#unfortunately I am terrible at moderation

[chatdomestique]

Go to store

See snack food I want

Buy snack food

Tell myself I will eat it in moderation

Go home

Eat the entire thing in one sitting

Be upset that I failed to eat in moderation

Go to store

See snack food I want

Remember failure to eat in moderation

Do not buy snack food

Go home

Crave snack food

Be upset that I don’t have snack food

Go to store

See snack food I want

Remember craving for snack food

Buy snack food

Tell myself I will eat it in moderation

Go home

Eat the entire thing in one sitting

[nullbojack]

The drama is everything wrong with the Eternitydev community

This post will be long as I'm listing every wrong doing this community has done. For almost 2 years I've been watching this drama and I am just annoyed and disappointed how childish this community is. Even MrDrNose doesn't behave like a mature adult like he should.

I won't name any of the cuprite behind the harassment and death threats because this will just incite more drama. 1. Malicious harassment and slander of the Doc writer who is 16 years old! The person who wrote the document known as the "MrDrNose and the Eternitydev Community Exposed" is "Proto-Kaiden". Who is a minor who wrote the document to call out the wrong doing of the community after they were bullied and harassed out of there.

Of course it wasn't about the harassment. As it shared some other topics such as the concerning choices the developer has made toward the game (Inserting more easter eggs and a repeated 'fetish inserts' of a character instead of focusing more on building the game more), or the time the moderators refused to ban an exposed pedophile from their server after numerous minors were sexually harassed. Now these are concerns that needed to be brought up, and some people have agreed that this is something that need to be resolved. However there are a terribly amount of fans who responded with harassments and threats. These people were upset to see a document on their developer and decided to stalk and harass this minor and continually send threats, insults and tried to spread lies about them to try and get more people to harass them. They even made a subreddit which had around 40 - 50 members all dedicated to try and "Remove Kaiden". Thankfully it was banned, but the fact people went this far over a document is disgusting and not okay. We are supposed to be a "Mature Community" yet can't behave like decent human beings and went to target a 16 year old because they wanted to silence him. They even try excuse their actions by bringing up what he done (That being that he "starts fight in the server" however when I look into this, this is not true and that its the mods who started fights about him for doing almost anything,) or just making up baseless claims.

They even went as far to slander him of being a PEDO with no proof.

Of course it wasn't just Kaiden that they targeted, they targeted people who would take his side, even people who wanted to stay away from the drama were harassed because they agree with the document. This isn't okay and that needs to stop. What make this bad is that MrDrNose enables this behavior and pretends this isn't happening despite many people bringing this up. Not only that he even punish those who goes against the harassment.

On the Eternitydev Wiki three people (one of which is a mod) got banned because they argued with an individual who has been trying to harass Kaiden. Unfortunately I do not have the screenshot of the entire thread as it was removed, but I remember the people that got banned from that thread who called out the harasser for their behavior.

2. MrDrNose had the chance to resolve this drama with Kaiden but choose to throw it away and ghosted the drama.

The biggest disappointment is that MrDrNose have enable this drama to continue. Early this year he was confronted by his own fans on Itch.io (it was a crappy drama that happen over a ingame file titled 'Ariral sex treehouse',) that he could discuss this with Kaiden and resolve this issue so that everybody can be satisfied. He said he will give it a try. However he didn't do anything to even talk to him and actually ghosted the situation and try to keep people from talking about it. As shown by Kaiden himself, Nose did not dm him on twitter or discord.

This actually annoyed me but this drama is still happening because MrDrNose did not want to confront about it and settle it. When it was asked if he did contact Kaiden, Nose would make claims that he did but that he would claim that Kaiden was demanding. He did not provide any screenshots to prove that he did contacted Kaiden and was accused of lying to try and keep the drama going. MrDrNose would respond by banning a few accounts from the comment format and he would change the Itch.Io comment format and have his moderators delete any comments that asked about the drama. It is completely shitty for MrDrNose to let the drama continue for a long time without ACTUALLY trying anything to resolve it peacefully and instead hides from it enable weird people to harass people who goes on the Document's side. What MrDrNose did wrong is enable a conflict that could of been ended so much earlier if he actually care to end it. Instead he ghosted it and let people be harassed over it. I don't even get why he would let this continue. Does he like the drama? Does he like negative attention? Either way, This just hurts the entire community and it's reputation and that will affect the game's popularity because people will be turned off from wanting to share content about VotV because of this hostile and toxic community full of overzealous man-babies who will fight to the end of the earth until Kaiden is gone from the internet.

I don't think I need to explain what he should of done to make a better outcome. It's obvious what he should of done instead of what he just did. 3. MrDrNose is immature and it becomes a problem. MrDrNose's is undeniably immature, and this lack of maturity has caused some issues which make people turn on him. Instead of acting like an adult, he acts like a complete child and antagonize people. For a while now he's been confronted by old fans who has issues regarding if he will ever truly remake the game "Advanced Education with Viktor Strobovski" like he said he would. These fans have lost their trust with MrDrNose after he suddenly deleted 'AEwVS specific channels' and made the server entirely VotV focused. Because of this, fans go out to call him out. And MrDrNose would respond the worse way possible by threatening to delete AEwVS off the face of the earth.

And surprise! This causes more conflict in the community.

My next example of how immature is that he degrade people who call him out, referring to them to be "Mentally ill".

This just make everyone see him as an ableist assholes. Which he is an asshole. Just calling people mentally ill as a way to cope with being called out for his flaws is unprofessional at best and will make people turn on him more for acting this way. One last example of his immaturity is when he told about why he is getting hated.

I don't really need to point out why this is immature. If he sees issues about himself such as "sexualizing characters in public channels" (Inside of a discord server that have members below the age of 17) and "Backstabbing his older fans" as something that "only children will care about," it just make everyone look at him as someone who is not to be trusted if he does not recognize what is right or wrong. It actually pisses me off how a grown ass man cannot acknowledge to why people turn on him and act confused and mad about it and resort to calling them "children" and "mentally ill" for it.

MrDrNose actually need to rethink how he's been behaving and need to learn that lashing out like this will make things worse for himself. The best salutation is to listen to people and respond like a reasonable adult instead of a child. Instead of threatening to delete a game to keep old fans hush hush about it. He should instead reassure that eventually he will remake the game, and I think the best way to convince the old fans to trust him is to share hints of ideas of what he may add in the Remake of AEwVS. Instead of treating issues about his server as nothing but "something that children only care about," he should instead admit that these things are wrong and that he should do better and make sure to not make these mistakes again.

If he continue to behave like this, the game might as well be doom to fail if he can't get his crap together and behave like an adult. People can and will get sick and tired of this and will move onto another game that will explode in popularity. I already know that tons of people have move on from the game. The game ain't exactly being developed properly. Sure it does get updated that add a few major changes, but along in the update are just a dozen "Easter eggs and secrets" that doesn't even need to be added. The game has enough secret easter eggs yet MrDrNose still add 23 more easter eggs in the game despite it not even being necessary. I find it to be kinda lazy if the developer works on these "Major updates" and half of it is just a dozen easter eggs.

It gets very annoying and get people tired of having all this crap be shoved into the game instead of real content such as new Entities, Signals and events. MrDrNose honestly should actually work on the game where he adds more entities and signals instead of making 25 easters eggs. There is ENOUGH easter eggs in the game. 4. Why am I making this post? I'm just completely tired of people being completely ignorant and going around hurting others. People need to grow up and just accept that these are real issues that can't be shrugged off, and not going around throwing baseless pedo accusation to harm a minor for writing a document. The only way the community can become better if the people in it become better human beings that behave civilized and understanding, while the bad ones get exiled from the fanbase. And I wanted to point out to MrDrNose that he should grow up and learn to stop behaving like this child that get cranky that they get called out for not being perfect. If you are reading this, MrDrNose. There is no question that your game is great. However, just because your game is great doesn't mean you can't make mistakes. You remain accountable for your deeds, the conduct of the community, and the consequences that result. Give up trying to prove that you did nothing wrong and simply acknowledge that you made poor decisions and that you need to improve. Is that really difficult? The popularity of your game will suffer as a result of the many bad actors in your community has done. Plenty of people have already left the community because of a lack of hope or interest. You can still make an effort to show people that you're going to do much better and make changes that will hopefully make a much better future for the people in the community. The best way to start is by settling this drama.

[eldritch-spouse]

You know I think Breg would benefit from having friends, one : to give his drunk father figure some rest and two : to have people  stop or encourage him in his bullshit. Obviously having monster friends would be better for him, so I made a list of the people I think he could along with (and the ones he would chomp without regrets)

Friends :

Santi: this one is easy, Santi seems to be an easygoing person and a good friend to have. When he's not drooling over Breg, I think he'd give some really good tips about life and how to deal with his obsession (after begging for a threesome and getting punched in the face), if they got close enough, Santi could even help Breg forget about some of his insecurities in the way that he would put him at ease.

