#(to varying degrees based on other factors)

[eldritch-thrumming]

we were talking abt brokeback mountain today and we ended up having a really great discussion abt queer cinema and the structures of hollywood that uphold certain ideological viewpoints.

and we started comparing jennifer’s body to brokeback because we watched that last week when we covered horror and this week was westerns so we were thinking abt genre in general and queer cinema in particular and how genre works to create cultural mythologies and provide framework to perpetuate those mythologies and by extension reinforce certain real-world cultural attitudes.

and we got on the subject of intended audience and how jennifer’s body is clearly intended for a queer audience even if that’s not how it was originally marketed and how brokeback actually is quite heteronormative in its focus on pining and suffering and trauma and i pointed out that brokeback is actually quite desexualized in a way that jennifer’s body very obviously isn’t. like, yes, ennis & jack of course have sex and that’s central to the story, but the way the camera shows us those moments (and mostly doesn’t) is important and a majority of their intimacy is initiated by ennis becoming violent even while jack tries to be tender. and i pointed out their play fighting at one point in the film.

and one of my male students said that that was still pretty sexual because they’re shirtless and wrestling (even tho this wrestling leads to nothing else in the moment). and i said “okay so when all of u get shirtless and wrestle with your friends, that’s inherently sexual? or are you only reading it as sexual because the two men involved are gay?” and these moments don’t arise often, where i can actually hear and feel in the room an important point clicking into place, but boy, this sure was one of them.

[txttletale]

Can you elaborate on what you think would be the minimal needed changes to fix what you see as an issue in Civ? Civ has done fairly large shifts in some mechanics before, and "civ like" is still an interesting game space that can scratch certain itches

yeah i mean as i said, the baked-in racism arises from a certain set of core assumptions that i think lock it into that position, which are that civ is a

1) symmetrical

2) 4X

game about

3) 'real world civilizations' (deeply loaded terms ofc but that's how civ envisions them)

4) trying to 'win the game'

5) with a global

6) and transhistorical

scope

so, in its role as a symmetrical (1) game with victory conditions (4), civ as a text has to take positions on what constitutes a 'successful civilization'. as a (2) 4X game this definition also has to include some variation on the profoundly loaded eponymous Xs, 'explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate'. furthermore, as a (1) symmetrical game with a global, transhistorical (5, 6) scope, it has to necessarily create a model of what 'a civilization' looks like and apply it to every 'civilization' it wants to include, at all points in their history.

this all kind of naturally leads into civ being a game in which the colonial european imperialist powers are the default 'civilizations' and all other cultures are basically just like them -- a game where technology progresses linearly and innovations are made in the order they were in european imperial history -- a game where all cultures fundamentally work in the same way and hold similar values, a game where all religions are based on christianity (i mean, just look at civ vi's system, where every religion has a 'prophet', 'apostles', 'missionaries' and 'inquisitors'), a game where not only do cultures have teleological overarching 'goals' but where these goals are shared and these goals are fundamentally based on imperialist visions of 'victory'.

to drill into some specific examples: you can't play a game of civilization without founding cities. you will constantly be founding cities. when you're playing as 'the mongols' or 'the cree' or 'scythia', this makes no sense! these were peoples who historically had rich culture, science, arts, and certainly a notable military history, but were (to varying degrees, at varying times in their history, i don't mean to create a new and similarly heterogenous absolutist category here) nomadic!

similarly, to advance in civilization you must invent 'the wheel'. 'the wheel' is necessary to many later innovations, while of course the andean peoples represented by the playable 'inca' never made significant use of the wheel because the lack of suitable pack animals and environmental factors meant that it did not, in fact, prove a suitable tool for transporting large quantities of heavy goods. for an even more glaring example, a lot of early military technology is locked behind 'horses', which is pretty absurd considering that several of the game's playable civilizations, in the real world, developed plenty of military technology despite living on a continent without any horses!

so having established what i mean by 'the issue', which is that the game's core assumptions lock it into imposing a eurocentric, imperialist vision of 'civilization' onto cultures where it doesn't make sense, here's a few different jenga blocks you could pull out to resolve it:

SID MEIER'S EUROPE

the pillar you knock out here is #5. keep the game engine and core assumptions just as founded on eurocentric imperialist societies as they are now, and just make it about european empires doing imperialism. now, i think we can immediately spot some problems in there -- how are we going to represent the rest of the world? after all, this kind of just creates a situation where, either as NPC factions or as outright exclusions, all other cultures in the world are deprived of any meaningful agency in "history". this one just kind of gives you a new problem and also from a gameplay standpoint results in a game that just Has Less Stuff On It. i think this is a bad one

SID MEIER'S ELYSIUM

now here's one you can get if you knock out pillar #3. keep the same assumptions and gameplay and transhistorical global narrative scale, but remove the 'real-world' aspects. you can get real silly with it and add fantasy stuff to it, or you can be a relatively grounded 'our-world-but-to-the-left' situation. now to some extent this already matches a lot of the features already in civ games: after all, unless you specifically load in a 'true start location earth' map, you're usually playing on a strange parallel world with semiplausible but wholly original continents! now, you also need to get some fucking Nerds and Geeks working at your company to build out your fictional world, or you'll just end having pointlessly pallette swapped a bunch of factions that are now just Schmance, Schmina, and the Schoman Schempire, and not really have avoided the issue. but if you do that, and invent a deep and rich fictional history to riff on, then you could create something really cool and incorporate alt-tech or fantasy or retrofuturistic elements or all sorts of cool shit.

the downside of this is that it makes your game less accessible and appealing to a lot of people. a big part of (at least the initial) appeal of civilization is pointing at the screen and saying 'hey i recognize that thing!'. it is instantly more accessible to someone who isn't super invested in strategy or fantasy dork shit to say to them 'you can be BRAZIL and nuke FRANCE while at war with CHINA and allied to BABYLON'.

more importantly than that, i think some parts of the historical theming (because let's be honest, it is ultimately theming, i don't think civ is interested in 'history' in any serious way) serve a pretty load-bearing role in the game's information economy. it's a pretty tall order to ask a player to remember the unique abilities of dozens of factions and unique wonders, and the historical background makes it a lot easier. e.g., it is a lot easier for a player looking at wonders to remember 'the pyramids need to be built on desert' or 'broadway will help me make more culture' than it would be for them to remember the requirements/effects of 'under-eusapia' or the 'wompty dompty dom center'. i think this is one of the number one things that, if subtracted, would meaningfully create something that is no longer 'sid meier's civilization'.

SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI

now if you cut out #3 and #5 and #6 on the other hand... sid meier's alpha centauri is not technically an entry in the civilization franchise, but i think most people correctly consider it one. it has similar 4X gameplay to the series, and its (very bad) spiritual successor beyond earth was an official entry. instead of 'civilizations', the playable factions are splinters from a colony ship that fell into civil war as soon as it landed, each one representing a distinct ideology. now, y'know, this doesn't mean it's free from Some Problems (the portrayal of the Human Hive in particular is some of the worst apects of 90s orientalism all piled together) but i think they're problems it's not at all locked into by its design!

SID MEIER'S THERMOPILAE

by cutting out #5 and #6 -- making a civ game about a particular time and place in history you could achieve something much more richly detailed in mecahnics while also being able to handwave a lot more homogeny into it. giving the same basic mechanics to, say, every greek city-state in the peloponnesian war is far less ideologically loaded than giving them to every 'historical civilization' someone who watched a few history channel documentaries once can think of. it also lets you get really into the weeds and introduce era-and-place-specific mechanics.

the scale needs to be smaller conceptually but it doesn't really have to be smaller in terms of gameplay -- just make maps and tech trees and building more granular, less large-scale and more local and parochial and specific. this also gives you the advantage of being able to do the opposite of the last two options and really lean hard into the historical theming.

if this sounds like a good idea to you, then good news -- old world does something pretty similar, and it's pretty good! worth checking out.

