#turning further every day

[joyousmusic]

Sprout

[sciderman]

How do you feel about the increase in really weird NSFW ads on here (advertising panels that look like sexual encounters, and AI art apps that pride themselves on porn) but will take down NSFW posts from their users, even if it isn't technically sexual.

i hate all social media and it's consistent prioritising the advertisers over the users and the internet simply was a better place before capitalism sunk its hooks into it

[inseparabiles]

observing that there might be a connection between significant levels of pain and poor mood

[stromblessed]

every time someone takes one of my posts about mel and viktor and makes it about someone else or some other ship an angel loses its wings

[jakemyboy]

Nice walk in a slight drizzle. He went an extra block! Yay for my brave boy!

[wildsaltair]

okay maybe my brain is completely rotted by this man. but he looks like a groom standing at the altar with his best man. beloved husband the aisle is long but i am on my way

[lgbtlunaverse]

Could someone tell me where the interpretation that, in book canon, the promotion Nie Mingjue gives Meng Yao made Meng Yao's life worse than it was before, came from?

I have seen that claim made multiple times now and I've looked at the text over and over trying to see where the basis for it is and I. Can't find it? Don't get me wrong, it absolutely spells out that it does not and cannot fix everything for Meng Yao, but the idea that it was actively bad for him?

Lacking other evidence, I kind of have to assume that it comes from cql canon being sort of projected backwards onto book canon. In cql canon, meng yao is suffering active and explicit bullying and abuse from the captain while under the nie, and does so because the capain believes he has risen above his station via nmj's promotion of him. (In book canon this... isn't happening. It happens with the captain in Langya instead) However, in cql canon he has also been with the nie for years and is openly close to both Nie Mingjue and Nie Huasiang, whereas in book canon he has only been working with nie mingjue for a few months (though has, in that time, apparently become close enough to him for Lan Xichen to explicitly state Meng Yao is able to calm nmj down in ways no one else can? Ofc he does this... Right after that stops being true. But. Food for thought. Not what this post is about tho.) So, if you project the much more explicit abuse from the nie sect captain in cql back on novel jgy who has a presumably much less stable position in the sect overall you get... a meng yao for whom the promotion only means a bigger target on his back and virtually no protection from nmj, who we must assume he can't trust to talk to his about because he never mentions it. (This also explicitly violates book canon when it comes to meng yao's general behaviour, we'll talk about that in a sec)

And look. We all do frankencanon in this house. I get it. And for fanfiction that is very fun. But for a serious reading of the character, his situation, and the actions that lead from that this... doesn't make much sense, in my opinion.

So. Why is that? Why did I say this was out of character for the novel? Because Meng yao spoke up about the jin captain mistreating him. Multiple times! It's just that none of it mattered because no one cared to listen to him. This is a pretty important line for his character because it flatly shows that meng yao is not and has never seen murder as something trivial. He's not trigger happy. He will only do it if he sees no other way out that doesn't end in himself being seriously harmed. (Whether he's right or justified in these cases is not the point of this post.)

If anything remotely similar was happening in the Nie sect, he would have said so. Cql Meng Yao doesn't do this because cql Meng Yao is a different character, and also the plot wouldn't work if he did. Cql Nie Mingjue, by extension, comes off as a fundamentally less trustworthy figure in cql Meng Yao's life because apparently for whatever reason, he cannot be trusted with the information that the deputy he has already publicly defended is still being harassed, and doesn't notice even when it is really blatant. The assumtpion the audience is given is that, like a middle schooler getting the principal involved when being bullied, it would only make the harassment more viscious.

This... actually has a somewhat solid basis in the book. Because after nmj yells at the bullies in question Wei Wuxian says this.

And it is important to keep in mind that this is Wei Wuxian saying this. Not Meng Yao, not an omniscient narrator. Wei wuxian is drawing on his own experiences, likely from the Jiang family, to conclude that if someone is angry at you and thwarted by someone defending you, this generally does not make them less angry at you.

This is leaving out two crucial things, though.

Firstly, this worry isn't about the promotion at all.

The promotion hasn't even been brought up. In the novel it doesn't ctually happen immediately, it takes another few battles where meng yao continues to do his job well and nie mingjue continues praising him for him to eventually go "yeah, you deserve a raise."

This is another aspect that is being projected from cql canon onto book canon I presume, because it does happen quite quickly there, and it's a throwaway line in the books so it's easy to miss. I can't be mad about anyone forgetting the difference, but it is important to mention for this particular analysis.