Grimbly : by association, he'd be intrigued by Breg, for the first few times, their first conversations would be "You're so tall !! No you're like huge" , "Well you're small like a...bean", but they get along just fine.

Fank-E : He's friends with everyone and he'll put a bunch of stickers on Breg and he lowkey annoy the shit of him at certain times but it will end up in this semi-consensual kinda forced friendship (who's more insistant him or Breg ? I guess we'll never know)

Gallon : Him and Egghead would have talks that would leave Eggy scratching his head and staring into the void, but they're nice to each other, Gallon might be a bit condescending in reaction to a how simple Breg's mind seems to be.

Middle ground

Patches : I hesitated as putting him as friend but I think his scientific interests would put Breg off

Belo : Belo is too polite and uptight, and his fixated stare can make Breg feel uneasy, they talk just fine

Sybastian : Syb just kind of mind his bussiness and keep it pushing but there's rare times where he growls a "hello" to Breg and keeps walking

Nebul : Nope, this only reason why they're not enemies is because Nebul is civilized, but the potions and his dominating nature would make Bregory avoid him like the plague

No fucking way :

Morrell : Their interest for the same thing (human) is diverging in two different directions, Breg is like "Humans are friends not food ! 😡" and Morrell is like "yUM sTEaK !", it's their relationship on a very surface level and I think Eggy would leave it at that

Hellion : Nah, they would fight and Breg would just bite that head off his neck 

Vinnel : That punk would try to pull a prank on Breg, he would fall for it, get mad and then catch Vinnel and try to squish him like a stress toy, Vinnel would be in pain for a little while and finally leave Breg alone (or plot a terrible revenge)

Did it actually turned into a scale of friends to archnemesis of TCE? Yes. Am I proud ? Yes.

Here's the thing though.

One of the first things said about Breg is that he dislikes monsters. He glorifies humans and has a general aversion to monsters, finding them generally untrustworthy. This isn't to say there can't be exceptions, like Fasma, but Breg would probably have a much bigger drive to acquire human friends.

The problem with human friends is that it wouldn't take too long for him to cross boundaries if Breg is yet to meet his obsession.

With monster friends, you're also forgetting that Breg refuses to set foot in The Clergy in general. He's been there once with Fasma, didn't like it at all, vowed not to enter it again- He'd have to meet staff outside. I sincerely don't think many of these would work out all that well, certainly not Santi. The incubus' insistence on wanting to fuck him would make Breg really aggressive really fast. Grimbly's manipulation and cute talk would fall on deaf ears and unfortunately things with Gallon would be more akin to one-sided mockery. Fank-E would genuinely irritate Breg, but since he's a machine and not a monster, things might work out given he's moderately quiet.

Belo's aura as an angel might make Breg slightly more at ease, yet somehow hyperaware of the power himself, which would probably confuse the breeder a little. Patches would get himself torn in two horizontally if he doesn't contain his scientific interest around Breg, as it could trigger really intense reactions from the ex-captive. Morell and him would just brawl, correct.

Ironically, I see him as possibly getting along with Glauk, even if there's a barrier there in the sense Breg doesn't know how to swim properly yet. Glauk is relatively small and can't say weird things to him plus seems eager to share all kinds of trinkets people dump in the aquarium. This is a bit of an impossible scenario, unless Glauk is being transported outside for some reason or another.

[brightfuture2024]

under readmore because i am deeply embarassed by this

i cannot stop myself from unraveling every little thread of anything my bf says or does into some reason why we won't work out in the future and should just break up now. but i've realized i'm the same way with anyone close to me i'm unfortunately very critical of my sister and my best friends too. someone says or does one thing different from how i would and i turn it into this whole thing where i'm like they'll never understand me, i'm so alone, nobody will ever know the right way to do things or say things or think things aside from me, etc. and everyone says i'm a very critical person which says a lot because most of the time i'm upset with people i don't even bring it up. and i can talk or write about this and acknowledge how insane it is because it is a terrible self-centered way to live and view the world but then i still have these feelings and i don't know how to get rid of them... i read a book once about this girl who gets turned into a sort of zombie thing but it ends up being really wonderful because they all have this sort of hive mind situation where they all can understand each other's thoughts perfectly without speaking and i was soooo jealous of her. it's like i need to do reverse positive affirmations or something like "you don't know everything" "you are only moderately smart" "if you say how you feel others will find you weird and offputting"

[little-bunny-in-space]

Hello Friends! <3

It's been a while since I've been able to blog- life has been really holding me back, but it's okay. The holidays were busy- but overall, lovely to spend with family. I have done a bit more sitting with God as of late because I feel I've drifted a bit. Not on purpose... but I think the stress of holidays and focus on materialistic goods really get to someone after months of fretting on it. I hope to discipline myself a bit more... especially through the winter. I'm already thinking and planning for Easter.

I've just gotten so preoccupied with the things that numb the pain- the temporary things, like games and entertainment. While these things are obviously okay in moderation, there comes a point where they've started to replace my time and study with God. I haven't really "studied" my scripture as I should have been. Thank God for His mercies... I will try to get back on track and study more, even if just a little bit. He is deserving of so much more, but I'm glad He is happy even with the littlest of sacrifices!

Also, in a terrible way of weakness, I happened to get myself into a relationship with someone who... doesn't necessarily bring me closer to God. I want to get out of it... but it's hard. I feel terrible for the other person because they are impulsive and take their hurt out on other people. Plus, I just feel... bad.

In the meantime, in trying to connect more with God, I've written some in my journals, some stories and such I plan on posting soon.

I've also felt the stir in my heart as of late to take my "religious" self more seriously. While my abuser is keeping me from going to Mass, I can at least pray the rosary or recite what I see in the missals. I was doing that during my time in recovery from surgery, but my abusers demands, and the business is keeping me from doing... well... anything. Any free time I do have I just want to play or focus on entertainment because I have literally no time to do anything working 12-14 hours a day- Especially when the abuser has been around constantly. I can practice to an extent, but he does not let me write because he will look through them, doesn't let me pray out loud... things like that.

But going to Mass... that is what hurts me. I just want to go to church. That's all. It's such a simple little thing but... my abuser controls me, my life is his at the current moment, and unfortunately, he worships work. I tried to shake him out of it, but it only made it worse. So, I try to find little ways of church and devotion in everyday life. Still, not being able to go to OCIA classes breaks me. I so badly want to be Catholic! I want the Eucharist!!! But I am too much of a coward to pursue my abuser. Forgive me Lord.

But... God knows my heart, my struggles, and I am in complete awe and worship of His great mercy for me. I do not deserve it!!! But I have hope for the future.

[lwieserce]

Alongside the few unfortunate things, i'd say my relationship to food has turned a LOT better this year!! And i never even realized it was bad, perhaps because it was bad in a way distinct to what most other people experience from what i see.

I never felt guilty over my weight. God knows it wasn't the most isolating aspect for me growing up (even though it played a part) I wasn't picky. I would eat anything, and i wouldn't stop eating (and that is something i still struggle with) whether it was out of enjoyment or politeness or duty. I would binge on the things i enjoy to a point of hating them and i would suck it up and eat things served to me that i hated and i never thought to myself that maybe. This should be enjoyable to me at ALL times (there is so much more to it but i'll keep it short, it's not the best summary either way) For example if i do not like sandwiches in the morning i NEVER have to eat a sandwich again.

And at this point i guess i wanted to list the things that changed but i lost track so bad omg

- i started cooking sometime in february, as in, i made the conscious decision to experiment with it. I did cook actual dinners last year but i had even less of an idea wtf i was doing than i do now. And i am becoming mildly better at bullshitting my way through it!! Do not EVER ask me what a recipe is. I do not know

- my attempts at eating 'healthier' have actually ended up teaching me how to budget better and what to buy in bulk without things going to waste!! For example I never buy bread these days because i know i cannot eat it by myself and it gets disgusting very quickly. And frozen bread has a terrible texture and taste. And i do not like sandwiches like i said. It hasn't changed, i still probably think that wasting food is a moral failing, especially if i am the culprit BUT i'm becoming efficient at preventing it!!

- i started using a wider variety of ingredients which actually made the occassional sandwich enjoyable. The things i eat now are more colorful and visually pleasing and that makes the entire experience better than it ever was

- i am keeping my small rituals whenever i can... sweet treat + coffee is something i'll give up only over my dead body. On the topic of coffee, i am glad i found a way to enjoy the taste without drinking the actual thing that my body reacts badly to, or rather it found me lol

- moderation, regrettably, is very important... to avoid the unpleasant heaviness of overeating, to stretch out this meal batch you've prepared to 4 days instead of forcing 3 days because... because you made up a nonsense rule in your head. & eating slowly to appreciate the taste more and eat less in one sitting is such an important lesson.

- with some ingredients you do not like, you might want to try working your way around and finding a way to actually enjoy them... you never know.. things can caste wildly different in different combinations (throwing all i said out the window this is a message to all my friends who do not like eggs. SUCK IT UP eggs are wonderful there must be a way for you to enjoy them. The hell.)

