#woe etc.

[thebluestockingfirefly]

Don't mind me, just having a minor existential crisis.

[prettyboy-remi]

Almost more ear than dog

[keepthemacramesecret]

thinking abt the degrees of abstraction from the truth in autobiography/memoir fiction with unreliable narrators...

u know??

[13thdoodle]

A Matter of Opinion by @americano-psycho (tw : blood)

"So, Miss ah Folson, can you tell me what happened here?" He seemed put off by her appearance. Jazz didn't blame him. She knew she painted a heinous picture, sitting in the same booth she had her breakfast in, wearing a floral sundress and once pristine white sneakers, both now covered in splattered blood, along with her arms, neck, face, and hair. She knew her huge smile and stark white teeth seemed out of place among the viscera surrounding her, the table, seats, and windows also covered in blood. This was all calculated, of course. If she disarmed him enough, he may forget to ask for her id and then his memory of exactly what she looked like would be altered as well, with no clean image to compare her face to.

.

This is part 1 of 2 for Invisobang 2023!! I got to work on this wonderful fic and it's so good yall should read it~

Calculated Jazz is just /chef kiss/

Part 2 here

This one took me the longest because I kept going back and forth on how to convey Jazz being very calculated and meticulous in her approach that doesn't look just... many blood and edgy scene.. qwq

Idk if I managed to did the scene justice but I hope it does bc maannn this fic is just so goodddd

The background is simple yet so hard at the same time

Shout out to Enn, my beloved partner who helped me figure out the lighting and also my blood brushes supplier uwu

[venomgaia]

Guys that go bump in the night

(minorly inspired by @karniss-bg3 's response to this ask)

[malglories]

that first day when the sun is out and flowers are blooming and the windows are open…and you’re like. oh wow i’ve been such a miserable bitch the past 6 months.

[captain-sunshine-11]

What if whoever Kevin is in a relationship with, doesn't matter who, they learn Irish together?

Kevin in my mind has a slight accent from his early years with his mom, so why not learn the language his mother had tried to teach him? It must've not stuck after years of not using it because in the Nest it was English or Japanese (and french but that was a secret).

Riko certainly would not have let him and Kevin had no one to secretly learn it from.

So once the Riko situation is over and done for and Kevin realizes he finally had more freedom, he picks up a couple of books and his S/O joins in. Or if you see Kevin as aro or aroace, he learns with Andrew or Neil. Just think it would be cool

[randomnameless]

There's something interesting about certain people being able to laugh (or ignore if they feel it's not funny) some nicknames and memes in a certain fandom, like the JJK fandom was known for its plethora of memes, and even some OP fans come up with weekly new memes to cope about the manga/episodes and it's widely accepted to be in good fun...

But then when you type(d) "Supreme Leader" suddenly wild sealife pops up and asks you to stop being disrespectful to the people who like her character and what not.

Fan-favorite Ace can be donut'd, but you can't shitpost about Supreme Leader's information campaign.

[ratcandy]

World's most legitimate clan leader in the history of forever!!!!!!!!!!

Clamstar is a WC OC being used for the @starsofdestinyrp !! <3 <3

[pilotduty]

in parx world

[sailorpants]

in south essex quirky, teresa wears a jean jacket. this is because a jean jacket was, in my opinion, the coolest fashion item of 2015.

[magic-is-something-we-create]

this is your periodic reminder that this blog is run by an aroace transgender man who loves his siblings all across the earth with his whole heart. including every person on earth who has been deemed a non-person by the masses!

[boombox-fuckboy]

Got COVID again, send podcast recs.

[riacte]

Team B.A.T.S. of Ninth Life — (MCC9 Blue Bats in Life Series terms):

It’s the ninth season of the Life series with a rotating cast of 40 players per season. False and Ren loyally ally every single season they’re in and their factions end up being the second faction to be eliminated three seasons in a row so they’re like “okay we’re going to do better for Ninth Life”.

