#evaluator

[kavaeric]

Tactful!

[ Weasyl / FurAffinity ]

[moneybucket828]

Now Hiring!!! This Ireland-based tech company is hiring international workers for the position of Map Evaluator. Purely Work at home part-time or full-time. Experience is not necessary. No phone/online interview. Click or copy the link to apply.

https://bit.ly/3IzrLeD

[valtsv]

guy who says "this is the worst day of my life" and then pulls out a spreadsheet ranking every day of their life so far to prove it

[darlingofdots]

I can even kind of understand that university systems that charge students exorbitant amounts of money for their degrees affect the general view of education and "the academy," but the extent to which people have just stopped believing in and valuing expertise is so scary. You cannot replace scientific training. I am "only" a literary scholar but any person with a lit studies background will tell you that it is a vastly different experience discussing literature (of any kind! my area of expertise is romance novels!) with another scholar versus at a random book club. And it's not bad to not be an expert! You are not an expert about the vast majority of stuff! But when somebody says "I have dedicated years of my life to the systematic study of this subject in conversation and exchange with other people who have done the same, and based on our combined knowledge we conclude that x," that needs to be taken more seriously than someone who has not gone through this process.

An academic degree is no different from, say, a medical license or even a driver's license in the sense that it functions as shorthand for "this person has undergone the necessary training and passed the necessary tests to certify that they possess the skills needed for this specific profession/task." That's it! And yes, there are many problems within academia (these days, the majority of lecturers and researchers are in precarious employment. ask me how I know) and a university degree is no guarantee that a person can't be spouting absolute nonsense. But its purpose is to facilitate the pursuit, expansion, and passing on of knowledge, which is really, really important and should not be devalued by claiming you don't need formal training to know stuff.

[momosweetpeach]

Artist has a brief moment of self-awareness while drawing

[loriache]

"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

[technofeudalism]

Richard Nixon paved the way for Jimmy Carter who paved the way for Ronald Reagan who paved the way for Bush 1 who paved the way for Bill Clinton who paved the way for Bush 2 who paved the way for Barack Obama who paved the way for Donald Trump who paved the way for Joe Biden who successfully paved the way for driving a fatal nail in the coffin of what is blithely referred to as "liberal democracy" in America. i hold all of these ghouls and every one who came before them responsible for what has happened so far and what will happen next. the global south has long held the relationship between the US head of state and the B-52 or the MQ-9 Reaper dropping thousands of pounds of explosives on their native homelands as superficial and they've always been right. an empire is going to do empire shit no matter who the emperor is.

[dailyhatsune]

im going around tumblr saying what I think people's artstyle tastes like

yours tastes like when you eat a bag of Skittles all at once i love it

-👾

in all seriousness, though, i’m positively fascinated by that description, thank you very much

[the-spam-specialist]

Goose said on Twitter that Episode 5 is the second most self-indulgent episode in the series. Episode 8 is the most self-indulgent.

Episode 5 has the most whack Bubble lines so far, maid Jax, feral Jax, an anime sequence, a bar scene, Jax angst, Ragatha angst, Caine angst, evil versions of the main characters, the Moon being thirsty for Caine, Jax making a dirty joke, and the whole intermission sequence.

What the flying fuck happens in Episode 8 that makes it MORE self-indulgent than Episode 5???

[terfshadow]

When I went on HRT, I underwent a single phone interview with GenderGP to assess me. I told them I wasn't even sure what I identified as, as this was when I was starting to have my gender dysphoria ease as I realized being a woman wasn't this mark of the beast or whatever. after a 30 minute phone call, I was advised testogel. After paying, I got my testogel in two weeks. I got it delivered, and never had to see anyone face to face, or do more than 30 minutes of talking where I was pretty open about being confused about my gender.

I was told that testosterone would improve my energy, after I was open in my application about having disorders that give me chronic fatigue. I was told it would help me lose weight, very alluring as an overweight woman. I was told I would gain muscle. Asked if baldness ran in my family on the men side, I said yes, and the person I was talking with hand waved it and said I wouldn't have to worry.

Never once was I told that it'd affect my fertility. Never once was I told I would start losing hair. I was not told that I would be going through menopause as a fresh adult. I was not told about vaginal atrophy. I was not told about the liver problems, the bone problems, anything. They never assessed whether I could give full consent (I am autistic, disabled, and need caretaking to function day to day)

TRAs will say it's still my fault, that I was an adult and should have known better. I was told I was transgender since I was an ACTUAL CHILD. I was socially transitioned before I even hit puberty. When you spend over a decade like that, of course you're going to go into that as an adult.

AND TRAs will say that getting hormones is not easy. It is a fucking lie. If you have money, you can get hormones. You do not need gender dysphoria, you do not need an actual evaluation. You give them money, and they will tell you it is a miracle drug that will cure what your problems are.

[idolomantises]

i never liked the idea that good trans rep has to be so subtle its easy to miss. nothing wrong with a character saying "im trans" or dealing with their experiences as a trans person.

just let them have a personality too, don't tokenize them. And make them a weird freak. we need more trans characters that are weird freaks.

[homunculus-argument]

GUESS WHAT FUCKNUTS

it's 11:30 am on a tuesday, and I've completed all the work I had for this week.

[folkdevilism]

I'm perpetually in awe at the number of people who are well in to their twenties and beyond who still think an on-screen portrayal of something, regardless of nuance or background context, automatically equates to inherent glorification or real-world endorsement of the actions being portrayed.

[theresistanceneverquits]

There’s not enough people talking about how important Stephanie is to Damian’s growth pre-Flashpoint.

Bruce had seen Damian as a beast to be tamed, Tim sees him as a ticking time bomb, and Dick is far better with him but he’s still an authority figure for Damian to combat with. But then he meets Stephanie, a college-aged girl who nobody trusts and he bullies her relentlessly and becomes inseparable from her.

She doesn’t interact with him based on his past, but on what she can see. This 10 year old just threatened to kill her? Wow he doesn’t get outside much. He’s not old enough to have seen Gremlins. What do you MEAN you’ve never been inside a bouncy house before we are fixing that immediately.

They are like cousins to each other. They poke fun at each other for being lame and stupid and Dick has to tell them both to shut up. She doesn’t see him as a project to be molded and redeemed, he’s just a kid with a crappy childhood like her and if he’s nice to her for 5 seconds she’ll do something with him to let him feel like a kid. And he doesn’t look at her and see a liability or a failure or a lost cause, like everyone she’s ever interacted with does. When he’s awful to her, it’s because he’s an obnoxious preteen boy.

And then you get the “there’s room in our line of work for hope, too” scene. Because Damian has gotten to know Steph and he can’t fathom why she’s here. She obviously has had to deal with crap and is still working through being kept on a leash by Nightwing and Oracle, but she isn’t broken like the rest of them are. Damian is surrounded by people who were molded and shaped and torn down and broken to become the monoliths that they are, and then there’s this girl who seems so at peace with herself and is constantly making quips, and it’s so foreign to him.

And she tells him that she’s in his world because she believes people are worth fighting for.

[batshaped]

felt like reposting this here too (link to original thread)