Knowing your food is knowing yourself, might be my main takeaway from this journey so far. Since we have to do all this to stay alive we might as well enjoy it. And i am blessed with that enjoyment coming to me very naturally.. i am a 'foodie'or whatever. Oh my god is there a better term... i love life's delicacies etcetera.... but this is just my POV...

[jamesphillimoresumbrella]

So. Coming back from bringing my aunt to visit relatives in South Carolina, I had no milk in the fridge (on purpose because I hadn't wanted to leave anything behind that might spoil) and was in desperate need of coffee. And I need milk in my coffee.

I did, however, have tins of milk in the cupboard. But, owing to an unfortunate combination of circumstances in the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad month of June, I had no can opener. My choice would have been evaporated milk, but it did not have the easy-open, pull-tab top. The condensed milk did.

I need milk in my coffee, but--and this was something of a surprise to me when I discovered that it could be done, coming from a place where 3-in-1 coffee sachets and instant coffee with spoonfuls of sugar is Just How It's Done*--I do not do sugar. However, when other people do condensed milk in coffee, it's delightful (witness barako condensada and Vietnamese coffee). And I thought to myself how bad can it be?

Answer: not bad at all, actually. It's...it's all right.

I say this in the tones of Arthur Shappey describing something as "all right" rather than "brilliant". I might have been better off bringing the coffee into work and grabbing a few little buckets of creamer from the break room (I know no moderation when it comes to milk in my coffee, and dread the day when my system finally goes "nope, you can't have dairy anymore").

So I had an open can of condensed milk that I didn't know how to use, and the next logical step was, of course, to see if I could make bread with it.

(This makes sense. To me, at least.)

I could. I found a recipe. I tried it. And it looked delightful.

"Looked" is the key word here.

I know where I went wrong. It was in trying to frantically multitask before I had to make myself get some sleep before going in to work and blindly trusting the directions instead of seeing how they adapted to the kitchen I'm not yet entirely used to. I ended up with an externally lovely loaf with an unsalvageable gooey interior maybe 2 slices in from the end.

Devastating,

So I ended up not just not having milk, but also not having a fresh loaf of bread. Not that I had a fresh loaf of bread to start with, but the absence of it was more keenly felt. (It was the potential of the fresh loaf of bread, you see.)

I did, however, have a very stale loaf from eons past in the fridge, which was in surprisingly good shape. The next logical thing then was to find a good recipe for bread pudding. Which I did. Because I am a rational human bean, and it made sense to me at the time.

The bread pudding turned out considerably better than the Tragedy of the Condensed Milk Loaf.

I'm still working on that--working on consuming that, I should say--but since I did eventually go and get the milk, I now have milk that I'm trying to use up (and a glass bottle with a $2 deposit that rather surprised me) so I am once again looking for recipes that aren't the one for the milk loaf that I usually fall back on. Because variety is the spice of life and I am in need of some low-key excitement.

This has been the long and bread-y ramble no one asked for.

*I would like to thank "The Hounds of Baskerville" and John Watson's "I don't take sugar" for this revelation. Mind was blown when I tried coffee that way and learned that sweetness wasn't compulsary.

[gradientdescent-does-it-all]

I am once again feeling haunted by the pressure of too many WIPs. Too many embroidery designs finished but not yet stitched. Too many yards of fabric in the stash unsewn. Too many balls of yarn unknitted. Too many stories unwritten.

I know at least some of this pressure is coming from the fact that I’m in the middle of a job hunt, mild-to-moderately annoyed that I’m having to “work” on multiple interviews during a week I’d planned for vacation. My timing is terrible! I’d intended to plan this week to just purely sit down and chill in expectation of a flurry of activity AFTERWARDS. Unfortunately (fortunately? idk) multiple new application processes have swung into high gear just one week too soon, and all at the same time. So the good news is I feel VERY LOVED in a certain way but the bad news is that I’ve never really liked attention. ><

[tonydaddingham]

You've been glossing over the fact that labour lost a lot of their vote share to Reform and lost seats to independent Islamists.

hi!!! forgive me - im not sure if im just being dense or otherwise ignorant to what your point is, or im just once again being crap in reading tone, but in any event i am hardly an all-encompassing expert on this. i just find politics interesting.

but okay yeah, let's talk vote share. parties benefit under the fptp system, rather than under a pr system. that's why it's there. labour has an approx 34% vote share, winning 412 seats, but if we had a pr system this number would be lower. reform has an approx 14% share, winning them 4 seats (all gains from conservative). independent has a 2% share, winning them 6 seats (5 of which are gains from labour). tories, for comparison of all - approx 22% share, 121 seats. labour increased by 211 seats, tories decreased by 250. however, all those seats number would be different, i imagine, under a pr system.

but looking at percentage changes, you're absolutely right in the regard that reform does have one of the most eye-opening changes. labour vote share only went up by 1.6%. by all accounts, given their landslide, that number should be huge. but if we look at the tories down by 19.9%, and reform up by 12.3%, i actually think the answer lies here. imo, yes labour won, but we shouldn't make the mistake in thinking that labour won because of overwhelming love for labour. labour won because the tories lost. imo, people are more dissatisfied by the tories, than they are enraptured by labour. unfortunately, that has led to the people splitting what would otherwise be a loyal tory vote.

no doubt some of the labour vote share was lost to reform, i think that's sensible to assume, but given that the increase in reform's vote share went up drastically (for a relatively new party entering the race), and tories relatively plummeted - plus all seats gained by reform are from the tories, and polls showed that a large number of former tory voters since the election was called in May were planning to change their vote to reform - i personally would say that their increase in popularity is down to tories losing their stronghold on their stauncher (and more terrible) rw votership.

reform was dangerously close to winning more seats - only around 5000 votes were needed to win them a total of 12 seats, iirc. and they were second place in over 100 constituencies? i think? either way, yes, there were a lot of seats won by conservatives where reform came second... but there was also a fair number of now labour seats where reform came second - indicating once again that it's not so much a win for labour, but a loss for the tories (to essentially place third, after being the biggest party for years):

as for the independents. yes, 5 seats won from labour as i said, on a 2% share, 1.4% increase. labour wants to call for a ceasefire, and advocates for a two-state solution. 4 of the seats that labour has lost have been to pro-palestine candidates. we can put two and two together here. labour are advocating for a solution to the conflict and genocide that is at the very, very least, imo, deliberately (and dangerously) non-committal and moderate, and arguably performative. the war is a very controversial and important issue that people will very understandably take a stance on and base their vote in that. ie - where the war is a paramount topic to people, they will look to vote in candidates that oppose what labour would look to negotiate. so again yeah - labour have likely lost vote share and seats to independents presumably based on their palestine policy, but it is still 6 seats total, and 2% share only.

furthermore, there is the question of what else these independent candidates would vote on in the house; presumably, outside of the conflict, they would vote in line with government (being formerly labour seats), not the opposition - but i will add here that im not so clued up on their individual policies (mea culpa), so i may be wrong... but if im not, would these seats essentially be closely aligned with labour anyway? ie. might as well be a labour seat? possibly, idk.

so yeah in conclusion to what i think your ask if getting at, because ive waffled long enough: no, i personally don't think that labour has lost a significant share of their vote to reform, but instead the tories have, and that has led to a split vote that has allowed labour to come out on top - again, not an indication that labour won or is miraculously better, but moreso that the tories lost and is shit... and labour won almost as if by default.

as for independent seats, yes i imagine that the seats that labour lost have been over labour's stance on palestine, but equally if that is the only point of conflict for voters that would otherwise vote labour (idk if the seats were previously labour safe seats, or if they were swing - i ought to look this up, forgive me), it could be argued that the independent seats might as well still be labour anyway on matters of other policy outside of the conflict.

another point that i think is worth mentioning, but largely unrelated to the above. there have been constituencies where tories have won by a whisker, compared to the secondary party. ive found this to be the case in my county, especially - like, 100-200 votes' difference. my constituency changed to lib dem, but this was a tactical vote win, and i doubt it was out of love for the lib dems. instead, we just wanted the tories gone (and for context this has been a tory safe seat since like. the stone age). but some neighbours kept their tory safe seats because people didn't vote tactically. these are the votes and share change figures from one constituency nearby:

tories: 14728, -21.1%

labour: 14607, +18%

lib dem: 11387, +19.2%

reform: 7085, +13.5%.

this constituency specifically had no set tactical vote because of previous independent votes, but majority of polls indicated labour. the votes certainly reflected that, in that tories dropped drastically and yet still won the seat against labour by only 121 seats. multiply this across the country - and i think it strongly argues my point that this is a tory loss, not strictly a labour victory. but where this regrettably remained tory safe is, imo, largely due to people not voting tactically. i think the labour and lib dem percentages reflect that.

the fptp system is pants, and pr would be arguably better for representation in theory, but if we talk about how voter concentration is arguably more important a concept than voter share (especially given that constituency boundaries changed, hereby reflecting this issue around concentration), pr is not great for local representation within the house itself. that being said, even if a system like stv could potentially rectify the issue of proportionality, i doubt the system will change any time soon anyway.