Enter HBomb, winner of two Life series so far (Second and Seventh Life) and beloved leader. He has a meta of blessing his allies and propelling them to great heights. He is also a renowned prophet. H is present in a lot of final showdowns, losing Sixth Life to Fruit’s faction and is crushed by the “rivals to teammates” meta in Eighth Life. H has never really talked to False before, but the power of ✨prophecy✨ befalls upon him and he predicts False will do really well in a final showdown given that she’s on a faction that gives her what she needs.

Fruitberries is a winner of Sixth Life but his performance was not as expected in Seventh Life, leading people to think he’s not that skilled. However, this is the kind of thing that allows the Faction Mechanic at the beginning of the session (controlled by a mysterious being called Scott) to team up two skilled players while keeping it balanced.

Team B.A.T.S form and they get matching jerseys with letters on the back. They undergo a training arc. H famously claims, “It's kinda crazy how 86% of people sleep on their belly, I sleep on my side and the entire Life Series community sleep on Team BATS.” People predict they’ll be the fifth faction eliminated out of ten factions. They invoke the power of the Underdog meta to keep them safe and hidden. They have a brilliant session one and got their comms sorted by then, and while they did well, they weren’t the biggest threats. False and Ren comment this is the longest they’ve lasted before going down to yellow.

In session seven, a freak TNT explosion gets all of them down to red and they claim it’s the worst thing ever and start dooming themselves. But they raise morale and push forward and start killing everyone else instead. They are aided by Grian, who has turned red and his faction is mostly dead. Grian eliminates 3/4 of a major powerful faction. Team BATS continue slaying everyone in sight and in the end they reduce everyone to their red lives and even claim a few permakills. They break a kill record. Fruit rises up to the peak.

Naturally this makes them a big target and everyone comes in for them. Things initially don’t look good at the final showdown— BATS keeps on being knocked down, the public doesn’t want them to win, like 75% of people believe they’ll lose, it’s the year 2020, Hermitcraft fandom is in the trenches, but they miraculously reverse sweep and in the end Fruit gets the final kill. Ren gets a crown and his role playing is irreversibly changed. Fruit is pushed to S Tier status (an even higher rank than your average Life series winner).

This is the first time hermits win so it’s very exciting. The major consequences of this is that 1) H gets invited to Vault Hunters 2) Hermitttwt rallys around this victory (and that of Tenth Life) and becomes “officially recognised” 3) Ren takes this crown and does a royalty roleplay which irreversibly changed a bunch of people and helped to normalise non canon shipping.

Tldr: the BATS significantly impacted fandom landscape as we know now.

H’s prophecy gets fulfilled in Tenth Life when False permakills four people in a row (an ace) at the final showdown :)

[altschmerzes]

🌹🌹 Wriggle Up and/or New York Minute pleassssse 🙏

yesssss okay new york minute has taken over my brain for a moment so i'll go with an excuse to share some of that one

('new york minute' is my first fic for the bear, btw, it is a cousin michelle from the christmas episode pov of The Whole New York Debacle. as always i am really really anxious taking my first try at character voices, and picking a pov character who is a minor side character in one (1) episode has been both freeing and anxiety provoking LMAO. so. here's this.)

(also it's.... long. we know this about me and clips.)

As soon as Carmy is under her roof, safely tucked away in her guest room, Michelle takes what feels like her first full breath in since Christmas. It’s not like everything is magically okay now - Carmy certainly isn’t okay, and he’s just one little piece of the whole fucked up puzzle, but she’s finally done something about it. Michelle has found the one piece of that puzzle that she can do anything about at all and she’s done it. That’s the part that’s driven her the most out of her mind - knowing that things need to be done, that nothing is alright in Chicago, and not knowing what to do. Who to try and help, never mind how.

Natalie has Pete and her friends from school. She’s got a home and distance and she’d mentioned while on a walk with Michelle, looking away like she wasn’t sure what the response would be, that she had started therapy after Thanksgiving. And Michael has… Well. When they talk on the phone, Natalie doesn’t have a lot to say about Michael that’s encouraging. Michelle is worried about Michael but it’s not like she can do anything about that. They were close when they were younger but the older they got and the more Donna took a shine to her the more strained her relationship with Michael got. They were a competition of their own, really, or at least a battlefield on the war between their mothers.

