midground - Tumblr blog

[midground]

Protector of the Small No. 4: Neal

[midground]

Starting up the Protector of the Small series again today. I'm barely 50 pages into First Test, but I'm thinking ahead to all the parts of this series that I love so much and drawing some interesting comparisons to the Ascendance of a Bookworm series. It's made me realize that the two series have some common themes that really speak to me. And that I really love stories where a protagonist inspires the loyalty of others through compassion and hard work, sees the potential in people that are otherwise overlooked, and draws out/nurtures the talents of everyone around them. It's a specific kind of story but one I really enjoy.

[midground]

[midground]

The Iranian Regime is going to execute rapper Toomaj Salehi for supporting protests of Jina Amini’s murder by the regime in his songs.

Iranian activist Elica Le Bon says, “Iranians in the diaspora picked up on the fact that the regime tends not to execute people who become known to the international community. We have seen many examples of prisoners that were either released on bail or had their sentences commuted through our “say their names to save their lives” campaign on social media, using hashtags to garner attention for their causes, and even before social media existed, through getting the stories of political prisoners to international media outlets. Once reported on, and once the eyes shift to the regime and the reality of its pending brutality, realizing that the action is not worth the repercussions, we have seen them back down and not execute. For that reason, this is part of an urgent campaign for readers to talk about Toomaj as much as you can, using the hashtag #FreeToomaj or #ToomajSalehi. Every comment makes a difference, and if we were wrong, what did we lose by trying?”

[midground]

To clarify for my new followers, my own political philosophy is techno-dystopian utilitarian monarchism, i.e. using invasive mass surveillance to identify an ideal ruler and forcing that person to be king against their will.

[midground]

happy april 30th!

[midground]

🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

[midground]

So, thanks to President Biden’s Infrastructure Bill, remote locations on the Navajo Nation Reservation will be receiving electricity for the first time — ever.

Also, water treatment devices are being developed to help the tribe access clean running water. After decades without.

[midground]

I only learned recently that people from Not America don’t specify hard cider and instead it’s just cider.

I know this is a small difference but it is surprisingly one I do sometimes have to lie down on the floor about.

[midground]

So, there's a lot of USians around who are very clearly fucking fed up with their political choices this election cycle, and planning to sit it out.

And I get it! What's the point of voting if there's no one to vote for?

The thing is, I'm Australian. In Australia, voting is compulsory. We don't get to sit out our elections, and I'll be real honest with you - we don't exactly get better choices than you lot. So how do you vote if there's no one to vote for? You find someone to vote against. And there's always someone to vote against.

Now, we have the pleasure of preferential voting in Australia - We get to rank every candidate from 1 to X, and I'll tell you, there's something so cathartic about putting the biggest bastard of the lot at the very bottom of your preferences. I understand that USians don't get that option - you get to mark one person, and that's it.

That means that you get one shot, so aim it at the biggest bastard of the lot. The candidate you most utterly detest. Put your vote in the worst possible place for them. Don't even think about who that vote's going towards, that's not the point. Remember, every vote is a vote against someone. Make sure you fuck up that someone's election day!

[midground]

learning that apparently several hundred people have been pronouncing 'miette' as 'mighty' has actively worsened my day

[midground]

new reaction image

[midground]

Exclusive: Discworld TTRPG in the works by studio behind Fallout wargames

Modiphius, the studio responsible for tabletop adaptations of Star Trek, Fallout, and more, is working on a Discworld TTRPG.

Having secured the rights to the beloved series with an agreement from the late author Sir Terry Pratchett's estate, Modiphius is already at work on a Discworld roleplaying game "around the city of Ankh-Morpork and the wider Disc." This will hit Kickstarter later in the year.

Read more here.

[midground]

percy+keyleth getting bodyswapped would be hilarious

we get percy, growing flowers out of the ground: “this is quite refreshing, i see why you’re so optimistic now”

and then we get keyleth who got shoved into the shit bag body of percival “my hair turned white from the stress of Torture and also i keep getting possessed by shit no biggie” de rolo going: “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU”

[midground]

some of my favorite replies to this tweet. happy lesbian visibility week!

[midground]

[midground]

I cannot express how jarring it was after being raised by a "Porn Addiction Coach" to get into a relationship with a woman and come face to face with the fact that she did actually want me to sexually desire her.

Like, in Evangelical Purity Culture, male desire was basically poison. It was a threat. It was this constant temptation that would destroy everything. And even after leaving, in the sort of queer, feminist spaces i spend most of my time in that wasn't something that pretty much anyone was spending time actively dissuading me from feeling.

But my desire is good. It's not something that I'm being accepted in spite of. It's a positive thing. It's a bonus. Not even just vanilla stuff, all the stuff I'd convinced myself were these weird terrible desires that were shameful to have.

It honestly took me over a decade to fully accept that. To stop dissociating during sex and confront that I was, in fact, being a massive perv and that was fantastic and preferable and that I could accept that into my self-image without shame or self hatred.

But it's important to do. It's important to leave relationships that don't welcome that part of you. To know that your sexuality is valuable and valid and worth owning and celebrating. Because the alternative is just...not being. Either existing as yourself and repressing the part of your identity that is sexual or allowing that sexuality to exist but turning off your self while it does.