SID MEIER'S LOVE AND PEACE ON PLANET EARTH

what if we take an axe to #2 and #4? instead of putting all these civilizations into a zero-sum game of violent expansion, make it possible for several civilization to win, for victory goals to not inherently involve 'defeating' or 'beating' other factions. now, that doesn't mean that the game should be a confictless city-builder -- after all, if you've decided to be super niceys and just try and make your society a pleasant place to live, that doesn't mean that the guy next to you isn't going to be going down the militarist-expansionist path. hell, even if all you want to do is provide for your citizens, a finite map with finite resources is going to drive you into conflict of some kind with your neighbours in the long run.

to make this work you'd have to add a bunch of new metrics -- 'quality of life', for example, as a more granular and contextual version of the 'happiness' mechanics a few games have had, or 'equality', game metrics that you could pursue to try to build an egalitarian, economically and socially just society where everyone is provided for. after all, why shouldn't that be a goal to strive for just as much as going to mars or being elected super world president or whatever?

SID MEIER'S DIVERSE HISTORICAL CONTEXTS

ultimately, all cards on the table, if i was made god-empress of The Next Civ Game, this is the option i'd go for: jettison #1 as much as practically possible, introduce as much asymmetry into the game as you can. some civilizations keep the established settler-city model -- others are nomadic, building their units in movable 'camps' -- maybe the 'colonial' civilizations, your USA and Brazil and so on, can be like the alien factions from the alpha centauri DLC, only showing as NPCs at the appropriate point in the timeline when other civs are colonizing other continents, or putting you into an accelerated-forward version of the game if you choose to play as one.

you could combine this with a more interesting version of humankind's civ-choosing system, where you lock certain civilization choices behind specific gameplay events. this would let you do crazy shit with the balancing -- imagine an ostrogothic kindgom civ with crazy strong abilities and units that you could only choose to play as if your capital is overrun by barbarians, or a hungarian civ that requires you to have started as a nomadic civ and invaded somewhere, or a soviet union civ that requires you to lose a revolution, or a usamerican civ that requires you to split off all cities on a foreign continent from your original civ -- you could add so much variety and so many new and bizarre strategies into the game with this!

as for the universal aspects of tech and the narratives of linear progression contained within, there are lots of approaches that already solve this! stuff like stellaris' semi-random branching tech paths, or endless space 2's circular tech web, could allow civilizations to take tech paths that make sense for them, rather than imposing one single model of 'technological progress' on the wole world.

obviously there's limits to this, right -- civilization isn't going to be a detailed historical materialism simulator any time soon. but i think abandoning the idea that every faction has to play fundamentally the same and introducing some severe asymmetry as well as choices that you can make after starting the game would work wonders to wash out some of the racist and colonialist assumptions built into the game's foundation, while also (imo) creating a more fun and interesting game.

[lastwave]

Harry Du Bois, the skills + DID/OSDD coding

a compilation of most of my thoughts on harry as a system (note: i am system im not just like. pulling stuff out my ass)

1. Structural Dissociation Theory crash course

so for this point i'm going to give you a crash course structural dissociation theory (do not use me as a source for ur knowledge on it this is very like. base level and just to establish context)

structural dissociation states that we all start as multiple different facets, and that as we grow up, these facets all fuse into a cohesive personality. however, in DID/OSDD, ongoing trauma proves it safer to NOT fuse these facets and instead develop dissociative and amnestic barriers between them to varying degrees. these facets cope by developing into individual personalities, and if traumatic events persist, the brain may split more personalities to try and cope with this. this gives us two bits of information that i'm going to use throughout this

1. there is no "original", just alters that host for long periods of time and/or identify with the body the most

2. amnestic & dissociative barriers are fluid. in times of rest, these barriers may start to come down between some alters, but not necessarily all.

**NOTE: these are not hard and fast rules and vary from system to system. it's also vastly different if you have Polyfrag DID or Complex DID. since I don't hc Harry as polyfrag or complex tho, i'm not gonna get into that

2. Harry (the system)

so it's pretty easy to establish that harry has a good handful of childhood trauma. being born in a military hospital + town and growing up there means he probably saw and/or heard a lot of death and sickness. we also know his father left based on the logic passive in the measurehead conversation

we also know from the reaction speed passive when you find out your name that harry was born in a time all these were concerns. most likely, hunger, considering how through the game hunger + eating is an undertone w/ harry

we also have the klaasje half-light passive implying that harry's been raped (might not have occurred during childhood, but still a contributing factor to trauma)

my point being bro has enough childhood trauma and then some to create a system.

we also see a LOT of amnestic barriers between harry and the rest of the skills. besides the obvious not remembering anything, we see the skills remembering things that harry doesn't.

for example, EChem remembers that harry took speed some point recently, while harry himself doesn't

we also see that the skills have distinct personalities and opinions separate from each other. shit we've got a communist (rhetoric) and a fascist (endurance) living in the same fucking body. half light is immediately suspicious of everyone and everything while empathy tries to understand everyone even to their own detriment. and volition and echem need a whole post of their own. thats some pretty strong dissociative barriers

3. Harry (the alter)

to be quite honest with you i think harry as we, the audience, know him is a brand new split, an introject* of an old host that has either fused with another alter or gone dormant. he's trying to fill a different harry du bois's shoes- someone he is fundamentally similar to, but is, at his core, not

*Definition from did-research.org: Introjects are alters that are based off of an outside person or figure. Introjects may or may not see themselves as the individual that they represent.

knowing nothing about yourself, even what you look like, is a common feeling for new splits (in our experience). with the high amnestic barriers separating harry from the rest of the system, it makes sense that the first time he is conscious he is totally lost about his own identity, where he lives, or what his occupation even is.

losing facts about basic reality is probably a dissociative response. things the brain knows (see encyclopedia filling in gaps once given a prompt about something like Fillipe the Conquerer) but doesn't want the new host to know for fear of not being able to function.

4. Certain Alters with Functions

some of the skills fall into alter "archetypes" (not all alters will, even in like. real life systems) and im just gonna list them out here:

ones with subtextual backing:

Volition: Caretaker + Apparent Normal Part

Half-Light: trauma holder

Electro-Chemistry: symptom + trauma holder

Authority: protector

Logic: apparent normal part

ones that are just my headcanons:

Interfacing: little

Endurance: ex-persecutor

Inland Empire: ex-caretaker

here ends my post of articulate thoughts, if u have any like. follow up questions feel free to shoot me an ask. might take me a minute tho

[qweerhet]

the other thing is like. being perceived as a failed man isn't inherently incompatible with being perceived as a failed woman; trans people of all genders are perceived as both, to varying degrees and with varying contextual intent. transmisogyny covers a whole host of intersection points of misogyny, including being seen as a failed man, yes, but also being seen as a subclass of woman (able to be categorized as a woman when convenient to deny access to something, but inherently a woman that does not have access to womanhood, a woman that is not a woman but is being maliciously categorized as a woman, in a twisted form of malicious compliance), and also being seen as a failed woman in certain contexts (this most commonly happens to trans women who have chemically and/or surgically transitioned and regularly "pass" or are read as women by systems & individuals).

failed womanhood is a particular social class; it's not "this person tried to transition to womanhood but i don't see [her] as a woman," it's a class of women who step outside of gender bounds in a mirror to the failed-man class. women who are infertile or otherwise refuse to bear children, women who are testosterone-dominant, severely disabled women, women who do not intentionally present femininely. and like--yes, trans women who are perceived as women regularly get slotted into the "failed woman" class--tma people of all genders who are perceived as women regularly get slotted into this class--which does not deny the fact that a significant portion of tma people are not perceived as women by systems or by individuals.

and like--again--it's contextual! someone can simultaneously be seen as a failed man by her parents & doctor, and be seen as a failed woman by the people she goes to school with. the same person can swap between categorizing you as a failed man and a failed woman based on what's most convenient for them to support their presupposed biases and deny you access to resources. (and quite frankly, it's difficult to tell when this is malicious compliance and the perception is entirely artificially affected vs. when it's deeply internalized bigotry and the perceptions are genuine, but both do exist and both are different manifestations of deeply-embedded societal narratives.)

