#gocha good

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Maga’s boss class think they are immune to American carnage

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/13/then-they-came-for-me/#boss-politics

It's not just that Texas DA Gocha Ramirez charged a woman with murder for having an abortion (something he wasn't allowed to do, even under Texas law); it's that Ramirez paid for his mistress's own abortion, after he impregnated her while having an affair with her and her sister:

https://archive.is/20250812192203/https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/abortion-murder-charge-district-attorney-20812966.php

This is perfect Magaism, as captured by Wilhoit's Law:

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

Maga is a coalition of turkeys voting for Christmas, and ax-sharpening farmers planning to make a meal out of them. The Maga base wants a bunch of stuff that the Maga elites would never tolerate, but that's OK, because the Maga elites are pretty sure they will never have to suffer under the laws they pass for others. Peter Thiel is happy to support a political movement whose dominant factions would like to put him – and every other gay man – in a concentration camp, because he's pretty sure that only applies to the poor gays, not the billionaire gays.

Financiers who back Trump know that they can afford to transport their daughters, wives, mistresses and the housekeepers, babysitters and teenagers they impregnate across state lines (or national borders) to get an abortion should the need arise. Their participation in Maga was a bet that after victory was attained, the base could be made to settle for performative cruelty against people other than them:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/06/how-the-sausage-gets-made/#governing-is-harder

The finance sector is the critical faction in Maga, because the financialized ideal is to accumulate wealth and power without exposure to any real-world risks. As Doug Rushkoff writes in Survival of the Richest, the finance move is to "go meta" – don't drive a taxi, buy a medallion and rent it to a taxi driver. Don't buy a medallion, start a rideshare company. Don't start a rideshare company, invest in a rideshare company. Don't invest in a rideshare company, buy options to invest in a rideshare company:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

Crypto is as meta as it gets, so no wonder crypto bros are all-in on Trump, and no wonder Trump is all-in on crypto. As Hamilton Nolan writes:

Crypto coins… are pure speculative baubles, endowed with value only to the extent that you can convince another person to pay you more for them than you paid. They are a claim on nothing. They are the grandest embodiment of Greater Fool Theory ever invented by mankind.

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/scams-and-bribery-are-becoming-the

Trump's tariffs are blowing up the economy and wiping out the agricultural sector. All those rural, Christmas-voting turkeys are getting it in the neck:

https://kdwalmsley.substack.com/p/tariffs-wiping-out-american-farmers

Trump's answer to this is to fire the government statisticians and replace them with work-for-hire fiction hacks who'll publish whatever numbers he tells them to:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-08-13-cooking-inflation-jobs-numbers-trump-bls/

You'd think that this would worry the finance sector, but fake numbers are actually good for finance, provided you're on the right side of them. Plenty of people got dynastically rich off of the fake numbers that propped up the pre-2008 housing bubble and the pre-2001 dotcom bubble. Those same people – and their ideological heirs – are now all-in on AI. It's impossible to overstate how structurally important AI is to the US economy. AI bubble companies now account for the value of 35% of the US stock market:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/

The instant that bubble pops, the US economy gets a 35% amputation. It's no surprise that, under Trump, the FTC and DoJ have brought the Biden administration's antitrust enforcement against Big Tech to a screeching halt:

https://www.citizen.org/article/deleting-enforcement-trump-big-tech-billion-report/

Nothing would be worse for the AI bubble than antitrust and securities-law enforcement. Companies that cook their balance sheets and suck up hundreds of billions in investment capital cannot function in a world with an orderly market system overseen by publicly accountable referees charged with keeping everyday people from having their life's savings stolen.

And indeed, Trump's enforcers are running away from their duties, as fast as they can. The latest wheeze is to change the rules so that you can "invest" your retirement savings in cryptocurrency and private equity funds (two tired old swindles whose ropers are scraping the barrel looking for new marks):

https://prospect.org/power/2025-06-13-retirement-crisis-401k-private-equity-scrambled/

Not that AI is much better. AI is hemorrhaging money and bringing in pennies:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-a-money-trap/

And things are looking grimmer for AI by the day. It's not just that Openai's latest, "fifth-generation" model was such a spectacular flop that they've been forced to bring back the old version. Far more important is the utter uselessness of AI as a way of realizing cost-savings for the companies that try it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/business/ai-business-payoff-lags.html?unlocked_article_code=1.d08.Re3i.TDnOyE2FgyNJ&smid=url-share

After all, AI is implicitly a bet on firing workers. The hundreds of billions in investment, the trillions in valuation – these can't be realized by merely making workers' jobs easier or more satisfying. AI isn't a bet on making radiologists better at diagnosing solid-mass lung tumors: it's a bet on firing nearly all the radiologists and using the remainder to be "humans in the loop" for AI, in order to absorb the blame when you die of cancer. There are plenty of radiologists who might welcome AI as a tool they use alongside their traditional workflow – but their bosses aren't about to hand over vast fortunes just to make those workers happier.

This is why AI users often sound like they're using totally different technologies. Workers who get to decide whether and how to incorporate AI into their jobs are doubtless finding lots of utility and delight from the new tool. These workers are "centaurs" – people assisted by machines.

The workers who describe their on-the-job AI as a hellish monstrosity are being ordered to use AI, in workplaces where mass firings have terrified the survivors, who are told they must use the AI to make up for their jobless former colleagues. They are reverse-centaurs: machines assisted by human workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/27/rancid-vibe-coding/#class-war

There is no way that AI can be worth 35% of the economy if all it does is produce some happy centaurs. The only way that 35% bet pays off is if half the workers get fired and replaced by AI, which is a thing that AI pitchmen are promising, to the letter (a letter that is credulously repeated by the dutiful stenographers of the press):

https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/blog/dario-amodei-ai-entry-level-jobs

The problem is that when businesses fire a bunch of workers and replace them with AI, they don't get the promised savings. Instead, they end up with a system that's so broken that all the wage savings are incinerated by the cost of making good on the AI's failures.

But for Maga's finance wing, this is all OK. They're going meta. Don't hire workers, hire AI. Don't hire AI, make AI. Don't make AI, invest in AI. So long as the number keeps going up, finance wins, even if that's only because every structurally important firm in America is being thimblerigged into filling their walls with AI-powered, immortal asbestos that is destined to transform their firms into Superfund sites.

They're betting that when the bubble finally bursts, that they will have become too big to fail, and will thus be in for the bailouts that rescued the finance sector in 2008. They think that so long as they curry favor with Trump, he'll make sure they're all OK, because they are the people the law protects, but does not bind.

This is a pretty good bet. Trump's a gangster capitalist, and fascists love a "dual state" – a system where the law is followed to the letter, except when it suits someone with the protection of the ruling clique to wipe their ass with it:

https://archive.ph/8T8of

And bailouts for finance crooks are a bipartisan consensus. Remember, it was Obama, not Bush, who took his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's advice to allow the bailed-out banks to steal their borrowers homes and trigger the foreclosure crisis, because this would "foam the runways" for the crashing banks:

https://www.salon.com/2014/05/14/this_man_made_millions_suffer_tim_geithners_sorry_legacy_on_housing/

The Obama wing of the party insists that they're the responsible adults in the room, the ones that will govern wisely and hold their gigadonors to account when they wreck the economy. They tell us Zohran Mamdani is – despite all evidence to the contrary – too unpopular to win an election:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/28/mamdani/#trustbusting

They ratfucked Katie Porter, one of finance's most savage and talented opponents, teaming up with the crypto-bros who are Maga's bagmen. Joke's on them, because it looks like Porter is gonna be California's next governor:

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-08-13-establishment-struggles-control-california-governors-race/

(I donated $100 I can't afford to her campaign; maybe you will donate, too?)

