#and also making it unrebloggable

[dashiellqvverty]

recently we had a patron trying to set up an insurance plan - she just came in to print out a statement then realized the plan was wrong, so she had to call the company to get more information. they told her the only way to change the plan was with the member portal online, and that someone from that department could help her change it over the phone, but she had to set up the account first. it was a slow day so i was able to help her do that, BUT THEN. after entering and submitting all the information. it did not send her an email to finish setting up the account. we ended up calling again and i spoke with someone with her (again, it was VERY dead and we were just at the desk trying to figure this out) BUT because this was for her HUSBANDS insurance they wanted HIM to confirm the information and the reason she was doing this for him is because he is over NINETY and CANT. and i'm not against saying "yes thats me" when youre calling on behalf of someone else but i dont think i couldve passed as a 90 year old man. anyway i wrote down everything that he was going to need to tell them and exactly the steps she needed to take and told her she could come back the next day for help setting up the account (i think once the account is set up i will be able to make the changes for her without needing to make another call) but she hasn't been back :(

[ocdhuacheng]

ITS POWER WITH A STEEL CHAIR????

[0xeyedaisy]

On my post that was a screenshot of someone else's unrebloggable post ppl keep saying "you can reblog it if you're not a coward" and I'm wondering. What the hell does that mean...

[itspileofgoodthings]

Imagine teaching Pride and Prejudice to teenage boys (while girls are in the room). Imagine teaching it to teenage boys going through puberty and, generally speaking, a hard time. Imagine refusing to let the boys ruin it for the girls with their bad attitude, which they often try to do. Imagine refusing to simply shut them down in a way that makes them shut down but instead finding the right path for them to still be able to respond to it but only appropriately. Imagine working really hard to give them space to have their own opinions but once again not allowing them to express those opinions in a way that sucks the air out of the room for all the other students. Imagine dealing every day with the waves of struggling teen boy entrenched-in-the-culture misogyny that the work brings out of them and that they direct at you. Imagine having to make it a top priority to not allow their attitude to make you hate them but treat them with respect and appropriate friendliness, even though the attitudes they display ARE profoundly unlikable and they push you to the edge of hating them every day. Now imagine doing all of this while both your principal and the revered founder of your school who occasionally pops up into your life (both men) speak dismissively on Jane Austen. Imagine.

[bogkeep]

there's a book i Want to read, that has been on my radar even before i wrote the Royalty Tropes Post, but has now been so very loudly hyped up in the tags of it i'm worried i'll get dissappointed..... i did this to myself i Understand but aaugugh.

[abyssalzones]

hey anon! I debated most of this morning what the best way to respond to your ask would be because I'm not going to lie to you it almost made me cry. hopefully a drawing is okay. I wasn't sure whether it was my place to share what you've sent but I did want to answer you properly, and it ended up getting kind of long... so I'll put that under the cut here (sa mention)

First of all you definitely have nothing to apologize for, a major element of my analysis (and what had made me so nervous to post it to begin with) was that it came from a very personal place, and I knew if I posted it I was going to be opening up a lot of doors. good or bad I honestly had no idea but I really hadn't anticipated such an overwhelmingly positive response, and I especially hadn't imagined so many people to share their own experiences with abuse and how what I wrote meant something in relation to that. it makes me extremely glad I bit the bullet and allowed myself to be a little vulnerable about something I enjoy.

there's something almost uniquely weird about being a victim and seeing yourself in a story but not knowing how to express that. it feels like one of those things you can't really say without crossing an extreme line, and any parallels you might be able to draw are therefore Reaching, biased by your own experiences. I've struggled with this a lot as someone who uses art not only as an outlet but a voice for my experiences- and what experiences I think deserve to not only be treated with respect but honesty. there's a lot to be said about the alienation of the victim from the rest of society when sexual assault is so overwhelmingly common in our world, and how difficult it can be to find truthful and respectful depictions of these experiences in... anything, pretty much.