[yourfaveisbannedfromthedaycare]

well gee golly, it's been a while since ive used this blog! when was the last time I posted h

oh. oh no

i.. am So. so so so sorry !! I owe you all a major apology :^( You're all probably wondering what happened and where I went, so to tl;dr : I got burnt out Reaaaally quickly, and then I let this blog sit, and then my tablet's charger stopped working...the tablet that had the flag layers on it... anddd now I'm working on a laptop! (dont worry, I have the flags backed up...somewhere.) (Let it also be known I have ADHD. Like...moderately terrible, unmedicated ADHD. I can't really hold fixations long, and when I do it's a miracle.) And with SB Ruin finally releasing, I figured NOW is a good a time as any to revive this blog! :D hopefully I can keep it open, ehe.... 1. clearing out the previous 30+ requests ( I am SO SORRY, please feel free to resend requests if you couldnt get yours done <:[ ) 2. Limiting the amount of requests I receive to batches of 5-10. I am only one mod, unfortunately (I know I said there was another mod, but unfortunately that fell through when this blog got abandoned, so it's just me!), but this will keep me from being overwhelmed and ditching again. Again, so super sorry to all you superstars that wanted your blorbos on the flags!! Hopefully I can run this smoother from here on out! 💛 - Mod Sundrop ☀🧃

[jhara-ivez]

Qyra AU #2

Part 1 Dami's attention was drawn to the report on the table in front of her. In the last month, crime in the districts had risen by almost 20 %. As soon as the majority of the Civil Force was at the borders, pickpockets, burglars and fraudsters sprouted up like mushrooms.  Of course, everyone had complained about the lack of night patrols, but what could be done? Shape new guards out of clay? Ask the necromancers in their towers if they would lend the city some undead? Not that there weren't already some mages who preferred their undead guardians to the living ones of flesh and blood. "They should have planned ahead," she said, not able to banish the personal resentment from her voice. "All this could have been avoided." "Yes, Masā." "But the main issue is being willing to play war when you can't even protect your own people decently!" "Yes, Masā." "That idiot knows neither duty, nor diligence, nor effort! If I didn't constantly intervene on my own authority, surely even the forgers on Palm Avenue would still be around. Oh, what am I saying! They'd probably have taken on two more extra jobs. This miserable dilettante can do nothing but kiss the feet of the high and mighty and roll around in gold! He doesn't care at all if the city sinks into chaos!" "Sure, Masā."

Dami crossed her arms bitterly. "What's for dinner tonight, Illi?" The woman flinched at the sound of her name and looked questioningly in Dami's direction. Dami repeated the question. "Red bream with semolina and vegetables. To go with the red wine your brother brought over the other day." "Not from his 'winery', I hope?" Illi nodded, looking offended, as if she owed it to Dami's brother. "Why fish all the time, anyway! As often as there's been fish lately, you'd think all the chickens, sheep and all the game had died of the plague. Have I missed some food crisis, Illi?" The housekeeper made a movement with her hand that could mean anything and nothing. "Fish is healthy." Dami waited to see if she might get any further explanation, but the housekeeper remained icily silent and started cutting the vegetables. Actually, Dami didn't mind fish all that much, if she was honest. "Have you seen how busy Amar looks lately?" she asked in an attempt to smooth the waters again. "Has he hinted at anything to you? Do I need to worry about a new employee?" "Oh no, no. He's made friends with one of the guests. As far as I know, he used to bring him books in the afternoons." Dami raised her eyebrows. "Oh. Well that's... nice. Is there any other news of the two of them?" She tried to sound casual and only moderately interested, but Illi saw right through her. "I haven't observed anything suspicious yet, Agesi," she grinned and gave Dami a mischievous, yet at the same time accusing look. An abrupt knock on the front door ended any further conversation. A few moments later Illi returned with a man in uniform who was quite terribly out of breath. It was young Tirash. Illi offered him some water, but he declined. "Sha'Shayan Agesi, the body of a man has been found in the great fountain of the palace." "Was the park opened to visitors yet?" "Yes, unfortunately. One of the pedestrians has reported it. We closed after that, of course!" he nodded eagerly, fiddling with his uniform. Tirash had not been under her command long, but so far she had little to complain about. Sometime last month she had signed off on his initial assessment. Dutiful and not the brightest candle in the chandelier, but with his heart in the right place. Suddenly he looked embarrassed and visibly ducked his head. "Well... So..." he began. "Sha'Min said that since the crime took place in the Queen's gardens.... Er, well, he said that it was obviously within your jurisdiction and..." "Never mind..." Dami waved him off with an exasperated sigh. "It's not like there's much else to do at the moment, is there? And it wasn't an accident or suicide?" "No, Agesi, there are wounds on his upper body. We think he was attacked and then disposed of." "Well wonderful. What about a name? Do we know who we're dealing with?" "Not so far, I'm afraid, Agesi." Dami put on her shoes and patted Illi apologetically on the shoulder before leaving the house with the man.

**********

Where is Shahin?" Dami asked when she arrived at the scene of the crime and could not see any of her people. Shahin was the best tracker Dami knew, and she was proud to count this man among her best colleagues and friends. The young Tirash gave the men and women of the Civil Force a wicked look before replying. "Somewhere in the garden. He said he would write you a report by tonight," he explained. "When we got here these idiots were already everywhere, criss-crossing the grounds. Shahin said it'd be a miracle if he found anything useful, but he's doing his best." Dami closed her eyes for a moment and applied some pressure to the bridge of her nose with her fingers. Then she took three deep breaths, opened her eyes again and nodded. "Where is the person that found him?" she wanted to know. Tirash pointed to a corpulent, elderly man with hair that was already beginning to turn white. He was standing under a flowering tree, watching the people at work. Dami walked over to him. "I am Dami Sha'Shayan. Do you feel able to make a statement, Sheyri?" "I've already told your colleagues everything, haven't I?" "Sure. But I'd still like to hear it all again from your mouth. Second-hand testimony is like stale tea, don't you think? Do you feel up to it, or should I have you summoned?" The man snorted, but then nodded. "Tell me what exactly happened. From the beginning. And don't leave out anything, even though it may seem unimportant." For a while the man looked down at the tips of his shoes. "Well, I went for a walk, just like every day." "Can you remember when, approximately, you were here? At the entrance to the garden, I mean." The man pointed to a woman in a guard's uniform at the edge of the spectacle. She was noticeably paler than everyone else. Dami couldn't remember her name, but she had been assigned to the afternoon shift here at the garden for what felt like ages. "That one will be able to tell you that I come at the same time every day," the man said. "I always go the same way because of the Waterfowl. They only come out of the reeds after the midday heat. And then suddenly there was a piece of rag in the water and the water had a strange pink colour. At first I thought someone had thrown rubbish in, you know what people are like, but then I realised there were legs and arms and all." "Did you see at that point that..." "No. I only noticed that he was dead after I fished him out. Had to throw up after - ...disgusting thing that." Dami nodded sympathetically and looked at the body, now hidden under an oilcloth, lying on a transport stretcher. Hopefully they still had enough ice in stock. "And then you called for help, I suppose? Was the body unattended when you did that?" The man looked puzzled. "Well, he couldn't walk away any more, could he. I just went back to the entrance and called the next best of your colleagues over. I thought it would be quick and I could go back home, but instead I've been standing here for what feels like an eternity -" "Of course," Dami interrupted him immediately and raised her hands appeasingly, "you can go home right away. However, it could be that someone will have to question you again in some time." The man understandably did not leap for joy, but left his address, and then left the scene. Dami watched him for a moment, then turned to the corpse, which was now also approached by a medico. They greeted each other wordlessly. The medico, Diego Funèbre, tall and slender with dark hair, and just as friendly as the last time they met, looked over at Dami, but then concentrated on the remains of the stranger. Funèbre put on a pair of thin leather gloves and approached the corpse, but then stopped in front of it for a while. Dami knew from their last encounters that the medico possessed phasmalistic abilities and searched for remains of the soul around the scene of the crime. At first, she had thought he was praying for the soul in his silence and wishing it a peaceful journey into the afterlife. Sometime later, however, Funèbre had laughingly told her that after all he had seen in this world, he could no longer believe in the afterlife. When some time had passed, the medico lowered himself to one knee, bent over the dead man, reached for his wrist and, for the sake of order, felt for his pulse. Dami decided not to witness any more of the procedure and instead to take a closer look at the scene of the crime in its entirety. The fountain was located at the northern end of a long rectangle, the sides of which were defined by tall, accurately trimmed privies. There were three gates through which one could enter the artificial clearing. The witness must have come from the western gate, just like Dami and Tirash earlier. To the east, one could reach the waterfalls and the reed-covered shore of the artificial lake where the man had wanted to watch the Waterfowl. To the south one arrived at a grotto that was particularly popular with couples thanks to its many niches and cool temperatures. The culprit could have come from anywhere. At first glance, Dami could not see any dragging or cart tracks. Maybe the body had not been moved at all. Funèbre half straightened up, which drew Dami's attention back to him, took two bent steps and knelt down next to the corpse's head, which he turned slightly to the side to look at the back of the head and the spine. Then he had the body turned over by two helpers and continued his examination. Only after another five minutes did he get up and stood next to Dami. "So?" she wanted to know. "Someone stabbed him. Since there are both entry and exit wound, I would assume a sword or a long spear. He hasn't been in the water long, but it's impossible to say for sure. Maybe a few hours at most. But not longer than that." "Do you think he saw the attacker coming?" The medico shrugged his shoulders. "If so, he didn't fight back," he said, brushing off his gloves. He carefully layered them and slipped them back into a bag he had brought for the purpose. "The first stab was already fatal, and there are no other injuries to suggest anything else." "And were there... you know, remnants of the soul or something?" Funèbre looked at her doubtfully. Dami had watched for years how respectfully, even kindly, Funèbre treated the dead he had to examine. She had probably unwittingly offended three of the dead man's ancestors and two of his living aunts with her question. "I think this might help you more," the medico finally said in as indulgent a tone as possible, and pressed a small folder into her hand. It felt strangely waxy. When Dami opened it carefully, she saw several soggy pieces of paper stuck to the inside of the leather. Of the written words, however, hardly any were legible. "He was wearing the folder on his body when he died." "But apparently they were unimportant to the murderer, otherwise they would surely have been taken from him." "Hmm," was all the medico said. "Thanks anyway. I'll see if any of it can still be deciphered." "Do that, Agesi." Apparently that was the end of the conversation. The silence dragged on, but as Dami was about to leave to talk to Tirash again, the medico said, "I bet he fell for that waterproof ink trick too." Then he fumbled once more for his bag, nodded to Dami and left the scene.

