#yes it sucks. obviously. it fucking sucks.

[lexosaurus]

I've been having some thoughts for a while. Please forgive me from breaking my "no politics" trend. (And for those concerned, dw, this is a positive post.)

So I'm wrapping up my second year working for a small, tight-knit district in their special ed department. Most of my time is spent working with some pretty extreme behaviors; I hear "fuck you" and "suck my cock" pretty regularly, along with threats to my physical existence, which is fine because for whatever I show online, in real life it takes quite a lot more than some teenager with behavior/emotional/intellectual disabilities to rattle me. And while there's been a couple close calls, and I'm sure I'll get punched eventually, so far I seem to be getting through my day pretty unscathed.

(I do feel the need to note here that I LOVE working with this population, I love my job, my students are absolutely hilarious and they are incredibly bright! But, given the essence of our program, many of them deal with some intense emotions/behaviors, which is the crux of this whole post).

Because of how my students can often react and respond to various life situations in some pretty extreme ways, from nudity to violence, we've had several situations in the last year where the local police or the school SRO have had to get involved, both in school and out of school.

And it's been extremely cool to see that all of these encounters have resulted in deescalation without anyone getting hurt.

The reason for this, when talking to an officer (because yes, I have gotten to know the local police department), is in the wake of BLM, a greater emphasis on community outreach was established in this community. And through this expectation, the police got to know people much more than they had before, including all the kids in the quickly growing special ed program.

So, when a big teen boy is in public with a knife he stole from his house threatening to stab someone, the police knows this kid, knows he's disabled, and is able to talk him down without putting a hand on him.

The public opinion of the local police force is so positive, that some of my students who are in and out of the hospital regularly see the police station as their safe place. Because at night when everything else is closed and they are having a breakdown and can't sleep, they feel like hurting themselves, and maybe their parents are unavailable or they just don't feel comfortable confiding in them, where else can the kid go to talk to an adult who can help them but the local police station? I think it's really amazing that my students can do that.

Obviously, this community has a lot going for them. The police are well-funded, the crime rate is pretty low, the outreach programs are great, the community puts a heavy emphasis on school so parents are very involved and we have no shortage of volunteers or people to help put on events or just get this funding thing passed in the town that will go directly toward bettering the community, etc.

But I just see this as such a cool case study in a police department having a truly positive impact on the community. I think it's amazing that I have had the opportunity to witness this firsthand, and I hope as a society we can get to a point where things are like this everywhere.

[utilitycaster]

Ok I'm probably going to regret reinventing 17th century European religious philosophy here but:

Ludinus's issue with the gods as stated to Imogen and Fearne (and I will state right now that we know he was lying or deliberately misleading at points in that conversation so I don't exactly take him at his word, but let's assume he does mean this) is that they did not prevent the Calamity. I have the following questions.

Does he have any loyalty/feelings about the Titans given that they would have killed all the people in the era of the Schism, ie, the gods averted that Calamity? My guess is no, which means that whole avenue of discussing the Titans was something of a dead end.

How should Calamity have been averted? The Prime Deities during the Age of Arcanum largely let people do what they wanted, which is what led to one of those mortals releasing the Betrayer Gods. Should the gods have struck down Vespin Chloras before he actually did anything, Minority Report style? Can the gods even predict based on the actions of a single individual or small group, because my guess is they can't, particularly since within the current stream of gameplay they absolutely cannot [ie, the reason the Changebringer can't tell FCG to stay or run is because Matt Mercer is the Changebringer and he doesn't know how people will roll; you do need to consider the medium here]. But if they could: so you think they should strike down mortals on the basis of thoughtcrimes? Or control them? In that case, why is Aeor a problem? There's a lot you can argue is justified once you permit the gods to override free will and kill people over mere potential for catastrophe.

On that note, Laerryn both was an unwitting architect of the Calamity (shorted on energy and then killed the Tree of Names, which served as a core planar defense system) but also averted the worst of it. Did the lives she saved by preventing the rise of Rau'shan and Ka'Mort outweigh the lives she took by destroying the Tree of Names? How should the gods have reacted?