I have no idea if that's what they were trying to do specifically, from a textual angle. but I do think it's possible, and am confident that they at least drew on the subject (both in the instance of Bill coercing Ford to drink and the scene later where Ford is paralyzed), which was honestly what led me to write the analysis in the first place. That "he's kinda like me" moment you describe is something I'd had for a long time but had never been able to say confidently without feeling like I was reading between the lines. But I think you're right. and I think there is a real reason why such a story could speak to people in that way, could be so important for the process of recovery... we can't always conceptualize what happens to us from our own perspective, y'know? we're trapped in our own minds for the most part. so I think fiction works excellently as a way to work through these things and see our worst struggles in someone else- and to come to vitally important realizations of our own.

anyway, all that to say I'm so glad what I wrote helped you come to that realization. hearing that makes me feel like I've done something not only to help myself find some closure, but for others to as well :] healing is always, always possible and I sincerely hope you find your happiness as Ford has, and as I've found mine.

[fadedsweater]

on mythal

Something that I think is interesting about Mythal, as a character specifically, is that we never really meet her. Correct me (politely!) if I'm wrong but in all of the games and supplementary materials, we only ever see Mythal as a fragment of herself, or from someone else's point of view.

(post got long, the rest is under the cut)

In Inquisition, we meet Mythal as a fragment, embedded and inextricably linked to Flemeth. We meet that same(?) fragment later in Veilguard, except Morrigan is her new host. We meet another fragment of Mythal hidden away in a pocket of the Crossroads. This may be the closest we get to actually meeting her, but she's still just a fragment. Specifically, she's the fragment that was recovered from the very dagger that murdered her. She's bitter. She's not friendly. She's also been alone for countless millennia in that pocket of the Fade; Solas never visited her (I am not knocking Solas here, just pointing out a fact that has shaped this fragment. I think this is a really interesting knot in his relationship with Mythal and I think a lot about why he might not have wanted to see her in all of those years.)

The other time we meet Mythal is through the regret murals in the Lighthouse. I think this might be closer to the Real Mythal than either of her fragments, who are both reflective of their environments and are missing the context of her whole being. However, even this meeting is flawed. We see Mythal in these memories from Solas's point of view. However he feels and has felt about her is reflected in those memories, and how you interpret his feelings about her colors how you interpret her. Did he fear her? Was he subservient to her --Cole's banter in Inquisition regarding vallaslin points to yes, but to what extent, and for how long, and by what means? Did he erase the worst of her crimes in his flawed retelling of events? Did he love her romantically, or as something else? How much of the real Mythal do we actually see? (Even the way Solas reacts to the fragment at the end of the redeem ending is interesting. Much has been said about his body language, and I'm inclined to agree that something's up there, but there is no explicit canon explaining why he reacts that way. It could be a fawn response, it could be shame, it could be guilt, it could fear, it could be all of the above. People have interpreted his reaction in a bunch of different ways and I don't want to step on any toes here.)

What we know of Mythal -- actual canon facts -- are limited. Veilguard tells us she was a spirit turned elf, that she was benevolence turned retribution. We know she asked Solas to take a body alongside her. We know she was complicit in the tranquilizing of the Titans, and that she joined Elgar'nan when he did not give up his powerful position as a leader after the war. We know she was murdered by her own lyrium dagger, after confronting the Evanuris about their use of the Blight. We know she never joined Solas's rebellion, even though he carved out a space just for her. We know that one fragment of her stayed in the Crossroads, and another fragment went on to possess mortal hosts in the physical world. We know that there was vallaslin bearing her iconography, which carries with it heavy implications. We also know that in Inquisition, there is a group of still-living ancient elves who still serve her and honor her, and that they have made use of the Well of Sorrows, a tool that likely binds creatures explicitly to her will.

We can infer a lot from all of this. A lot of our perception of her is colored by Flemeth/Flemythal. A lot of it is also colored by what Solas has to say about her, as well as what Dalish legend has to say about her.

I don't really know. She's a huge presence in the games and the myths about her. But we never really meet her. And I think that's really fascinating, both thematically and mechanically. You can shape her into whatever you want her to be. She haunts the narrative but only as a shadow.