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/kpg_web

Maga's finance wing are convinced that the game is rigged in their favor – heads they win and the law protects them, tails we lose and the law binds us. But if there's one thing we know about gangster capitalism, it's that the capo isn't shy about seizing the fortunes of his various underbosses when the mood suits him. One day he's demanding that you quit your job as CEO, the next day he imposes a 15% tax on your products:

https://www.firstpost.com/world/trump-meets-intel-chief-calls-him-a-success-days-after-demanding-his-resignation-13923838.html

You can bet your ass that if it looks like Trump is gonna lose his grip on power, they'll come sleazing over the Democrats, demanding the defenstration of Mamdani, Porter, and anyone who wants a habitable and just world, rather than a system designed to convert the planet's resources to something that can be sequestered in a luxury bunker or on a private island.

Because for all that they moan about "wokeness," they wouldn't want their kids to have to tolerate a shitty boss; they wouldn't want their kids to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. They wanna live out their cuckold fantasies in peace:

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/06/02/stephen-miller-wife-musk/

They don't have any problem with living in a world where there's lip service to social values and Pricewaterhousecooper has a cringe Pride parade float. They'll happily save a couple bucks on the nanny's abortion by going down to the corner Planned Parenthood rather than flying her to Toronto on the private jet. All that performative cruelty was just a shuck to get some of the dumber surviving turkeys to pull the lever for Christmas. So long as they can live in a world where the law protects them, but does not bind them, they're happy as pigs in shit.

[liquidstar]

look this site really is awful for ppl with OCD so i just wanna reassure anyone that you are not Tainted Forever for consuming a piece of media with questionable content. the fact that youre able to recognize it speaks to your critical thinking skills, which is good, certain depictions should be critiqued. but you dont need to ruminate on it to the point where you begin to feel guilty for simply witnessing gross or creepy writing choices. you dont have to vindicate yourself to the fictional tumblr discourser inside your head, saying that youre now a bad person bc you watched the wrong anime. your actual response to it still matters of course, but thats that and this is this. just seeing it is neutral, you didnt commit a thought crime. its literally fine.

IF YOU ARE USING THIS POST TO ONLY FURTHER YOUR STUPID PEDANTIC BLACK-AND-WHITE DISCOURSE TO GET A "GOCHA" OVER THE OTHER SIDE YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. DON'T USE OUR DISORDER TO VINDICATE YOUR BEHAVIOR. THOUGHT CRIMES ARENT REAL BUT ACTIONS STILL MATTER. PEOPLE WITH OCD ARE CAPABLE OF THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT OUR ACTIONS AND RESPONSES, EVEN WITH INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS AND RUMINATIONS. TREATING US AS IF WE CANNOT, ONLY TO FORCE US TO USE YOUR STRINGENT UNNUANCED DISCOURSE OPINIONS ABOUT "PURITY CULTURE" (TRIGGERING TO THOSE WITH OCD) AS THE ONLY REASONABLE GUIDE DOES MORE TO EXACERBATE OUR OBSESSIONS THAN HELP US. YOU ARE THE ISSUE AS WELL. YOU ARE ALSO THE TUMBLR DISCOURSER INSIDE OUR HEADS. DO NOT USE US FOR YOUR DISCOURSE. WE ARE PEOPLE, NOT HYPOTHETICALS TO USE TO EXPLAIN IF YOUR FROZEN INCEST FANFICTION IS OKAY OR NOT. TREATING US AS IF WE CANNOT AUTONOMOUSLY HAVE OUR OWN OPINIONS ON WHEN MEDIA IS TANGIBLY HARMFUL IS ABLEIST. FORCING US TO ABIDE BY YOUR IN-GROUP'S SET OF UNEQUIVOCAL MORALS IS ABLEIST. ACTING AS THOUGH THE ONLY SOLUTION FOR US IS MINDLESS MEDIA CONSUMPTION IN WHICH "EVERY DEPICTION OF XYZ, NO MATTER HOW POORLY DONE OR EXPLOITATIVE, IS ALWAYS OKAY AND IF YOU DISAGREE YOURE ACTUALLY AN EVIL 'ANTI'" IS ABLEIST. THOSE ARE THE SAME BLACK-AND-WHITE MORALS THAT SEND US INTO OBSESSIVE SPIKES, BUT FLIPPED. A SET OF MORALS IN WHICH QUESTIONING THE IMPACT OF A PIECE OF WORK MAKES YOU AN "EVIL CONSERVATIVE PURITAN "ANTI"" DOES NOT HELP MORAL OCD.

YOU ARE THE DAMN TUMBLR DISCOUERSERS MAKING THIS SHIT WORSE FOR US! YOURE THE EXACT SAME BUT WITH FLIPPED BUZZWORDS! YOU'RE MISSING THE WHOLE DAMN POINT!

[rogueddie]

Steve Harrington is six years old when he first speaks to Eddie Munson.

Steve vaguely recognized him from school, sure that he was in the year above Steve, but he thought that Eddie hadn't looked as lonely in school as he had in the public library that day.

So, determined to make a friend, he decided to go over and talk to him.

He only hesitated because Eddie looked immersed in his book- that is, until some other kids went over and bothered him. They don't do much, only seem to jeer and knock his book down as they passed by, but Eddie looked upset.

Steve got up as soon as the boys left through the doors. Eddie was clearly just trying to enjoy his book- and a big book too, Steve had thought that it must be interesting for him to be so far into it.

"Hi," Steve greets. He gave a little wave and his cutest smile- even his mom thought it was cute and she was so busy in those days that she never noticed those smaller things. "What are you- you, um, reading?"

He stared at Steve blankly for a moment, seeming confused. "Lord of the rings. Why?"

"Thought it must be… interesting. It looks so long and you've, just… you've read so much!"

"Oh. Yeah, it's pretty fun. You read a lot of fantasy?"

Steve shifted, glancing away for a moment. Uncomfortable. "I don't really… read a lot. The words get a little, uh, confusing."

"The Hobbit is a little shorter? And it's part of the same world as Lord of The Rings. There's three of these ones."

"What are they about?"

Eddie lit up. He kept the explination short, not wanting to ruin the book. He paused a lot, tongue sticking out as he tried hard to think, constantly noting that 'it will make more sense when you read it' or 'but then a thing happens, but I can't tell you because it will spoil it'.

"And the- the trees talking is, like, normal in this world?"

"Yeah! It's all great!"

Steve didn't quite understand, but he loved how Eddie made it sound.

"You still think you'll read it?"

"Maybe when I'm a- a bit older. I don't think I'll really, uh, get it? It sounds real neat though."

