ksfoxwald

[ksfoxwald]

LUCANIS WEEK 2025 COUNTDOWN

Monday, August 25th - Sunday, August 31st

Prompts

F.A.Q.

Rules

The hashtag for this week will be #lucanisweek2025! Please tag your posts with the tag and/or mention us @datvcompanionweeks when you post your work!

[ksfoxwald]

the whole rise of left leaning puritanism is so. intriguing. from my own experience as someone who grew up modern social media and was at one point definitely on that kind of path. a lot of these people i imagine were exposed to a lot of feminist ideas very young, especially discussions around media, and about problematic trends in media especially as it relates to sex and relationships. i know i grew up hearing messages about how porn isn't realistic and teaching about enthusiastic consent and what misogynistic trends look like in writing, and then you had the MeToo movement where so many huge figures in media were being exposed and there was this (supposed) cultural reckoning with how protected powerful men are from consequences. and i think a lot of potential good could and did come from being exposed to these kinds of discussions for a lot of young people. i know i am glad to have experienced these things even if there are many other parts of growing up online that were Not So Good.

but just being exposed to these ideas ≠ actually learning and being educated/educating yourself on where these ideas came from and what their purpose & goals are and what they look like in a wider context. and without that kind of understanding, it's so so so easy to develop this outlook of extreme anxiety about everything because it's all potentially Bad. you've seen a lot about harmful stereotypes in media but don't really understand the exact mechanisms which make that important or the nuances of the effect of media on people. so the rule ends up being "any part of media that depicts one of these Bad Things is Bad for the world and it should never be allowed to be shown anywhere."

and a lot of other shit goes into this as well. the enthusiastic consent model has been criticized particularly by sex workers & asexual people & i think those criticisms shed a lot of light on why a lot of people conceive of sexual morality the way they do, and why you have people with seemingly liberal views on sex but who also still follow this "sex is only healthy if it takes place in a pure hearted loving relationship that follows all of these social rules" model. there's also the elements of whiteness and cultural christianity and post-9/11 american anxieties and surveillance capitalism and etc etc. it's just having been a Minor on The Internet in the 2010s and having my own brushes with exclusionism and anti-kink stuff. i feel like i can see refractions of certain things.

sometimes i feel like it's not enough to only talk about christian puritanism or conservative propaganda or psyops because i don't want to imply that all the problems within leftism (or feminism specifically in fact) come from something infiltrating an otherwise pure ideology. conservatism starts within us. it's something anyone can recreate in their own unique way, and WILL recreate if we are not aware of ourselves and each other. no one and no symbol is immune from being led by gut reactions and self-interest and fear into genuine fascist leanings and dehumanization and cruelty. it's not magic, it's not obscure, it's not even really surprising.

[ksfoxwald]

an interesting linguistics find! so I'm reading this text from 1908 and it keeps referencing "hp" in the context of "not being at full hp" "applying your full hp to a task" etc

and I'm like....... okay that is a perfectly normal way to describe energy and reads totally clear to me, but I KNOW you don't mean hit points/health points which is the first place my brain goes, so what are YOU using hp to mean

and it's not explained in-text, which means it was common enough to not warrant explanation to the 1908 audience, so gotta look elsewhere

horsepower. turns out it's horsepower.

and I'm absolutely FASCINATED that a commonly used initialism from 1908 now stands for something different AND YET the contextual meaning is still the same to a 21st-century reader

I could hand this guy my nintendo switch and he'd be like, ah yes I understand, this ''''pokemon'''' loses horsepower throughout the fight

language is amazing

[ksfoxwald]

Lyta Gold, Diana Wynne Jones Appreciation Society, part 1, lytagold.substack.com, July 29 2023

[ksfoxwald]

We have this interesting situation where we basically no longer have privacy nor the expectation of privacy, but we also don't have community or meaningful connection with others, so we're all simultaneously both completely exposed and absolutely alone, and please understand that when I say this situation is "interesting", what I in fact mean is that it's "nightmarish and I wish I could wake up"

[ksfoxwald]

Tris's Book is so wild from Cousin Aymery's perspective because like... so you're a college student. The family's golden child, who is going to be a great mage and make all of them rich. But underneath that you know that all their love and support is conditional, and if you're ever anything less than perfect, you know they'll abandon you and leave you with nothing; you've seen it happen to other relatives. So it's no wonder he gambles and whatever else; there's canonically drugs in the Circle universe, and he implies to Tris that it was more than gambling. And its no wonder that when the debts rack up, he hides it from his family and turns to the pirates instead.

And you figure, okay, just one quick job, you don't even have to murder anyone directly so it's not even that bad. Just go in and smash the scrying mirrors. Then the pirates will swoop in under an illusion and do the rest and no one will know and everything will be fine.