Should, perhaps, the gods have all sealed themselves away earlier - perhaps post-Schism? If so, then the issue isn't the Divine Gate, now is it? Should the gods intervene or not intervene? Should they remove themselves or no? It feels like the issue isn't that they distanced themselves so that they can do less in the world, particularly if you wish to kill them, but that you really want to fucking kill them and they made that somewhat more difficult.

How do we know the gods (for example) didn't save Laudna? She was hanged and she's still alive; Morri would probably count this as saving her and I don't see the same desire to wipe out all Archfey. [real talk I find most discussion of Laudna specifically to be...incomprehensibly ignorant in its refusal to acknowledge that everything about it is player agency related, whether it's the story that the cast played out for Vox Machina or the decisions Marisha specifically made in creating the character, ie, do you think Matt should have said "well you can't play a Hollow One because that would mean the gods didn't save you" not to mention the fact that again, we are playing this within a game system where the existence Deus Ex Machina would in fact fucking suck ass; but even setting aside those reasons why this argument is stupid, it's still stupid. It's like a layer cake of stupid.] Again: do you want more intervention or less? Killing them guarantees less.

I'm assuming the problem with the Calamity is the vast loss of life, in which case, what's the math on how many people have been killed by the Vanguard or Imperium in the pursuit of unleashing Predathos? How many more will die?

If the release of Predathos doesn't result in the immediate demise of all the gods, and the Divine Gate is down, why isn't this a recipe for Calamity 2? What was the motivation for killing the gods again?

Should we kill mortal diviners who do not do all within their power to stop terrible things that may come to pass? If the issue is that some people have power without working for it, why haven't we killed all the sorcerers?

Should we be listening to a single word from someone who consumes random fey to live longer, and that's just the start of the CVS receipt of atrocities?

Is there a point where one's deeply held beliefs due to one's own personal trauma become invalidated due to one's actions as a result of that trauma? If so, why is the limit for Orym "is okay with killing people who are trying, directly, to kill you (which, frankly, isn't even a trauma response, that's just called not wanting to die, which I highly recommend as a personal philosophy), and gets upset when people defend those knowingly collaborating with his family's murderers" and the limit for Vanguard generals "family abandonment/just. buckets of murder of innocents./child soldier recruitment in multiple different contexts/eating fey as biohacking/destroying an entire city and the surrounding forest for hundreds of years (ongoing)/imperialism in multiple different contexts/I was going to make a gallows humor joke about how while neither exist in-world they've violated the Geneva Convention AND the IRB for testing on human subjects multiple times over but actually those both are in fact written in a lot of the same blood/probably some others that I'm forgetting"

[smartzelda]

Sometimes it's frustrating having worked in video game retail and knowing anything about game/console prices and deals watching people just. Say things online

"Look at this nintendo add for the SNES you could get the console and super mario world for like $100! Companies never do that anymore they're so greedy hahaha"

Yes, companies still bundle consoles with games. And yes, often this means the games come at a reduced price. (Mario Kart World for Switch 2 is $50 in the bundle versus the $80 for physical. When Gamestop was bundling games and controllers with new ps5s to keep away scalpers in like 2022, the games included often would be discounted between $10 and $20 for that bundle.)

Don't get me wrong. Of course less than $200 for a console and a first party game would be swell these days BUT. When you decided to get up in arms over prices these days, did you adjust for inflation? (Because like. It's one thing if the new console you're doing comparisons with the old one is much more expensive even when factoring in inflation. But also like some of those old consoles adjusted for inflation are worth about the same if not more than a switch 2, then it's like...okay? At that point the prices aren't the problem. The root issue is the companies not paying you in accordance with rising inflation.)

Believe it or not YES. Nintendo still does console deals where you can buy their most recent home console with a first party game added in for free! (Listen to me. Listen. In 2021 and 2022 for Christmas it was possible to walk into a video game store and buy a $300 switch bundle that included Mario Kart 8 deluxe and like 3 months free Nintendo Online. In like 2022/2023 for Christmas they also did $350 switch oled bundles that included Mario Kart 8 deluxe and 3 months nintendo online for free. The price of a console for a $60 video game and 3 months of the online service. This isn't some mythic business practice that stopped happening in like 2005 or something. I promise.)