"Do you think it might help if I read it out to you?" Eddie's smile dropped a little when Steve hesitated. He leant close, lowering his voice. "I had to have my uncle read it out the first time."

"Really?"

"Yeah. A lot of words I don't know and because he was reading them out, I could just ask him if I didn't get it. Plus, I kinda still like being read to. It's like having a personal narrator."

"Oh. And... that's ok?

"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be? Uncle Wayne says it is so it must be."

"Is your uncle really smart?"

"Super smart. He knows a lot."

"Ok."

"Ok?" Eddie perked up. "You want me to read to you? Because I've been practicing doing voices and it is really fun."

Eddie flipped the book back to the start.

"I'll only read a little. Don't wanna give anything away."

Steve was fascinated. Despite how much some of the voices wavered, Steve adored them. He had to bite the inside of his cheeks at times to keep from making noise, or commenting. He hadn't wanted to interrupt Eddies flow.

It took him a while to realize that he'd stopped checking the time and, by the time he did, it was almost too late.

"Oh, damn," Steve jumped up, wincing at how it made Eddie flinch. "Sorry! I have to go, my dad- I'm sorry."

"No worries," Eddie shrugged. "Will you be here next week?"

"Yeah, should be."

"I'll wait for you here, same time."

"Gocha!"

Steve scurried out, running out the door. He ignored the yelling for him to slow down, panting by the time he jumped into the back of his dads car.

"Sorry I'm late."

His dad hummed, raising an eyebrow at him in the rear view mirror. "Good day? Make any new friends?"

"Yeah! I met Eddie and he's really nice and cool. He read me some of this big book and he wants to meet me again, next week!"

Steve hadn't noticed the way his dad winced when he went on to describe Eddie. He was too busy thinking about the next week and how excited he was to spend another afternoon with his new friend.

But, the next week, his dad dropped him off with a babysitting. He made sure to tell her that Steve was to be kept away from the public library.

[poppitron360]

Lost Trio Week- Day 5: “Parents”

@lost-trio-week

Piper:

When Percy and Annabeth had agreed to let Leo babysit, they’d made one thing abundantly clear. No. Fire.

“Gocha,” Leo had said, pulling a comically large fire extinguisher out of his tool belt, like it was some sort of cartoon hammer, “Leo has you covered.”

Annabeth glowered at him. “It shouldn’t even come to that,” she said.

“Come on, when have I ever let you down?”

Annabeth pressed an owl plushie into Jason’s hands, “Make sure to give her this. She can’t sleep without it. And make sure your husband,” she glared at Leo, “Behaves.”

“Hey,” Jason put his hands up in surrender, “You and I both know I don’t have any more control over him than you do. Anyway, knowing me I’ll probably end up getting knocked out halfway through.”

Annabeth huffed and turned to Piper, “I’m only letting them do this because you’re gonna be here. I trust you to look after the three of them.”

“Jason and Leo can handle themselves,” Piper countered. She turned to them, “Haven’t you guys been discussing having kids of your own? This’ll be good practice. If I’m able to step back and nothing goes wrong, then you know you guys are ready to be responsible.”

“I can be responsible!” Leo cried, indignantly.

“Last time we gave you un-popped popcorn, you said the exact same thing,” Percy pointed out, “And what happened then?”

“That was one time!” Leo groaned, “Piper has just as much capacity to be a bad influence as me! Why doesn’t she get put on the naughty step?”

“Just… make sure she gets to bed on time, and try not to burn anything,” Annabeth said.

Leo sighed. “Alright,” he conceded.

“It’s nothing personal,” Percy told him, once Annabeth had gone to grab her bags, “Annabeth’s just paranoid. I’m sure she trusts you to be responsible.”

He patted Leo on the shoulder, and said goodbye to his kid.

Leo, still grumbling, went to go set up the travel crib in their bedroom.

“So… what should we do first?” Jason turned to Piper.

“How the hades should I know?” Piper replied with a shrug, “I’ve never dealt with a two year old before.”

“Let me handle it,” Leo said, coming out of his and Jason’s room and leaning against the doorframe.

“Are you sure?” Jason asked.

“Yup. I said I’d prove to Annabeth that I can be a responsible adult, and that’s what I’m gonna do.”

Leo moved the coffee table out of the way to make room for his massive box of Lego, which the toddler was happily sticking her hands inside. He patted the carpet next to him, imploring Piper and Jason to sit down.

Piper fiddled with the pieces, trying her best to construct something out of the blocks. She glanced over at Jason, who was staring at the bricks, dumbfounded.

“I’ve never used these before,” Jason whispered to Piper, “How do I do this?”

“You just click the pieces together and make whatever you want,” she whispered back.

“…why?”

“Because it’s fun, I guess?”

Jason studied the pieces, a bewildered look on his face. “I don’t get it,” he concluded.

Leo’s hands flew as he clicked the bricks together.

Piper had been lodging with the two of them for the summer while she was considering moving to New Rome. Technically Annabeth had only asked her to babysit their kid while they were off on some quest, but Leo and Jason had taken it upon themselves to be good uncles. Piper wasn’t worried… mostly. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Leo, but she’d seen how easily things could get out of control in terms of his flammability. The more exited Leo got about his Lego, the more Piper found herself eyeing that fire extinguisher.

No. Leo had things under control. She was being paranoid.

“Done!” The two year old cried. She stood back to reveal a perfectly constructed replica of the Eiffel tower.

“How the hades…?” Piper muttered.

Jason looked down at his amorphous blob of a creation, and just sighed, sadly.

“Wow, kid!” Leo exclaimed, “That’s really impressive!!”

“I added extra supports to make it more stable- the original tower is stupid.”

“You are your mother’s daughter,” Leo observed, “Do you wanna see what I made?”

He presented a lego helicopter to the child.

Leo spun the propellors on the little copter, then held it out for the toddler to try. She spun it with her finger, then giggled hysterically. Before the blades stopped turning, Leo let go, and it hovered in the air for a few seconds, before landing neatly in his lap.

The child squealed in delight, and a jet of water spurted out of the tap in the kitchen.

“Is that gonna become a problem?” Jason asked, apprehensively, “I don’t want another exploding toilet incident.”

“Nah, it’ll be fine,” Leo said, then he seemed to catch himself, “But I should be responsible and go make sure!”

When it was time for the toddler to eat, Leo served up some apple slices and yogurt, as per Annabeth’s instructions.

He got out one of those long lighters meant for lighting gas burners from his tool belt and lit the miniature braiser on the countertop.

“See?” Leo said, turning to Piper, “Not even using my fire powers to light the sacrificial pyre! I’m a good boy.”

Jason smiled, “You’re doing great, Leo.”

They scraped a spoonful of yogurt into the flames, then a portion of their own meal.

They ate, watching episodes of Bluey on their TV.

An alarm beeped on Leo’s watch.

“6:20. Gotta get the baby to bed.”

Jason looked mildly impressed, “That’s an efficient system. Can you implement that whenever I need you to do the laundry?”

“Hmm, let me think���” Leo scratched his chin, “How about… no?”

Jason and Piper exchanged an exasperated look.

