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ma3-author2 · 2 years

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Campfire Cooking In Another World x Reader

I recently watched this on Netflix, and I like this sort of theme as it gives me the same vibes as "The Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime." So I thought, why not write a fanfic of it?

I also noticed that not many people wrote about this. Also take note: I followed the manga instead of the anime, but I also put the anime part. In simple terms, I mix it between manga and anime.

Chapter 1 : "Discovery of the new world and amazing skills!"

____________________

"So care to tell me how we end up in this place?"

"You're asking me? I’m as clueless as you."

Everything was surprising, hectic, and clueless to both of you and Mukoda after arriving in this fantasy place with swords and magic. Unlike in the modern world,

At the age of 27 and 28, you two are just on your way to work when suddenly a light emerges out of nowhere, and the first thing you see when you open your eyes is this group of people gathered in a circle, wearing domentor clothes, and a girl who was screaming in tears.

"The summoning ritaul has brought you three warriors to us—please save this kingdom of Rayseer!" The lady in tears exclaimed in agony, hoping for the tree warrior to save them.

"Miss, there are five of us; what do you mean three?" You exclaimed, gaining the attention of Lady Tears, and seeing her surprise look, she too didn’t know why there were five people.

"Eh? Oh-"

"I think we should use the "identifier" spell." One domentor said he was holding a seemingly big mirror, and once he made his way to the tree students in front of you two,

He said it out loud: "One is a swordsman, while the other two are spearsmen with holy magic, fire magic, and water magic." an amazing and powerful skill.

But when it comes to the both of you and Mukoda, you two can’t help but feel embarrassed about it.

"You two are... online shopping and... expresswa then spending?" Even the domentor is clueless about what he reads through the mirror.

"At least I have two skills," you muttered, but soon chuckled as you couldn’t believe how you could still feel proud of having that skill while the other students have a good one.

"...Then what about me?" Mukoda murmured, hiding his now-red face.

"Hey, at least you don’t have the spending part. It's obvious how I love to spend money."

As soon as that was done, you two were brought to the king, and when you saw the size of this so-called king, You already knew why the nation is failing, as all the taxes of the people are inside of him.

Furthermore, the royal family is wearing heavenly jewelry.

As the king began his speech, he told some history in regards to the Rayseer kingdom and told the warriors what they were going to do to help them with this mission. You can’t help but feel annoyed as the tree warrior was given a lovely service while you and Mukoda are still in your working outfit, not even getting acknowledged.

'Hey, isn’t this too suspicious?' Mukoda whispered in which you shush him before he got caught.

'Obviously,'

Sighing as you whispered this, you then raised your hand and said, "Excuse me for my intrusion." As you gained their attention, you continued

"But we two are not warriors, and we don’t want to interfere with your work!" And we both decided to look for something else to do when you guys do your things. "

"A-and do you mind sparing some money?" Mukoda cut your speech by asking for money; you wanted to smack your face because of his forwardness. But you saw his point, as you two are not from this world and you need some money to survive.

They didn’t even question you two, and they handed you a bag of money. Afterward, they tossed you two out like you were nothing but dust.

"At least they didn’t throw us in a dungeon," you muttered, counting the gold coins.

Mukoda just chuckled at your statement, agreeing with what you said. But as you two walked around the place, he noticed that people began to whisper and look at you two with a confused look.

"Hey, why are they looking at us that way?"

"I know your sharp Mukoda-san… but I didn’t know that you were this sharp."

Mukoda can’t help but sweat at your sarcasm, and when he noticed where you were pointing, he couldn’t help but be embarrassed at the obvious part.

"R-right… I forgot. Sorry, Y/N-san."

It was a good thing that there was a nearby clothes store, and as soon as you two went in to fetch a new pair of clothing, the saleslady couldn’t help but coo in delight when she saw you two walk out of the dressing room.

"Well, well, doesn’t this suit you two lovebirds well!?"

"L-love birds!" Mukoda exclaimed that a flush was starting to form on his cheeks and couldn’t help but glance at where you were.

"Ma'am, we're not together." You said you were correcting the lady, but in return, she said how she thought you two were, as she wanted to give you two a discount.

In replying to that, you immediately tagged Mukoda beside you, who wasn’t stopping his shuttering noise. "I sometimes forget—huhu—silly me, aren’t I, honey?" You lied, eyeing him to play along.

"Y-yeah, that’s why I l-love you, sweety~ hehe."

"Don’t worry, it's normal to couple!" and here is your charge; this is an extra gift for you two."

"Is it okay if we sell our clothes?" you ask, taking the paper bag from her hand, and when she says that, you can.

You earned more money than you have; the same goes for Mukoda. Even though you are known for your spending hobby, you are also known for getting more money.