Which is the second point: change in status

Wei Wuxian couldn't exactly change status within the Jiang family. (And if he could, that would just fuel rumours that he was jfm's bastard even more and make madam yu even angrier at him, etc etc.)

This isn't comparable to Meng Yao. The worry Wei Wuxian is talking about is explitly about Nie Mingjue's initial very loud defense of him. Before he has any idea Nie Mingjue is going to promote him.

Promoting him would likely decrease his chances of cultivators coming after him because now he was in a higher standing in the sect than they were. If applied to that earlier metaphor of middle school bullying it's like if the bullied kid suddenly got hired as a teacher. Which. Doesn't work with the metaphor at all. Touché. But what I am trying to say is that any payback they would have planned for him relied on the fact that they could make sure that Nie Mingjue wasn't going to be within very convenient earshot a second time, and as a random disciple Meng Yao couldn't just go complain to him every time.

But as his right hand man? Who spends most of his time working directly alongside him? Lmao. Good luck. Oh, sure, it is very likely that they feel offended a son of a whore has been raised in status above them, and many will continue to do so as jgy rises through cultivation society (in fact, Wei Wuxian's observations are absolutely on point for how Madam Jin will be treating jgy later on). But as we can also see from the way jgy is treated and how he treats others throughout the story: you can be upset all you want, but if that person is higher than you in status there's jack shit you can do about it.

If I am correct and Wei Wuxian is basing this on his experiences with the Jiang family, it makes sense why he'd miss this. Madam Yu gets to be way angrier at Jiang Fengmian as his wife than some random disciples can be at Nie Mingjue. Insulting Meng Yao, suggesting that he didn't deserve his promotion or that he earned it through less than proper means (you know who is mother is) is also an insult to Nie Mingjue and the way he chooses to run his sect. They can't do that.

Another thing I see brought up in this regard would be the tea scene. There may be no explicit harassment like in the show, but cultivators still don't respect him! The disrespect is just quieter and more subtle.

Tiny detail: these are actually not Nie cultivators

They're cultivators Lan Xichen is escorting with him, making a pitstop in heijan.

The book confirms this by basically outright stating that this is the first time they see his face, and recognize him as Jin Guangshan's bastard son.

Now, just because there is no proof that it happened doesn't mean it definitely never happened. Mdzs is a novel that often leaves stuff out or up to interpretation. Similar stuff to the tea situtation could very well be happening in the background. But I do think it is pretty significant that there is no mention whatsoever of Meng Yao having any negative treatment from Nie cultivators betwen him and Nie Mingjue meeting and him executing them while spying for Wen Ruohan, and the most we get is Wei Wuxian's personal speculation, after which he immediately goes to wax poetic about how surprised he is that Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue are getting along super well.

And, again, novel Meng Yao would have said something. He doesn't say anything about the tea scene. - Or? Does he? Notably 3zun have some very long in depth conversations that Wei Wuxian zones out from because he's busy thinking about Lan Zhan again. But let's not rely on what-ifs. Let's say that neither he nor Lan Xichen find it worth bringing up. Major reasons for that would be that a) these are not nie cultivators, nie mingjue wouldn't really have the authority to scold them. Especially because b) it's such a subtle offense it could easily be handwaved as coincidence. "They just always brush their cups clean like that!! It's wartime you know, and they were traveling! They're used to drinking from vessels that aren't thoroughly washed everytime! It's just a habit!" And would therefore not be worth reporting.

But anything worse than that? A "price tens or hundreds of times greater" like wwx mentions? He'd report it! I do understand that "well if it was happening why didn't he say something?" would, in real life, be victim blaming. This is not real life, and I am not talking about this in a matter of blame. If Meng Yao was being mistreated in the Nie and stayed silent about it, it would still not be his fault. I am talking about this in a manner of character consistency.

His admission of seeking help in the Jin sect shows that at that time and prior to it (a very good argument can be made that he loses faith in this idea) he believes that if he is being mistreated and someone with the authority to say something about it takes his side, things can improve. If Nie Mingjue standing up for him in Qinghe only made things worse, he would not have tried to ask for help in an even more hostile environment. You can call Meng Yao many things, but naïve isn't one of them.

Meng yao's later habit of completely isolating himself and lying to everyone around him comes from the fact that revealing his suffering would mean explaining several horrible things he's become complicit in and he does not feel safe admitting to that. But he's done nothing wrong here!