Yes obviously the companies are greedy. They use deals to pull you in to get you to spend more than you expected. They also often have more sales than you're even aware of because they benefit more from people paying full price. They underpay people and they use whatever excuses needed oftentimes to raise prices to keep that profit rising. But it does no one any real good other than allow people to get pissed off to lie or assume things which aren't true. There are so many reasons to dislike companies (esp. Nintendo), you don't need to rely on acting like things used to be so much better in cases that they're not, or treating things that are industry wide standards/issues as something one company is the sole perpetrator of.

Moral of the story, maybe perhaps like do a bit a research instead of assuming whatever thing that pisses you off greatly is 100% true, and direct your ire in the right direction. Ground yourself emotionally and mentally, know what's going on. Be pissed at corporations. You're allowed to be fuckin pissed at corporations. Just please know what tf you're talking about and what exactly the root issue is

[69thatstheweednumber]

hot lilo and stitch remake take why the fuck are you expecting these hollow cynical entirely brand-name-recognition profit driven live action remakes by a trillion dollar corporation to have any artistic value whatsoever and also why are you acting like the entirely predictable failures and shortcomings of these works are some sinister malicious plot with ulterior motives beyond "brand name recognition minimum effort recognizable ip cash grab"

[queerofthedagger]

that goddamn post of "women just stop being insecure you're annoying" post is going around and oh my god some of y'all are such compassionless little fuckers it's utterly unbearable

[tenrose]

Finished Deadhouse Gates and I'm proud to announce that I still don't understand how the Warrens work.

[lithi]

Was trying to like. Imagine how a step-mother Penelope/step-daughter Athanasia AU would work. Claude would either never know about Penelope’s affair (or at least does not suspect about the pregnancy. Somehow) or would be so blinded by grief after Diana’s death that he would just pathetically accept Penelope back.

Obviously she could not pass Jennette as Claude’s so ..?? She would probably huh. Keep her as her forever dirty little secret or eventual pawn to use (maybe she is passed off as countess rosalia’s daughter?).

Her relationship with Athanasia would depend a lot on whether Athy is still reincarnated or not but I guess Penelope would either roll with Claude’s mistreatment of her (and probably have him disinherit her because she is, after all, his low-born bastard) or play the kind step-mother for politics (and the rest would also depend on whether or not they do have children together later on. maybe Anastasius using her as his black magic baby machine fucked her body up). Just imagine. The drama

Anyways this is what inspired the brainworms lol

[scentedinksandwhackedseals]

random idea: in the tags, type every letter in alphabetical order, one at a time and put the tags that come up

[frogaroundandfindout]

Dick holds a meeting about the titans performance against the Hive. Kory argues that he’s reprimanding them like military but doesn’t want her to act like a soldier. Dick says she had no right to kill Adeline and Kory says they don’t know what it’s like to suffer like she has.

Garth mentions getting back to his wife and dick makes a dig about marriages of convenience. Kory throws a starbolt at dick for it, but he dodges.

Victor compares their behavior to Gar and Terra’s back in the day and Gar gets upset and says it’s like he doesn’t even know Vic anymore. Victor quits the titans but dick says he can’t because he made a deal with the JLA to keep Vic out of STAR labs by having the titans watch over him. Vic grabs dick by the neck until flash and Donna hold him back. Dick explains this was major reason for him starting the titans again and Vic walks away with a final dig aimed at dick starting the titans so they could stop him from becoming like Bruce.

Flash tries to leave and dick orders jesse to stop him. Dick tells him that they all have questions about him and that he doesn’t need to come back from the JLA meeting.

Dick asks the rest of the titans if they can afford to commit to the team and they all leave citing various excuses. Dick is left alone with the jr members argent, damage, and Jesse.

Titans #13

[octopanko]

guys is it possible to like a media that is controversial in some aspects and like. have media literacy and not ignore the bad parts but consume media critically while also not directly supporting the creators bc you very legally watch it on very legal websites instead and also not like the parts that are bad so you make your own like interpretations of those parts that make them not bad or just not interact with those parts entirely or am I just crazy and stupid and selfish

worded very badly cuz I’m half asleep and anxious

[giogio]

has anyone here seen richard siken’s current twitter antics

[un-lovesherself]

STOP SHITTING ON THINGS OTHER PEOPLE (ESPECIALLY YOUNG GIRLS) CHERISH JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE INSECURE, SAD, LONELY AND DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO ENJOY IN YOUR LIFE.