***********

When Dami arrived in her office, Shahin's report was already on her desk. She sat down heavily on the chair, put her legs up and exchanged the dead man's folder for the hopefully more informative documentation. When she had read about half of it, there was a knock on her door. Dami called the person inside. It was Pari, one of her younger guardswomen. "Agesi! I am to tell you that remains of ectoplasm were found in the fountain water. However, it had already decomposed to a large extent," she reported, duly assuming her posture. "Extensively decomposed? You are gifted, aren't you, Pari?" asked Dami seriously. "That's right, Agesi." "And how long does it normally take for ectoplasm to decompose completely?" Pari thought about it for a moment. "About five hours, maybe. 'Maybe' wasn't good enough yet, unfortunately. Still, Dami smiled at her. "Please ask the mage circles if there are any accurate studies on this. If we can narrow down the time of the crime more precisely that way, we should give it a chance. I would also like someone to check with the local institutions to see if there are any people reported missing already who might fit our dead body. Perhaps we could also try infirmaries and local medici. I think tomorrow at noon would be a good time to report back." Pari saluted. "Of course, Agesi." "Then go home now. If you're quick, I'm sure you can still make it for dinner." The woman saluted again, but this time already with much more relaxed features and gave her superior a friendly look. Then she closed the door behind her with a "See you tomorrow, Agesi." Dami crossed her arms in front of her chest for a moment. Her stomach growled at the thought of the dinner she herself would probably miss. But it didn't help. Soon she was fully focused on Shahin's findings again, but they only made one thing clearer: There was magic involved. Around the clearing there were no traces far and wide, so the dead man must have taken the obvious route through the main entrance before his demise. Nevertheless, no one could actively remember him. Of course, a skilled mage could have used a cloaking spell on him. As it were, he could have been moved by telekinesis. But wasn't that a nonsensical amount of effort? Moreover, the ectoplasm in the water and the lack of a murder weapon unsettled her. If the summoning coincided with the approximate time of the crime, it could mean that someone had used the summoned being to elegantly make all the evidence disappear. After all, if the conjuration dissolved, the weapon it carried also disappeared. Dami leaned far back, clasped her hands behind her head and looked out the window. From this angle, the setting sun was not visible, but the play of colours that turned the clouds into a huge inferno was. Carefully, she opened the folder. The paper inside had begun to get wavy, but the writing was still barely more than half legible. If she was lucky, she could make some of the missing words visible later with special ash. For that, however, the paper had to dry first, and preferably without getting even more wavy. By the time Dami had finished preparing the paper in this way, it was already dark outside.

************

Finally arriving at her house, she found what she was looking for: Warmth, the smell of freshly peeled oranges and the certainty that her son was already sweetly dreaming in bed. She left all her work clothes and equipment by the door and went into the kitchen. There, to her surprise, one of the guests of her house, the elder one, was sitting at the table, holding an opened book in one hand while popping pieces of orange into his mouth with the other. He looked up as she entered, gave her a wry smile and held out a piece to her. "Dal'Varek?" "Jespar. I don't care much for titles." Dami nodded. And took the piece of orange. It was rare for any of the guests to show their faces near this part of the house. And therefore it had to mean something. She quickly glanced at the title of the book, but the name didn't ring a bell. "The kitchen doesn't seem like the best place to read," she said cautiously. Dal'Varek shook his head. "It isn't. Usually." A brief pause followed, Dal'Varek sighed (quite a bit theatrically, if Dami was honest) and popped another piece of orange into his mouth. "Honestly, I need to discuss something with you," he then said. "Don't get it wrong, the house is quite wonderful and the stay so far hasn't been half as bad as I feared it would be when that greasy man at the palace said we'd be under house arrest. It's also less of a problem for me and more for my friend." Dami decided to sit down opposite the man. She had not really expected any complaints. Maybe she should have. Maybe her way of running the house wasn't befitting their status after all and she'd been wrong. Maybe it was the food. Dal'Varek gave her a look of... exhaustion. Now that Dami looked at him more closely, the man seemed strangely tired indeed. "Is there something wrong with the beds?" Dal'Varek blinked. "What?" Then another thought occurred to her. "It's because of the centipedes, isn't it? I know they often sit in the blankets by mistake. You don't have to be afraid of them, though. They're actually quite useful animals and -" "No. No, it's not that," the man interrupted her, now visibly confused. "I give you my word that nothing in this house is causing any problems. Really. It's just...  My friend is, how shall I say, ... He's not used to spending so much time indoors, or in one place in general." Again a short silence, in which he started to look visibly more frustrated. "To be honest, I would love to strangle him at the moment whenever I see him." Dami had nothing to say to that. But at least she could understand this desire; She herself had considered 'calming' her ex-husband with a pillow a thousand times while he slept. Fortunately, the problem had taken care of itself later. Suddenly Dal'Varek looked directly at her. "You are a high-ranking officer in the Guard, aren't you," he began, voice suddenly suave. "Jhara is an excellent fighter, he can do a bit of magic too, and if all that doesn't help, I'm sure he can be useful to you in some other way. Just please take him with you where ever that may be. He certainly wouldn't be in your way either, I'll stake my life on that." "Now, wait a minute," Dami said, caught off guard. "I can't just have civilians snooping around in top secret Guard business." "The whole thing can't be that top secret," the mischievous looking man declared. "The kitchen lady told me earlier that there had been a murder. Jhara has experience in solving murders. From back in Enderal. He has a special gift that lets him see echoes from the past. I'm sure that would be very useful for solving the case." Dami cursed Illi and her blabbermouth. She pursed her lips, stubborn and unwilling to let this Enderalean brat wrap her around his finger. "I already had a phasmalist on the scene today and that wasn't much help." "The echo is not like regular phasmalism. It's -" A knock on the door and the subsequent opening interrupted the discussion. It was Illi, already dressed in her nightgown, and a worried-looking Medico Funèbre. "Agesi, two more bodies were brought into my examination rooms by the Civil Force shortly after I returned to the Institute. Almost identical injuries, and both were carrying beeswax folders. I would strongly encourage you to take another look for yourself in the morning." Dami cast a scowl at her guest, who was still sitting across the table from her, listening with interest, then looked at the medico, who was blind in one eye and may not have realised there was another stranger in the kitchen. "I will," she finally said, tone dead. "Surely you won't mind if I bring someone else with me, will you, Diego?" The medico replied in the negative and Dal'Varek could barely hide his still mischievous smile.

********************

The following morning, it was only after some knocking that the door in the other wing of her own house was finally opened for Dami. By Jhara Ivez. The blond one. His hair looked strangely dishevelled. Apart from dangerously low-hanging trousers and a frowny expression he wore nothing else on his body. Not even a dressing gown. When he blinked at Dami, she decided that he had either just gotten out of bed or was about to go to sleep. Both unusual at this hour. "Is it something important?" Rude. "Depends on whether you consider investigating a murder case 'important' or not," Dami countered. The only reaction she got was that the guy eyed her silently for a while. Dami was obliging enough to interpret this as speechless surprise as he ran a quick hand through his hair and shook his head. Mumbling some seemingly incoherent sentences, he took a small step to the side. "Hold on. I'll get dressed." It took only a few minutes before the man joined her, by now additionally dressed in a loose top and a red-patterned shesh. "Does this happen often? That the Guard wants to work with civilians?" he wanted to know, catching Dami's eye. He sounded neither excited nor emphatically nonchalant, but rather.... bored. When he noticed her annoyed look, however, he had to grin. "Don't worry, I'll help, of course."