The reading where he says nothing would imply an either correct or incorrect belief in Meng Yao's eyes that Nie Mingjue did not much care for his wellbeing or safety. Oh sure he defended him once but doing so again multiple times would be such a bother. This also contradicts his later behaviour, where he banks solely on Nie Mingjue's protective instincts to seal his qi and escape during the confrontation in Langya. After having been caught murdering a man, he is still convinced Nie Mingjue will immediately try to help him when he is in serious danger.

And even if you very badly want to characterize Nie Mingjue as a blundering idiot who is apparently less trustworthy in Meng Yao's eyes than the jin cultivators who had already resoundly rejected him by the time he tries to ask for help with the langya captain. He doesn't say anything to Xichen either! Lan Xichen, who has explicitly and exhaustively been portrayed as kind and understanding to Meng Yao's circumstances and very willing to talk to Mingjue if Meng Yao wants something from him he doesn't otherwise think he'd get. The conversation Mingjue overhears where Meng Yao's new position in the Nie is explictly brought up would be kind of the perfect time to go "yeah I've been promoted but I'm not treated well by other soldiers" aaaand. Nothing. So unless you come to the conclusion that Meng Yao trusted the Jin he told about the captain's abuse more than Lan Xichen you kind of have to conclude that Meng Yao's treatment after his promotion improved significantly. And that even if people still disliked him they could not openly do anything about it because he was high enough in status for that to be socially inappropiate. Which is, explicitly, one of his main motivators over the entire course of the story: Avoiding mistreatment by getting high enough on the social ladder it doesn't matter what people think of him, they can't hurt him.

And I'm not sure how to reconcile that character journey with the idea that he would, at any point, have preferred to keep his head down and stay where he was. When he was so desperate to crawl his way out.

[lightningzbolt]

Layered Striped Tee (And Name Tag Accessory)

I finally got my shirt frankenmesh to work 99%. The 1% is some minor clipping in some poses at some physiques, but basic walking did not clip on any of them. I tried to minimize clipping as much as possible, but I am a mere beginner in the realm of mesh editing, the fact that it didn't crash my game or take me 7 months to complete is a miracle to me. I mean it is just a basic layered tee, but still. Last time I tried was a lot more complicated. Still took me even 26 Blender files in the final version but nevermind. Nothing but mad respect to the CC makers that can pump out three dozen brand new meshes within a month, you deserve to get paid, I suck. Anyway this is from the ATL MV for Some Kind Of Disaster. I both didn't like any vanilla layered shirt meshes and also didn't wanna use someone else's mesh as I'm stubborn and refuse to make others download something someone else made to use my crazzy recolors, so I combined two meshes into one. And if you wanna know what part of this is cobbled, it's the short sleeves, that's all I added, to a long sleeved tee base, yup. The texture of course is by me too. I lost my GIMP files for it somewhere in between 2 power outages as I didn't save I guess so I hope I am okay with these stripes and colors as I am not doing it a third time. I tried on another mesh base first and hated it.

While it's based one exactly one from one thing, because it's so general, I made 12 other swatches, changing the blue(?) shirt to other colors. I still made it, for Alex, not anyone else, but it's not like I didn't share that hoodie I made for him either. Maybe some day I'll make plain colors too, but for now I don't feel like it.

That name tag is NOT part of the shirt, it is its own thing, an accessory, albeit a flat one. Using the left index finger ring slot because I didn't know where else to put it and didn't want it to conflict with a bracelet or come off in sex. Custom thumbnail in CAS so you can, you know, see it.

Works for all it's just a flat 2d texture. 11 Swatches, all the name tags from the MV linked above. I made it double resolution and it still looks blurry! Not much can be done about that. I made this not marked for random, but it is marked for situation, as the idea of a random Sim wearing a name tag that says "loser" at a festival is deeply hilarious to me and I hope it happens. Name tag is two words but that was not how I typed it all this time until now.

Layered Tee

Nametag

[harlantisms]

HOLY shit this morning was so fucking busy and hectic at work i’ve been off for 40mins and home for like maybe 5 and i STILL can’t slow down my brain.

[skinreflectsthesun]

.

[eateth-thy-words]

!!!MIKEY!!!

[morninkim]

1am and i Need to sleep but instead i'm awake having tit thoughts (want them. chest too nothing and feels empty.)