As you thanked the lady in the store, Mukoda on the side still couldn’t brush away his blushing face when you suddenly acted like that. But it soon went back to normal when he remembered how you did that a couple of times before.

"Okay, now the clothing is done... "We need to look for an inn to rest for the day."

As you two are now on the lookout for an inn, it wasn’t that long before you two found one, and hearing the owner say how it’s the most affordable on the town, you doubt it.

"I’ll see you tomorrow."

"Okay"

It was a nice room with a rather uncomfortable bed, but you could survive it in a day, and as soon as you laid down, you stretched your arms and thought how you two ended up in this mess so quickly.

Though you hated to go to work to earn a living and were always tired to continue it, if it weren’t for Mukoda banging on your door every morning, you would have been dead long ago.

Mukoda and you met in high school; he's a chill guy who is sometimes an airhead, and you two just clicked, and in the end, you two ended up being neighbors to being a neighbor to work as well.

‘I should check it out now’

"Status display." Once you said this word, a large screen appeared displaying your name, age, and skill, aka job.

‘Okay, they got my name right... my age... *sigh* Why did it need to remind me that I’m 28’

Anything that was identified that you needed to learn, seeing your level and attack. It reminded you of an MMORPG, but instead of autopilot, You need to do it manually.

‘Great... so, basic skill... ‘ Just seeing the big words, you can’t help but sweat at this, and hearing Mukoda in the other room shouting his, then silent...

‘Okay, let’s try not to shout it.’

With a simple touch on the skill, it pops out like an ad, and seeing the skill in front of you, you can’t help but express your interest in it as it is displayed like the word expressway and spending indicated of it.

"Y/N-san! Come look at this!"

"Okay, wait"

As you closed the skill, you made your way to Mukoda, knocking on the door first and walking inside.

"What is it? Where did you get this food?"

"It’s from my skill, and it’s pretty cheap; I also brought your F/F."

As Mukoda showed you his skill, you couldn’t help but tell him how you have the same skill but that yours has things that he doesn't.

"Oh? Can I see?" And when you showed Mukoda yours,

"Y/N-san… "Why is it blank?"

"I don’t know... That’s the expressway, and this is the spending."

Like him, you can also buy food and other stuff, but instead of paying the same fine as him, you only need to spend half of what he does.

"Hey, isn’t that cheating? Why do you have the lowest price?!"

"I don’t know... oh wait." All of a sudden, there was a pop-up message telling you that you earned a point for spending, and once you complete the bar and earn more points, you can have one item for free.

‘So like... a point to point’

"That’s cheating!!"

With the discovery of both of your skills and how Mukoda still felt that he was robbed, you simply told him that he could have the free item just to make him feel less robbed.

"No, no, you have it, Y/N-san."

"If you say so." Rolling your eyes and chuckling at this, as the morning arrived, you two didn’t wait another minute to stay and are now on your way to another town away from this town.

According to the kids, to get to the border from the capital. You two need to go through the town of Kiels. And there will be a horse cart route connecting to it.

"Thank you, kids, here have this" handing them a freshly baked loaf of bread that you brought on your way, thinking it’s best to eat it on your way to another place.

But seeing their skinny look, you just give it to them.

"Thank you, Nee-san!"

Furthermore, if you need to cross the border, you can just get on the next horse cart route to get to the kingdom of Feenen, but sadly, one of you needs to stay behind.

"Kiels-anybody going to kiels-"

"Excuse me! We like to go!"

"Yes, yes, ah- but there is only one available... I think you need to wait for another one, lad," the coachman said.

You and Mukoda couldn’t help but glance at one another, and before he could say anything, you offered to stay behind and wait for the other one.

"Are you sure?"

"Yup. Mister how long will the next one take?"

"About an hour or so."

Nodding at him, you simply told Mukoda that you could just go back to the inn and stay until the next one returned.

"So what would it be?"

In the end, Mukoda stayed behind as well, and you can’t help but thank him for not leaving you behind. "Of course, I would never leave you."

"Oh, Mukoda-san, that’s too cheezy."

"O-oi! Not in that way!"

"If you say so... so, should we go back to the inn or should we explore?" You didn’t even get to finish talking when you heard a passerby talking, and when you heard their conversation, you couldn’t help but sprint to them.

"Excuse me, I can’t help but hear your conversation... What do you mean by "closing the border and no more horse routes?"

"Didn’t you hear? On this day, the king and queen declared that they were closing the border because they couldn’t afford the expense of the route to it"

"And if they continue it, there will be no more food for us... I can feel their struggle."

‘Struggle? Really?’ You deadpan thought,

"I know what you're thinking, Y/N-san... If only they knew, so... what should we do?"