Leo gently placed the child in the crib and pulled up the blankets. Piper watched as he tucked the toy owl into the folds.

He was being so quiet- so un-Leo-like that Piper couldn’t help but be impressed.

“See?” He whispered, standing up straight with his hands on his hips, a proud expression on his face, “Totally responsible.”

Leo:

The three of them sat watching TV on the sofa until it was time for the adults to go to bed.

Piper had moved her air mattress out of their room to make room for the baby, so she snuggled down into her sleeping bag and said goodnight as Leo and Jason went into their room.

“Do you really think this means we’re ready, mi amour?” Jason asked, once they had settled into bed, “Kids, I mean.”

“Why…” Leo shifted a little in the covers, “Are you having second thoughts? I thought it was what you wanted-“

“I know. It is. It’s just… now that we have one in front of us it’s… different. Realer.”

“I get it,” Leo said, “I mean, for the longest time, I felt like I was broken, unlovable, a delinquent. You helped me let go of a lot of that, but I guess… I’m scared. I don’t wanna fuck it up. And Annabeth reminded me that-“

“Don’t listen to her. Like Percy said, she’s paranoid. Olympus knows I would be if I’d been through what they went through.”

“But-“

“You’re gonna be a great dad, Leo,” Jason flopped down so his head was in Leo’s lap. “It’s me that I’m worried about,” he said, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, “Part of me is still a soldier, always prioritising my duties over my people. What if I can’t put that aside and end up compromising the people I love? What if I’m too cold-hearted to raise a child?”

Leo chuckled, and stroked Jason’s hair, “Well, I guess I’ll have to be the fun one to balance you out.”

Jason smiled.

“We’re a team, amorsito. We work together. You, me- and Piper, too. We can handle this,” Leo grinned down at his husband, “Gods, we’re really going for the deep conversations right now, aren’t we? We should probably get some rest.”

Jason sighed, “I guess you’re right.” He shifted so that his head was on his own pillow.

Leo took off his hearing aids and snuggled down into the covers.

Babysitting was pretty easy, Leo thought, as he kissed Jason goodnight and drifted off to sleep.

But then came the nightmares.

— — — — — — — — —

Part 2 coming… at some point???

I had more to write but then ran out of time and had to cut it short.

I’m not very good at trio dynamics and I mostly know how to write Valgrace, so my way of getting around making Piper the 3rd wheel is to have her be the narrator. This is an extension of my Married Valgrace AU, taking place after the events of the main fic.

I had so many ideas for this prompt (I believe it was the one that I suggested) but decided to go down the route of the three of them practicing parenting.

@euryvices-deactivated20241019 @deciduowl @lavenderfairiez @ottpopfic @ginnyluna @groverapologist @echo-stimmingrose @demigod-shenanigans @keefessketchbook @sleepyycapybara @123letsgobestie @kaleidoskuls @fairytalesociology @four-leafed-queer-gal @child-of-helios @green-tea217 @puzzled-pegasus @twomanyfandomshelp @lokiwiiiiiii @yoshuko-ew @frayna-of-the-hollow @via-rant @daonedaonlyskh @hadeslegacyhephgirl @siimplyapril @pjowasmy1stfandom @thetourturedwritersclub @m-for-now

[sunsettemplar]

I hadn't played much of Fallout 4 before this, so a bunch of drawings on it. Edith is my character.

I've never met Cait before (the first time I was about halfway through the game and only followed the story so it's understandable) and god how much I love her. She's sooooooooooo lovely for me gets high from the heart, I respect her character of the drug addicted slacker(even if it sound wierd lol) AND SHE ALSO PICKS SUPER HARD LOCKS well she's very funny and I like her accent sooo much (btw I was really pissed that the romance answer comes right after my girl Cait talks about her injuries and it's really sound like “that's how I opened up to you” “heheheh take off your pants” like what?…I didn't romance her but when I saw the answers I was disappointed how rude it all was) And McCready is still a super cool AND OF COURSE HE'S VOICED BY METTHEW MERCER I RAN TO WIKI AS SOON AS I HEARD THE VOICE AND I WAS MHMMMM GOCHA in a good way lol.

I don't really like the beginning of the F4, because it seems strange to me that a person who lived 200 years ago or so can not only survive in such places, but at the same time doesn't die from the changed atmosphere and doesn't get some disease that his immune system will never be ready for. I think that Edith did not originally live in the Commonwealth, but arrived there in company with her husband and their group of settlers in search of a better life, at the same time she already has a son who is already two years old (sorry no emotional attachment to newborns). They are supposedly attacked by riders or someone else and only Edith and her son are left alive. I guess the riders could have taken the baby if there was some I don't know woman there, or Edith managed to hide it and someone else found it and took it while she was unconscious aydunno it's hard. I think she was found by a caravan with a doctor in charge who travels the Commonwealth and you can even chat with him in general healed her and she traveled with them for a while, learned to better handle weapons (I think it makes sense that she has these skills, in Fallout if you can't hold a gun how did you even survive), maybe pick locks and stuff like that. She stayed with them for a year or so until she got fully healthy and then they said goodbye. Her basic plan is to just go out looking for her son in the hopes that he's still alive (she has no idea where her kid is) and so she's like a tank going through everything she sees and basically doesn't care about the methods she uses. As for the dog, I think she found him while she was traveling with the caravan and he got attached to her. He doesn't have a name, but he listens to her commands and they are cool baddie duo ahrhrhpar. I think Edith is a quiet, a bit of a mean woman, a bit straightforward and rude, a bit crazy, but overall not bad, unpretentious and non-judgmental. She met McCready in the Goodneighbor and took him with her because he could navigate her around, and she met Cait by accident when she broke into that shithouse and was given to her by Tommy. It's a little comic that Edith, used to being alone, didn't immediately sense the presence of a stranger and the dog didn't react either - that's why she's not happy with her relaxation because of her companions. In time she'll get used to the fact that she can't always rely on herself.

[caffeinated-chaos-bean]

Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me!

"Did you wash your hands?" (Stop naggin' me!)　 "Did you gargle your throat?" (Stop naggin' me!) "Did you wash your face?" (Stop naggin' me!) "Did you brush your teeth?" (Stop naggin' me!) "Have you finished your homework?" (Stop naggin' me!) "Do you wanna make an excuse?" (Stop naggin' me!) "Why don't you give it up?" (Stop naggin' me!) "You can't do it, can you?" (Stop naggin' me!)

Stop baggin' me, ya all Ya always find fault with whatever I do It's okay to make a complaint But, don't ya think that's just so unfair? Ya never care about how I feel All ya want is yr own self-satisfaction What a happy person ya r to burn off yr stress with that! What do "I " mean to ya?

Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me!

"Are you still sleeping?" (Stop naggin' me!) "Are you in a dream or something?" (Stop naggin' me!) "Don't you understand that yet?" (Stop naggin' me!) "Are you stupid?" (Stop naggin' me!) "When will you go all out?" (Stop naggin' me!) "Have you done what you should do?" (Stop naggin' me!) "When will you stop escaping?" (Stop naggin' me!) "You should face reality, right?" (Stop naggin' me!)