But then your little cousin is there, the one who likes to read. And you're a nerd who likes to read and probably your older brothers picked on you for that until you learned you could do magic and became the future great mage (they probably still pick on you, honestly) so you always tried to be nice to the kid. And it turns out she has magic too. And she calls out the pirates' illusion, so you have to stay while pirates are throwing boom-stones at the temple. Which your cousin is able to toss aside with a whirlwind. And she's somehow able to power up her friends in ways that turn back the pirates' next advance. And overhear the pirates plotting on the wind. And you think Enahar is going to be mad at how badly his plans are going, and he is, but not as mad as you thought he would be, and he's really interested in your cousin, and you tell yourself that's a good thing because that means he probably won't kill her, even though you know...

So you drug the food in the kitchens and hope you can sneak her away while everyone's busy, but she was too tired to eat a proper dinner after a full day of fighting off pirates, so she corners you and you have to face the righteous fury of a twelve year old who won't let you justify yourself.

(And then she conjures a hailstorm that wakes up everyone from their drugged sleep, but Aymery isn't around for that).

Just... Cousin Aymery is up there with the Top 10 Anime Betrayals of my childhood.

[ksfoxwald]

i feel like high school/middle school sitcoms set the unrealistic expectation of being able to have lunch time outside

[ksfoxwald]

Hey Americans! If you buy things from overseas, as of August 22 you probably don’t anymore.

Most foreign postal services have paused shipping of packages under $800 to the USA. You will hear that it’s “because of tariffs,” but that’s not exactly true.

It’s because the US:

Has not given anyone a way to pay those tariffs and

Has not been clear on what will ACTUALLY have to be paid. (The country’s tariff has been floated, but a US$80 flat fee has also been floated.

Many countries require people to pay tariffs when they receive a package. That’s fine. But you have to give people a way to pay the damn tariff. And there isn’t a way to do so. Apparently there isn’t even a PLAN for a way to do so.

So: if you have been buying from Etsy or eBay or a little shop overseas, if you subscribe to a foreign magazine, if you are an immigrant and you buy food from home via mail, now you will need to fly there and bring it home. Of course, the people who can afford that are also the ones responsible for this dumb policy.

[ksfoxwald]

Jin Laidir - little formal education. They can read and write, but only just. Their mother was a servant in a noble household, so they never really went to school. After the Lords rescued Jin from Tevinter slavers, Isabela insisted that Jin get some real magic training before letting them officially join the Lords, and found a Dairsmuid refugee who escaped the Annulment to teach them. That teacher was extremely strict and by the book and insisted that Jin had to learn to read, and make the useless complicated orb-thing for their final project. So Jin can read, but not well and they don't like it. They are surprisingly good at doing math in their head, though - years of calcuating loot and dividing pay evenly among a team will do that.

Laertes Mercar was mostly taught by private tutors, because Tevinter schools were not a good environment for a young qunari. But that ended up being just as well because they love learning and they ended up being well ahead of their peers in most subjects. Their favorite is history, least favorite is math. Some of their tutors tried to convince them to become a scholar instead of joining the military, but Laertes wanted to make a tangible difference in the world and didn't really see academia as a path to that, until meeting people like Emmrich and Bellara. So post-Veilguard Laertes might be looking at a career change.

Rook Intro Hour: Education

Good Monday morning! Hope you all are doing well!

How it works: I ask you a question about your Rook(s) and you answer it with as much brevity or verbosity as you desire. The easiest way for me to keep track of everyone is for you to reblog this post and add your answer, although you can also mention me in a separate post, if you want! You can do this whenever you want, and I’ll reblog it + add some comments! There’s no time limit— if you want to do the older ones, they are collected here! (The post is updated on Fridays!)

*Please be aware that if you rb RIH to a community WITHOUT rbing to your blog first, I CANNOT rb and comment. If you want me to comment, please put the post on YOUR BLOG first. Thanks!

Today's Question(s): How was Rook educated, if they were? In some kind of formalized setting, or privately? Did they have a favorite subject to learn about? A least favorite? Did they enjoy learning, overall?

I hope you have fun, and thanks for sharing !

[ksfoxwald]

[ksfoxwald]

I romanced Lucanis in my first playthrough, so Jin Laidir absolutely adores him! During Veilguard Rook likes hanging out in the kitchen watching him cook (and eating his cooking). Post-Veilguard Rook moves into Villa Dellamorte and they enjoy mundane domestic tasks like grocery shopping. Jin is the more social one, so they know the names of all the regular vendors and it takes at least twice as long to get the shopping done when Rook comes along because they have to catch up on all the gossip, but Lucanis doesn't mind; being First Talon means he doesn't often get the chance to do ordinary things like grocery shopping. The two also enjoy sitting quietly together in the evening while Lucanis reads a book and Rook works on a craft or magic project. Sometimes Lucanis reads aloud to them and Rook insists on him reading the spicy scenes even though (or because) they make him blush.