Grandpa Berzatto, right? Michael Berzatto. A looming figure gone before any of her generation was born, and so of course the oldest grandchild is named after him - both of them were, at the beginning and the end of the same year, one down each branch of the family tree. Michael and Michelle. They thought it was funny when they were younger. Used to tell people they were twins, when they were real little. It’s not like that anymore. At least Richie is there, though. At least Richie is always there.

Thank god for Richie, said almost no one ever and Michelle several times over the course of her life.

One time, she was seventeen and going out with a guy who was far too old for her and a massive asshole on top of that. When she finally dumped him and his reaction scared her enough to tell them what was going on, Michael and Richie got a baseball bat and a tire iron out of the garage and broke every window and light cover on the guy’s car. Richie took one of the pieces from the tail-light to wood shop class the next day and while the teacher was off making sure some sophomores didn’t lose any fingers using a table saw, he sanded down the edges and put a hole through it, then gave it to her on a keychain. Michelle still has it somewhere. Michelle still has that keychain somewhere and Richie still has Michael and so that’s one thing she doesn’t have to worry about not being able to fix.

So there’s nothing to do for any of them, because Natalie is going to be okay in ways that even Michelle isn’t, and Michael is out of her reach, and Donna is out of everyone’s reach. (Donna needs help. She’s obviously suffering and needs some serious help, but Michelle learned long ago with her own mother that there’s no forcing help on someone who won’t accept it and will stop speaking to you for months if you try to push it anyway.)

But Carmy… Carmy is in her guest room and it’s still pretty early but she thinks he’s asleep and this she can do. This, him, Michelle can help.

(Michael caught her on the way out, when she and Stevie were leaving. She was worried for a moment, because he had that intense look on his face that meant trouble could be coming, and when he said heard you asked Carm to come stay with you for a few days in New York she steeled her nerves for one last explosion for the road. Michael was silent and Michelle was silent and he still had a hold of her arm but he wasn’t squeezing or anything so she let him keep his hand for now. And then he just said Good. Get him the fuck out of here and do not let him come back. Then he gave her a hug so tight she couldn’t breathe and kissed her on the cheek and said love you, Mitch and he was gone.)

[randomnameless]

Genuine question, not trying to start a fight, why do you get so upset about gods and churches being presented in a negative light in fictional works?

No pbs!

I guess it's a mix of being too common, too forced and having, in general, the cast use common tropish arguments to fight /defeat them.

I rant a lot about this game, but take TS where we have three sort of factions opposing each other, and each are supposed to suck. Who is the faction who never receives any "positive traits" or "pet the dog" moment?

The game force fed us a scene where an Aesfroti soldier - when Aesfrost is depicted as a highly militarised nation with a cult of personality towards their current ruler, that invaded the protag's home and slaughtered several civilians and NPCs in the process - say goodbye to his wife and kids before going to "war" to defend his land against, well, the protags who are invading it to kill their warmongering leader.

As force-fed as this scene was, it, I believe at least, tried to tell us that even the Aesfrosti who pillaged villages and killed their inhabitants are humans, and care about their loved ones, sure it's corny, but it's all about not deshumanising any party.

When we attack Hyzante? Niet, zilch, nothing. No similar scene where random soldiers, or NPCs, worry about what is going on and if they're going to die when their wall has been breached. They just, don't exist in this context.

I think the cherry on the cake is the Golden Route scene, where, apparently, nationalists Aesfrosti decide to turn back against their ultra charismatic leader because, uh, he "lied" when he declared the war and used a false pretense, so the soldiers and people who were butchering babies and invading a city where people were preparing a marriage apparently now have morals and rebel.

There's no similar scene for Hyzante when the cast reveals that the teachings of their Goddess were made up and salt wasn't exclusively given to them by divine intervention, because rock salt exists everywhere. Sure it would be a bit weird and forced that people thinking they're chosen ones and looking down on everyone else suddenly, hm, don't break down when their entire system of belief is shattered, but hey, if the Aesfrostian Gregor can have morals after washing his hands of all this Glenbrookian blood, why shouldn't religious npc #55 not make the same heel face turn?