It's okay to whine or utter whatever you would like to I would be disappointed at you You sob or get depressed every time You are SO PERFECT, I presume? You'd like to be said you are good and treated nicely by everyone, wouldn't you? You'd like to be treated that way so much, wouldn't you? I will treat you that way Though that will be just superficial and insincere!

Stop baggin'me, ya all Ya always spit out complaints behind my back Stop doin' that and just write 'em down on a paper ya don't need [paper waste] How miserable, how pitiful, how pathetic ya r! I understand what ya wanna say But, don't ya think ya r forgettin' yr own fault? Sure YOU don't know But "I" have feelings, too

Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me!

Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me! Stop naggin' me!

[fortheloveofdeepspace]

Good luck to everyone's storage and may the gocha gods be kind to us all. 🙏

(I'm gonna pull for all the cards for the first time ever because I want them all. Hopefully it doesn't cost me a million dollars.... 🥲)

[twilightmalachite]

Raison d’être - The Nameless Girl 8

Author: Akira

Characters: Kuro, Nazuna

Translator: Mika Enstars

"I wonder if that Itsuki will be alright… While I’m glad that they’re getting along so well, I worry he’s gotten a bit too attached to Kagehira lately."

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Season: Winter

Location: Nazuna's University

The next day. Near the university Nito Nazuna attend’s tennis court…

Kuro: —Ah? What’re ya talkin’ about?

Nah, I haven’t seen Kagehira’s face around for some time now. I didn’t hear of anythin’ ‘cause I’m scared of—I mean, have no interest in vehicles, maybe his plane hasn’t arrived yet?

Yer fussin’ too much, Itsuki. Kagehira ain’t a kid anymore, y’know, it’s fine t’just leave him be.

Ah~… Gotcha, gocha. He’s been actin’ strange, so you’re worried and just keepin’ an eye on him. Alright.

Haha. No need to thank me, after all this time.

We’re close friends, aren’t we, “Icchan”?

Huh? Nah, I’m over at Nito’s university, watchin’ over his activities in the tennis club…

I ‘unno if ya know, or rather care ‘bout what goes on over in this country…

But right now, Nito, rather all of Ra*bits, are tied up with some Kira… whatever, some person with some sparkly soundin’ name.

That’s right. That’s exactly what made it so subtly inflammatory. The whole thing smells fishy to me.

So, that’s why I’m worried he might get involved with someone strange or get bullied, so I’m accompanyin’ him securely to keep him safe.

Huh? He’s already gotten involved with someone strange? What do ya mean—I’m just protectin’ Nito as any pal would.

Nazuna: And it’s just plain a bother…

My friends at college got really worried about me since you come off so intimidating and threatening, Kuro-chin~…

What am I supposed to do if a rumor gets spread around that I’m “dating a delinquent!” or something?

Kuro: Oh, Nito. Done with tennis already?

Nazuna: Yup. It’s not too serious a circle, we only really just show our faces at the arranged time.

University is generally more carefree, but you can’t afford to neglect socializing. Though truthfully, that doesn’t really apply to me—

Kuro: Haha, well it’s fine, right? Makin’ human connections like that may end up helpin’ ya sometime down the line.

They say the good you do for others is good you do yourself, right?

Nazuna: Right. Anyways, I spoke up to complain to you Kuro-chin, but you were on the phone, weren’t you? Sorry if I interrupted you.

Kuro: Ah, no worries. The call’s already ended. It was Itsuki askin’ me ‘bout Kagehira. He’s supposed to have arrived back in the country.

Nazuna: Is he his parent? Actually, why didn’t he just act him?

Kuro: His calls weren’t goin’ through to Kagehira. He was sayin’ he might’ve turned off his phone when he got on the plane and forgot to turn it back on.

Nazuna: Hmmm. He only just arrived back today, has it really been long enough for him to start to worry?

I wonder if that Itsuki will be alright… While I’m glad that they’re getting along so well, I worry he’s gotten a bit too attached to Kagehira lately.

It’s just a morbid hypothetical, but I feel he’d be ruined if Kagehira suddenly disappeared or something… He might not be able to recover from it, he might figure that life is already short, so he might as well disappear.

Kuro: Haha. That guy’s surprisin’ly thick-skinned when he has to be, though.

You’re worryin’ too much, Nito. I know to ya, Itsuki is a delicate and short-tempered artist…

But I’ve known him since he was a snot-nosed kid, and I think that image he’s recently been givin’ off is downright a lie.

Like who the hell are ya, some solitary artist?

Nazuna: Fufu, I guess it’s a given, but you know a lot about Itsuki that I don’t, Kuro-chin.

Kuro: The same goes for ya, though. I don’t know the Itsuki of Valkyrie at all.

It just ain’t possible for one person to fully understand another perfectly, no matter how close they are. I mean, there’s still so much ya dunno ‘bout yourself!

Nazuna: You’re totally right! You can’t just abandon your friends and family just because you don’t understand them, though.

Kuro: —Hey?! Oi, you, this ain’t a show! Do ya losers have a problem with my Nito!?

Nazuna: Sorry. Correction. Maybe not your family, but it’s alright to abandon your friends. Cause me any more trouble, and I’ll be cuttin’ you off, Kuro-chin~…♪

[ ☆ ]

← prev | story directory | next →

[xox-l0v3l1-l1y4-xox]

Okay y'all, I was being lazy before, but I had a scare where I had to back up my entire hard drive, including my Vocal Synth albums. TT But the good news is, now that the time-consuming part (uploading to MEGA) is done, I should be posting these much quicker! So, without further ado, this is the second one I'll share:

This is Bonus ＼(^o^)／ by Garuna (aka Owata P)! This album has a lot of the Owata P classics that I love: Paradichlorobenzene, Antichlorobenzene, Toluene, Rin-chan Now!, Gocha Gocha Urusee! (Stop Nagging Me!) and Kataomoi Samba (One-Sided Love Samba)! If you love them too, then here's a high-quality download for you! :3

All songs were extracted from the CD in FLAC format, so that they're the best possible quality without being too large! I tag songs like this: Japanese Name (Romaji name or English translation). The artist is the synthesizer (or synthesizers) credited for the vocals, while the album artist is the producer whose album it is. In the composer field, I put anyone who was involved in creating the song, regardless of who did what. If they mastered the song, they're there. If they manipulated the synthesizer's voice for the song, they're there. If they wrote the lyrics for the song, they're there. If the link doesn't work, shoot me a message to let me know. Otherwise, enjoy! ^^

[the-grand-av3]

I made y'all in an app called Gacha Life 2!

It's an app that let's you make characters in a chibi style!

Poses and expressions I went for:

Alastor: just being... Alastor, you're a whole personality of your own

Vox: Advertising a new Voxtek product

Valentino: Seducing someone to secure a new employee

Velvette: Taking a selfie

As you can see, the app has limitations, but I tried to get as close as I could! Even though there were smaller bows I thought the big one looks good on Alastor. What do y'all think?

Bonus: the face Alastor probably makes when someone says a tech term (this was made before I found the mic prop)

( if mod/ominous voice wants to try it to fiddle around with, go right ahead, it's neat and fun to see what you can create! You can even make videos by taking screenshots and stringing them together, like stop motion. If you wanna use any of my designs just @ me or send me a DM and I'll give you the code!)