"transmisogyny is solely based on the societal categorization of transfems as failed women, and transmisogyny has no links to societal perceptions of men" genuinely doesn't make much sense when considering the cis women who are categorized as failed women & how they are treated--i think of my developmentally disabled classmates in sped, who experienced degendering violence because of their status as failed women, and i see certain parallels. being seen as sexually predatory, violent, uncontrollable, angry--all an area of overlap. but there's unique factors as well; failed women are treated as childlike, as in need of condescending & coddling education on proper gender roles, as in need of deportment, they're treated with the intention of softening them & leading them to femininity. adult failed women are treated as children long, long past childhood.

and trans women who are perceived as women regularly experience those things, particularly if they're also gnc in some way, but also just by virtue of being incapable of reproducing in the cisnormative way. simultaneously, though, there's unique aspects to transmisogyny in its "failed man" state; being treated as an adult long before it's developmentally appropriate, being reprimanded with the intent to "toughen you up," being treated as in need of masculinizing, needing to learn to enact violence and repress emotion, being backed into social corners to try to get you to violently lash out as ~education~ on your role in society.

those are not things that happen because someone is being, in that moment and by the structures enacting those things, perceived as a woman! some of them are even mutually exclusive, at least simultaneously--the same action cannot both reinforce that you are a misguided child undeserving of agency who needs patriarchal agents to teach you how to live and that you are a pathetic predatory wretch who needs to buck up and live up to your role as a powerful patriarchal agent! you can swap fluidly between having these experiences in life, but they're still experiences that are dependent on you being perceived differently at different times.

[bethanythebogwitch]

I haven't talked reptiles in Wet Beast Wednesday in a while (and the first time I did it got like 9 notes) so I'll do it again with marine iguanas. Admittedly they're more amphibious than aquatic, but there's no Moist Beast Monday and I think they're cool so it'll have to do.

(Image: Doug Jones in The Shape of Water a marine iguana basking on a rock)

Marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) are large lizards native to the Galapagos Islands. They are unique for being the only extant lizards that spend time in the ocean. As of 2017, there are 11 distinct subspecies that are isolated from each other by the islands they live on. Occasionally a member of one subspecies will end up on the wrong island and produce hybrid offspring. Marine iguanas also can but very rarely do hybridize with the land iguanas of the Galapagos, with whom they are believed to share a common ancestor.

(Image: an iguana perched on a rock

Marine iguanas vary in size based on subspecies, with those from smaller islands reaching a smaller adult size. In general, they race from 12 to 56 cm (4.7 - 22 in) from snout to rear, with a tail ranging from 17 to 84 cm (6.7 - 33.1 in). Males are significantly larger than females, up to twice the weight and noticeably longer. Marine iguanas are robust, with relatively short limbs. Their leg bones are heavy, to provide ballast while swimming. Their tails are laterally flattened and provide propulsion for swimming. They have a row of spines down their backs that provide stability while swimming, similar to a fish's dorsal fin. Their feet have powerful claws and can be used to cling onto and push off of undersea rocks. Marine iguanas were noted by many explorers for their dark color, including Charles Darwin (who referred to them as "clumsy" and "disgusting"). This dark color helps them warm up quickly after diving in the sea.

(image: an iguana going for a swim)

A major feature of the marine iguana is its diet, which is a huge factor in their semiaquatic lifestyle. They feed almost exclusively on green and red algae that grown underwater. To reach the algae, females and smaller males browse the intertidal zone during low tide, while larger males and abnormally large females can swim out to the deeper subtidal zone to forage. They can spend an hour underwater one one breath and dive to 30 m (98 ft), but most dives are much shallower and shorter. Only the largest males swim offshore and dive to significant depths for their food. Because they are positively buoyant, divers must actively swim or cling onto rocks to stay underwater. Most individuals will return to the same spot for feeding and competition over feeding spots have been known to happen. Larger males that swim out for their food have the advantage of less competition for their feeding spots. The species has adapted to be able to fast or subsist on reduced for long periods. During El Nińo, where food supplies can be reduced for years, they will actually shrink, with even their bones getting shorter, then return to full size once the food supply is restored. Because they consume excess salt with their food, marine iguanas have developed the ability to filter the salt out of their blood and expel it through glands in their nostrils. The secreted salt can then be sneezed away. Juveliles spend the first few months of their life feeding on (WARNING: GROSS) the feces of older iguanas. This helps them develop the culture of symbiotic gut bacteria that helps them digest algae. In fact, their digestive systems are so specialized to algae that they can't switch diets.

(image: a marine iguana grazing on algae underwater)

As ectotherms (cold-blooded animals), marine iguanas need to keep themselves warm to survive. The water around the Galapagos is typically around 11-23 degrees C (52-75 F) while their preferred body temp is 35-39 C (95-102 F). This high preferred temperature helps with their digestion. To keep themselves warm, the iguanas spend a lot of their time basking in the sun, especially after swimming. They can also reduce their heart beats while cold to help prevent heat loss. Basking iguanas can cover large beaches. They live in colonies that usually range between 20 and 500 individuals but can sometimes get up to 1000 members. Their biomass to area ratio can be the highest of any reptile. While they are considered gregarious, they display no social behavior such a grooming. The closest they get to a group activity is sleeping next to each other to conserve heat at night. They also get along with other species, such as Darwin's finches, mockingbirds, and crabs who will pick parasites off their skin. Divers may allow cleaner fish to pick off bits of dead skin. Another lizard, the lava lizard, likes to visit colonies to hunt flies attracted to the iguanas. The iguanas allow the much smaller lizards to climb all over them. Marine iguanas often share beaches with Galapagos sea lions, who will occasionally allow the iguanas to climb over them.

(image: a group of iguanas basking together)

(image: a male marine iguana, identifiable by the rough scales on his head, with a lava lizard climbing on him)

During mating season, male iguanas stop being as chill with their neighbors, attempting to establish a territory and push other males out. They also change from their normal dark appearance to a much brighter coloration. Territories are usually bordered by rocks or crevasses and can be found next to each other in groups. Males will attempt to attract females to their territories while fighting other males to get access to their females. This behavior is called lekking. Females show a distinct preference for larger males and it is the largest males that are most successful at maintaining territories. Medium males are forced to patrol the edges of territories to try to pick up mates while small males often pretend to be female to sneak into another's territory and attempt to mate. Males with territories defend them with special displays where they will raise their dorsal spines and open their mouths while bobbing their heads around. If another male challenges the dominant, they will display at each other. If neither submits, a fight will start. Males fight by headbutting and trying to push each other around. These fights can last for hours and the participants will occasionally take breaks. In most cases, one will eventually display a submissive posture and retreat, though in a few cases the fight has escalated to biting and scratching. When courting a female, a male will nod at her and approach in a sideways walk. Smaller males without territories may also try mating forcibly. Females only mate once per year and will signal rejection to additional suitors by nodding at them.

(image: a male performing a territorial display)

(image: two males headbutting each other in a territorial battle)

Mating season usually lasts between December and March. Females will lay eggs about a month after mating. The eggs (usually 2 to 3 but sometimes up to 6) can collectively weigh up to a quarter of the mother's weight, which is very large for an iguana. They are laid well above the tide line and buried in sand or soil. In places with few good nesting sites, mothers will guard their eggs after hatching to make sure other females don't dig therm up to steal the spot. When females fight over nesting spots they are less disciplined than males and will quickly resort to biting. The eggs hatch after 3-4 months. Females reach sexual maturity after 3-5 years while males do so after 6-8 years. They live an average lifespan of 12 years, but can live up to 60.

(image: a female iguana digging her nest)

(image: a group of juveniles climbing on each other)

Marine iguanas are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, while a few populations are instead considered endangered. A major threat to them is warming seas, which can reduce the red and green algae populations and replace them with inedible brown algae, leading to starvation. Marine iguanas only have a few predators and most of them target juveniles or small adults. As a result, the adults demonstrate island tameness, a lack of wariness to potential predators. This has left them vulnerable to predators introduced by humans, such as dogs, cats, rats, and pigs. Despite these invasive predators being present for ver 100 years, they have not developed any anti-predator defenses against them, a phenomenon called ecological naïveté. They also do not fear humans and will allow tourists to approach them, which has led to injuries and the spread of human-introduced diseases. They are protected by laws of Ecuador and most of their range is in protected areas. Efforts to remove invasive predators have seen some benefit. They are difficult to keep in captivity due to their specialized diets, and they have never been bred in captivity.