[tallymali]

its so funny that tumblr of all places has emerged as the platform that doesnt give a fuck about u wanting the ruling class shot

[vibrantstarfire]

in this cruel matriarchal, misandrist world……. one woman rises up…….. the only woman brave enough to stand up against feminism to not only shave her legs and wear her cleavage proudly, but also wear a full face of makeup

[betweenlands]

look i hate LLMs as much as the next person but can we please stop acting like a totally easy and feasible replacement would be installing a mod that just exists out of thin air and comes with a custom written set of quests and NPC dialogue branches.

that is not how writing works. that is not how writing dialogue for games works. i have literally written NPC dialogue for a minecraft map before and six short, unpolished, janky monologues with no branching whatsoever took me two weeks to finish. frankly i would rather have the LLM stank than put a bunch of under/unpaid writers or actors into crunch mode for a relatively minor aspect of an otherwise great server.

[sunflowersandscreams]

ok can't stop thinking about it and i've decided to get over being embarrassed about it. so very mildly smutty (mostly them talking about sex) snippet of adansey teacher roleplay below.

warning for discussion of non-consent. they are having consensual sex (or like foreplay, whatever) but they talk about non-consent.

Gansey kisses Adam's neck, his hand squeezing the bulge in Adam's pants. He rubs over it teasingly, and Adam gets his head on straight enough to seek Gansey's bottom lip with his teeth and bite down.

When Gansey gasps in pain, the hand on Adam's crotch twitching deliciously, Adam leans in and whispers in Gansey's ear, "If our little agreement doesn't work out, I will go straight to the school and tell them that you coerced me, and you will go to jail for a very long time."

Gansey stills totally and completely. There's several awkward moments of silence, then Gansey says, "Adam, what on Earth?"

He doesn't sound very in-character. Adam drops the act and backs up a bit to look at Gansey's face. "What?"

"Why would you bring up me forcing you to have sex? While we're having sex?" Gansey exclaims and throws his hands up. "I- Jesus."

Adam frowns properly now. "I'm altering the power dynamic. Now I'm the one in power because I'm blackmailing you, even though as a teacher you systemically have power over me."

Gansey makes a strangled noise and gestures incomprehensibly. "I would never want to force you into anything!"

"It's roleplay, Gansey. It's not real. If it was it'd be highly unethical and unprofessional, to say the least." Adam was still painfully hard and getting frustrated. "Can we just go back to before?"

Gansey wavers. "I don't think this kink is very healthy."

Adam groans. This is not getting them anywhere. "I know you're not forcing me. It's not about the force."

Gansey eyes him. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Adam, exasperated, slides a hand into Gansey's hair and twists. Gansey makes a little, cut-off noise at the sensation, his eyelashes fluttering. It's as Adam expected; he already knows about Gansey's love for having his hair pulled. "It's about this. Power." Voicing it makes his mouth dry and his neck hot with embarrassment. Poor Parrish, who's never known real power a day in his life, getting off on it. How predictable.

[growling]

Shut up about reading comprehension and media literacy, shut up about picky eaters, shut up about people who only watch cartoons or read fanfiction, shut up about poor hygiene and the frequency at which you should shower/brush your teeth in order to be treated like a person, shut up about people who can't order their own food at a restaurant, shut up about bad social skills, shut up about people who can't "read the room" and aren't able to get jokes/sarcasm that you think should be obvious, shut up about autistic people that literally have actually noticeable traits associated with autism that they don't/can't mask that you might consider annoying and a nuisance. Consider, that you, in fact, may have it better than other autistic people. And I'm also here to remind you that autism is a disability since I'm starting to believe a lot of you forgot or just don't consider it one for some reason

[peekychu]

I am an enjoyer of Bizarre Furry Art 🫡

(This drawing is Not an endorsement of the actions/beliefs of the original artists btw‼️ I am simply goofin around)

[trafficblrpositivityproject]

I think that will be all I post about the Cleo winner art ask because I do not think there is much else I have to say on it and I do not want to distract from the actual purpose of this blog. I will not post further asks about this or reply to further reblogs on that post about this subject.

I posted one ask shouting out people who included her in winner art and another saying it was valid not to, and would prefer to leave it at that without debate on this blog as to the validity of Cleo’s win.

[neo-punks]

IM NOT EVEN KIDDING YALL IM THINKING ABOUT TRYING TO GO TO DASHCON 2

[blitzwhore]

Okay, here they are! My Stolitz Spotify playlists 🎶