WOAH

Why are we... not? What is this?

THIS IS GACHA LIFE THE BEST GAME EVER

AND THE DESIGNS ARE SO GOOD! GREAT WORK DRAWING, DEAR!

Ah. I see.

[Private Message to wowiexist0]:

I wouldn't mind receiving the code for Vox.

Anyways.

What did you PM them?

Nothing relevant. Continue on, Velvette, tell me, what is this... Gocha Life?

[spooky-bunnys]

Wholesome request when peh yan and (name) were just small children and they are really good friends and one day peh says to (name) “when we get older will you promise to marry” and (name) smiles and says promise and to seal the promise they get toy ring from a gacha machine and years go by and their both on a date and peh takes (name) to the park that where they made the promise and peh proposes to (name) using the same ring they used from when they were kids

Ah the old childhood friends to lovers troupe. Gotta love it. Enjoy!

Peh-yan x Male reader

Promise me

(Name) and Peh-yan have been through a lot over the years. Both were members of Toman. While Peh-yan was the vice captain and (Name)'s older brother being the Captain. They were always together. Childhood friends to lovers. (Name) remembers when Peh-yan had "proposed" to him when they were kids.

One day in 4th grade while at the arcade that the trio frequently went to. Pah was playing some racing game, (Name) was trying to get an stuffed (animal) from a claw machine, and Peh-yan? He was currently at a gacha machine. When he finally got what he wanted he raced over to where a pouting (Name) stood. Pah now trying to get the toy for his brother.

Peh walked up to them and tilted his head confused. "What's going on?" (Name) turned to him with an adorable pout. "I can't get the stuffed (animal) so Aniki said he'll try...." Peh nodded and turned watching his best friend try to get it. After multiple tries and no success Pah turned to his brother. "Sorry (Name). It looks like you won't be able to get that one. What about the (other animal)?"

(Name) frowned. Eyes tearing up. "No! I want that one!" It was his favorite animal! He didn't want the ugly (other animal). He wanted the (animal)! Pah looked at the machine. "Maybe one of the other claw machines have one where we can get a different (animal)?" (Name) nodded and took his brothers hand walking to where the other claw machines were.

Peh stared back at the claw machine in front of him. Determination coursed through him. If (Name) wanted it. He'll get it. Peh marched to the machine and it only took him about 4 tries before he got the toy. He ran to where the brothers were. A big smile covering his face. Pah was trying to get a different stuffed (animal) while (Name) had his face pushed against the glass watching.

Peh waited for them to finish before gaining their attention. "Hey (Name)! I got it!" (Name) turned towards Peh-yan and squealed jumping into his arms. He grabbed the stuffed (animal) and squeezed it tightly. Smile as bright as the sun the happiest look on his face. "Thank you Peh! I love you!" After that they went to the park. Where their other friends were.

Peh blushed and messed with his hair. "I-If you really love me then promise me." (Name) and Pah turned to him confused. Until Peh got on one knee holding out the ring he got from the gocha machine earlier. "Promise me you'll marry me when we're older...." (Name) smiled and nodded taking the ring and putting it on his right hand before Pah switched it to his left hand. Explaining it went on left hands in movies.

18 years had passed since then. Peh-yan and (Name) were still together and were stronger then ever. They had just arrived at the park were their friends from Toman were gathering. (Name) smiled looking around at everyone. Happy to that after everything they were still together and happy. (Name) turned and looked at his boyfriend and brother. Who were still idiots.

Pah and Peh were wrestling while Draken was yelling at them to knock it off. (Name) and Pah's newly named wife were watching uninterested. Since the happens quite a lot. Especially here recently. They stopped when Peh pinned Pah to the ground. Surprising everyone since usually Pah wins. (Name) smiled and clapped laughing. Seeing his brother grumpily get up with his wife's help.

Peh smugly walked over to (Name). Wrapping his arms around the shorter male who laughed more. "Wow babe you finally pinned Aniki!" Peh dipped (Name) kissing him sweetly making the male laugh more. When Peh lifted him back up he gently held (Name)'s hands. Staring at him so lovingly. "(Name). I've loved you for the longest time."

Everyone quieted down. Watching the two. "I've loved you too." Peh smiled. "But I no longer want to be your boyfriend." (Name)'s face fell. Peh slowly got on one knee. Pulling out a box. "We made a promise here. A long time ago. That if you truly loved me." He opened the box where a beautiful ring sat. One that looked exactly as the ring (Name) had hidden away. The same ring Peh gave him years ago.

"That you would marry me." (Name) speechless stared at his boyfriend. Everyone was quiet. (Name) smiled brightly. Just like that day all those years ago. Tears rolling down his face. "YES!" Everyone cheered as (Name) threw himself onto his now fiancee taking them to the ground. Everyone watching laughed. (Name) kissed all over his fiancees face. "I love you so much." "I love you too (Name). So much."

Bonus:

Pah: *crosses arms* "I totally let him win"

(Name): *freezes and stares at his brother* "Wait are you telling me. You two have been wrestling about him proposing to me?"

Pah and Peh: *looks away*

Draken: "Fucking idiots!"

[jarc-xenon]

GOD FUCKING DAMNIT I WASN'T SURE IF I WAS FOLLOWING YOU OR NOT AND I WENT TO CHECK AND I FORGOT WHICH ONE WAS THE FOLLOW BUTTON VS THE ASK BUTTON GOD DAMNIT JARC WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME Also how's ur day? :D

Gocha :3 Now you get headpats

Also I had a good day, thanks :D

[yamchaas]

*Walks into the Yamtien house, looks around, sees the giant Yamtien collage on the wall, nods* Hey can you believe people ship those two together, fuckin weirdos am I right

You- you come into my home, you do not even think to call me godfather, and you come in here on the day my daughter is to be wed and you tell me you think Tien is a villain. After all these years of good behaviour he is reduced to naught but a villain undeserving of Yamcha- I have never once called yambul, krillcha, Gocha or what have you, a bad ship. I have supported your horniness for these ships, I have partaken in your joy, but then what do I get in return?

[animalinvestigator]

hi : ) do u have any fav vocaloid songs? have a good day ! !

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm songs..well let's see... pinocchio-p was my favorite producer for several years, some favorites are akkanbee da , doushite chan theme (both the original and the + are good but the + version is my faovrite) , 1year , whatever yama says goes, pretty much everything from ~ zero-go + proliferation of imamura is really good and creative vocaloid synthpop, #1 most underrated pino-p song is its always other ppl who die off that album

these days i listen to a lot of dennoko p who is very underrated, whole vocaloid crescendo album is so fucking good, extremely creative and innovative and beautiful and heartfelt, they also make a ton of really good comedy tracks , i cry and sigh overnight has quickly become one of my favorite vocaloid songs ever , this one always makes me laugh. its bitpop vocaloid with a lot of interesting breakcore type sampling. very innovative

im also really into babuchan recently. very particular vibe that is hard to describe. i really like it though. highlights include lan mth sci sct + extremely beuaitufl frozen kid, really consistently good producer, pretty much any album of theirs you listen to will be really good

i also love wonderful opportunity who i consider the undisputed masters of rin and len and make cute and fun light rock. twin masters best, positive club vs negative club best, 8hit best . nothing particularly inventive but i love them.

