vampiboi

[vampiboi]

Roasted chicken, ginger, daikon, shiitake mushroom soup with lime, cilantro, broccoli sprouts, and rice noodles

[vampiboi]

me as a 14th century knight: this sucks i'm gonna fms (translator's note: fall on my sword)

[vampiboi]

[vampiboi]

I do have digigrade legs but they look like this

[vampiboi]

schizophrenia is not just experiencing positive symptoms (hallucinations and delusions). a lot of schizophrenics are neurodivergent in other ways. this focus on the positive symptoms is a villainious way to gatekeep us from neurodivergent spaces because our positive symptoms are typically portrayed as "scary".

our negative symptoms (flat effect, being withdrawn, avolition and anhedonia) are skewed to portray us as "evil" because we're not "emotive" or "caring" enough. schizospec disorders make everyday activities so hard. basic hygiene isn't a habit, we have little to no motivation to do basic things, the lack of happiness and pleasure can turn into severe depression for some of us and that's why depressive and bipolar schizoaffectives exist. people don't grasp the fact that schizophrenia is a disability.

i've personally experienced a lot of cruelty from other neurodivergent people because there is little to no education on schizospec disorders even within neurodivergent spaces. we're seen as inherently morally reprehensible for our disorder and people are so casually ableist to us. i'm not able to speak up for myself in these spaces because i feel like there is no where else i can go. neurotypicals are cruel to schizophrenics but so are other neurodivergent people. people need to have more care and love for schizophrenics.

yes that includes schizophrenics with little to no empathy, schizophrenics of color, trans schizophrenics, gay schizophrenics, schizophrenic systems, autistic schizophrenics, schizophrenics with adhd, fat schizophrenics, poor schizophrenics, homeless schizophrenics, schizophrenic sex workers, schizophrenics who've experienced abuse, schizophrenics with ocd, schizophrenics with ptsd/cptsd, schizophrenic children and teens, elderly schizophrenics, schizophrenics who are also physically disabled, all schizophrenics.

all schizophrenics deserve love.

[vampiboi]

*pounds a monster at 9pm* why can't I ever sleep at night

[vampiboi]

The thing with the Mari Lwyd, though, is that it's being... I don't know, 'appropriated' is the wrong word, but certainly turned into something it isn't.

Thing is, this is a folk tradition in the Welsh language, and that's the most important aspect of it. I feel partly responsible for this, because I accidentally became a bit of an expert on the topic of the Mari Lwyd in a post that escaped Tumblr containment, and I clearly didn't stress it strongly enough there (in my defence, I wrote that post for ten likes and some attention); but this is a Welsh language tradition, conducted in Welsh, using Welsh language poetic forms that are older than the entire English language, and also a very specific sung melody (with a very specific first verse; that's Cân y Fari). It is not actually a 'rap battle'. It's not a recited poem. It is not any old rhyme scheme however you want.

It is not in English.

Given the extensive and frankly ongoing attempts by England to wipe out Welsh, and its attendant cultural traditions, the Mari is being revived across Wales as an act of linguistic-cultural defiance. She's a symbol of Welsh language culture, specifically; an icon to remind that we are a distinct people, with our own culture and traditions, and in spite of everyone and everything, we're still here. Separating her from that by removing the Welsh is, to put it mildly, wildly disrespectful.

...but it IS what I'm increasingly seeing, both online and in real world Mari Lwyd festivals. She's gained enormous pop-culture popularity in recent years, which is fantastic; but she's also been reduced from the tradition to just an aesthetic now.

So many people are talking/drawing about her as though she's a cryptid or a mythological figure, rather than the folk practice of shoving a skull on a stick and pretending to be a naughty horse for cheese and drunken larks. And I get it! It's an intriguing visual! Some of the artwork is great! But this is not what she is. She's not a Krampus equivalent for your Dark Christmas aesthetic.

I see people writing their own version of the pwnco (though never called the pwnco; almost always called some variant on 'Mari Lwyd rap battle'), and as fun as these are, they are never even written in the meter and poetic rules of Cân y Fari, much less in Welsh, and they never conclude with the promise to behave before letting the Mari into the house. The pwnco is the central part to the tradition; this is the Welsh language part, the bit that's important and matters.

Mari Lwyd festivals are increasingly just English wassail festivals with a Mari or two present. The Swansea one last weekend didn't even include a Mari trying to break into a building (insert Shrek meme); there was no pwnco at all. Even in the Chepstow ones, they didn't do actual Cân y Fari; just a couple of recited verses. Instead, the Maris are just an aesthetic, a way to make it look a bit more Welsh, without having to commit to the unfashionable inconvenience of actually including Welsh.

And I don't really know what the answers are to these. I can tell you what I'd like - I'd like art to include the Welsh somewhere, maybe incorporating the first line of Cân y Fari like this one did, to keep it connected to the actual Welsh tradition (or other Welsh, if other phrases are preferred). I'd like people who want to write their version of the pwnco to respect the actual tradition of it by using Cân y Fari's meter and rhyme scheme, finishing with the promise to behave, and actually calling it the pwnco rather than a rap battle (and preferably in Welsh, though I do understand that's not always possible lol). I'd like to see the festivals actually observe the tradition, and include a link on the booking website to an audio clip of Cân y Fari and the words to the first verse, so attendees who want to can learn it ahead of time. I don't know how feasible any of that is, of course! But that's what I'd like to see.

I don't know. This is rambly. But it's something I've been thinking about - and increasingly nettled by - for a while. There's was something so affirming and wonderful at first about seeing the Mari's climb into international recognition, but it's very much turned to dismay by now, because she's important to my endangered culture and yet that's the part that everyone apparently wants to drop for being too awkward and ruining the aesthetic. It's very frustrating.

[vampiboi]

[vampiboi]

funniest approval gain in bg3 is when you promise the brothel chef you can fuck him better than his husband

whore enablers

[vampiboi]

Perfection.

[vampiboi]

Pre apostasy Lotus: no, tenno. I do not have " identity issues " . I am the lotus. Yes I look like margulis with a helmet but that doesn't mean anything. Yes I'm sure. I'm not natah either . please just get to extraction

Post new war Lotus: hey tenno. i think you have three moms now.

[vampiboi]

[vampiboi]

Alice smells like roses at a funeral btw

[vampiboi]

on the twelfth day of sciencemas, my lab-mate gave to me- twelve stolen organs, eleven noxious gases, ten lab rats testing, nine klaxons blaring, eight geiger counters, seven petri dishes, six pairs of goggles, five circuitboards! four glowing goos, three henchmen, two laser beams, and a lab coat that’s tailored to me!

[vampiboi]

[vampiboi]

why hasn't no one posted the kringlefucker yet. you guys used to love the kringlefucker.

[vampiboi]

Saw this on Pinterest. Blacked out for 20 minutes