(image: a male with his bright mating season coloration)

[familyabolisher]

you don't need to answer this, but in your post (https://www.tumblr.com/familyabolisher/737777605781192705/ok-related-thought-is-i-think-we-can-develop-a) you mention how food service workers often reinforce 'class norms' in the restaurant setting; I was wondering what this meant exactly and if there was any example of this (for further elucidation because i was a bit unclear on the details while reading).

thank you, and I hope have a good day!

yeah, sure - so simply put, restaurant workers (to a varying degree depending on your actual position in the restaurant and contact with the guests, but all of us to some extent) need to cater to the customer, which requires enforcing the boundaries by which "customer" is defined in the first place. the customer is the individual who is going to generate profit for the business by spending money, and our job is to facilitate that process. obviously, the person who can spend money at the restaurant has to be a person with the means to do so, ie. money to spend - this is what i mean by the class norms of the restaurant. the class norms will vary based on factors like location, pricing, etc etc (eg. my work is the upscale end of casual dining in a relatively affluent area, so our guests are usually quite well-off, especially the regulars; the class character we are expected to reproduce is different to what you might expect from eg. a cheaper restaurant in the inner city), but the base principle is that we are expected to create an environment conducive to the spending of money and to limit or eliminate the factors that will inhibit people's doing so. this can mean removing homeless people from the restaurant, not letting them sleep outside, etc; challenging people who steal from the business, including collaborating with cops; preventing drug use on the premises; basically removing people who aren't going to spend money and who are regarded as 'antisocial,' offensive to the restaurant clientele, etc.

there are [arguably] more benign examples of this, like the kind of servitude we're expected to perform being one which simulates the presence of a servile class and thus maintains such a fantasy for the middle-class clientele; sweeping dead leaves up and binning them, which is horrible for the environment but expected of us because piles of leaves are an eyesore; the kind of work we have to do to create this sort of fantasy of servitude for the guests that extends beyond merely giving them a nice meal (again, this varies from place to place, and mine leans harder on it than many others).

obviously compliance with these expectations will vary lol but we as restaurant workers are, whilst obviously exploited, also complicit in systems of violence by which communities are constructed and outliers are expunged. i think this discourse which puts all the onus of exploitation or like 'harm' being done on the "customer" occludes the actual social processes taking place in the restaurant space.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Switching Tips and Info

Hello! We’ve often said here that for our system, switching is involuntary and happens automatically or with the help of our gatekeeper. However, we often get asked here about switching, how it works, how to practice switching, and how to switch for the very first time. In general, we’re probably unequipped to confidently answer these questions. But we’ve decided to put together this post with information we’ve picked up from therapy, research, and learning from other systems. We hope this can help you and your system learn to switch more effortlessly!

Disclaimer: We are not an expert or clinician by any stretch of the word! We are one DID system sharing our experience and information we’ve picked up during our time in treatment and system spaces. This post comes from the perspective of a system with DID, though much of this advice could be potentially useful for all sorts of systems!

What is switching?

Switching is a common occurrence in systems when one headmate swaps places with another in order to perceive and interact with the world. Systems of all sorts can switch, not just those with dissociative disorders like DID or OSDD! Switching can look incredibly different from system to system, and may vary based on a wide variety of factors such as:

System origin

Previous history with switching

Degree of dissociative barriers

Comfort levels with fronting and switching for each headmate

The presence of a system manager or gatekeeper

Safety of the system overall

And more!

Do all systems switch?

No, not every system wants to switch or is capable of switching! Many systems exist with one primary fronter and many headmates who either cofront, are coconscious, or never front to experience the outside world at all. Switching is not a requirement to be a system, and it’s not even a requirement to have a dissociative disorder.

Many systems may find that headmates have switched before without noticing it! Before a system’s “syscovery,” headmates may lose time, experience identity shifts, or interact with other system members without ever realizing that they’re plural. In fact, an overwhelming majority of systems with disorders like DID and OSDD are covert, meaning their switches and other symptoms often go unnoticed by other people or the systems themselves!

How can I switch with my headmates?

We don’t have any surefire way to guarantee switching, as every system is unique and no two systems function in exactly the same way! However, here are some ideas for you and your headmates to try in order to help a switch occur.

1. Open communication

Communicate with as many headmates as you can on a regular basis. Keep an open dialogue, and talk to your headmates about fronting, what that might look like for them, and any worries they have about potentially fronting in the future. Try to address each headmate’s fears and concerns to the best of your ability before expecting them to front. Imagine together what it might look like for other headmates to front. Try to understand what happens to headmates in your system who aren’t fronting: do they enter your system’s headspace/inner world? Do they stop fully existing or enter a sort of stasis? Are they still able to perceive the outside world at all? Having a stable, steady line of communication and an understanding of how your system works can help make it easier to allow other headmates to front when the time comes!

2. Seek out a gatekeeper or system manager

Many, but not all, systems have members whose role is specifically to manage who fronts and control switches. Our own system has a gatekeeper who handles the majority of our switches! If you haven’t already, try to learn whether or not your system already has an established gatekeeper. If you do, establishing a connection with that headmate and communicating with them will be essential for switching in the future.

If your system doesn’t have a gatekeeper/manager, that’s fine! A headmate with this role is not required for system to experience switches. For those who do have them, however, cooperating with managers and gatekeepers can help make switching a smoother, more painless process!

3. Ensure safety

Don’t attempt to switch if your system is not 100% safe, and only try to switch after all headmates involved feel comfortable and secure. NEVER try to force a headmate to switch who doesn’t want to. Respect each other’s boundaries and rights to personal autonomy.

When you’re ready to try and purposefully switch, do so in a safe, comfortable, secluded environment. Try to limit distractions and opportunities for interruptions. Check in with headmates that you have access to, and ensure that everyone feels safe and comfortable before attempting to switch.

For minors, traumagenic systems, and those who currently live with abusers or those who have harmed them: it may be for the best to not attempt to switch until you’re in a situation where you are distanced from those who have caused you harm (be them parents, friends, loved ones, or anyone else). Unfortunately for many systems, this may mean waiting until you have moved out of your family’s home in order to put some space between you and your system’s abusers.

Trying to switch when you’re not 100% sure of your system’s safety could absolutely cause more harm than good! The safety and well-being of your system is more important than providing headmates with opportunities to purposefully switch. There will be plenty of time in your future to learn more about your system and attempt to manage switches! Until then, it’s probably best to allow your system to function in ways that ensure your safety and the safety of your headmates.

4. Use positive triggers

Positive triggers are external stimuli that can help bring certain headmates closer to the front by reminding the system about that headmate and what they enjoy. Having a wide range of positive triggers at your disposal can help make it easier to get a headmate to switch with you! Here are some examples of what positive triggers can look like:

Music for each headmate, including playlists, albums, artists, and songs

Stimboards, moodboards, inspiration boards, and other collections of images that speak out to each headmate

Cooking, preparing, or eating a food, snack, or beverage that a particular headmate enjoys

Engaging with hobbies, media, and activities that a particular headmate is known to like

And more! Get creative with your system and brainstorm different positive triggers you can incorporate into your lives in order to help facilitate switches in the future!

5. Manage expectations

Unfortunately, not all systems are able to switch. Some hosts and other frontstuck headmates may never be able to fully leave the front. Cofronting with another headmate and allowing them to make decisions and treat the body as their own can be a great way to allow other system members to front, even if it’s not a full-fledged “switch.” Switching can look incredibly different for different systems, and even for different headmates in the same system! So don’t be too discouraged if you or your frontstuck members aren’t able to switch out fully - cofronting and being coconscious are both valid ways for other headmates to experience the world.

Where can I learn more about switching?

There’s lots of information out there to help all kinds of systems start learning about or managing switches! Here are some links to websites where you can learn more.

Note: some sites which are geared towards created, spontaneous, or endogenic systems may suggest purposeful dissociation as a way to trigger a switch. While this may be useful for some systems, adding more dissociation to the lives of those already struggling with dissociative disorders is a very bad idea and should be avoided! So if you are diagnosed with a dissociative disorder (DID, OSDD, DPDR, etc.), suspect you may have a dissociative disorder, or suspect your system is trauma-formed, it may be best to avoid following advice from sites aimed towards paromacers, those with thoughtforms, and nontraumagenic systems. For everyone’s convenience, we have starred (*) links to guides which involve purposeful dissociation so systems who already have trouble with dissociation can avoid them! If you’re not sure whether or not your system has dissociation issues, it’s best to PLAY IT SAFE and avoid these kinds of guides. Please use critical thinking and your own discretion when reading about switching online!