And then, we have the slavery/human experimentation plot - in general, when TS tries to give nuance, they more or less explain/justify why something that "sucks" is done, it's basically Silvio's character.

Aesfrost' Gustadolph manages to push his "freedom" mentality because his land is a harsh place where people are desperate to survive, salt smuggling is reprehensible, but it's the only way to give some to the ones who cannot afford it. Of course is everyone is free, no one is because, as Gustadolph puts it, they're basically free to die for his ambitions.

Hyzante? Follows a racist creed where Rozellians have to pay for some great sin, and are slaved away in a lake to recover salt until they die. It's, later, justified by Hyzante wanting to keep its salt monopoly else they don't have anything, and wanting to curb down the Rozelle people because they know about the exitence of rock salt (and I guess getting free workers to harvest salt from the lake + having state enemies make his own population docile/not willing to rebel ?).

And then, we have the human experimentations, that are just done for, uhh, Idore's lol. When Hyzante is known for its "advanced medicine" and we could have had the usual dilemna of, idk, having those humans experimentations used to develop this medicine that is reknown in the world (idk, sacrificing a Rozellian to save someone else's life?) - it's not the angle the devs picked. Rozellians are sacrificed to power up an idol, Idore wants to control the world through his idol and soft power (compared to Gustadolph's hard power) and manipulates his people (just like Gustadolph) to do so.

The two are very similar, but who is the final boss? Complete with a transformation in an eldritch monster? The war-mongering imperialist or the jaded old man who is leading de facto a religion?

Hopefully there's the entire "human experimentations for no other purpose than the lols" to settle them apart.

---

I recently watched Dune, and even if I have some issues with the adaptation, the Bene Gesserit isn't portrayed as "comically" evil-er than the Harkonen Empire, I reckon the comparison isn't adequate, because Dune is multi book series when I'm mostly talking about video games.

Symphonia's church of Martel is a font for the Big Bad (tm) to put in motion his nefarious plans, and yet, through the game, we see how random clergymen use their, uh, religious buildings to help people around. Ultimately Martel herself is reincarnated through plot device and tells the big bad to stop being an ass and the story is less about "church and gods evil" but "big bad distorts Martel/church's teachings and role for his plans because he has a tragic backstory"

(but then Symphonia ends with the biggest whitewashing from every Tales I've played for its big bad so I'll stop talking about it because otherwise I'm going to be salty).

Abyss' church is more or less the same thing - the Church is supposed to help people deal with the fact their verse has "predestination stones" where the future is already written, and in the course of the game, we see how it has several factions and one opposes the group (who has the pope as a NPC!) - but it's not a story about "gods bad church BaD".

I remember playing Suikoden Tierkreis a long time ago, and while the game seemed to go through familiar "church bad gods bad" route and we end with defeating a god-like entity... I pretty much loved the twist that, in a game that relied on alternate dimensions/universe, the god-like entity was actually the protag if he made different choices!

In those games, if you fight a religious body and someone pretending to be a God or what not - it's not because people fight against an eldritch creature who wants world domination and to erase puny insects, or is the reason why everything goes wrong, but because, at the end, the conflict/fight is ultimately caused by someone, generally a human or at least a non "god like" entity, wanting to destroy the world.

I don't remember if FE was my first JRPG series or not, but I always liked the idea that if the world is doomed in those games and the heroes must prevent said doom, it's not because a god-like being wants to destroy the world, but because people, humans/randoms are the most shitty ones out there.

---

As for the "tropes" often used to deride fictional churchs and religious people, well, I will again point to TS - which did a splendid job in the Benedict Route where you smash Hyzante after allying with Aesfrost.

There's one battle where out protags diss Hyzantese because they worship a goddess and have no free will, listening to Her teachings and Her says (the traditional "religious people have no free will and listen to their churches who tell them how to think!") - which is immediately countered by one of those Hyzantese characters asking Serenor if he's not the same, but instead of blindly listening to a Goddess, blindly follows Benedict. And it ends with the final chapter title referencing automatons/puppets : who is that title talking about ? The fake "idol" Idore created, or the fake "king" Benedict created?

