally unpopular bugs. I block on sight if you leave comments like that on my blog.

For those interested in getting a better look at my header image, here is the associated post!

Current main project(s)

I run @innocence-wont-save-you, an interactive fiction game about Unparalleled Innocence! You can find more information about it on that blog and its pinned post.

I sometimes post IWSY stuff on this blog as well, particularly stuff that is not in character for the IWSY blog. Those posts are tagged with #IWSY, which also includes posts that I find relevant to the overall story. I love talking about the story and the worldbuilding I've done for it, so feel free to talk to me about that! I will gently nudge you over to the blog itself though, because it's designed to take questions like that!

I am also conducting independent research on people's experiences with imaginary friends. If you'd like to participate in the research, this post has more information and a link to the survey.

Other projects

You may have seen me talk about Dreamless and Deathless on this blog before. Those are now split off from their respective source material into an original story universe, Godslayers. Their respective tags, #dreamless au and #deathless au, now serve as archiving, if you'd still like to look through them for whatever reason. They are not linked because I'm unsure of how much I'm comfortable sharing; expect posts in there to be pruned.

I have some stuff related to my Hollow Knight work that I am comfortable sharing, though!:

bug color vision, specifically worldbuilding around non-human color vision that you can use for your buggy writing

language analysis of hollow knight, which is what it says on the tin

and there is #translation complaints, a series I started to talk about Hollow Knight's Chinese translation. It's been a while since I've updated this, but I will go back to it eventually.

Crochet Patterns

I currently have two released crochet patterns! All are free to use, and if you make one with my pattern, feel free to tag me to show me what you've made!

Mini Iterators — Make your own fun sized iterator puppet! (Cloak not included.)

Tiny Slugcats — Make your own pocket sized slugcat!

Tag directory

I crochet and knit a lot, as you may be able to tell from my header! I have dedicated tags for my crochet and knitting projects, which are #crochet shenanigans and #knit mischief respectively.

I have a general tag for my art, #my art, for non-fiber art pieces as well.

Writing wise, I've put a lot of my writing on Tumblr. Rain World pieces use the tag #rain showers, and other writing (usually prose) is tagged #little natterings. Additionally, I've put a few multi-chapter stories on my blog, which are:

#the echo of destruction, a series of seven stories about the iterators.

#avengeance, a four chapter short story about Arti.

#lunar greetings, a five chapter story about Moon and those she meets.

#memory fragments, a series that features the various members of Survivor and Monk's family. This is currently still being written.

All of these stories can also be found on AO3, where I use the same username.

I'm very lazy about following people, so if I talk to you a lot but haven't followed you, don't take it personally. I just like to keep my dash tidy.

For my own use: Pup Masterlist

[clockworkrobotic]

The Tragic Saga of the Goncharov Tie-In Game (1995)

so since everyone has discovered goncharov i get to talk about a personal fascination of mine, which is the wild n wacky tale of the goncharov video game tie in. If youre thinking "what the hell are you talking about, there wasn't a video game tie in" theres a reason for that, bear with me

so the game came out sometime around 1995 (different sources place it at various points between 1994 and 1995), and it was one of the first properties to be licenced by sony for a console. It was originally planned to be a SNES-CD release until that console was cancelled, at which point it was ported to the playstation. if youre wondering why goncharov got a tie in like twenty years after the film released, that's kind of why it's so unheard of. sony was testing the waters with its new hardware to see if there was an older audience for gaming, and a few investors were willing to put some money behind the idea. it was actually pretty well-funded all things considered, with a budget of around $1.1m, and the gameplay was similar to that of goldeneye, which released a couple of years later. it was also fairly sophisticated, featuring branching decision trees and several different endings (I think 4? there isn't a lot of gameplay footage available, but there were at least 4)

unfortunately, development was plagued with problems from the get go. Despite its healthy budget, the studio couldn't convince any of the original cast to return to do voice work. Of course they couldn't, the film was two decades old -- you think harvey keitel was gonna bail on pulp fiction to appear in some experimental video game? of course not. so the dev team went for the next best thing: soundalikes.

the problem is, the soundalike VAs they hired weren't used to doing longform work. don't get me wrong, they did their darndest, but their experience was very much rooted in things like radio commercials and short voiceovers. they hadn't really had to act before. oh, and all but one of them hadn't seen the movie. the anecdote goes that they showed up on day one expecting a couple of days work tops, and much to their shock were handed several dozen pages of script (remember the decision trees? branching dialogue baby) and told they were employed for the next six months. Good for them, I think?