Terminology note: some of these sites use “tulpa” language, which is known to be racist and culturally appropriative. Please keep this in mind when browsing these sites. In our personal life, we use “paro/paromancy” language instead to avoid causing further harm to marginalized groups.

Intentional Switching (DID) from DIS-SOS

Switching and Passive Influence from DID-Research.org

*Fuliam’s Guide on how to switch from Tulpa.info*

*Malfael’s Guide to Switching from Tulpanomicon*

Our own resource post for questioning systems has lots of links to resources on dissociative disorders and other forms of plurality, many of which may have sections or advice on switching!

Questions? Comments? Something we missed?

We could write whole books on the many different aspects of switching, and how switches can vary from system to system and headmate to headmate. We’re sorry if we’ve left something out here that you or your system thinks is important! This post didn’t touch on passive influence, rapid switching, physical symptoms of switching, and many other switching-related topics. This is just a general overview with some advice on switching intentionally and voluntarily!

If you have any further questions, feel free to comment on this post or send us an ask and we’d be happy to answer to the best of our ability! We may not have all the answers, but we’re happy to share what we know. If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading! Stay well, and have a great day!

[geeta1726]

What is the effect of Saturn transiting the eighth house? How long does this transit typically last?

In astrology, the impact of a transiting planet depends on various factors, including the individual's birth chart and the specific dynamics of the transiting planet. When Saturn transits the eighth house, it is generally considered a significant period that can influence various aspects of life. Here are some common themes associated with Saturn transiting the eighth house:

Transformation and Rebirth: The eighth house is often linked to transformation, regeneration, and profound change. Saturn's influence may bring about a period of intense self-reflection and a need for restructuring aspects of life. This could lead to personal growth and a symbolic rebirth.

Financial Considerations: The eighth house is associated with shared resources, including joint finances, inheritances, and investments. Saturn's transit may bring a focus on financial matters, and individuals may need to address issues related to shared resources or make careful financial decisions.

Psychological Depth: Saturn's influence in the eighth house may encourage individuals to delve into deeper psychological and emotional realms. It can be a time for introspection, facing fears, and addressing underlying issues that may have been avoided in the past.

Relationships and Intimacy: The eighth house is also linked to intimacy and shared emotional bonds. Saturn's transit may bring a sense of responsibility and seriousness to relationships. Individuals may evaluate the depth of their connections and may need to work on building trust.

Duration of Saturn Transit: The duration of Saturn's transit through a house depends on the speed of Saturn and whether it turns retrograde during the transit. On average, Saturn spends about 2.5 to 3 years in a single zodiac sign. However, the time it spends in a particular house can vary based on the individual's birth chart and the specific degree range covered during the transit.

The duration of Saturn's transit through a house depends on Saturn's movement and retrograde during the transit. On average, Saturn spends about 2.5 to 3 years in one sign. However, the time spent in a particular house may vary depending on the individual's birth chart and the specific degree range covered during the transit.

For a more accurate interpretation it is necessary to consider the entire natal chart and the aspects Saturn forms with other planets during this transit. The theme of the eighth house may appear differently for each person, and the overall effect is influenced by the individual's specific circumstances. For which you can use the Kundli Chakra Profession 2022 software.

[astrojulia]

Hi Julia~❄️ loving your work !! 💙

I'd like to know about Astroid Regulus in Leo 29° in positive aspect with Mercury, Neptune & Chiron.

Thank You! 💙

Fixed Stars in Astrology

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Hi Siren! So, Regulus is a fixed star and not an asteroid and fixed stars are not commonly used in western astrology and so I can explain what they are, but I am not going to do a in deep post about them into it because I don't qualify as a the best source on the subject (there's a module extra at my school on the subject but I still can't do it 😅).

1. What are Fixed Stars and How They Work:

Fixed stars are distant celestial objects in the night sky that appear to be stationary relative to each other and form the background against which the planets and other celestial bodies move. They are considered "fixed" because their positions change very slowly over time, about 1 degree every 72 years. Fixed stars are grouped into zodiacal and non-zodiacal constellations. These constellations have mythological narratives associated with them, known as catasterisms, which vary across cultures. These stars were traditionally an integral part of astrology, lost some significance over time, but are now regaining importance in astrological interpretation in the western astrology, as far as I, Julia, know, it has always had its place in Vedic astrology..

2. Different Cultures and Narratives:

Different cultures have unique narratives associated with the constellations. Even cultures with limited contact have narratives that share similarities, indicating a shared human connection to the stars. Western astrology often uses Greco-Roman mythological narratives for interpretation, incorporating elements from other mythologies as well.

3. Benefic and Malefic Fixed Stars:

Fixed stars can be classified as benefic or malefic based on their astrological influences. For example, Algol (β Persei) is considered one of the most malefic stars, associated with challenging and intense energies. In contrast, Spica is considered one of the most beneficial stars.

4. Precession of the Equinoxes and Positional Changes:

The precession of the equinoxes causes gradual shifts in the positions of stars and constellations over long periods of time. This phenomenon impacts the positions of stars in relation to zodiac signs and constellations, which can lead to differences in interpretations between traditional and modern astrology.

5. Astrological Implications:

Fixed stars can be used in horary astrology to provide insights into future events and projects, particularly when they align with significant points in the chart, like the Sun's conjunction with Regulus in Virgo. They offer indications about qualities such as authority, generosity, courage, and more.

6. Finding Fixed Stars in Your Birth Chart:

The positions of fixed stars in your birth chart are determined by factors such as their brightness, size, and their alignment with key points like the Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven, and Imun Coeli. Astrologers use methods like the Ptolemaic method to calculate these positions and offer insights into an individual's life and traits. But since I know you're not going to do the calculations by hand, you can look up fixed stars on astro.com or on my favorite program Pegasus (this program has a very early 00's interface, but it calculates very well and has the option in english and other languages).

Extra Sources: Estrelas fixas na astrologia: o que é, quais são as de cada signo e mais!

Estrelas fixas: o que são e como são usadas na Astrologia

Estrelas Fixas no mapa astral

(CC) AstroJulia Some Rights Reserved

[bijoumikhawal]

Mesotherms in Trek

Mesotherms are an intermediary between ectothermy and endothermy, and I won't lie trying to research them is a pain in the ass because a lot of mesothermic species do not exist anymore (hi dinos) or are discussed primarily in terms of endothermy.

The characteristics of mesotherms are as such: they can raise their internal body temperature via metabolism, and they cannot exert particular metabolic control of a particular temperature. This means they have a greater range of internal temperatures they're subject to than most mammals (aka they're poikilothermic or heterothermic), and can keep their body temperature as much as 20 degrees higher than their environment in some species, but it and their metabolism will drop as ambient temperatures drop. They do not burn fat or shiver to warm up. They are more active than ectotherms, and require less food than endotherms.

Real life mesotherms include: hyraxes, naked mole rats, echidnas, leatherback sea turtles, tuna, certain sharks, and possibly the Argentine giant tegu (it's more accurately heterothermic).

Supposing ectothermy and endothermy are two poles on a spectrum, one could lay out these three species, from left to right, as such: Cardassians, Trill, then Bajorans.

Bajorans

Bajorans evolutionarily descend from heterothermic mesotherm underground rodents. Their temperature tolerance range varies slightly depending on where on Bajor their ancestry is from, but the primary factor is where they and their parents grew up. Even with this variance, knitting and crochet are popular in Bajoran textile production for warmth.

Ideal temperature: 65f-80f accommodates most Bajorans even with the varying tolerance.

Treatments/concerns: their temperature range has overlap with the climate controls on many Federation vessels, so most Bajoran crew don't have to seek out accommodations when serving in Starfleet. If a Bajoran has temperature concerns, adjustments to quarters climate controls are usually sufficient. In emergencies, the first thing to do is move the patient to an area with a 10 degree temperature greater or lesser than the current one (depending on which issue it is). If not possible, employing temperature packs, dressing and undressing, and so on can usually alleviate the matter greatly.

Cardassians

Cardassians are the most visually obvious mesotherms. This owes not only to their reptilian appearance, but also to the fact that their skin lightens or darkens depending on temperature as a method of regulation: darker for cold temperatures, lighter for hotter. Different “base” colors cluster roughly to geographic heritage, however all Cardassians have more or less the same tolerance medically (some Cardassians train to function better in cold temperatures, but the health affects remain similar). Cardassians are poikilotherms.