"I think it’s time to see what my other skill is." With that said, you two made your way to fewer people, and when you opened the skill,

You two can’t help but express your joyful look when you find out that you can use your skill to travel to another location, and with this, you don’t need to wait for another hour to go to another capital.

But the only problem was the expense.

"Why is it expensive?!?" You exclaimed that going to Kiel's cost you 12 golds.

"I can share my coins-" But you didn’t let Mukoda continue his speech when you suggested something, and that suggestion was a good one for him.

"What about this? I can be the ride to the capital while you handle the food."

"Ah, sure. I think that’s okay with me. but I can share my-"

"Okay great! Let’s go"

Mukoda only sighs and sweats as you cut his words again, but soon chuckles as you’re a person who has a lot to spend but is not a person who would ask for money as you spend it with your only money.

As you clicked the name, a warning note popped out telling you that if you're traveling with someone, you need to hold their hands for them to join you and in the further down.

"Caution, you might get a side effect for a first-timer." You expect to see a note on what side effect it was, but "Who would put this without giving the description of the side effect!"

"Maybe you'll just be dizzy," Mukoda says, trying to calm you down.

"I hope it will be... Okay, are you ready?"

"O-oh, yeah." He almost forgot the holding part; it’s not like he didn’t get to hold your hand, but is a high five counted as one?

As soon as you felt his hand on your hand, you clicked the button. and within a minute it sends you off to Kiel's place, if you have to rate the ride.

You would rate it a negative one because as soon as you clicked it and landed on the place, it felt like you two went inside a black hole because your whole body circled in one place.

You thanked that you didn’t eat that bread, as you would have been vomiting like Mukoda on your right side. "I-I think it’s best if we should… *blargh* … find another way."

"I-I agree"

Just like the two guys said, the route to the capital has stopped operating.

"So this is the border? Why do people seem so normal when things are this bad?" Mukoda whispered next to you.

"It’s like when you don’t get your paycheck. You need to force yourself to work to have it," you mutter as you still feel a little dizzy.

"HUh?"

"Let’s just go grab some food; I need some water." You didn’t even get to finish when Mukoda’s stomach grumbled.

"R-right, let’s go!"

You two made your stop at a bar and seeing all the people dressed in heavenly armor, swords, and archers lying on the table or beside the table. You can’t help but wonder how strong they can be to lift that much weight, as you can’t even lift yourself to go to work.

"Mukoda-san, I’m going to order, and you go find a table."

"Ah, Y/N-san... were not in the modern world."

"Oh right, I forgot... then let’s find a table."

As you two found a good table to sit at and eat, Mukoda leant his way toward you, whispering another word. "While we're here, why don’t we ask for some information?"

"Good idea; you go to the left; I’ll go to the right." And so you two made your way to your station to ask for some information. While Mukoda got his, you also got yours.

Thanks to the lady you spoke to, you were right on why the king and queen want to close the border, and as soon as you went back, you needed to tell Mukoda that you two needed to leave before it completely closed thanks to the greedy king and queen.

"Mukoda-san, we need to leave soon."

"I know, but I don’t want to use that again," he muttered, not wanting to remember how much he vomited on your skills.

Nodding at him, you look around, wanting to find an idea or plan to use another way without using these expensive skills of yours, and as your eyes land on the people around you.

"Hmm, why don’t we recruit these adventurers?" They can help us, though it will cost as dearly, but it’s a better route than mine."

"I will take that offer."

As you two made your way to the front desk to ask if they would take a bodyguard's request to escort you two, thankfully, they did, and in your opinion, it cost less than yours.

But because of the closure of the horse cart route, the fee was increased a little bit. And if we two need to catch someone’s attention, eight gold coins would be better.

"Hmm… what do you think, Y/N-san?"

"I think it’s fine... Unless you want to ride mine." You didn’t really say it out loud, but this lady in front has a strong hearing sense.

"Oh my~ you two don’t need to do that here!"

Hearing the lady at the front desk, it took you two minutes to understand what she said, and you immediately corrected the awkward situation.

"I-it’s not like that!" Mukoda exclaimed that redness was now covering his whole body.

"Hehe, it’s okay; it’s normal for couples!"

"We're not a couple!" Now it was your time to exclaim, ‘What is it with people thinking that we're a couple!’ Heck, even back then, can they just think that you two are just close without that word?

"Ehem- er, can we bring food with us?" Mukoda muttered, still flustered by what the lady said.

"That is no problem! I will notify you when someone accepts it. Thank you for coming."

After that conversation, it was a semi-awkward situation, but it quickly settled down, as you and Mukoda needed to prepare for this trip and how you two needed to tip the adventurers.