If u want something fresh go listen to utsu-p's vocaloid metal. so good. espescially love "i thought i was an angel" (Go figure)

in terms of generaaaalllllllll not artist specific reccomendations , my favorite classics are cosmo@ bousou-p's disappearance of hatsune miku series (ESPESCALLY the intense voice of hatsune miku), meltdown iroha sasaki is probably one of my favorite songs of all time, anything ryo espescially odds and ends+ love is war was like 10 yrs ahead of its time, of course wowaka's entire discography is legendary, old utau stuff like fukkireta, triple baka, teto territory, gocha gocha urusee, etc are really fun cute time capsules that i regularly return to, and i ve had o kotowari shimasu stuck in my head perpetually for like 8+ years

thats all that immediately comes to mind : ) hope you have a good day too

[dwellordream]

“...“Scythia” was a fluid term in antiquity. For the Greeks, “Scythia” stood for an extensive cultural zone of a great many loosely connected nomadic and seminomadic ethnic and language groups that ranged over the great swath of territory extending from Thrace (another fluid geographic term in antiquity), the Black Sea, and northern Anatolia across the Caucasus Mountains to the Caspian Sea and eastward to Central and Inner Asia (it is more than four thousand miles from Thrace to the Great Wall of China).

“The Greeks call them Scythians,” wrote Herodotus; the Persians called them Saka (Chinese names included Xiongnu, Yuezhi, Xianbei, and Sai). “Although each people has a separate name of its own,” remarked the geographer Strabo, the Scythians, Massagetae, Saka, and other nomadic tribes “are given the general name of Scythians.” Pliny named twenty of the “countless tribes of Scythia.” As Gocha Tsetskhladze, a historian of Scythia, points out, “We call them Scythians because the Greeks did.” There are more restrictive modern descriptions for “Scythians” based on ethnographic, geographic, and linguistic parameters, but the terms Scythia and Scythians, the names used by the ancient Greeks, are convenient catchall terms to refer to the diverse yet culturally similar nomadic and seminomadic groups of Eurasia to western China. 

Modern historians and archaeologists use “Scythian” to refer to the vast territory characterized in antiquity by the horse-centered nomad warrior lifestyle marked by similar warfare and weapons, artistic motifs, gender relations, burial practices, and other cultural features. Scythia’s forests, grassy steppes, desert oases, and mountains were home to a multitude of individual tribes with their own names, histories, customs, and dialects but sharing a migratory life centered on horses, archery, hunting, herding, trading, raiding, and guerrilla-style warfare. Endless journeys over waterless prairies, invasions, plunder, wars, alliances, agreements, quarrels, more wars: “such is the life of nomads,” commented Strabo.

Lucian of Samosata (Syria) concurred: “Scythians live in a state of perpetual warfare, now invading, now receding, now contending for pasturage or booty.” Going by myriad names, waxing and waning in population over the centuries, continually on the move, the Scythian nomads, as described in ancient texts, had a history “inseparable from that of the nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of the Eurasian steppes.” Their common material culture, the “Scythian Triad” of distinctive weapons, horses, and artistic “animal-style” motifs, is evident in archaeological artifacts in burials from the Carpathian Mountains to northern China. Grave goods demonstrate far-reaching trade among these groups.

Not all of these peoples wandered the ocean of grass under infinite skies, however. By the fifth century BC, seminomadic clans known as the “Royal Scythians” had come to reside in wagons or settlements clustered around the northeastern Black Sea–Don area, taking up agriculture and trade, facilitating exchange between Greece and points along the Silk Routes to Asia. It was mainly through the coastal trading colonies that the Greeks first came to hear of the many different tribes of greater Scythia. No aspect of Scythian culture unsettled the Greeks more than the status of women. Hellenes expected strict division of male and female roles. But among nomadic people, girls and boys wore the same practical clothing and learned to ride and shoot together. In small hunting and raiding groups where everyone was a stakeholder and each was expected to contribute to survival in an unforgiving environment, this way of life made good sense. 

It meant that a girl could challenge a boy in a race or archery contest, and a woman could ride her horse to hunt or care for herds alone, with other women, or with men. Women were as able as men to skirmish with enemies and defend their tribe from attackers. Self-sufficient women were valued and could achieve high status and renown. It is easy to see how these commonsense, routine features of nomad life could lead outsiders like the Greeks—who kept females dependent on males—to glamorize steppe women as mythic Amazons. The opportunity for an especially strong, ambitious woman to head women-only or mixed-sex raiding parties or even armies was exaggerated in Greek myths into a kind of war of the sexes, pitting powerful Amazon queens against great Greek heroes.

…Despite their rich culture (which flourished from the seventh century BC to about AD 500), the Saka-Scythians, Thracians, Sarmatians, and kindred groups left no written histories. What we know about them must be gleaned from other oral, written, or artistic materials, chiefly from Greece and Rome but also non-Greek sources from what is now Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, India, China. The lifestyles of Eurasian nomads in later times can also contribute to our understanding of ancient life on the steppes. 

Excavations of grave mounds (kurgans) began in the 1870s, and every year since then numerous archaeological teams are uncovering more and more evidence, much of it confirming ancient Greek reports and also revealing that Scythian culture was more sophisticated and complex than previously realized. By the seventh century BC, powerful Scythian forces were attacking, plundering, and exacting tribute in Thrace, the Caucasus, and Anatolia, penetrating south as far as Syria and Media, even advancing toward Egypt and moving eastward toward China. 

The Scythians’ reach contracted again after defeats in the Near and Far East in the sixth century BC, but Scythians continued to dominate the Caucasus and Central Asian steppes. Scythians were horse people. They traveled extremely long distances by land, much of it harsh going. To reach Thrace or the mouth of the Danube or northern Greece, for example, they would follow a long southwestern arc down from the steppes. To reach Colchis, Armenia, Anatolia, and Persia from the north, they took one of two major migration routes used by nomads, traders, and invaders from time immemorial. These routes, first described by Herodotus, involved arduous journeys over or around the snow-clad Caucasus range. The Scythian Gates (or Keyhole) was a precipitous, winding mountain trail over the central Caucasus: the journey from the Sea of Azov to the Phasis River in Colchis took about thirty days. The ancient Persians called this narrow defile Dar-e Alan, “Gate of the Alans” (Daryal Pass), after one of the nomadic tribes of Scythia. 

The other difficult and longer passage, sometimes called the “Caspian Gates” or the Marpesian Rock, was between the steep eastern end of the mountains and the Caspian Sea (Persian, Darband, “Closed Gates,” modern Derbent, Dagestan). From Pontus (northeastern Turkey) Scythians could cross west into Europe (Thrace) in wintertime over the frozen Bosporus Strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. In about 1000–700 BC, Greeks began establishing colonies along the Aegean coast of Anatolia, where they became aware of local histories and legends about Amazons. Many towns in Anatolia claimed Amazons as their founders; grave mounds and other shrines were local landmarks linked with Amazons. By the eighth and seventh centuries BC, Greek adventurers began exploring the rim of the Black Sea, which they called the Euxine or simply Pontus (“the Sea”). At some later point “Pontus” came to specify the wedge of land between the Phasis River of Colchis and the Thermodon River of northeastern Anatolia. 