The voice acting really suffered from this. a lot of it feels very stilted, it ruins the immersion. yknow how in elder scrolls oblivion all the voice lines were recorded in alphabetical order? It sounds similar to that (altho personally i think the goncharov voice acting is a bit better lol). the directors and actors really struggled to pull everything together.

the result was that, while the game itself definitely wasn't bad, it was outright innovative in places, critics really couldn't get past the baffling performances, which they near-unanimously agreed made the game a slog. someone suggested the game should be played on mute with goncharov the film playing on a second tv, though went on to say that you wouldn't even finish the game then, because you'd just end up watching the far superior goncharov film instead. The game flopped, causing its global release to be cancelled, and was only ever distributed in the UK, Australia, and Japan.

the game had a brief stint as a cult classic, garnering a small online fandom in the early days on the internet. there is allegedly an italian fan translation out there somewhere, although a copy has never surfaced and it is considered lost media. a couple of people have come forward claiming to have worked on it -- they also claim to have met in the neopets forums of all places. i believe them -- and there are a couple of youtube videos showcasing what appears to be an italian fandub, but without the game files it's not possible to know whether theyre real or edited in post.

so now you know the story of goncharov the movie the game, my favourite game i've never played and probably never will. while it may well have been a missed opportunity, i like to think it paved the way for such classics as enter the matrix, and ratatouille the movie the game, and what would the world be like without them?

[gonehollywoodtea]

all hail, the gossip queen is here! i'm excited to share what i've seen, what i've heard, and more importantly what you kittens have shared with me!

miss megan thee stallion seems set on having her hot girl summer with some festival performances in the pipeline, but will that summer include a baby?! my sources have chimed in with her dropping the potential p word in conversation, and given she's been spending a lot of time with her hottie with a body boyfriend alexander skarsgard, sounds like we know what they've been up to! i mean, these two hotties would create an absolutely stunning child, so here i am, all for this! we'll keep our eyes peeled to see if she pops up with a pregnancy test in hand.

the name on everyone's lips is zendaya!! while that's always been the case because let's be real, girlie's been making career moves for the better part of a decade now, no surprise that she's in demand when it comes to love arena too! sources have confirmed that since her split with spiderman, she's been spending quite a lot of time with dune co-star austin butler, the duo making multiple cozied up appearances together during the nine day cruise. she's also been seen in rather friendly conversations with kang yeosang and ariana grande, ooh la la! certainly one to keep your eye on for providing all the salaciousness, and we love a queen who can deliver.

it looks like lovely ladies kehlani and leigh-anne pinnock have been cozying up for quite some time, and we fully support a power couple in these two! so is it any surprise they might be heading into serious territory? sources confirm that kehlani has made the move to london, the city where miss leigh-anne resides. have they gotten serious enough for the domestic bliss of moving in together territory? i do believe so! and if that's the case, good for them!

joseph quinn has been hollywood's new british playboy since stranger things, when everyone fell head over hills for eddie munson. and it seems he has a new admirer who's joined the pack: kat dennings! the fab marvel star was overheard expressing her admiration for joseph's chocolate button eyes, and isn't she all of us! question is, does joseph reciprocate? will these two be the next item?! time will tell, and can't wait to see if we have a new coupling to speculate about.

i think the nine day cruise antics awards have to go to mister sebastian stan and mister bill skarsgard for getting a little too drunk on the beach! witnesses say the boys got entirely too wasted, to the stripping and skinny dipping point! to which i say, what the fuck, you two? where was my invitation?! that transgression aside, it's one thing to get drunk and strip one time, though if this becomes a regular occurrence? i may have some questions and speculations for you two.

that's all from your gossip queen! keep giving me intel, and more importantly, keep doing things to entertain me! xoxo

mentioned: @houstonhcttie @alexjhskarsgard @dayamsc @butlerhq @yeosvngie @goneariana @lcighannnes @wanderingkehlani @josephafq @katdengz @stanbastian @skarsgardhqs

[focsle]

How did you go about discovering your past lives? Do you have any pointers for people who want to find out more about their own past lives?

I don't feel comfortable giving specific pointers on how to do it as I don't feel it's my place and wouldn't want to be responsible for being seen as a source for guidance on anyone doing any kind of soul work. But I'll say some things below the cut about how one can start to go about it!

If you don't know how to already, l'd say learn how to enter a meditative state and--most importantly--learn how to protect and ground yourself before, during, and after doing work in that state. And also how to emotionally/physically/psychically take care of yourself before and after said work. I'd say make sure you feel like you're personally in a good place before doing it, because it can have a strong impact. I use Christopher Penczak's techniques for all of this just because he was something of a household name growing up so I trust him. But research & read about it to find what works best for you and practice it (like just doing meditations and stuff) before jumping into past life business.

It's helpful to go into past lives with a specific thing you want to understand more about yourself and/or specific pieces of information you think relate to you rather than just looking for any past lives you may have had, since that can be too broad!

You can find a regression hypnotherapist to help you do this. Hypnosis feels functionally the same as meditation for me--you don't like...lose consciousness or bark like a dog or anything. In both states you're always in control of the situation and can always back out if you don't want to engage with something. Going to someone who did past life hypnosis was what I did first to establish a reference point for myself for the life I wanted to explore that I could come back to. The person I went to wasn't doing anything I couldn't do myself, but I found it helpful to have a facilitator who understood the work to ask me questions that could guide me through the information I was getting in a more targeted way. I think once you learn to protect & ground yourself, if you had a trusted friend who also understood the importance of those things they could probably also serve as a facilitator.