Anyways, the usual "religions people have no free will because their church/religion tells them how to think" trope reeks of r/atheism and the double standard - bar in this route of TS, but I guess, in TS itself in the Roland route! - is never called out, blindly following a charismatic leader is okay, as long as charismatic leader isn't religious?

Regardless of my IRL thoughts about religion, usually those tropes are presented as a "gotcha!" when they are... not at all, but the games/books leave it at that and we're supposed to roll with it.

I'd say it's lazy writing or, as we saw in Naruto, a quick way to end a story without having to dwelve in characters and their motivations : "you're a god/alien/other being and you're bad, so let us do what we want!" - end of the story.

Hopefully some fillers and to an extent, Boruto gave her more meat bar being the 11 hour villain we had to defeat quick and who manipulated the previous sad'n'lonely antagonists - but it still felt rich from Naruto, known for his famous "talk no jutsu" and trying to understand people he's fighting against, to drop the ball with Kaguya, calling her pure malice and ending with some "let us live the way we want" to wrap up the plot so he can wrestle with his boyfriend later on.

In the end, we often end up with "religion bad bcs the big bad manipulates people through it", as if those mangas/animes/vg never have other examples of charismatic people not using religion to manipulate their randoms/people or "gods bad they should let humans do what they want" when we've read/seen/played through various, uh, really fucked-up shit humans did - but on their own! and ultimately, but it's more in fandom spaces, with have Projection 101.

TLDR : church/religion/gods are too often used in those works as the ultimate scapegoat to either wrap up a story in a rushed ending or to pretend to have "nuance" but still have a common enemy where all the "nuanced" characters can grow/be whitewashed and side together against that "common enemy".

Just like in all things I guess, I prefer when something isn't painted as purely negative and all of the positive traits are erased because there is a need for a perfect scapegoat - sure, bring out too much "nuance" and writing/designing a game/manga/anime becomes harder because there's no "clear cut" antagonist, and yet, the one who always gets fucked in this scenario is the religious/church side.

Want a generic stock villain who will destroy the world so the heroes have to fight against them? Just create a "religion" in your setting, and have the big bad either hell bent on resurrecting Chtullu to destroy the world because Chtullu BaD, or have them be the most corrupt piece of shit who manipulate everything in the shadows, so the rest of the world, even the ones who slaughter others bcs they feel like they must start a war, can be whitewashed at the end.

I mean, there's a saying about diverting attention from a fire by starting a bigger one near, or a trope of "aliens made them do it" : who cares if Madara started a continental war and targeted a village full of random civilians he swore to protect because he lost the elections? Did y'know he was manipulated by a woman, I mean, an eldritch thing created by a woman, regarded as a God, who ultimately wanted to get out of her fridge to kill everyone?

Roland must get over his hatred for Aesfrost for barging in his kindgom and killing hundred of his people while they were preparing for a wedding, because hey, Idore is evil and plans on ruling the world through his sham religion!

I'll forever be salty at TS for not giving Kamsell the occasion to rise against Idore, or not even have minor NPCs get the same treatment as Sycras suddenly going all "u lied to me gustadolph so i won't listen to u anymore + sad goodbyes to my wife'n'kids".

Extremism of all kinds can lead to wars/tragedy/fucked up shit - Sure I don't want to get my History lessons in video game medium when I play lol, but what I really don't like is how it feels like depicting "they're extremists because they're religious" feels like the default/easy answer : want a bunch of brainwashed people the heroes must fight against and can't talk no justu their way out of this fight/will fight without looking too BaD? Depict those people as "misguided" members of a corrupt church/believers of a religion, no one will givea fig. If they are instead supporters of a charismatic leader who throws them through the meatgrinder to further their goals? Well, there's no automatic loyalty so either you have to show/depict it on screen, else it can be challenged at key points to demonstrate how those people - who follow the charismatic leader - aren't completely "mindlessly listening to their leader" or how their leader "isn't that bad after all".