Jin is gray-aro and isn't entirely sure what makes a relationship "romantic," but they're determined to make it work. I think Jin relates to Lucanis alot when they first break him out of the Ossuary, because Laidir spent a number of years as a Tevinter slave. So their relationship starts out with Jin determined to help Lucanis remember how to feel like a person again, but what makes Jin really start to like Lucanis is seeing how kind and thoughtful he is and how he's always trying to take care of others. Rook is very much not used to being cared for, so when Lucanis makes them the cake, Rook tries to play it cool but that's the moment they decide they need to spend the rest of their life taking care of this person.

Rook Intro Hour: Lucanis

Good morning! #LucanisWeek2025 is coming up from August 25th - August 31st, hosted by @datvcompanionweeks!

To celebrate, today's Intro Hour will be centered around Lucanis!

How it works: I ask you a question about your Rook(s) and you answer it with as much brevity or verbosity as you desire. The easiest way for me to keep track of everyone is for you to reblog this post and add your answer, although you can also mention me in a separate post, if you want! You can do this whenever you want, and I’ll reblog it + add some comments! There’s no time limit— if you want to do the older ones, they are collected here! (The post is updated on Fridays!)

*Please be aware that if you rb RIH to a community WITHOUT rbing to your blog first, I CANNOT rb and comment. If you want me to comment, please put the post on YOUR BLOG first. Thanks!

Today's Question(s): What is your Rook's relationship with Lucanis? What do they like about him? What do Rook and Lucanis enjoy doing together? How does Rook's choice during the first act of the game change their relationship with him? What did Rook advise Lucanis to do about Illario? Lastly, if you want, write a unique banter between Lucanis and your Rook!

Have fun, and be creative!

[ksfoxwald]

can we please please please learn to differentiate between things that are good but devalued because of their association with women (caring for children, being compassionate), things that are neutral but seen negatively because of their association with women (the colour pink, having long hair), and things that are bad but associated with women because of misogyny (being materialistic, being stupid) because otherwise we’re gonna keep getting takes like “being gender nonconforming is anti feminist” and “not studying for your classes is feminist”

[ksfoxwald]

im CERTAIN this has to be a typo and its supposed to say "JRPGS" but i am going to become addicted to saying "i saw this in a jpeg once" now

[ksfoxwald]

Also very frustrating as a show producer in certain cultural arts when you are trying to advertise tge show and people feel like they're not allowed to come because theyre not from the culture.

Please come to the drag show even if youre cishet.

Please come to the bellydance showcase even if youre not Middle Eastern.

Please come to the Asian Festival if youre not Asian.

Please dance at the drum circle if youre not African.

If the event is being publicly advertised, you're invited. We want you to come if you intend to come respectfully. If you are asking 'am I allowed,' youre probably bot gonna be disrespectful. Please fill the seats. Cultural events have trouble with attendance sometimes because people who would be curious to go get shy about it. Please go to things that are curious to you. Your presence is not a burden.

I have yet to be kicked out of anything (unless you count the bathroom at a gas station that one time.)

[ksfoxwald]

there is also something kind of gross to me about the constant insinuations that the "questioning social norms" component of autism immediately turns every autistic person into a genderfuckery kinkster leftist who don't give a fuck. and I say this as someone who is a genderfuckery kinkster leftist. autism isn't a political alignment, it's a disability. sometimes the autism 'sense of justice' is wrong. sometimes an autistic person will find a home in conservative ideologies for many of the same reasons as other autistic people will find a home in communist ideologies. sometimes the autistic communist will come up with dogshit analysis even as they're guided by their sense of justice, because good political analysis isn't a feeling or a neurotype, it's a skill that you cultivate. I know it would be pleasant and emotionally soothing for you to be able to believe that autism turns someone into a superpowered leftist but it's a politically fraught and deeply questionable line of thought to be feeding into

[ksfoxwald]

reminder that gazafunds is a great website.

each time you load the site, it shows one randomly selected, verified fundraiser that's low on funds.

extremely straightforward, & an easy to remember url. it's my go-to when I'm able to give; removes any room for procrastination or overthinking.

[ksfoxwald]

i think when we used to point out that a story didn't need a sex scene what we meant was "this story reduces its women to mere sex objects and gives them no interiority so the sex scenes are gratuitous and geared towards the male gaze" it wasn't the sex that bothered us per se it was the objectification of female characters while givig them little to no consequence to the overall story but nowadays people mean "sex is icky and gross and has no merit to ever be portrayed in our arts which should be good and pure and never ever make ME feel discomfort" and it's like. i bet a bowl of unfrosted flakes looks real good to you rn