By the sixth century, Greek colonies were sprinkled around the Black Sea, and by 450 BC more than a dozen Greek colonies were established on the northern Black Sea, from Tyras on the Dniester River to Gorgippia (ancient Sinda), south of the Taman Peninsula, and Tanais, a Scythian trading post at the mouth of the Don River on the Sea of Azov. Descriptions of barbarian societies of the north and east, many distinguished by a degree of gender role blurring unknown in Hellenic society, began to filter back to Greece as a few traders and travelers journeyed beyond the colonies on the Black Sea, venturing deeper into the lands of nomadic groups, on the steppes, the Caucasus Mountains, around the Caspian Sea, and eastward along the trade routes to the distant Altai Mountains, India, and China. As travelers pushed farther, the stories got stranger, but meanwhile the Royal Scythians who had settled near the Black Sea colonies were becoming more familiar to the Greeks.

Literary and archaeological evidence points to an uneasy relationship between Greeks and Scythians in the Black Sea region in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, followed by a period of lively trade and mutual integration in the fourth century BC. Many slaves in Athens came from Thracian and Scythian tribes, purchased at Black Sea emporiums such as Tanais on the Don (see chapter 6 on Thrace-Scythia links). Meanwhile Greek merchants and travelers carried out commerce and made marriage alliances with Scythian clans. 

In the fifth century BC, Scythian soldiers and policemen were employed in Athens, but numerous vase paintings and inscriptions about Scythians and Thracians attest to Greek familiarity with their clothing, tattoos, and weapons by the midsixth century BC. Male archers and Amazons wearing Scythian-style costumes became favorite subjects on Athenian vases by 575 BC. Some archaic black-figure paintings (575–550 BC) show men fighting on the Amazons’ side against Greeks; scholars suggest that these could be either Scythians or Trojans. 

Around 490 BC, the time of the Persian Wars, the popularity of male Scythian archers in art faded, perhaps because of their association with Persians (although Scythians were also enemies of the Persians). But female Scythian archers—“Amazons”—never lost their popular appeal in Greek vase paintings and other art forms. Archaeologists now know that “legends about Amazons are reflected in the grave goods of excavated Scythian tombs.” The accumulating evidence of female warriors buried with their weapons is leading classical scholars to acknowledge that some Greek beliefs about Amazons were influenced by women who shared the same activities as men in the nomadic cultures of Eurasia. But this “novel” insight from modern archaeology—that Amazons were Scythian women—was already obvious to the Greeks in classical times. Whatever psychological meanings the Amazon myths may have held in antiquity, a wealth of little studied literary evidence shows that Greco-Roman authors clearly associated the Amazons with historical, nomadic Scythians at an early date.

Greek writings about Amazons indicated several different Amazon “habitats” and zones of activity in Scythia. Some sources located Amazons in Thrace and western Anatolia; some placed them in Pontus on the southern shore of the Black Sea; still others put them in the northern Black Sea–Sea of Azov–Caucasus regions; and many writers mentioned more than one locale. Modern scholars have taken this apparent inconsistency as proof that the Greeks were simply making up ecological niches for imaginary beings. 

In fact, however, this mobile “sphere of influence” for Amazons makes sense. Whether or not the ancient mythographers and historians realized it, the depiction of shifting environments around the Black Sea for the Amazons’ home bases, strongholds, migrations, and battle campaigns accurately captured the realities of nomadic life. There is no doubt that at various times in historical antiquity groups of Scythians were present in the various regions designated in classical texts as occupied by Amazons .

In Homer’s Iliad, for example, King Priam of Troy recalls seeing Amazons in northern Anatolia as a youth. At the beginning of the war with the Greeks, Priam musters his army at a man-made mound near Troy said to be the grave of the Amazon queen Myrina. Mound tumuli are scattered across Phrygia, Mysia, and Thrace, and Scythian tomb mounds (kurgans) of the seventh–sixth centuries BC exist near Sinope, Pontus. Priam’s ally Queen Penthesilea was a Thracian, but she led a band of Amazons from Pontus. The mythic quest of Jason and Argonauts for the Golden Fleece is at least as ancient in its origins as the Trojan War cycle. According to the Argonautica (the version of the myth composed by Apollonius of Rhodes, ca. 280 BC), Pontus and Colchis were occupied by three different tribes famed for women warriors (chapter 10).

In the mid-seventh century BC, the adventurer Aristeas (from an island in the Sea of Marmara) wrote about his journey east across Scythia to Issedonia and the Altai Mountains. His epic, Arimaspea (a Scythian word meaning something like “people rich in horses”), preserved only in fragments, was very influential in forming the early Greek picture of Scythia and Amazons. Aristeas said that Amazons wandered the ironrich territory around the Maeotis (Sea of Azov) and the River Tanais (Don). 

Another lost work, by Skylax of Caryanda (sixth century BC), described the Maeotians, the Sinti (Sinds), and the Sarmatians as “people ruled by women.” Several authors referred to Amazons as Maeotides, “people of the Maeotis.” (Scythian tribes around the Sea of Azov included the Sinds, Dandarii, Doschi, Ixomatae, and many others.) Other ancient historians placed Amazons and their allied forces among the nomads beyond the Borysthenes (Dnieper) River on the steppes north of the Black Sea.

Pontus was the Amazon headquarters in another lost epic, the Theseis, about the Athenian hero Theseus, probably composed in the sixth century BC. In the fifth century BC the playwright Euripides located the Amazons in Pontus; so did the poet Pindar, who described Amazons “armed with spears with broad iron points.” The play Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus, ca. 480 BC) speaks of the “fearless maidens” of Colchis and the Caucasus and the “Scythian multitudes” to the north; it foretells that this Amazon host will “one day settle at Themiscyra by the Thermodon” in Pontus. 

The fourth-century BC Greek historian Ephorus (from Cyme, named for an Amazon) reported that a faction of Scythians had once left the northern Black Sea and settled in Pontus, becoming the Amazons. The geographer Strabo (first century BC) located various Amazon tribes in the valleys and mountains of Pontus, Colchis, the Don region, and the Caucasus. Instead of evidence for Greek confusion about where to locate imaginary Amazons, these examples represented Amazons as people who roved around the Black Sea. Scythian culture was consistently recognized as the wellspring of the women warriors known as Amazons.”

- Adrienne Mayor, “Scythia, Amazon Homeland.” in The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World

[feliciohno]

🎶 And Romano for the ask thing?

Gocha Gocha Urusee (Stop Nagging Me) by Owata-P ft Hatsune Miku as Akita Neru

I think it fits him in a few ways just that very like fuck you kinda vibes he has but also there’s very little bite to his bark yet also that feeling of I’m not good enough for anyone or I’m second best and no ones gonna let me forget it

SEND ME 🎵 AND A CHARACTER N ILL GIVE YOU A SONG