[chacusha]

Hi everyone! Time for a new sticky post. Here are some important, high-level things to note about me:

I am mostly inactive on Tumblr. I have uninstalled the Tumblr mobile app and use a siteblocker to limit how much time I spend on here. I do try to respond to personal messages and asks, but I'm pretty unreliable about everything else -- I mainly only use this blog for self-promo, sorry. See the bottom of this post for other places to find me.

Fandoms: Very many and change unpredictably. Star Trek is the main one at the moment, but I like various JRPGs (Mana, FF, KH, Bravely Default). Soulcalibur and ReBoot are some fandoms I find interesting and dabble in on Tumblr.

I am a proshipper. Not in the sense that I wade into fandom discourse (as I don't like it and so try to avoid it entirely) but that my opinions on fiction and fictional ships 100% aligns with the proshipper position and I avoid antis and people with anti opinions like the plague. More on what I mean by these terms below as there has been a lot of obfuscation (often purposeful) regarding these terms.

More detail on these under the cut.

Inactivity on Tumblr:

I have tried to make changes to make Tumblr more usable for me, but I still don't really have a healthy relationship to the site and still find it socially isolating, especially as a venue for artists who post art. I do respond to messages and asks, and I try to reply to replies and tags as well (sometimes they fall by the wayside, sorry...), and I reblog once in a blue moon, but I mainly use Tumblr for self-promo nowadays. Also, I don't really like talking about my personal life out in the open, so if you want personal updates on my life, I'm much more active on Dreamwidth, which has better privacy controls than Tumblr.

I tend to complain about Tumblr (while continuing to use the site) so much that I have a tag for it (#complaining about tumblr on tumblr). If that kind of negativity bothers you, you may want to unfollow me or filter that tag.

Some helpful links and resources related to my inactivity and frustrations with Tumblr as a platform:

Tips to new users to make Tumblr more usable

My Dreamwidth pitch (and the more readable Dreamwidth version).

Not mine, but here's a guide to using Dreamwidth for Tumblr users.

Here's also my pitch for why dA is not actually a terrible site for posting art compared to Tumblr (but Tumblr still has its advantages).

Some posts I made on why I find Tumblr socially isolating and why I don't tag dive on Tumblr, which are both largely still true.

Proship? Anti?

Most of the time, you can go through fandom without ever running into the proship/anti debate, and this has pretty much been my experience in my JRPG fandoms (Final Fantasy, the Mana series, Bravely Default, etc.). I have unfortunately not really had this experience in Star Trek fandom, sometimes being blindsided by people who seem chill in public then reveal themselves to have kind of unhinged views of fiction and immoral ships in private, so I have decided to just start proactively identifying as proship to ward those people away and will now only join Discord servers of people whom I know are not antis, or which have an explicitly proship moderation line.

Since it is often unclear what people mean by "anti" and "proship," I'll provide my own definition to make it clear what I'm talking about here.

Antis are people who oppose certain ships and the existence of certain types of fictional content because those ships/stories are immoral. While there is quite a bit of variety in where antis draw their moral lines, some common types ships/content that antis view immoral include incest, underage, rape/noncon, power differential, age gaps, etc. as well as being fans of dark (e.g. abusive, genocidal, villainous, etc.) characters, especially if this fannishness has a romantic/sexual attraction sort of element. The general anti approach to fannishness and fiction is to treat people who draw/write/consume fiction featuring these elements and themes as perpetuating harm (sometimes serious harm) through their fictional tastes. Such harm includes normalizing/endorsing/excusing abuse/rape, and grooming or normalizing/promoting pedophilia.

These are pretty weighty accusations, and needless to say, believing that (a) you can tell whether someone is an abuser/pedophile/groomer/etc. based solely on their fictional output or consumption (including what characters/ships they like), and therefore (b) your fandom is filled with literal abusers/pedophiles/groomers/etc. operating completely out in the open, led to people sending death threats, organizing campaigns to chase these "predators" out of fandom, and otherwise raising the cost of people existing in fandom while being a fan of "problematic" ships, whether through a private or public harassment campaign, by doxxing people, sending messages to their employer, etc. etc.

The proship stance/proshippers arose as a reaction to this harassing behavior of antis to basically establish an alternate approach to fandom that allows people to ship whatever relationships they like and which recognizes that fiction and reality do not map one-to-one, and which believes that treating fiction as if it is entirely equivalent to reality, treating fictional characters exactly how you would treat a real-life person, policing the immorality of fiction, etc. tends to lead to unhinged behavior like this (doxxing, harassment, etc.).

There was a very strong backlash to the anti movement and the anti approach to fandom has largely been discredited at this point by being portrayed as "fans taking fandom way too seriously," which is in some sense, accurate. But I don't think that this means that antis and their approach to fiction is entirely gone, just that they are merely more quiet/underground/cryptic about their anti positions. Also, I am a bit unusual in that I don't think that it was only the behavior that was wrong (doxxing, harassment, death threats, etc.), although it certainly was very wrong! But I also think that behavior was the natural consequence of a set of beliefs that generally equates fiction and reality; that is uncomfortable with the eroticization of the dark, immoral, and taboo; and that views the "point" or "main activity" of fandom and fannishness as being to write/consume/love "good" ships/content only. So long as people possess that particular approach to fiction, they are (in my mind) an anti at heart and their approach to fandom is probably antithetical to my own.

I take an approach to fiction that includes:

A recognition that there are plenty of reasons to want to write about certain characters having sex (even titillating, pornographic sex) that aren't "I am literally attracted to the characters and would still be attracted to the same characters if they were real."

Not harassing creators or other fans over shipping or creative output.

The view that "thoughtcrime" is not a legitimate concept.

Being against the idea that enjoyment of art can lead to moral contamination through association.

Art is not (and cannot be) the same thing to everyone. From "I couldn't enjoy this art for moral reasons," it is incorrect to conclude that, "If people enjoyed this art, that must mean they are immoral."

Just being chill about fandom, fans, and creators -- having a sense of perspective that fandom is a minor part of life and a minor part of pop culture, that fandom is a hobby filled with amateur, self-published creators who are learning their craft as they go, and often using fiction and art to explore their own sexuality.

I find this write-up to be a good outlining of the anti vs. proship debate and how antis tend to behave in fandom. People often also classify the anti phenomenon and approach to fiction as a kind of "purity culture" derived from an evangelical Christian upbringing (which views bad media to have a corrupting influence and the goal of reading/fictional consumption is to read "good" things only), but with the Christian social mores rejected and swapped out for non-Christian secular social justice values (consent, diversity and humanizing/"good" representation, etc.), and this seems to me a plausible theory and is largely how I understand the anti phenomenon as well.

Also, very tenuously related to anti/proship stuff, but I am generally someone with low tolerance for character/ship bashing, and for "I ship this problematic ship in the RIGHT way while other people ship it WRONG" type posting, and generally for making snide comments about other people's fic/art in public. Don't get me wrong -- I love a good rant about fandom, even a good public rant if it's not my fandom and I can eat some popcorn as I read. I have ships I can't stand and am happy to rant about them at the drop of a feather. But sometimes you have to pick the right audience for a rant, y'know?

Anyway, I generally try not to wade into fandom discourse (this is a self-imposed ban as I know if I let myself post about it, it will consume my brain), but I don't want my overall silence on this topic to be taken as neutrality or indifference in the whole anti/proship debate.

Oh yes, and if it wasn't apparent already, I am a very tl;dr person.

Where to find me:

Art Tumblr: https://denahi.tumblr.com/ 

Dreamwidth: https://chacusha.dreamwidth.org/ 

DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/chacusha 

Discord: chacusha

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chacusha/profile 

Communities I run:

Trials of Mana / Seiken Densetsu 3 fan community on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/communities/trials-of-mana

Quodo discussion/fan community on Dreamwidth: https://quodo.dreamwidth.org/ 

Quodo fanart archive on DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/quark-x-odo/ 

My Discord for Quodo (18+ with a proship moderation line): https://discord.gg/VaCnMYvKu6

My Discord for the Mana series (all ages, also technically with a proship moderation line but the issue just never comes up in this fandom ¯\_(ツ)_/¯): https://discord.gg/6wFWwnRvJr 

[ejzah]

Maybe a Strip Club Would be Safer, Part 2

***

Deeks quickly noted that one man looked in his mid-40s with shoulder-length graying hair while the other seemed maybe early 30s with a short cap of black hair. He took a quick step back, intending to conceal himself in the bathroom long enough to figure out a plan. Unfortunately, the older gunman looked up before he’d full ducked inside, his mouth set in a uncompromising line, and raised his weapon from the region of Eric’s head to aim at Deeks.

Eric closed his eyes, and swallowed visibly, clenching his hand on top of the table.