There are also some people who can just 'tell' someone about their past lives without hypnosis/meditation, but I personally don't trust it that much. No one can access you better than yourself, I think. No doubt there are individuals who have that skill, but I didn't want to waste time and money trying to find someone legitimate who works in that way in the hopes that they'd say something I connected with when I could just cut to the chase. After I did a session with a facilitator to learn about this specific life and had a baseline of information about him, I've been exploring the rest on my own. Which I also find helpful because I can spend more time on some things or delve more deeply into what may have felt too personal to do with a facilitator.

How someone receives information about past lives is also unique depending on how their personal intuition works. For me, it's the same way I experience dreams. The strongest vehicle for info for me is feelings--both emotional and the full spectrum of physical sensation. That's followed by intuition of situations, in that I don't ask 'what is my name' and have someone walk up to me and answer it. Instead it's like if you're at work, at any given moment you know what your name is, you know what you look like, you know what your job is and why you're there that day, you know the names of your coworkers and how you feel about them, you know if you're hungry or tired etc. It's info that's inherently there (though it's not always super clear every time). Third is visuals, but those are definitely not the strongest and mostly supplement the first two.

Good luck finding something that works & take care of yourself while doing it!

[hxvemxnd]

┏(‘▀_▀’)ノ♬♪

// As promised, the queue'd post about the actual hive of the swarm!

// First thing's first - it's fucking GIANT. It doesn't span the whole planet, but firstly it's significantly deep and secondly w i d e. The tunnels run miles, there are dozens of 'rooms' for new larvae, food, and of course a graveyard like most hives. A lot more of the swarm is found here than on the surface, especially during the day. For some of the species living here, they never evolved to handle the heat of the dual suns with no shade. For others, it's simply Zazie needing a break. A lot of the hive is there for protection too!

// Protection from what though, you may ask? Well - Zazie is the planet, but Zazie is NOT every single bug spider worm CREATURE that you see. No, in fact the hive is particular about who they let into their underground paradise. Even creatures of the same species may not be of hive, and that's due to things like aggression and overall benefit to the planet. Creatures with adaptations that would threaten the survival of others within the hive are often outcasted or never accepted in, and creatures that are overly abundant sometimes the hive just... Doesn't have the resources to care for so many. So, sometimes there are rogue invaders who seek to take the precious resources of the collective and swarm.

// Now let's talk resources. Zazie works for the planet essentially, so their job in return for the power she gives is to keep precious and vital species alive. This doesn't just include animals though!! No man's land wasn't always a wasteland after all - that took time and overuse of resources (which led to the planet requiring a form to act through which led to Zazie is my cliffnotes bc like last time this isn't something i've thought out an awful lot). Zazie is a conservationist at their core, so their hive naturally hosts for plants who couldn't adapt to live in the heat! Water collects in the hive after rainfalls and allows moss flowers and even some spots of grass to grow!

// Now again, just like the creatures that inhabit the swarm and are native to the planet, while some of these plants may look similar to those on earth or have similar properties, they are indeed native to the planet for one very big reason. Zazie can't get the plants that were a part of SEEDS won't grow in no sunlight. No, the plants that grow within the hive are adapted to live in darkness over centuries of cultivation. They are bioluminescent and give the only light source within the hive. But it is plush, dark shades of blue and purple with gentle light blue specks that glow. These grow some food for the colony, but mostly are just Zazie's attempt to preserve what was for a future that may eventually allow the return of these species.

// Now by normal means, digging down to the depth that you hope to reach a tunnel within the hive is... DEEP deep. And by the time you'd reach it, you're more likely to have been eaten by a worm. This is subject to change depending on my RP partner, but the only one's who have potentially seen the hive and live to tell the tale are definitely Knives, but also potentially Legato. It's extremely precious to Zazie - not to mention not really great for eyes used to living in the sun - so if they take you there it's a HUGE sign of trust from the collective. It's also incredibly noisy there, considering the sheer volume of insects alone that live in its tunnels.

// Finally there's a point that's been floating in my head that felt like it fit better here than my other post just because I mentioned the graveyard - but it's awkward to insert in this in a chronological sense that might make it flow. Zazie and the swarm as a whole were based from just a few colonies of insects in their early years. As such, death to them is just an opportunity for more life - and they've seen it this way for centuries before humans. Empathy and emotions taught to them by humans have made this since complicated and messy, but the 'graveyard' is less grave and more mushroom farm - because that which dies can give new life to those around it. I know there's a very specific leafcutter ant colony that does this, but I can't think of the species at the moment. BUT. Zazie tends towards this way of thinking - and anyone precious to them is liable to get dragged from their human grave and put into this. Some insects (like flies) will also eat from corpses here. It's not the most pleasant thing to think about as a human, but I think as a colony based initially from insects it makes sense that this is the way Zazie chooses to deal with death!

// Once more, thank you for coming to my TED talk! No my headcanon posts will likely never be short, and yes this could have been far more concise... But that's why y'all love me yeah~?