"Okay, first we need a simple starting pack. A cape or warm clothes to protect from the cold, a sleeping bag, and some water jog."

"Water pouch Y/N-san"

"It’s the same thing, and of course, food."

As you two made your separate way to buy all the necessary stuff with all the money you have. You were not even far from where your separation spot is when you jogged toward Mukoda, tagging his back clothes.

Thanks to this, he got startled.

"Y-Y/N-san? You scared me, I thought a holdaper-"

"We have that skill, why are we still buying it through the market? and it cost less."

"I mean, you're right... But would that be dangerous? I mean, they've never seen it before, and it could be suspicious for them if they saw it."

"You do have a point... Hmm, okay, we will just buy the clothes here, but for the food, we will use the skill."

____________________

‘Holy cow, his handsome’ You thought as the leader of the will of metal, Werner introduced himself, giving you a dilfi aura.

"So you two are the clients?"

"Yes, it’s us. You can call me Mukoda and "Y/N-san." Mukado can’t help but sweat at how much you're staring at Werner and has nagged you to snap out of it.

"Oh, ah. "Hello, thank you for accepting this task."

"Nice to meet you."

Just by shaking his hand, you already knew that he worked hard. Werner then continued to introduce his other team. You met Vincent, another handsome guy; Rita, a cute bubble girl; Lamon, an old cool dude; and lastly, Lamanka.

Another Dilf, but a Milf one.

‘I only saw it in games, but now I can see it in person!’ You were happy that these people would be the ones to guide you; you just hoped that they wouldn’t rob you like any other novel there is.

"Well then, to Feenen!" Vincent exclaimed, followed by Rita's chirping voice.

It was like a movie with a theme of fantasy and action, but instead of just seeing it on the big screen, You're watching it in 3D with a twist of reality.

And you can’t help but clap your hands at how fast they work by defeating some monsters.

"The sun is about to set. "Let's camp here." Werner said, and as soon as he said those words, You let out an exhausted yawn as your feet were killing you.

‘Finally’ only to groan when Mukado tagged you towards him.

"Y/N-san, we should cook them a meal... I mean, they helped us survive."

"You're right, sorry. We should get started. Umm… Is it okay if we cook you guys something in a thank you way?"

"It’s no problem for us, but are you sure?" Werner asks, oh, how you see that he has a pure soul. and prayed that he would never change.

"I’m craving some hotpot all of a sudden with this cold," you whispered, shivering with the cold night.

"I agree, but we need fast and simple food; we don’t have that much on us." Mukoda whispered, chuckling, as he brought out a stove. Thanks to the item box, you two don’t need a big bag to carry this stuff, and you also took yours.

"Hey, Mukado-san, Y/N-san, can use the item box? I no wonder your bags are so small." Vincent saw the magic stove you two brought out, and you and Mukoda immediately told him that it was just a small item box.

"Wow, this magical item looks awesome."

"Oh, haha, we got it from someone we know." Mukoda said, glancing at you, to which you shrugged your shoulders. starting your cooking show.

while Mukoda serves a simple sausage soup with bread from another world. You, on the other hand, serve a sweet corn soup with mashed potatoes on the side, which you brought from another world as well.

But before you fed it to the Will of Metal group, you told Mukoda to taste it first. "So, is it okay?"

"Yeah! It’s delicious!"

"Yours as well; we should hand it to them now... They kept staring at us. " You sweated as you said this, as the group has been watching you two like hawks for the last minute.

"Be careful, it’s hot!"

"Whoaa, it’s really the soup!"

It’s not even a minute when they gulp down all the food in one go, and just hearing their compliments in regards to your food and Mukoda. You smiled in pride at this.

‘At last, someone who appreciates my food!’

"What is this? This is so good! This soft little thingy is so delicious!" Rita exhaled, gulping down the mashed potato. "Thanks to this meal, I feel more youthful than ever!"

"I feel like my body is full of energy now!" Lamanka excalimed.

‘Hey, Y/N-san… What do they mean by that?’

‘Maybe it’s the way they compliment? and I would gladly hear it all day!’

Mukoda sighs, and he can’t help but start to sweat at this. When he heard Lamon talk about mind, he used the skill "evaluation," and when he saw Rita’s status, some were adding up thanks to the food.

He can’t help but spit the soup out of his mouth. And seeing him, you asked if he was alright while patting his back.

"Mukoda-san?! what happen? Are you okay?" Vincent asks

"Oh, no, no. I was choked because of the soup."

‘Y/N-san, check their status."

‘What?’

‘Just say evaluation."

With what he said, you followed it and when you saw it. You almost choke on the mashed potato you're munching on, and may I remind you that it’s soft and not a hard potato.

"Y/N-san! