#yes this is a subtweet to myself

[tippenfunkaport]

"It darted through her with the speed of an arrow that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!" -Jane Austen's Emma

[iriscasefiles]

a word of advice to anyone writing sci-fi or fantasy for the first time: take it from me, maybe don't come up with key worldbuilding details on the basis of making obscure jokes that are literally funny to you and only you

[moreespressoformydepresso]

Heyy, it’s been a couple of days since I’ve posted, even longer since I’ve been consistent. I would say I’ve been busy but that would be a lie because I haven’t actually had less time than usual to post. Truth is some stuff’s gone down, partially on this very platform, and it’s made it very hard to post. If you don’t want to read a kind of venty angsty personal post the TL;DR is I’ll get back to posting semi-regularly once I’ve dealt with some stuff but I promise it has nothing to do with the people who interact with my blog. You’re the highlight of my day even if it’s “just” a like and I’m sorry for the recent dip in posts.

I don’t wanna go into detail because surprise! I don’t actually like going out of my way to create drama with people and one person involved has essentially harassed me on every platform we share. That’s why I haven’t spoken about this before, and I’m only saying this now because I realized I’ve forgotten to respond to several reblogs and I don’t want anyone to feel like I’m ignoring them or abandoning this blog or anything. Basically, I feel bad about leaving without explanation and also I kind of want to vent? So without getting too specific: A close friendship recently died a slow, torturous death over several months, slowly getting worse until the other person threw me in the trash like I meant nothing. Then he came back two weeks later and tried to guilt trip me for being upset at him for how he treated me.

In that two week period some stuff went down on Tumblr here and well… there’s no way to sugarcoat this, so I’ll be blunt: it’s made me terrified to post anything on here. Every time I want to post something I feel sick to my stomach with dread because what if it’ll happen again? Or, alternatively, what if I’m next? And it sucks because I’m not even 100% sure it was aimed at me, but it lines up a little too perfectly and maybe I’m paranoid and it’s all on me but maybe it’s not and if that’s the case… I’d rather be wrong, for once, but the problem is that there’s no way to know for certain. I’ve been stewing in this weird, complicated mishmash of emotions and confusion and I honestly have no idea how to deal with it. I thought time would help, as it usually does, but clearly this is a special case.

Before anyone says it, yes. I’m aware that this is a subtweet, which is not a cool or nice thing to do unless it’s a joke between friends. That’s another thing that made me not want to post this. I hate being mean to people who aren’t mean to me first, and as I said I have no solid proof from a trustworthy source without ulterior motives that this had anything to do with me (which is what I usually use as my standard for when to start hitting back) but I just can’t seem to let it go. Every time I have an AU I wanna share I get this creeping, uncomfortable, clawing feeling crawling underneath my skin and tightening in my chest and I hate it. I hate it so much I cannot even describe it properly.

It makes me wanna scrape my skin off with sandpaper and scrub myself clean from the inside out with an iron sponge. I wanna claw my heart out of my chest and shake it until it stops feeling like this and the only comfort here is that I’ve found some fancy new descriptions to use in my writing. Speaking of: I’ll post on AO3 again soon, hopefully today or tomorrow, but just like with my blog I’m so drained of energy and I feel so nauseous about posting I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it again, which sucks because I love posting on all these platforms! It shouldn’t feel like a chore but it does now and I don’t know if there’s anything that’ll ever make it fully go away. It’s become more manageable, hence why I’m posting this, so I’m clinging to the hope it’ll all ebb away at some point. Until then though my posting schedule is gonna be even more inconsistent than it usually is, so I’m very sorry about that. Hope you all have a wonderful day and I’m sorry about the venty post I’ve subjected you to 😅

[purplesurveys]

1898

Do you ever wonder how Atheist people raise their kids? I do. There's admittedly some envy in there somewhere lol, but it's mostly intrigue about what the dynamics at home must be like. I live in an overwhelmingly Christian population where every single aspect of life is influenced by religion; so considering I've identified myself as atheist in a place where it's virtually nonexistent, it's something I find myself thinking about once in a while.

If you’re atheist, would you raise you kids believing in God or not? Absolutely not. They can explore, ask questions, even pick a faith to go by if they want to; but I will not be the first one to tell them anything about gods.

How long does it usually take you to finish answering a survey? Usually anywhere from 40 minutes to one hour, depending on the length or how fast I can think of my answers.

Do you spell it gray or grey? Gray.

If you make surveys, how do you decide about its title? I don't make them. I'm terrible at coming up with questions.

When are you going back to school? I don't need to; I graduated four years ago.

If you don’t go to school anymore, what do you do? I work in public relations; agency side.

Do you care about other people’s status messages? Like on Facebook? Sure. It's always nice to know what people are up to, the new places they've been traveling to or the life goals they've been reaching. The only theme I don't particularly like encountering are warfreak posts? like when they still subtweet (idk the equivalent term on Facebook haha). Come on sis we're in our mid 20s.

Do you like reading self help books? No.

What is your opinion on sex change? Your body, your choice. Glad to see there's been more opportunities to let this happen for those who need it.

Do you think that this will take away the essence of gay pride? ...What?

What do you do when you tell a really bad joke? I let it eat me up anywhere between 3 to 7 days, lol.

If you’re still a virgin, how important is your virginity to you? Not much, it's never mattered to me. I gave it up when I was 18 and never thought twice about it before or after.

If you have lost it already, do you regret it? No.

Do you believe in marriage? Why or why not? I believe in it, I don't believe it's a life requirement.

Do you like having a huge group of friends or would you rather have few close friends? Few close friends. The older I get, the more I enjoy my own company. That said I only let very few people in my circle now.

Do you have any goals for this summer? If so, what are they? Summer's over, but I didn't set goals. I did travel abroad, which wasn't something I specifically set out to do but was still nice to have done.

Or do you plan on getting a summer job? Or do you already have one? I've had a job the last four years.

If so, where do you work and what do you do? I work in a PR agency, doing PR work for consumer brands. Some of them you definitely know about and consume; some of them more up-and-coming and aptly needing the help.

Do you watch the TV show Skins? If so, who’s your favorite character? Never watched it.

And which generation do you prefer? Or do you equally love both?

Do you know someone who still typpe thiszz wayy? No.

Would you take a break after graduating from high school (like, postpone going to college for a year or so)? I didn't do that. Where I'm from, a gap year is just for the super rich who have safety nets no matter what they do or pursue, so...ew. Most need to fight to live.

Do you feel tired after stretching? No, it feels nice.

Can you get a strike at bowling? Only on Wii Sports, haha.

Do you use Facebook? If so, what is your favorite application there? Yes, but apps stopped being trendy there yearsssss ago.

It seems like everyone’s addicted to Twitter these days - are you? I fucking hate Twitter. I keep it to stay updated and to read translations for all BTS releases, but I stay the fuck out of any conversation. Everyone's always dragging, cancelling, bullying, shaming, discriminating someone else these days on there.

[onemorecupofcoffee]

geniunely killing myself if i ever go back to twitter ... the pelople there are so nice (well some of them) but the fuckin enviornment fuckin sucks and its all built on drama. yes theres shit that happens on tumblr & instagram but in the classic rock fandom there's like very rare drama from what ive seen or at least it isnt public/its chill. on twitter there is literally drama every fucking day and it gives me so much anxiety and i hate it and i hate people fighting and acting like its the endof the world over the stupidest shit and acting superior and shit a lot of my mutuals were nice but some of them fuckin subtweeted me like actually fuck you & the fuckin priv quote tweets ugh that was the worst and i saw people literally pqt each other it was so rudeand brutual and mean like??? esp over nothing or like a very small thing ugh uit was terrible that site is built on literal hell & i always felt terrible every time i went there like it was actually so so bad ... like i would doomscroll for an hour , feel like shit repeat... idk talking to people on there was so weird even if they were nice it just made me feel sm anxiety like they all hated me & i literally never feel like that here, or on instagram ... so gladni left that place but i regret sm i wish i was never on there, i made a lot of mutuals who were super cool & im glad ive kept in touch w some of them but its just annoying to think about how worried i was on there like avtually

[dogwittaablog]

Nolan is not a piece of shit because he’s from winnipeg, manitoba or “buttfuck nowhere” as you do nicely called it. He is from Winnipeg, a city with more people than metro Vancouver! google is free if u don’t believe me. don’t make excuses for him.

he is a shit person because he choose to be, and if you think location determines a person actions, go back to school. he chooses to follow red pill accounts. he chooses to listen to conspiracy based podcasts. he chooses to spend his unemployed time subtweeting his ex coworkers and workplaces, most of whom forgot about him until he the fake retirement announcement.

fun fact: Manitoba has a NDP leader (for the American’s that’s a socialist democrat vs Trump jr) so unless that anon is from BC, you don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to where your from. The dumbdumbs from ButtFuck Manitoba could vote more progressively than your educated metropolis.

one more thing: the retirement announcement, how did y’all not get that? the only person who doesn’t know Nolan’s career is over is Nolan. even if he makes a miracle recovery (which based on the tweets about smoking weed all day and the amount of OnlyFans creators he replies to, he has other more important things to train for), no NHL team wants a player that hasn’t even conditioning for over 3 years. Nolan Patrick is the most Canadian example of a hockey has been.

Stay in school kids.

*So this anon went off, and this was from a week and a bit ago, so I don't know which other anon/post they're referencing*

I am pretty sure he knows his career is over... and hasn't made any efforts into getting back to the league or any league really lol.

I think unfortunately a lot of people have heard negative things about Manitoba and how people can be down there in general that it's hard not to go ''Oh he's from Manitoba makes sense''. So it can be easy to just start stereotyping. Though yes! I do agree that people miss the fact geographic location doesn't always contribute to people's choices and character, because pieces of shit's exist everywhere and in every part of the world, because as you said people have there own free thoughts and choices.

I know some people will probably start talking about his dad influencing him, but if we just removed him from the equation... in my opinion I think he was definitely never going to be this liberal-progressive person (sorry folks) and I kind of concluded that myself even before seeing his parents media and the burners.

[cafephan]

(realizing from scrolling back 1 (one) post on your blog that the answer is almost certainly yes lol, but I asked cause I wanted to know more about your experience since every show was so unique!)

so my tatinof experience for show one was me bricking it because i had uni in the morning then i had to make an excuse to leave at lunchtime to be back home in time for my friend at the time to pick me up and so we could make it into the show - but once i actually got home and got ready i got so into the swing of things and i remember the people sat in front of me turned around to stare because i started bawling as soon as dnp came on stage :)))) pretty sure i would’ve been subtweeted or posted

ALSO i am 99% certain i heard my username a couple of times, not sure if it’s because i posted i was there idk but it is a core memory - i don’t even know the context it was said in

interactive introverts show one was interesting as my train was delayed and i was convinced i was going to miss the show so the second i got into the train station i just told my friend to run and we ran across a city centre and i remember sagging against the wall outside practically heaving and the queue to get in was so long and people stared again but i did not give a flying damn, as soon as i got seated (and breathing normally) and the show started i started tearing up and my friend had to hold my hand as i got very emotional - i know i sound pathetic i am aware but these guys saved my life and seeing them irl hits me

my SECOND ii show is the biggie - i stayed over in my friend’s uni dorm the night before and the friend i was going to the show with (lily aka phangirlingforphan, long will her memory live on this site) arrived and whilst we were getting ready i posted a fic i wrote the night before as i couldn’t sleep (titled cars and parking lots, in case you want to read lmao) and i had an absolute meltdown on the way to the venue. when we were finally allowed in - WHICH by the way the staff were trying to not let me in and i was like hahahaha nice try i’m vip let me the fuck in - i started using up this bottle of cooling spray i brought from the train station as i both had heat sweats and it was scorching in temperature, when dnp came out i started crying and lily had to fix my makeup in the line, lily started making friends in the queue whilst i just tried not to cry and by the time we got to marianne at the front of the queue my bottle of cooling spray was empty and i just - still crying - set my phone to screen record and made sure lily was also filming it (we filmed for each other) and i had my meet and greet - i was blubbering the entire time and honestly i can’t bring myself to watch the video atm to tell you exactly what was said the whole time as now it makes me cringe but honestly just being in their presence was indescribable for me and yes i am the lamest person ever but i stand by that

i’ve always been a lonely person and have been able to count my friends on one hand so i spent (and continue to spend) most of my time online watching content and dnp got me through so many of my toughest times that i won’t go into but seeing these tours was therapeutic as hell for me and yes i would meet them again in a heartbeat to get a redo as i fucked my meet and greet up by crying the whole time but those tours are so fucking special to me and nobody can take those away

also i again heard my username at the second ii show and refused to turn around - not even sure if they knew it was me but hey ho

[greatwyrmgold]

I've spent a few posts talking about things I like about Bleach. Now for me to talk about things I don't like.

The Soul Society arc.

Thank you, have a good day.

Okay, yes, I will explain myself. I recall that the Soul Society arc is one of the parts of Bleach that its fans generally like, and I...don't. There are several reasons for this.

Why I dislike the Soul Society Arc

Rukia

I've made a bit of a running gag about how Rukia is my favorite character, which I might actually try to explain at some point. She's determined, she's resourceful, she tries to do the right thing (even if it means breaking the law), she can switch from being the straight man/voice of reason to being the silly punchline guy without feeling like she's out of character. And while I wish she'd kept a meaningful fragment of her powers, having her fight a Hollow without them was pretty badass.

And she spends basically the entire Soul Society arc as a damsel in distress. She thinks that doing anything will make things worse for the people she cares about, which is a better reason than most damsels in distress have, but it still feels like an excuse to let the deuteragonist gather dust in the corner while the series focuses on a bunch of new soul reapers. Speaking of which:

I lost track of how many new characters were introduced

In principle, introducing dozens of Soul Reapers isn't automatically a bad thing. There are some bit-part Reapers who add a lot to the texture of the world without taking up too much narrative real estate. That one officer who hits on (what he thinks are) female Reapers in the middle of a crisis does a good job making the Reapers seem both varied and...banal, in a three-dimensional sort of way?

But then there are the dozens of Reapers (and non-Soul-Reaper souls) who are supposed to be main characters. There's the thirteen captains, and most of their assistant captains, and a bunch of others besides. And I like some of these!

Hanataro is a nice weakling, contrasting the overwhelmingly powerful and callous captains. He's just...a nice dude. And despite being weak, he's allowed to do stuff.

Renji, aside from being a vehicle to explain Rukia's backstory (yay, Rukia when she wasn't damseled!), is a

Kenpachi is just that shonen fight-loving dude, but...he's the most that dude I have ever seen. And despite that, he's absolutely shit at using his zanpakuto; he has to get by on raw brute force. He feels like a subtweet about all the worst anime heroes.

Yachiru is adorable and I love her dynamic with Kenpachi.

But there are also plenty of Reapers who I dislike, like Mayuri the generic mad scientist, Gin Ichimaru the obvious villain, or Rukia's brother Byakuya (who isn't as evil as Gin, but is also a less audacious and interesting flavor of evil). And worse, there are a bunch who I just don't care about, like...the guy with a fox head, or the old leader guy, or the glasses guy, or the other six captains, who the series tries to make into main characters.

It's too much to keep track of. And so is...

All the fight scenes

I get it, this is a shonen battle manga, shonens are gonna battle as the manga goes on. But do the battles need to seem so superfluous?

It could be worse. I've been reading Jump manga long enough to know that. Lots of Big Event arcs turn into chaotic melees, almost impossible to follow. Others throw fights back-to-back at you, with no room to breathe.

The Soul Society arc doesn't do either of those. The participants in each fight are well-defined, the fights separated from each other by several blocks at minimum. There's space in between them, time to reset the tension and explore some character stuff that comes up. But it still has a lot of superfluous-feeling fights.

(Aside: While splitting the party this way and giving everyone periodic downtime is good, it also makes the timeline feel less cohesive than it probably is. It sometimes feels like one group is resting up and having lengthy conversations in the middle of another group's action scene.)

For instance: We're supposed to be invested in a multi-chapter fight between the mentor character who barely existed before the Soul Society arc* and her ex-student who barely existed before this fight? Really? The student's backstory had to be explained midfight for it to have a semblance of emotional...anything.

I assumed that fight was just introducing the sleeve-destroying lightning technique, but the wiki says it's only used by those two and the mentor's sister. Which is a shame, because A. it means we don't get to see Ichigo in one of those goofy open-sided uniforms, Hawkeye Initiative style, and B. it means we really were supposed to care about the student who got mad her teacher left.

I realize I've harped on this one segment, but...well, it's mostly the recency effect, but also that segment knocked me out of my reading groove and made it hard to get back into it. No offense to either Yoruichi or...(checks notes) Sui-feng, but your backstory was introduced in the worst way, and there doesn't seem to be that much to it.

Anyways, that's just one fight out of dozens. Some of them advance the plot, or help the heroes understand/develop their powers. Some are just obstacles for the heroes to overcome. And some are just squabbles between Soul Reaper captains over everything from the dumb, violent version of Machiavellian scheming to "Why didn't you bring me with you when you left, sensei?!?"

Anyways. Circling through the technique introduced two pages before it was used to win a fight to the mid-fight-scene exposition, we come to another problem.

Maybe Bleach deserves its reputation?

Before reading Bleach or watching Geoff Thew's Bleach video, I had heard some stuff about the series. One of those things is that it had bad power creep, with new powers being introduced on a dime as the plot requires. For the whole pre-Soul-Society monster-of-the-week segment, this didn't come up.

Then we get to the Soul Society. The main characters are faced by overwhelmingly powerful Soul Reapers, with far greater spirit energy (power level) and a variety of special techniques and powers among them. Ichigo &co struggle against low-level Reaper officers, knowing they will have to fight captains who can mop the floor with those mooks. And then...they get stronger, and have about the same level of struggle against the strongest captains, and win.

The worst has to be Ichigo getting his bankai. For those who don't read Bleach: I hope this has made sense, and also bankai is kinda like a super-mode of the magic swords every Soul Reaper has, which can summon monsters or deadly flower petals or a bone snake whip thing. I don't really get it yet. Anyways, bankai is super rare; only a fraction of Soul Reapers ever get a bankai, and it takes a decade or more of training.

Of course, Ichigo takes a shortcut. It involves a quasi-symbolic fight against the incarnation of his magical sword; the goal is to find his real magic sword, which is stated to be the one piece of his spirit made for fighting. This has the potential to be an interesting training scene, forcing Ichigo to introspect and figure out why he fights, what he's fighting for.

...it happens offscreen. We cut away from Ichigo's training for a while, stuff happens, Rukia's about to be executed, Ichigo appears a day ahead of schedule, having figured his bankai thing out. There's no flashback, we don't get to see Ichigo figuring out why he fights or anything. He just comes back, and he's stronger now. And when that's not enough (because of his shonen BS), he gets a spooky Hollow mask.

But it's not just this kind of convenient power-up. There are also a lot of techniques that are explained in flashbacks right before (or after) they win a fight. Some of these make sense; Quincies can manipulate reiki in the world around them, the afterlife world is made out of reiki, it makes sense that Uryu would be able to draw power from nearby buildings and stuff. Others really don't; the thing Uryu pulled in the same fight which boosted his Quincy powers but then made him lose them at the end of the fight came out of nowhere.

There's a lot of backfill, a lot of mid-fight exposition, and yet a lot of stuff that isn't explained. Orihime and Chad getting powers still isn't explained beyond "Hanging out with Ichigo and Rukia awakened dormant magical powers," and it's weird that two of Ichigo's friends would have those. And while the way Orihime's powers work is explained decently, I still have no idea what Chad's armor arm does. Strong, tough, draining? Iunno.

But I guess it's not surprising that some stuff would fall by the wayside.

It's Too Much

This isn't so much a new point, as a new angle on the points I already made, synthesizing everything.

I liked the small-scale conflicts in Bleach's early monster-of-the-week arcs. One chapter, there's a cursed parakeet (there's a Hollow involved). A few chapters later, soul-Ichigo needs to chase down his body and the artificial autopilot soul that was supposed to be safeguarding it. Then he meets the Hollow that killed his mom, then a TV psychic who understands spirits just well enough to accidentally make everything worse, then a different kind of monster-hunter who thinks Soul Reapers need to back off and let humans handle their own world.

It's episodic, and that's not a bad thing! It gives us time to get acquainted with the world and how it works. And, of course, how Ichigo's Reaper magic and Uryu's Quincy powers work. Plus, it's just kinda fun? Every few chapters, you get a different flavor of urban fantasy nonsense, which all feels like it fits in the same world.

Then all of a sudden, Rukia abandons the Kurosaki household, and Ichigo sees her getting kidnapped by her brother, a high-ranking Soul Reaper, who is going to execute her. Ichigo and his friends (and Uryu) need to train fast so they can go to the Soul Society, where they're promptly smacked in the face with a whole mass of characters and powers and technobabble and politics, both class politics and powerful individuals maneuvering for more power.

And I like some of these elements. The divide between haves and have-nots in the afterlife is worth exploring, bankai seem neat (especially that one tidbit from when Ichigo was training, which never paid off and I'm still mad), plenty of the Soul Reapers are interesting and fun, some of the fight scenes are cool.

But I don't have the time to enjoy those elements. They're drowning in a sea of other things introduced at the same time, and a stream of new things being constantly introduced. New characters (and characters we technically already saw getting developed), more part of that big scheme coming to light, more technobabble, more powers, more training.

Bonus: Shonen BS

I couldn't fit this into the neat stream of segues, but there's a lot more shonen BS in this arc. You know, characters doing things that help set up fight scenes but don't make a lot of sense in-character.

Some shonen BS, I can accept. Kenpachi, for instance. Shonen BS is his whole character; he wears an eyepatch because binocular vision would make fights too easy. (Also, there's something in it that limits his spirit energy.) It makes sense that he'd go out of his way to let his opponent fight. And even characters who aren't pure, unadulterated shonen BS, sometimes shonen BS is in-character. That's fine.

But when Ichigo has his sword to the throat of Rukia's evil brother, who he considers irredeemably evil for callously trying to execute his sister (fair), and backs off for no apparent reason so they can fight for a couple more chapters...why? Why did he hold back his bankai until after Rukia's brother cut him up with his flower bankai? Why did he not kill him when he had such an easy chance? If you're gonna kill him, kill him!? You could have finished this with one fewer convenient power-up!

I don't have any big point here. Some shonen BS is expected in any battle manga, Bleach got a bunch more in the Soul Society arc, it's starting to get on my nerves.

What do I wish had happened?

I think the big problem is how suddenly Bleach goes from pre-Soul-Society MOTW stuff to a big, dense plotline in a whole new world. It's a sudden change of pace, a change in place, a whole herd of new characters, and a bunch of new powers and setting elements, introduced all at the same time.

So instead...don't do that.

Keep up the monster-of-the-week format, and introduce these things more gradually. Maybe Ichigo starts running into tougher Hollows after Uryu's stunt, so he needs to recruit Orihime, Chad, and Uryu to help him fight. Then they start training their supernatural abilities to stay on top of the problem.

Meanwhile, spirit world stuff starts getting introduced. Maybe Uruhara sends Ichigo and Rukia on an errand that takes them into the spirit world, or pursuing a Hollow takes them there, or Renji visits the mortal world to figure out why Rukia's been gone so long, or something.

Or if nothing else, have some Rukia flashback chapters. Those could introduce basics of how the Soul Society works, and since Rukia was adopted into one of the big spirit world families, she could plausibly have met most of the major characters in the Soul Society arc. Plus, more Rukia is rarely a mistake.

My biggest problems with the Soul Society arc come down to dumping so much information on the reader at once (too much to be contained in organic-feeling scenes) and how much of a disconnect between Soul Society and what came before. But that's an obvious problem, right? It makes me wonder why Tite Kubo wrote Bleach this way. But I don't know enough to meaningfully speculate, and I shouldn't baselessly speculate.

Anyways, beyond that...Rukia should actually do stuff. This would require a lot of rewriting about why she was imprisoned and how she felt about her execution, but it's not like you could adjust the pacing without changing all of that stuff. Also, I don't like it. "I'll let my brother kill me and hope that the other captains don't have any reason to go after Ichigo, who they hold partially responsible for the thing I'm being executed for" isn't the worst motivation a damsel can have for accepting her distress, but it's still not a great one.

Finally, cut down a bit. I can't get specific without toeing into the "fix-it fic" zone, but I feel like all thirteen Soul Reaper captains and most of their assistant captains and a bunch of their flunkies and several people living outside the spirit city is a few more principal characters than a single arc needs. Part of the problem is that the Rukia execution plotline has a lot of scenes setting up some kind of big conspiracy plotline that I haven't really gotten to.

I feel there should have been more space between them. That might be tricky; Rukia's execution was a step in the conspiracy's plan, and I'm not sure how close it is to the end or how easy it would be to restructure the conspiracy so that there was more of a gap. For all I know, something not yet revealed about the conspiracy will make it seem like as crucial a part of the Soul Society arc as Rukia's execution, and not just the next thing that happens. But at the moment, I feel like jamming them together weakened both.

Conclusion

The Soul Society arc is not bad; I just like it less than what came before. It feels like too many things are introduced too quickly, with loads of characters and powers and worldbuilding details being dumped in at once.

Those things are not bad, just crammed in too tightly for my taste. I could have found Sui-feng a compelling character, if her story wasn't crammed into the middle of a fight scene which feels like it has no purpose except introducing her and showing off her ex-master's powers. It could have been a side-story about a character dutifully following the path laid out for her by her ancestors and superiors, only for that path to stop making sense when her mentor bailed.

But instead, it's a backstory that was squished into a fight scene that felt like a big plot cul-de-sac. And that stinks.

(It also stinks that Rukia was just kinda tossed into the corner like a forgotten toy.)

[levok]

Lol why would someone who hates you block and then unblock you? You have a very high opinion of yourself and you can’t help but expose that sometimes. It explains a lot of your other behavior far more than horoscopes ever could 💫

For the same reason they cannot help but subtweet about you every fortnight?

And yes, I have very high thoughts of myself. Would recommend everyone to have that about themselves. And no, that actually do align very much with my horoscope.

[tippenfunkaport]

While I'm being salty on main, there's a HUGE difference between saying "I made this with an AI generator" and trying to pretend you drew the AI art, even if that lie is by omission and careful wording.

It's the lying and pretending that is the problem.

[shirogane-oushirou]

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Do Not Interact + Before You Follow

⭐ DO NOT INTERACT ⭐

◆ i’m a staunch lgbtqia+ inclusionist, including mspec lesbians, xenogenders, and conflicting labels; if it's in good faith, chase your bliss! neither zionism nor antisemitism welcome. villains are fun, but violently bigoted or fascist f/os will get you blocked. ◆ if you d.oxx and threaten to send p.olice to a black person (or anyone in general, but being specific) because they were "being mean" online, i'll block you and anyone else who signs off on your behavior, as i consider that a threat on someone's life. yes i am subtweeting or w/e, this is unacceptable and friendship-ending. blatant racism needs to be stamped out of this community. ◆ i dislike the fetishization of CSA, incest, abuse, assault, etc. difficult subjects NEED to exist in fiction, but there's a line between exploring a topic and getting off to it, and i choose not to surround myself with the latter. rpf also makes me uncomfortable; it's dehumanizing. if a blog includes any of these things, i'll simply block and move on.

⭐ BEFORE YOU FOLLOW ⭐

◆ i'm cool with sharing canon characters, but i'll respect if you aren't. DO NOT selfship with my ocs, though, and no flirty comments towards them please (unless we're mutuals; i trust y'all to mean it platonically lol). ◆ if my non-sharing friends share the same f/o, it's their responsibility to block each other, not mine to choose between them. ◆ i block liberally; blocking isn't a moral stance, it's setting a personal boundary for any imaginable reason. curate your online experience, peace and love on planet earth. ◆ i observe reblog / ask game courtesy and request it in return! chronic illness makes me slow to reply to / reblog things, so i generally don't do chain reblogs / asks, and i don't follow-back often for social energy reasons. feel free to interact, though! i LOVE reading f/o gush tags people leave on reblogs!! 💖

[solarpunkani]

Hey, this post exploded recently! Which I guess is what I wanted, but also wasn't expecting in a sense? Glad I could let people know that something was up!

I just wanna take a moment to address a few things people have mentioned in reblogs/tags real quick:

Don't go to big box garden stores/only buy from botanical gardens/native nurseries: I would love to! Unfortunately, without doxxing myself, I would say 75% or more of the nurseries in my city are either Home Depot, Lowe's, or the occasional Ace Hardware nursery. Even with the smaller nurseries I've been to (some of which are an over 40+ minute drive from my house) they don't sell native species of milkweed, when they sell it at all. Out of the past 5+ years of trying to grow native milkweeds, the only places I've found to sell any species other than Asclepias curassavica are the occasional Ace Hardware store, the Florida Museum (over a 2 hour drive from my house), and... that's it! The other small nurseries (that I've asked at least) are trying to find vendors who grow native species, but have had no luck so far. Big box stores are what I, and most gardeners in my city, have got. Unless I'm missing some hole in the wall nursery on the other other side of town from me. And I live in a big city--imagine being in a smaller one where a store like Lowe's is about all you've got! Not to mention, several kinds of milkweed don't transplant well due to tap roots, so some can't even be easily sold.

Don't buy if you can't confidently ID something: do you know how many times I've bought something thinking its native only to find out it's not? The answer is 'several', I can do all the googling in the world when I see a cool plant at a store, and the instant I get home I'll find a site saying 'hey actually its not native to FL! Not invasive, but not native either!' I'm not a botanist, by hobby or by profession. I'm just someone who got into pollinator gardening as a teen and fixated on native milkweeds. And even if I know better, who's to say someone just getting into gardening would? If I told my neighbor not to buy tropical milkweed and only buy native species, and she went out and saw something labeled as a native species even if its not actually, she'll buy it thinking she did good! That's not an isolated incident either. Also if I'm good at anything, it's second guessing myself.

Only grow from seeds!: I've been trying. I'm a forgetful, 'didn't realize I have ADHD until a few weeks ago' wanna be gardener. Every time I've tried growing native milkweeds from seed, something has happened to cause them to die (I forget to water, I forget to weed, passionvine takes over the garden, they get knocked off a table during a storm and die, etc. etc.) I honestly wish it were that simple, but in many cases it's not.

Am I going to email/subtweet/call out Lowe's about this? Not right now, I don't have that kind of confidence. I've worked for Lowe's before and would like to again depending on post-grad school prospects, so the last thing I want at the moment is to sour my chances.

I don't know how much this makes sense right now, but I guess my point is: yes, I could have and should have known better. Yes, if I could go buy milkweeds at some small native nursery then I should and would. Yes, I could grow from seed again and again and again and hope for results. But not everyone has those options, or the knowledge. When i wrote this post, I wasn't thinking 'ooh, I'm so much smarter/better than all the gardeners who are gonna fall for this,' I was thinking about how concerning such misleading information could be for people trying to start gardening who don't necessarily have the knowledge I or others do/would. Especially if they don't have or know of the other options.

Milkweed Lovers Everywhere, Heed My Warning

By all means let me know if I'm wrong here, but if I'm not wrong then we're looking at a serious (at least to me) problem.

I've been trying to stray away from Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) and towards more native species in my area--things like swamp, sandhill, etc--and Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) fits in that category for me. It's hard to find native milkweed plants in stores--even places I've gone to in the past that had a handful of native species are currently only selling Tropical Milkweed. Even still, I know that there's been a good bit of buzz around growing native species, and some stores I've visited have said they're trying to find vendors with native species--they're not only selling Tropical for lack of trying.

So imagine my surprise--and delight--when I go to Lowe's and see Asclepias tubersoa blazoned on a plant label!

And imagine my surprise when it's being sold right next to Tropical Milkweed and looks almost identical to it.

I was immediately suspicious--especially considering the red flower buds on the 'Butterfly weed'. I've grown Tropical Milkweed for several years, and while it's been awhile since I've seen a Butterfly Weed plant outside of a photograph, these definitely didn't look like what I'd seen. Not to mention, I'd only heard of Asclepias tuberosa flowering in orange or yellow--not red. Of course, at the same time, I'm not a professional botanist, and a quick google search did declare that butterfly weed can grow in red (though the images all look like asclepias curassavica to me...).

(Image from the Native Plant Database. Looking at this picture, I should've realized where this was going sooner...)

So I did the reasonable thing and bought two of them. I figured if the red buds somehow turned orange and were actually Butterfly Weed, then I'd be perfectly satisfied. If they turned out to be Tropical Milkweed, well, I simply would give them to my neighbor who's fond of them, or find something else to do with them.

(I feel the need to emphasize; there are a lot of people online who are in the 'if you plant tropical milkweed you're a horrible person and intentionally killing monarch butterflies' camp. I am not one of them; it's not invasive in my area of Florida, it just takes a little bit of extra managing in terms of cutting it back in October/November.)

I ended up in the same Lowe's again today, shopping for my mom, and took a peek at their plant selection. Lo and behold, I found the Butterfly Weed, and...

This sure does look like Tropical Milkweed to me, and to others in my gardening server, yet it's still labeled as 'Butterfly Weed.' Also, I didn't see any Tropical Milkweed on any of the shelves--at least, nothing labeled as Tropical Milkweed. Instead, all I saw was Tropical Milkweed disguised as Butterfly Weed.

This is, in my humble pollinator garden enthusiast opinion, a problem. At best, Lowe's--or the company they source their plants from--is mislabeling their plants on accident. Which could cause problems if people are buying the plants and putting them in a place that's not quite the right condition for them, or create severe disappointment if someone's excited to grow the native Asclepias tuberosa only to end up with something else entirely. At worst? Lowe's--or the company they source their plants from--are aware that people want to grow native milkweed and are either unable to or too lazy to grow them, and would rather try to get away with selling Tropical Milkweed--which has been growing increasingly controversial in some gardening circles--and still reap the benefits and profits of selling native milkweed species.

However, I'll be real? I'm not sure what exactly to do about it. So I guess I'm just letting everyone know; if you see 'Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)' in your local Lowe's, at least double check. Otherwise, you may plant Tropical Milkweed/Scarlet Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) instead.

[causmonaut]

aaaand we’re back…

with another long ass post !!

documenting my stupidity immaturity:::::

she tweets: i love my bf!

he tweets: i love my gf!

she tweets: i miss my hubby i cant eat or sleep i cant breath i cant live like this

and hoooowwww do i see it? by logging into the acc i follow her on (to softblock everyone and keep the account as an archive since i had been using it for years)…

i !!! was confused? at first. then icked out… then hurt.

how do you shit on me for not even directly questioning your sexuality once because you loved to talk about dating men and dated and LOVED a man for 3 years, and say you’re a pure lesbian and i’m projecting by suggesting that you might have curiosity or the capacity to be attracted to men .. and then go date a man?

that part got me for a bit but her sexuality is really none of my business nor do i really care about it past the fact that she got super aggressive with me when i would question her comments. if she’s figuring out her sexuality then, good on her. i don’t believe in holding anyone to labels they’ve given themselves, it takes a long while before someone might settle (or decide not to settle) on whatever label(s) they feel comfortable with.

but it confirms that she’s with someone, it confirms that she likely lined him up soon after or before she dumped me which also stings because i think she’s shown me my worth to her so many times and it’s really not much. i think i was worth more than a few weeks of recovery? but it’s fine. i think she’s emotionally constipated and avoidant as fuck so i lowkey hope it all builds up and blows up in her face eventually (this is hateful, i’m rarely ever hateful…)

i decided to reach out before yesterday ended because it gave me an excuse to go and a: make it known that i know she’s a “lesbian” with a boyfriend and b: make it clear that i think it’s best i don’t have her on any of my social media accounts.. so i removed her on my defunct instagram… removed her from the server we used to share stuff and vc during games… took her out of groupchats with my friends.

her responses vv

“my tweets? do we still follow eo anywhere? but yeah, sure. please delete my personal info on there.”

“ooh i see”

“alright alright, thanks”

^^ putting these here.. for a few reasons

i think it’s important for me to reflect on how little energy she was giving me despite my long-winded over-explanations for my actions.. i wanted to make it clear i wasn’t removing her out of malice and stuff.. but really i don’t think i owed her the clarification.

i don’t think she thinks that deeply about things, and probably didn’t care much since they’re logical steps.

i wish i could’ve been more reserved during a lot of our conversations together but my overthinking makes it so hard not to assume she’d need the same reassurance as i might need in that situation.

i think for the first time she’s actually given me pretty mature responses. curt, dry, detached. probably in part because i’ve been pathetic as fuck in a lot of my messages to her, i’m sure she’s tired (i know she’s tired).

i would like to adopt her way of being firm in her decisions and knowing when to step away.

i could’ve honestly just quietly removed her from things, didn’t need to open up that can of worms or do that to myself or her.

i’ve now been dealing with the consequences of feeling a little hurt by her short responses, by removing her from things i wasn’t ready to remove her from.. by her moving on so quickly. her using the L word .. didn’t necessarily want her to while she was with me but she couldn’t say it even after a year, but with anyone else she’s said it within months? my self worth has taken a major hit. i think it’s half her and half me. two mentally ill people cannot function together for sure.

on the topic of mental illness, she subtweeted .. with “mental illness” .. friend saw and sent over a screenshot

yes, i’m mentally ill. i deal with chronic depression, anxiety disorder, a whole separate cocktail of other stuff, and ADHD… not to mention addiction (sober, btw).. and if we are being honest i am probably bordering on a personality disorder and all of that in combination with my anxious attachment style turn me into a monster when i’m with someone who can’t meet my needs or be consistent.

i recognize that and my needs, and what i need to work on.. i’ve known for a very long time but i still end up being attracted to manic types who are wishy washy and leave me questioning their intentions 24/7… this last girl was also a love bomber so that was not fun.

not excluding my own mistakes and toxic tendencies btw. i could lean into manipulative territory when i was upset, probably overloaded her with information in attempt to be transparent and it likely came off as being over critical and uncaring, because she could be petty i also allowed myself to be petty, too. we would get snappy at each other, she’d fuck up and i’d hold it against her for a while because she’d never genuinely apologize.. i’d fuck up and she’d never let it go, never communicate, only bring it up when it was too late for me to make up for it. it just wasn’t a good match.

but at the end of the day, once again, i can blame others as much as i want for things. i can hate her, i can ruminate on how little i must’ve meant to her in comparison to how much she meant and still means to me, i can torture myself with old screenshots or what ifs and would’ve should’ve could’ves but it doesn’t serve me.

^ easy to recognize that it doesn’t serve me but hard to not think or do these things anyway. i’m not good at combatting negative thoughts. i either don’t have them or they dominate all other thoughts. no in-between.

i think my anxiety and tendency to overthink are the biggest roadblocks i face.

kind of feeling like i am damaged goods. kind of feeling like i’d rather not date again so i don’t turn into an insecurity monster over someone that ain’t shit for the hundredth time.

life is tough as is. i have a lot on my plate, and sometimes i fear i’ll never feel peace. i don’t need a relationship to come and muddy everything up on top of all of the shit i go through on a regular basis.

buut as much as i don’t need it, that fear of loneliness sure does know how to creep in at just the right moments.

i’m talking about general loneliness. dying alone.. being distant from family… but also romantic loneliness, yea. everyone grows and branches out, my friends will find people they’ll go live in their own little bubble with, my cousins will do the same.. my parents are split and it wont be long before they both find people, too.. and here i am, their adult daughter who Should be more independent but i have honestly been so stunted by the amount of trauma we’ve all been through and it’s hard to feel my age, hard to cope with the fact that my life is my own. i don’t have the support structure of someone with parents that love them unconditionally or healthily.. it’s hard to grow when i spend so much time in their shadow trying to patch things up with them and help out without ever being nurtured in return.

in a lot of my relationships, i’m the one who lifts and supports others while i’m expected to get through things on my own. i fear it won’t ever change.

this all sounds very woe is me but i think i deserve to sit in that energy for a bit.

[asyncmeow]

yes, this is... whatever the tumblr equivalent of a subtweet is, i guess...

breaking up with someone and then calling them immature when they say they don't want to be friends is a Dick Move... (that said, making this post is probably immature, but i honestly just want to vent into the void right now.)

so, the specific reasoning is that.. well, we broke up over my mental health. this is like, the 10th partner who's done that, with pretty much zero warning that it was coming up until it was too late. they said they wanted to be friends still, and i said that's not a good idea for my mental health. as a compromise, i stated i'd be willing to if there was a possibility of us getting back together eventually. not saying now, but when my mental health was better. they said that was immature.

and the reasoning is kinda selfish, but i'm trying to keep my already terrible mental health from getting even worse. and it's *bad* - just ask some of the people closer to me. for me, being around someone i genuinely love and not being able to express that love toward them at all is a terrible feeling. it's not easy at all for me to hide my emotions, even more so on HRT. and trying to hold those emotions in will just hurt my mental health even more. what am i supposed to do, just let myself slip further into depression until she leaves anyway?

am i really immature for stating what i would need for this friendship to have any chance of success?

[amorsphere]

hello! 

by visiting this page, you have agreed to asa’s terms of services, which would be:

⋆ a reminder to take a good care of yourself! when the world is already pretty harsh to everybody, it’s a good reason for you to treat yourself well. it’s the least you can do for yourself, it’s something that will surely help with everything.

⋆ stay hydrated. it does sound easy and simple, that’s why it’s an obligation! i don’t have to explain further for this one, do i? ;]

⋆ be kind to everyone; and in this matter, to yourself too! your feelings are valid so i hope you don’t question your worth thinking it’s never enough. you are you, you are the one who knows yourself best, you are the one who decides your value. do yourself good so you can treat everyone well too! 

⋆ be happy but not to the point where you force yourself to. it’s okay to do it little by little in your own pace. you’ll get there eventually, so trust yourself enough for it! 

⋆ spread love! <3

BEFORE YOU FOLLOW, PLEASE READ BELOW. 

i go by the name audene cassandra. asa or audy, i’ll leave it up to you whichever you think fits me better. if you’ve forgotten where we met, you can easily ask me anytime! i attached my roleplay accounts here and my list of closed agencies here so you may go check it out first before you ask. as basic information, i use feminine pronoun but i don't mind anyone referring to me using neutral pronoun, so she/her and they/them are both alright! and yes, i am in my legal age too so users with "mdni" labels are also free to interact. a pleasure to meet you!

PLEASE NOTE THIS TOO: i am not following anyone randomly, so if you would like to be friends, do let me know! i don’t follow anyone i never talked to before if it's not from menfesses or fcvs, so i hope you understand that i don’t give followbacks to strangers unless i’m being asked to─which i will also ask you back about how did you end up following me.

ALSO, cyber account is a place where i am me, as myself, not my rp personas nor the image i put up as someone in real life. if you’re uncomfortable with my tweets or medias, you are always free to do mute, unfollow or even leave a hard block. i might do a lot of tmis regarding my real life but despite so, please refrain from asking personal information unless we’re close enough and you’ve known me for long. 

FEEL FREE to point out when i make mistakes, though! i'll really appreciate it if you can let me know in private about things that i do wrong. i'll be very delighted to know that i can always improve to be a better person; even better will thank you for correcting me if there's anything about me that doesn't sit well with you.

PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW ME if you like to subtweet your friends and engage yourself in directed hates and fights on timeline. i would love to keep my timeline peaceful and anxiety-free. i don’t mind rants and thoughts, but directed hates will surely receive a mute or unfollow button. please also lessen being rude. then last but not least, i will really appreciate it if you put trigger warnings on sensitive tweets related to violence, blood, or anything gore.

I CAN ASSURE that my account is safe for everyone of all age, or anyone at all. if you have anything to let me know anonymously, you can visit this link too. thank you so much for reading and make sure to take notes of my terms and conditions that i wrote above! <3

[igotthisaccountunderduress]

got sidetracked by vacation but I am here and I am ready to learn History™!!

liveblogging myself reading this post:

ah yes, the infamous Benedict Arnold. not to be confused with eggs benedict

"they got a long like stray cats" - so... well?

"(not very well at all)" - ah ok gotcha 😂

"Then him and hamilton got Beef (very famously)" - 👀 is this the lore behind Hamilton the musical? (i have not yet watched it so i know nothing about it or the guy)

"Like when Thomas Jefferson was VP to president John Adams, Adams hated Jefferson so much that he didn't let Jeffy have a say in anything. Like thomas Jefferson did one thing once in all the two terms John Adams was in charge I think, idk, it was something rediculous." - that's very funny to me for some reason 😂. you get elected with this guy -> but you hate him. so what do you do? -> just never let him do anything at all.

"irl subtweets" - new phrase unlocked. imma use this at every opportunity

"Burr takes this very personal and challenges Hamilton to a duel, stepping from across New York to New Jersey. This is because, although duels were outlawed in both places, penalties were less severe over the border." - more Hamilton the Musical plot? 👀

"Now take this next part with a grain of salt bc it comes direct from the history prof." - i'm ready. *picks up saltshaker* *immediately drops it like it burned me* i'm not undead i swear. i totally survived that climbing course.

"the definition of reason that we still have today" - what is a definition of reason? is that like the "beyond reasonable doubt" thing?

tysm for the history lesson!! I love your infodumps <3

Well im back now and I have found my history notebook (debating whether I should throw it away but I did a good job decorating it)

so. @igotthisaccountunderduress let me tell you about Aaron Burr.

Aaron burr was an orphan raised by an uncle, went to lawschool, stopped lawschool to fight under benedict arnold (ha. ha. ha. this really shouldn't be that funny but it is -> benedict arnold was a traitor from US to British ppl). He got appointed to George Washingtons personal military cabinet before both men realized they got a long like stray cats (not very well at all) and Burr was transferred to some other not-as-important dude.

Then him and hamilton got Beef (very famously) but this kind of all started when Burr beat out Hamiltons Father In Law in political stuff and then FIL beat out Burr during the next thing so things are all dandy.

And then he got in as vice president under jefferson. How this worked back then (doesn't now) is that whoever got the Most Votes is now in charge and whoever got second most votes is now VP.

As you can imagine this doesn't lead to really great coworker dynamics especially if you and ur boss/vp are like so opposite. Like when Thomas Jefferson was VP to president John Adams, Adams hated Jefferson so much that he didn't let Jeffy have a say in anything. Like thomas Jefferson did one thing once in all the two terms John Adams was in charge I think, idk, it was something rediculous.

But anyway, all this to say, Aaron Burr is now vp under jefferson. And as you can imagine, they do not get along well (Jefferson accused burr of 'secret dealings'). but their differences are mainly due to opposing beliefs on whether we should support or rewrite the constitution fo the united states.

Anyway, time for reelection, Burr doesn't get enough votes for either presidency or VP and he decides to try and get governership of New York where he was actually really popular.

Remember how hamilton didn't really like him becus of burr's political campaign against his FIL? Hammy decides to send a rediculous amount of irl subtweets (derogatory letters) against Burr to get him to lose.

Burr takes this very personal and challenges Hamilton to a duel, stepping from across New York to New Jersey. This is because, although duels were outlawed in both places, penalties were less severe over the border.

Now take this next part with a grain of salt bc it comes direct from the history prof.

Duels were common; but they were never usually fatal. Essentially it was like lukewarm Christians going through the motions on a sunday in church. A lot of the stereotypes still apply. Two people back to back, walked a x amount of feet, turned around and would usually shoot upward or otherwise shoot to miss the target.

Burr was not one of those people. Alledgedly, he told Hamilton he meant to kill him and he didn't care wether hamilton would try to shoot him or not. No one's sure whether hamilton was like "haha bet" and tried to kill him or whether he was like shooting up in the air as the practice usually went. Either way sum of that was Burr: 1 (unharmed), Hamilton: 0 (very much shot due to Burr's word, and died the following day).

Aaron Burr... idk if he didn't think this through but he's now considered a murderer for challenging Hamilton to an agreed-upon duel. So he runs to join his new BFF who is secretly in the pay of pain and wants to take over the US napoleonic style. Burr gets *to into it* to the point BFF turns him into Jefferson. He gets cleared.

he then gets involved with the Essex Junto, an organization in New England, tries to help the secede from the entire country (New England hated US before it was cool to) and then he did the same thing again somewhere in the middle west (I forgot where, sorry Dr. W). He gets away both times because even though Jefferson hates Burr's stupid guts, John Marshall is head of the supreme court (John Marshall also hates Jefferson sees this as a very innocent way to undermine him) and Marshall creates the definition of reason that we still have today that basically says Burr gets off scot free twice because we're not at war so there's no enemy for Burr to be helping.

Burr finally accepts that he is now a persona non grata and fucks back off to NY where he marries a second widow for money (again) and she divorces him on the grounds of adultery. This divorce finally is finalized on the day Aaron Burr dies.