Ideal temperature: 86f-95f, with a basking temperature of 110f minimum.

Treatments/concerns: as mesotherms are subject to environmental temperature, all three exhibit some degree of basking behavior, however Cardassians particularly have developed a culture around it (and often will partake in behavioural fever). Federation vessels are always about 10 degrees too cool and unless crewed by ectothermic species, have little or no basking opportunities. Cardassians are fine on Federation vessels for limited time frames without accommodation for this and other reasons, but long term residence requires accommodation to prevent serious health problems, such as malnutrition and gout. It is inadvisable for non-medical personnel to undress a Cardassian experiencing temperature issues as their clothing insulation helps keep temperature constant, not just warm.

Trill

There are two different major populations of Trill: those on the northern contenients who have protrusions on the face and those on the southern contenients who have spots. The North-South distinction can be seen in how Southern Trill like Jadzia wear thicker uniforms when avaliable, and that the dress of civilians is made of heavy fabrics like brocade. The Northern Trill’s face protrusions are sinus related. Trill are poikilotherms.

Ideal temperature: 60f-75f for Northern Trill, 70-85f for Southern Trill.

Treatments/concerns: joined Trill are even more sensitive to temperature shifts than unjoined Trill, as the internal temperature the symbiont can tolerate is a much narrower range (about 5~ degrees, much like humans). They also often run hotter than unjoined Trill, so Jadzia and Lenara need to try and keep their temperatures around 80-85f. Part of the concern of the joining process is making sure a symbiont and its host having matching internal temperature ranges; the populations of different pools have symbionts with different tolerances. This is a limiting factor to enabling symbionts a variety of experiences and is an area of research the symbiosis commission has flagged as of interest. Trill from one population with an abnormal temperature range are often more likely to be selected for joining, but aren't especially common.

Cardassians and Trill, in addition to temperature, generally need more humidity in their environment than is usual on Federation vessels not operated with such needs in mind, though for different reasons. Also like Cardassians, it is inadvisable to undress a Trill experiencing temperature regulation issues for the same reason previously stated.

[tinyozlion]

“The Soul of Outer Space”: Quatre and the question of Newtypes in GW

Newtypes are a concept from the Mobile Suit Gundam series; the term refers to a generation of people who were born during the age of space habitation who have developed certain telepathic, telekinetic, empathic, and even precognitive abilities to widely varying individual degrees. They are considered a new phase of human evolution, better adapted to life in space because of their unique capabilities.

The precise details of what makes a person a Newtype are intentionally left a little mysterious. The most common Newtype characteristic seems to be the ability to sense the “pressure” of other Newtypes, though the exact identity of the other person is typically an unknown factor-- this is evidenced by the fact that whenever someone with Newtype abilities senses another, their first response is usually to try and guess based on vibes who the source of “pressure” might be. People frequently share a similar "feeling" that can be mistaken for someone else, particularly if they have personal traits or life circumstances in common. 

Newtypes can usually detect powerful emotions and subconscious intent from anyone in proximity, regardless if those people are fellow Newtypes or not. Some especially powerful Newtypes develop the dangerous ability to invade or even alter the minds of other people, though this is very rare.

Another common ability of Newtypes is an increased awareness of their environment in all directions. In some cases this is accompanied by minor telekinetic properties that allow them to guide or move objects in their surroundings, though this is usually limited to machines designed specifically to respond to brainwaves. This extrasensory capacity makes Newtypes exceptional pilots, able to feel the movements of their craft as if it were an extension of themselves and easily navigate through space.

However, what is of greatest importance about Newtypes is their ability to immediately understand and empathize with other Newtypes simply by making a mental connection with them. Communicating on a wavelength of pure emotion and thought creates an intimate and deeply personal connection between Newtypes without their needing to speak or even meet one another. 

 Newtypes connect to each other via their emotions, their memories, their minds, their selfhood– things that together one might describe as the soul of a person. When a Newtype dies, they leave behind an impression of this soul that can continue to be accessed by other Newtypes.

…So why the hell does anyone care about their psychic powers? Newtypes can literally transcend death--

--at least in a very animistic sense that assumes all things leave behind an impression. But Newtypes in particular seem to leave behind very distinct presences after they die, which can interact with other Newtypes and retain their individual identities for a long time before returning to the universe, presumably at will. 

The idea of oneness and harmony underlies the concept of Newtypes and their role in the world: they can instinctively understand with each other because they are not different entities in the grand scheme of things; they persist after death because all things persist after death; they can connect seamlessly with their environment because they are not separate from their environment; they can grasp the future because all time exists simultaneously.

 This ties in with the idea of a greater cosmic collectivism, or a pervasive animism in the universe that retrieves and emits the energy of life in perpetuity. It is not a force that is necessarily guided by some greater will, but is simply a natural principle, responsible for guiding people inexorably towards a more harmonious future if they are willing to stay in tune with it– and, being a part of nature, this guidance is lost when nature is not respected. This goes hand in hand with the idea that whenever things have been thrown off balance, because of greed or pollution or strife, humanity will be doomed to suffer. 

It’s a concept that’s found across lots of Japanese media, to say nothing of the religions and philosophies across the world that feature similar concepts. It’s perhaps not the first thing that people think of when they think of the Gundam franchise, but Tomino’s creation wouldn’t be what it is without this incorporation of hope and spirituality at its heart.

This is why Newtypes are lauded as the “next phase” of human evolution– not because they have “superpowers”, but because they have the ability to transcend the human instinct towards violence and competition by virtue of their capacity to understand and empathize instantly with each other. 

Newtypes are adapted to living in the stars, free from the “pull of gravity” which represents the limited and violent instincts of earth-bound mankind; attuned to a greater universal spirit, they are the harbingers of a peaceful utopia for future generations.

–At least, that is the hope for them according to the doctrine of those desiring independence for the emigrants in space.

The tragedy of Newtypes is that they are a generation of young people, uniquely endowed for exploring the potentials of space in total harmony with each other– and they have almost without exception been co-opted by competing military factions eager to exploit their latent talents as superior mobile suit pilots. Their abilities are forced out of them in combat; they are manipulated from infancy, brainwashed and conditioned to be easier to control by their handlers; their brains are studied and crudely adapted to create artificial Newtypes in labs whose sole purpose is to become elite soldiers. Even when they are not being actively abused by a military authority, Newtypes are still most frequently encouraged to use their potential in service of war before any other path they might choose. 

What to do about the generational divide between Newtypes and “Oldtypes” within the bleak reality of a wartorn era where talented young people are forced into military pipelines to die for governments that fear them is a central dilemma of the Universal Century timeline, spanning many series.

…But you don’t have to worry about any of that! Because there are no Newtypes in Gundam Wing. 

Oh sure, there are strangely Force-sensitive people like Quatre! But that boy’s just touched is all. And sure, people sometimes have mysterious premonitions that turn out to be correct even when all evidence points to the contrary, but that’s just a wacky coincidence! Do mobile suits sometimes start moving on their own because they “sensed” the will of their pilots? Don’t be silly– machines just do weird shit sometimes! Don’t worry about it. In this timeline, if you want to see the future and have a mental breakdown because people are feeling too loud, you gotta do it the old fashioned way by plugging into the ZERO system, or trying some of Howard’s special strain.

There are no Newtypes in Gundam Wing– that is to say, there are clearly some gifted individuals who have a set of undefined empathic and psychic abilities, but those people aren’t called “Newtypes”. They’re not called anything, because they’re not a thing, there is no in-universe explanation for them. We know Quatre has “the shine”, but other than him, we have no strong evidence that there is a new breed of space psychics emerging in the Colonies that will lead humanity to the next phase of its evolution (whatever that means).  

EXCEPT: along comes the White Fang, and its self-appointed representative of the Colonies, Milliardo Peacecraft, spouting some extremist fringe theory about how people born in space are inherently superior to people born on Earth because they’ve transcended their inner chimp and are destined to carry on the species when the old breed of earthlings die out. 

…If this sounds like some radical Zeon-pilled podcast nonsense, that’s because it is. There is NO established basis for these claims in AC 195. It is pure manufactured conspiracy theory horseshit. It’s a scare tactic, designed to sound like the deranged manifesto of an absolute maniac who NO ONE agrees with, and NO ONE wants in charge of a planetfucker-class space battleship pointed at earth. And that’s the point. 

For more on this topic, see the entry on The Char Aznable Problem.

…But hold on, what IS up with Quatre then? Are there empathic space psychics or not? There’s obviously at least one, but does that mean there are others? 

Maybe. There’s definitely SOMETHING going on that’s making people just a little bit special, a little bit faster and more durable with better reaction times, who are extra in tune with their surroundings, or have a heightened ability to sense the emotional states of other people. It’s not limited to people from space either– Zechs seems to have inherited a suite of enhanced reflexes, and increased physical endurance that allows him to fuck around with G-forces that ought to turn his brain into soup; meanwhile Relena got all of the personal charisma and the ability to sense people’s intentions that her brother lacks. 

But way more significantly, the most perceptive characters seem to have a kind of future compass pulling them in the direction of a particular future that they sense is “correct”. While it’d be tricky to prove that this is distinct from regular old fashioned intuition, what IS certain is that this intuition plays a significant role in the universe of Gundam Wing.

This strong intuitive pull towards connectedness and (just wild beat?) communication does seem to suggest that there could be a distant, animistic cosmic force at play that the more empathically gifted characters can sense to varying degrees, just like there is in the universe of Mobile Suit Gundam.

That would mean Quatre isn’t the only one of… whatever he is, it's MOST of the cast! Again, what exactly constitutes a Newtype is mysterious; it’s more than a set of abilities, it’s the attunement to a collective human spirit and the universe. The Newtype-equivalents in Gundam Wing may be what they are simply because they have an awareness of it. 

So what’s “the soul of outer space” that Quatre talks about? Well, that distant, cosmic force that’s drawing people together and towards greater harmony, I’d say!

And the person who finds themselves acting as an inciting catalyst for a cascade of events drawing everyone forward would be at the center– the heart, one might say– of all those connected destinies converging in space.

…Or maybe that’s just the open puncture wound talking.

Quatre, sweetie, you’ve lost a lot of blood, let’s get you to bed.

[quadrantbot]

An explanation on what QUADRANT FEELINGS feel like.

Those with any sorts of quadrant crushes OR those in quadrant relationships tend to feel a few easily identifiable things. 

Any and every member in a troll romance relationship feels some form of pity. 

The base descriptions of troll romance types may lead you to believe otherwise, but it's very easily explainable if you think about a few things.

Trolls (at least in canon) really seem to have only a few "emotions." One being hate, one being pity. That being said, I think any relationship based on pure hatred doesn't exactly have the push and pull required for a short term OR a long term relationship between two trolls. What's going to pull you back to someone you hate? Something deeper than just pure hate, that's what.

But what IS pity? Let us take a look at a few dictionary definitions of pity to break it down. 

"sympathetic or kindly sorrow evoked by the suffering, distress, or misfortune of another, often leading one to give relief or aid or to show mercy"

(dictionary dot com) 

"sympathetic sorrow for one suffering, distressed, or unhappy"

(Merriam Webster)

"a feeling of sadness or sympathy for someone else's unhappiness or difficult situation"

(Cambridge Dictionary)

"a strong feeling of sadness or sympathy for someone or something"

(Britannica Dictionary)

As the basis of all troll relationships are pity, getting a few definitions is best for any description. To put it in the most concise way possible, all of these above definitions are good ways to describe exactly how troll pity feels.

2. Despite pity being the core of all romantic troll relationships, it is often utilized and felt in relatively different ways across all quadrants.

When it comes to flushed romance, (the trolls in this relationship being referred to as matesprits,) pity is often referred to as the main factor. In a way, this is accurate, but it often feels like it's ignoring the major pity aspect in other quadrants. Those who are flushed for each other often feel extreme pity (or even on occasion regular pity) for one another. Flushed relationships are relationships where the pity is very prevalent, but often is less acted on. Flushed relationships feel that pity for one another, but they don't really feel the need to act on it too much. To quote a popular phrase, a good way to describe them would lean on "misery loves company" rather than any action taking place. They feel a sort of passive pity for one another, finding comfort in just knowing that and being together rather than a more active approach. Flushed romance is one of two red quadrants, both of which are based primarily on the positive emotions of all parties. Flushed romance is one of two concupiscient quadrants, those which can often involve sexual feelings, though not always.

Pale romance is the second topic in this, acting quite differently than flushed romance. When it comes to pale partners, (referred to as moirails,) pity also plays a role, though a far more active role. A common misconception about pale romance is that it's not romance, which is false. Pale romance is romance, after all. Those in a pale relationship feel pity much like every other troll relationship, but alongside that pity is a sort of feeling of caring, understanding, and a need to pacify and help their moirail. The support level between two pale partners can vary anywhere from one side being more on the recieving end and one on the giving end to an equal sort of thing on all sides. Unlike the previous relationship discussed, they have a more active pity, showing in their comfort and placating of their moirails. Pale romance is one of two red quadrants, both of which are based primarily on the positive emotions of all parties. Pale romance is one of two conciliatory quadrants, both of which involve some degree of pacifying.

Pitch/caliginous romance, (with a partner in this relationship being referred to as a kismesis,) is a relationship built on primarily hate. It contains the same pity as every other quadrant, but the main characteristic of pitch romance is the shared mutual hate and the mutual respect of both parties. Those who feel pitch feelings for one another tend to have a handful of things they admire about the other party, but that admiration is outweighed by the hatred they have for the other's bad traits. When it comes to caliginous romance, the pity they feel comes from knowing all that their kismesis could be if they were to improve, and being upset that they aren't becoming that on their own. The pity and hatred takes an active role where each party pushes for the other to get better. There's a sort of "get better" thing that goes along with their "I'm better than you" rivalry. They typically tend to push for the other to get better while also trying to be better than each other. Pitch romance is one of two black quadrants, both of which are based primarily on the negative emotions from the majority of parties involved. Pitch romance is one of two concupiscient quadrants, those which can often involve sexual feelings, though not always.

Ashen romance, (with the middleman partner being referred to as their auspistice,) is a relationship that could exist for a few different reasons. At the very core of it, an auspistice feels pity and ashen feelings for the two trolls they're mediating between. Those feeling ashen feelings can be best described as a sort of responsibility they feel to keep the hatred between the two trolls healthy, or, in the case of preventing pitch infidelity, keeping the hatred platonic. This feeling is also considered a type of romance. An auspistice's responsibility for the two parties is something they willingly sign up for, so it's generally not as stressful as one might assume. Auspistices exist to make sure the emotions and actions between the two mediated parties stay at whatever level is best for everyone involved. Ashen is one of two black quadrants, both of which are based primarily on the negative emotions from the majority of parties involved. Ashen romance is one of two conciliatory quadrants, both of which involve some degree of pacifying.

TLDR: BOY READ MY QUADRANT POST BOY

[drdemonprince]

hi! i really liked your new substack essay as well as your previous work on gendered socialisation, i think you do a great job of demonstrating that gender conformity doesn't always mean what people think it means. but i'm never sure, when you say things like "he was punished for femininity because he was always a queer man" of a trans guy or when you discuss yourself not experiencing sexism, whether you're trying to imply that trans people have a kind of gendered "essence" that people pick up on even before someone transitions? to me it's much more reasonable to conclude from these facts that there isn't actually a large and consistent difference between "male" and "female" social experiences, and that although some experiences are more common for people of certain genders than others, there is a huge amount of overlap and inconsistency because socialisation takes place at the complicated intersection of gender, class, race, and other cultural factors taken together, rather than being clearly delineated based on *either* agab or "actual gender" (both extremely messy categories to begin with). you mention yourself that many of the trans guys in your essay were punished for femininity not because the people around them subliminally knew that they were actually men, but because cis women in their cultural contexts were expected to be what in other contexts is considered masculine; and that plenty of highly privileged cis women "don't experience sexism" in the way that other women do. do you see these two perspectives as separate, or would you say that you hold both of them to a degree?

I don't think there's some magical gendered essence, or biological component to being a trans person. I think we vary in how and what we internalize gendered expectation wise, relating both to our cultural milieu and our identity. I always rejected certain female normative standards for my background completely out of hand. I experienced them viscerally as just "not for me" and also applied certain male expectations to myself. Why? Who knows.

[anarchywoofwoof]

Ok so as a fellow anarchist I’m just wondering how to respond to people I’m having discourse with if they bring up the fact that I benefit from large corporations and therefore a hypocrite for hating large corps? Or similarly how I benefit from the current sociopolitical system?

hi friend. good ask, valid concern, and one that i'm sure many of my followers have faced many times before, or at least similar criticisms.

first of all, it's kind of important to differentiate between individual choices and systemic critiques.

imagine you're amongst a group of people in a big, working forest, and the only tools that you have at your disposal are the ones that the forest provides. you may or may not have a choice on whether or not you use those tools to survive, even if you dream of a different kind of forest, one where the tools are more equitable and sustainable and useful to all those involved in the same ways.

but just because you use the tools available to you doesn't mean you endorse or support the forest's current state.

when we critique large corporations or the overarching sociopolitical system, we are addressing systemic issues — this includes the inherent structures, power dynamics, and inequalities that these entities perpetuate. our criticisms are not necessarily about the individual products or services they offer but about the broader implications of their existence and the way they dominate our lives.

to the point of benefiting from these entities: it's a reality that we all, to varying degrees, rely on products, services, and infrastructures provided by large corporations. this is not a matter of choice but of necessity. the current globalized world has been structured in such a way that corporations have largely monopolized essential sectors, which makes it nearly impossible for individuals to avoid them entirely.

however, benefiting from a system does not preclude one from critiquing it. in fact, it can be argued that those who are most embedded within a system — and thus most affected by its flaws — are in the best position to understand and critique it. to label someone a hypocrite for using a product while critiquing the system that produces it is a reductive argument. it oversimplifies the complexity of our realities — socially, geopolitically, economically, etc.

it's also worth noting that many anarchists and critics of capitalism actively seek out alternatives to whatever the status quo might be. whether it's being a patron to local businesses, participating in community-based initiatives, or advocating for more equitable economic models, there's generally a concentrated effort amongst leftists / socialists to find and promote alternatives to the dominant corporate paradigm.

however, the sheer scale and reach of these corporations mean that complete disengagement from the larger system is not always feasible.

in terms of benefiting from the current sociopolitical system, it's a nuanced issue. yes, certain privileges might be afforded to some individuals based on their race, gender, location, socioeconomic status, or other factors, but this doesn't negate the valid criticisms they may have of the system. it's entirely possible — and fairly common — to recognize one's privileges while also advocating for a more just and equitable system.

the act of critiquing a system while navigating within it is not only valid but necessary. it's actually only through this type of introspection and the subsequent discourse that we can hope to work towards more equitable alternatives.

[explorersaremadeofhope]

pleeeeease i wanna hear about snorri sturlusons edda being an unreliable source for pre christian skandi life

agsdfjsgh oh no it's almost 4am

okay CONDENSED VERSION

the prose edda was written in the thirteenth century. (it's commonly dated to around 1220.) snorri himself lived from 1179 to 1241, which makes him solidly high medieval by a european standard and medieval (ie not viking age) by a scandinavian standard.

iceland converted to christianity in the year 1000 AD through a resolution carried in the alþingi (this is according to njáls saga as we do not actually have contemporary written material from that era. pinch of salt as to the precise date, and of course the nature of conversion is such that it doesn't happen overnight, even in a small population like late viking age iceland, but nevertheless -- iceland was very decidedly no longer pagan by the 1200's)

(this leads into a Big Old Debate about the nature of oral memory and how much and how reliably material can be preserved in that manner, especially detail, and for how many generations. this is contentious and im not gonna get into it but it's a factor)

snorri sturluson was a christian

this matters because although he was interested in the culture -- especially the poetics (we'll come to that) of the past, he was not a part of that culture and he was viewing it from the outside. his interest was antiquarian.

snorri sturluson's edda is an educational work in poetry. it is a poetic. a book of skáldskapr, ie of the poetical arts. the poetry of viking age iceland, the poetical culture that medieval iceland inherited, was one based on a huge and complex metaphorical system which directly referenced pre-christian mythology. to take a classic example, instead of simply saying 'gold', you might say 'sif's hair', but to understand this you'd need to know the story where sif loses her hair due to a loki fuckup and is gifted new hair made from gold.

in short, the loss of the knowledge of these stories would completely hamstring all successive generations of poets -- not only would they no longer be able to participate in the poetic tradition, they wouldn't even be able to comprehend and appreciate the work of their predecessors.

the narrative part of snorri's edda is the one most people are familiar with. it is even often printed separately. but his work is actually comprised of four sections: a prologue dedicated to explaining that the pagan gods were actually men (see euhemerism), the narrative portion (gylfaginning), a section which explains a large number of poetical metaphors (skáldskaparmál), and a section which gives examples of various poetical metres a skáld should know (háttatal).

oh god i said condensed, this is already so long

FINALLY: snorri was a scholar. and medieval scholars took a different approach to their material than modern historians. they were unafraid to edit, embellish, pick and choose, compile and systematise as they saw fit. (we have some notion of what types of sources snorri used and some of his material survives in other sources, but much does not, leaving his account the only one, which means we can't check his work, as it were.)

we must assume that the prose edda synthesises material that was varied and contradictory -- folk tradition always is (think of how many versions ballads and folk songs survive in). we must assume that there are versions which were lost. we must also assume that his christianity has affected the material to *some* degree, though how much is again a Big Debate (for example we may point to the part where he says that loki was outwardly beautiful but wicked -- afaik there is no physical description of loki anywhere else, and it's tempting to see a parallel here to christian notions of temptation).

TLDR snorri has created a *version* of norse myth. and while we should be incredibly grateful that someone actually sat down and created a literal guidebook like this we must also remember by whom it was made, why, and when. (✨source criticism!✨ [philology jazz hands])

(this isn't even getting into how the narratives of mythology correlate -- and don't -- with the evidence of worship uncovered by archaeology but POST TOO LONG)

[goddesstrolls]

Technically, Alternia has free housing, free public transport, free public healthcare, and UBI.

All of those things, however, require you to at least exist in the Empire’s records, if not also having an Empire-issued ID. For public transport, technically you need an ID, but 99% of bus/train staff do not check. For the public hospitals you absolutely need an ID and god forbid you’re hemoanon.

The free housing is typically only for wrigglers. For olives and below, the hives are made of cheap standard-issue materials and usually fall apart within 10 sweeps, on top of having wonky architecture because a drone gave a baby a tablet and had them build their own hive, and then made that real.

So usually lowbloods move out of their wrigglerhood hive and into an apartment where they have to [shudder] pay rent and utilities. Highbloods do this too if they decide they didn’t like their wrigglerhood hive or they want a second hive, and so on. The Empire also has caste-based building standards and strict rules regarding what can be considered housing for a particular caste subset. No building an apartment complex to lowblood standards and slapping a ‘midblood complex’ sticker on it. (It’s in the Empire’s best interest to limit capitalism on Alternia for a number of reasons)

You can technically commission the drones to build a hive as an adult, but it’s a rigorous bureaucratic process that absolutely no one wants to deal with.

UBI is based not only on caste, but on lineage and a number of other factors like psionics- Basically if the Empire decides you’re “potentially useful” you get a higher stipend than your peers. The stipend can be increased or decreased during your lifetime if, again, the Empire realizes you are “potentially useful” to the Fleet and they want to fund your learning before scooping you up. (That way they don’t have to educate you first, yay!)

This all depends on the information which the Empire manages to get on an individual, which can vary from “they exist” to “we know where you work, live, and where you do your grocery shopping” (don’t use Empire credit cards, kids)

Public transport is the most reliable public amenity, but it has it’s problems. Murderbussing is a common activity; Trolls board and make it a game to kill every single troll in the car before the next stop. If you manage to kill the driver (in an antipsionic blastproof cage) you win at murderbussing forever. Drivers and staff usually aren’t vetted too well so you get some, uh, unsafe driving practices. Unsafe for pedestrians or anyone else on the road, anyway. It’s fine, Alternian busses are practically indestructable.

Empire hospitals tend to be staffed by Fleet trainees who are some degree of bootlicker, downright incompetent, or just... Not educated enough for their position. On top of that they’re massively invasive and will ask you every single personal question to scrape information for your Fleet profile, and if you don’t answer, you don’t get treatment.