Callen eyes flicked up at Deeks, his expression vaguely dismayed. Apparently he’d been counting on Deeks leading their rescue too.

“Get over here and sit down,” the man ordered in moderately accented English. His steady hand and glare indicated he wasn’t unfamiliar with guns.

Deeks looked to Callen again, who gave the slightest nod of confirmation, and then followed the directions, heading towards the table.

“Look man, I don’t know what’s going on, but we don’t want any trouble,” Deeks attempted, playing on the confused and slightly stupid American persona.

“No me engañarás. Sabemos que son agentes federales.”

Well, that wasn’t great news.

“Siéntate.”

“You’re right, we are federal agents, but we’re not here in an official capacity,” Sam spoke up in an even and sure tone that usually made people listen to what he said.

“Por supuesto que lo eres. ¿Por qué deberíamos creerte? Mientes para ganarte la vida,” the second man said. He laughed sharply, his eyes dark with malice. “Los vi arrestar a un amigo hace años. Nunca olvidaré sus rostros.”

“Because it’s the truth,” Deeks responded. “We’re here on a trip. Sin armas, sin insignias. Puedes comprobarlo por ti mismo.” Moving slowly, he held his arms wide, offering them the opportunity to check him. Hopefully, they wouldn’t think to look in his left boot.

The younger man walked around to Deeks’ back, and roughly patted him down, giving him a shove forward when he was done. Apparently they’d already searched the others or took Deeks at his word that none of them were carrying.

“Even if you you are not armed, I don’t trust you,” the older man said, gesturing for Deeks to sit once more. This time, Deeks listened. The man paused, then brushed his bottom lip, waving the gun a little carelessly. “Ok, so tell me why you would be in Mexico if it’s not for business.”

“For my bachelor party,” Callen answered with full irony.

“Oh, he things we’re stupid, Gael.” The older man flashed a sarcastic grin in Gael’s direction. “There are no resorts in this area.

“Actually, we were supposed to be going cave diving,” Deeks explained. “Which, might I add, I said was a terrible, terrible idea from the beginning.” He glanced between the two men. “Somehow I’m guessing we that you’re not keeping us here just for the the fun of it.”

“Deeks,” Sam cautioned.

“And more importantly, what are you planning to do with us?” Callen asked. “Even though we’re here as civilians, if we’re gone past our planned stay or don’t make it back to our hotel, people will start looking for us.”

“Yes, I have a friend who will be extremely angry if I don’t make it back to Hong Kong. And you really don’t want to see what happens when she gets angry,” Eric added, speaking for the first time.

“You’d be surprised how good we are at hiding things,” Gael said with a dark chuckle. “Matteo, we should leave now.”

“No, no los lastimes!”

They all turned as the young waitress hurried in from the kitchen. Deeks heard someone faintly hiss a caution, but she ignored it.

“Margarita, vuelve a la cocina. Este no es tu negocio.”

“¿O qué, me matarás a mí también?”

“Margarita—”

“No, Matteo! I am sick of watching you solve everything this way. They were not causing any problems and now you bring this into my restaurant.”

“They’re federal agents!”

“¡Y eres estúpido!”

Gael stalked to the middle of the room, raising his voice above Matteo and Margarita’s. Margarita for her part didn’t seem even remotely intimidated by the guns or threats.

Catching Deeks’ eye, Sam discreetly slid a knife off the table and onto his lap.

“Now is our chance,” he muttered, barely moving his lips.

“We gotta make sure she’s clear first,” Deeks whispered.

“That’ll be your job,” Callen decided. “Sam and I will take on those two.”

“What’s my job?” Eric murmured, without a hint of his usual outrageous behavior that normally came out in these types of situations.

“As another civilian, your job is to get out of the way and not get shot,” Sam informed him. “I meant it, Beale.”

“That hurts.”

“Fine, then you can be the distraction,” Callen said with a roll of his eyes.

“Enough!” Matteo shouted suddenly, firing a shot into the ceiling, causing a shower of plaster to rain down on them, and silenced further argument.

Sam gave Eric a sharp nod, and Eric stood suddenly so his chair slid back noisily.

“Oh, I don’t feel so great,” he forced between his teeth, face a picture of agony as he clutched at his stomach.

***

A/N: I’m trying to find the right balance of humor and light danger. I’m not sure if I managed that.

As always, my translations are from Google translate, so I know they’re not the best. If anyone would like to make them more authentic, I’d happily change it once I crosspost.

Translations

Get over here and sit down.

You can’t fool me. We know you’re federal agents. I saw you arrest a friend years ago and I will never forget your faces.

No gun, no badges. You can check for yourself.

Of course you are. Why should we believe you? You lie for a living. You two arrested a friend of mine years ago and I’ll never forget your faces.

No, don’t hurt them.

Margarita, get back in the kitchen. This is not your business.

Or what, you’ll kill me too?

And you’re stupid.

[emmabirb8]

Okaaaaaayyy, so I went ahead and checked out Helluva Boss. Couldn't resist the siren call of Richard Horvitz forever I guess. (I still can't believe they got him for this series - he's a bit of a LEGEND in my book. In fact, I'm kinda baffled by a lot of people they managed to secure for the voice cast, but that's a whole other can of worms, lol.)

It's... not terrible. Not super great, but not terrible. I dig the concept, I think the series as a whole truly shines in its dramatic moments (it handles trauma surprisingly well, which shocked me), and it does succeed at being deep, emotional, and wholesome at times, but... tbh, there's MUCH more to criticize than there is to genuinely enjoy. Like, there're good bits and pieces; the ideas and valuable components are there, it's just that they're not utilized or executed in a satisfying way for the most part. Plus, a large portion of the comedy (esp the crude, sex-based stuff) just makes me roll my eyes and/or cringe so bad. Ugh. Why does "adult animation" always fall into the trap of thinking it needs to check that box?

And just to be clear: I am WELL aware of the controversy surrounding the creator. It's unfortunate that so far, I haven't seen very many people talking about that whole situation bc I personally think it needs to be more widely known, especially among the fanbase. That was mostly the reason I had been trying to avoid the show as much as I could up till now, knowing that I might find things to like about it; I didn't want to inadvertently show support for something that is clearly a product of a toxic and abusive environment if it meant putting the creator on a pedestal and sidelining the victims in any way. Helluva Boss is obviously (just like any other show) the result of a collaborative effort of a whole team of people, and anyone who enjoys the show even a moderate amount should think critically and give recognition to that hardworking team instead of only attributing everything to and directing all the praise at the creator (as some people have a tendency to do).

Anyway, rambling aside, I'm prob gonna reblog a few things here 'n there. I love Richard to death and, like I said, there are a few crumbs that I actually do like. I'm just... also gonna try to be conscientious and critical in my consumption of it too.

Blacklist "helluva boss" if you wanna avoid seeing any posts related to the show. I always tag pretty diligently.

[miss0atae]

The Jungle - 9th Episode Review

It’s already episode 9 of the Jungle and here is my review of this episode. Before, I just want to say that last week I didn’t really like episode 8 and even contemplating dropping the series but the episode today was quite fun so I’m glad I haven’t stopped watching it. Obviously there are still many incoherence in the synopsis and it still not the best series but I found it more enjoyable. By the way I just noticed that there will be 16 episodes! I thought they would have 12 max so I can still hope for improvement.

Anyway we start the epusode with Nathee working with his computer at the bar like it’s a place to do that. Of course there is a woman not far away from him who would really to do him but he will spend time he talks to her to do some bullshit philosophy about how numbers are better than girlfriend. What do you want me to say? I don’t mind people who prefer to stay single. I’m one of them but I never say this nonsense to others when they ask me why I stay single. Of course, he was just playing with the girl. While bringing her out to have his way with her, he saw Irin and Hack. There are too many secrets among this group for no reason. They are supposed to be brothers/best friends but all of them hide something from the others. How are we supposed to believe they are friends? So, Irin and Hack are doing it (again) and they wake up in the room of the RV side by side. He ask her how was it... Who says that? Aren't you supposed to check with your partner during the intercourse that everything is alright and that you both enjoy it? He wants to do it again with her and she is contemplating the possibility. I guess we’ll get a friends with benefits relationship between them.

In the next scene, Irin is posing for a product. When the photoshoot is done, she goes to eat with the production team and ends up drinking too much... That girl can't hold alcohol. I mean all the girls in this show can’t hold alcohol. Seriously they should advertise how drinking in moderation is better for you because it always bring the girls in terrible situation. Irin is not feeling good and the photographer appears at this moment. He has this weird vibe that makes me question him. Why all the men wants to abuse women here? Especially Irin! She always has all those predators after her. She needs a bodyguard at this point or to learn self defense. The photographer tried to molest her but she escaped by smashing a bottle on his head. Yeah girl! You did well! He deserves this. Ditch the high heels and run! Frankly it's super scary to watch. Woman never feel safe. While hiding, she uses her phone to reach for help and has to choose between calling Hack (her new lover) or Pine (her one-sided love). She decided to call Pine --". Why girl?! He showed you last week that he can't help you whenever you need. She is trying to hide from the crazy photographer but unfortunately he found her. He truly disgust me. Luckily, Pine arrived with most the Junggle (Nathee, Phethai/Wayu and Naanfah but no Hack because he is doing something outside) to save her. I am glad we didn’t get a repeat from last week when he didn’t help her. I knew someone would save her but I’m glad he came anyway. Yeah! We love a badass entrance. Now kick his ass!