[reinemichele]

I'm in a Lot of pain, & I'm allergic to some things my neighbors use (that has seeped into the carpet/furniture -> it seeps into my hair) & it always makes me really sick (IE dizziness, fever, intense brain fog, headache/migraine, nausea, congestion, wheezing & difficulty breathing, hives, itching/burning eyes and throat, contact dermatitis -> anything I touch can cause hives including my clothes or hair, etc etc etc...) and it basically requires 1-2 showers a day and shampooing my hair 2-3 times per shower to get it out of my hair so I can have an hour or two of thinking clearly and breathing without difficulty... But showering multiple times per day for 4-5 days takes a lot of energy, which is already eaten up by my histamines and immune system working overtime + me trying to function through that laundry list of symptoms

I've tried talking to my neighbors about this multiple times, but... they either just don't understand, or they don't believe me. Most people don't believe me when I say what I'm allergic to, which is why I'm being vague here. I've tried to tell them to find a new petsitter, but I'm afraid they'd just take their dog to a kennel... He's around 10 or 11 now, and I just don't want that for him :( So when they text me asking if I can petsit a week before they leave [and don't have much time to find a new petsitter], I say yes

Anyway, because of the pain I'm in and finding out it's scoliosis, my mom insisted that I don't spend more than 1 hour at a time at our neighbors' house, and just go and check on them periodically. I feel bad doing that, but... my neighbors are only gone for 3 days this time, so it's not like I'm leaving them to be lonely for an entire week.

Anyway 2.0 . ALL of this to say lol that even tho I've only been over at my neighbors for 1 hour at a time and spending most of the day here, my cats are making it known that they don't like me being gone and miss me 😭 Ali is using her "sad wet pathetic widdle baby" meow, which she usually reserves for when I close the bathroom door, Kacey meows sadly when I go near the front door, and Bailey spent like an entire 5 minutes purring, drooling (happily), and insistently rubbing his cheek (scent glands) all over my hand this morning. I was like, "Aw, you don't want me to smell like anyone but you."

It's very sweet, even tho like I said I've spent most of the time here and only 45 minutes to an hour at my neighbors' before coming back home for 3-5 hours. It makes me sad that people still insist that cats are unloving/indifferent to humans. Every cat out there has the potential to be this openly affectionate, they just need to be shown that humans are trustworthy. And there's other forms of affection from cats, like slow blinking and just sitting in the same room with you, silently enjoying your company. You just need to be patient and meet them halfway, when it comes to reading body language and initiating affection first 💞

[louthelost]

O brave tarnished, O weary tarnished

Got gifted Elden Ring and have gotten way too into it, so here's my tarnished

progress shots under the cut

[dreamnotnapss]

uh oh getting too invested and adding too much love to a fic!

[tinydancerandthemoonchild]

Hey! It's the mod here. I know it's been a while, so I wanted to make an update post regarding the unannounced hiatus I've been on.

As you may have guessed, based on the (aside from reblogging my ask for help from my main), I got a bit of burnout with this blog. I've been wanting to start it back up again for a while, and I've been plotting out a bit of plot for a while so I'm not just making this all up as I go along and can keep track of things lol. Now, while this is fun and all, there are some things I want to address.

Firstly, as some of you may know, this blog started because Levi's mod and I were going back and forth with a prince donnie idea, initially to help him sleep, in fact. As you can tell, it spun up into this blog and an entire universe of its own. Unfortunately, Levi's mod and I had a falling out. For those of you that do follow my main, back in August, there was a debacle from me freaking out over something and some confusion over who I was upset with, leading to a chain of hate mail that has continued to the point that I'm even less sure of my identity and self-worth than before. Levi's mod contacted me via DMs to talk about the situation, but never responded after I did. To my knowledge, at least as far as Tumblr is showing me when I look at old asks on this blog, their blog has since deactivated. I'm unsure if they have received harassment or anything on my behalf from this entire situation, but if that occurred, I do not condone it and I am ashamed of those of you that partook in that. In light of these developments, unless I am contacted by Levi's mod either directly or through a mutual contact, I will be leaving their contributions to this au and the origins intact out of respect. If he wishes to no longer be included in this au, he knows where to contact me, and I will overhaul as necessary and restart the blog to do so.

Secondly, as things have been somewhat bogged down as of late, for the sake of plot, I may timeskip to when everyone has been safely returned home to their universe. Before doing this, I will consult with the lovely mod that was assisting with the pizzaplex crossover arc before doing so to see what course of action I should take. If I do timeskip, I will answer the ask that Pride's mod has sent me to tie up a little bit of Michaelangelo and Ali's adventure into the canon Rise universe, and then proceed with the timeskip.

As of right now, anon will be remaining off to avoid further hate mail, insults, and threats to my life and safety, along with attempts at doxxing me in my own inbox. If there are questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to send in an ask, and I will respond as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience with this long wait, and I'm excited to continue the story of this blog, as I have a lot in store!