They are celebrating their rescue with beers. Irin shouldn’t drink more because I wouldn’t feel safe if I was her but it’s a minor problem. The Jungle are remembering their first encounter with Irin which was also a rescue time from another abuser. She needs to be free from them. I don’t remember that Phethai wasn’t there (I should rewatch the episode to be sure). The rest of the group leave Irin with Pine. She talks about her feelings with him again telling him she got hopes when he came to save her. Girl forget about him! It's not going to work. He doesn't love you this way. Hack receives a call and meet Irin in the room. She wants to have sex with him to forget but he doesn’t want that right now. Naan was the one who called him after the incident. Why is she accepting that people threat her badly because of that gossip news? She should be furious. No one should treat you this way because you enjoy clubbing. What the fuck?! Hack tries to explain it to her and tell her to sue the photograph but she wants to drop it. Listen to the man! This industry is shit. Modeling seems to be hell. I don’t know if she is really genuine with him or not. He is bitter and angry about the fact she called Pine and not him.

In the bar, Nathee is talking with Hunter about the relationship between Hack and Irin, then we get Hack, Phethai, Naanfah and Nathee talking at the bar. Irin is alone in the Jungle room (they actually call it this way. XD) Nathee is trying to reveal Hack's relationship with Irin. The way he looked at him with his wide open eyes, it was funny. Hack really thought they were discreet? He is trying to dodge the question and ends up looking even more suspicious. Naanfah is too cute now. I can't believe I called him evil Naan. He is my favorite now. Irin is trying to get Hack's attention but he doesn't see her. He forgot his phone and she was trying to reach him to give it back. To help him find his phone, Phethai/Wayu will try to call him because Hunter can turn off the phone jammer who is apparently located behind the bar. Poor Pladao, she was so close everytime and never found it when she needed it. By the way, I am still rooting for my Pladao/Naanfah romance at this point and now that I know we have 16 episodes in this series, they better give me a good romance (I can always dream). Finally Hack noticed Irin with his phone. He stops Phethai but it’s too late. Irin and him are tying to made up some lie about the phone to hide the fact they were together. They look so suspicious. Everyone can understand they were indeed together. Naanfah still being this annoying sibling. I really appreciate him more and more. Only Phethai seems to not understand. This guy play the clueless part really well. Bravo!

I was waiting for the next scene. My baby is here, Florence! Finally! She is with a man drinking champagne. She is gorgeous. So, she was supposed to have this passionate night with the man but he finished too soon. Dude how is it even possible? I mean she is beautiful okay but you lasted 30 seconds. I don’t know what is the worst, him finishing too fast or him being proud about it. She hasn't even feel a thing. Terrible! He hasn't even removed all his clothes. I feel sad for her. She needs to find a better lover. For a second I thought he was an escort because of the phone call she has after their two seconds intercourse, but no, he was more like a matchmaking boyfriend/fiancé. The father of Florence is infuriating. He thought the man was the best thing? Dude, he couldn't satisfy her. Florence is fed up obviously because the man doesn't love her and he is more interested about a business relationship with her father. I feel like her father is really old-fashioned. He believes he knows best what would be a good boyfriend for her. He even say she doesn't know men? She seems to know better than him. Why would anyone ask their father to find their boyfriend? We see the differences between them, she wants love and he watch a business relationship. Anyway, Her father organized several meeting with different men for her after their talk. I feel bad for her because he doesn’t seem to be able to find the right one. In the company where her father is working (maybe she is also working there too), Nathee is sleeping instead of taking care of the servers who are not working. She wakes him up and he restore the server very easily. Everyone in this company is unskilled apparently. Nathee saved the day and attracted Florence's attention. Oh no! They also met in the past. It's Gale and Wayu's story again. Why do they have to be acquaintances from the past to fall in love? It's so stupid. I would never date anyone I met in the past. I changed too much for that.

Why is she following him to the bathroom? So noisy. Privacy girl! It's a time when you don't want to be disturbed. Turns out he went there to sleep. Shameless. I understand why he is friend with Naanfah. Back to Irin and Hack at the RV. She wants to know if he is still mad at her and obviously he is. She wants to be forgiven and he kisses her, in plain sight. Nannam and Hunter saw them so she panicked and slaps him/step on his foot before leaving. Again super suspicious. They are the worst. Hunter has this little smirk because he knows and Nannam has the most funny reaction: “I need a martini”. I would also need to drink if I had to witness these two idiots. Hack and Irin are kissing and cuddling in the jungle room. She worries about the others knowing about them and I would say it's already too late. She doesn’t want people to know and he is jealous of her past affection to Pine. The relationship is not progressing well…

We found that Irin is friend with Florence and told her about Hack. Florence explains to her that she is lucky to have him because despite their arguments they appreciate each other while she never had good sex. Our girl wants to have fun so Irin offers her to go to the RV. Maybe she will get laid. Hunter again is here with his cocktails and rules of the house. So funny! Hack is yearning after Irin. She decides to follow him leaving her friend behind. Lovers before friends as always. Florence is not resentful but she doesn't really have fun. She got some cryptic blathering from Hunter. This guy loves acting this way, deep down. Suddenly, Nathee arrives and Florence sees him. He is like a vision to her. We get another flashback from the past when she didn't get top score but it was Nathee who was again sleeping in class. The guy is narcoleptic or what? Okay everyone stops, he has a Rubik cube which in any series means that he is a total nerd and a clever guy. No really, have you ever seen a character with a Rubik cube who is not a genius? It is their accessory. She was impressed by him but he is not rich. He is just another poor intelligent people who relies on scholarship and that is victim of injustice. He is a cliché! Rich girl fall on love with poor boy trope here for this couple. Wow he is poor, intelligent and abandoned. He really got the combo. The teacher was a dick to him and he really handled the situation badly. Florence wanted to help him but he preferred to mock her because she is rich and not him. Back to the present, she found the guy she wants to have sex with and it will be her old crush.

We get another cut where Irin doesn't want to fight with Hack. She is trying to pursue this relationship. He kissed her again and she answers this time. As for Florence, she waited for Nathee and followed him in the lift while Irin and Hack go to the bathroom to have a sexy alone time together. The room must not be available. Of course Pine needs to wash his hands right now. So Nathee went to the roof to hear what Florence has to say. Is the roof the confessional of the RV? He gives her 3 minutes to talk like he has better thing to do. Why are wasting your time asking him dumb questions Florence? Get to the point. You want to have sex with him and you want to enjoy yourself. He is cute, you are gorgeous and you just want to have fun. The jungle are supposed to be the kind of men that are excellent for this. Finally, she asks the real question! Of course he doesn't sleep with people he knows... They are never useful when you need them. Boring! Now she wants him more. I like this character. Back to Irin/Hack love scene. I think that what Hack is doing is shitty. He saw that Pine was here and made sure he heard them but we don’t get the reaction because it’s already the end of the episode.

As I said before I really enjoyed this episode. I want to know what will happen in the next one.

[batteredwarriorstillstanding]

So, that fateful "anonymous" letter that I am still not even certain you received (but sort of assume so, cuz it had to be SOMETHING that motivated every boyfriend you have had since the Bush administration-not to mention your Mom- to make some sort of threatening overture toward me...I still don't understand what I was guilty of, aside from poor use of style, the usual punctuation errors, and a terrible example of humor--usually a lone strong suit. I can't, for the life of me, determine how it caused THAT kind of negative reaction, but it had to be SOMETHING that did, right? Anyway, prior to actually putting fingers to keyboard, I failed to account for the fact that I had written nothing since college (aside from letters to judges and creditors) and I wasn't going to be as proficient as someone who devoted several hours per day to the craft...absent that prudent consideration, a lame, kinda creepy, rambling letter that screamed "I need to renew my ADT monitoring contract!" to you, no doubt, was easily supplanted by the idea of writing a sonnet for you....a real, Shakespearean version, correct not only in syllabi count, but meter (while not sacrificing content too obviously) It took about 10 minutes to realize that this was not an immediate option, thus the unfortunate result. So....imagine my dilemma when yesterday's uber driver introduced me to all of the AI apps available...apps which surely will provide the necessary unethical boost my mediocre status concerning proficiency in a previously beloved craft that I took seriously enough to remain moderately sharp in practicing required to complete such a task. So.....in advance. I have a long day (that hasn't started and will end by 3) Afterward, though....prepare yourself to read something that will serve as a more appropriate admiration notice for your beautiful and impressive self....and, you're welcome, hun! I won't even bug you to have coffee afterward. Disclaimer: IF I LIKE THE RESULTS, I will post...if not, I can write shitty stuff all by myself.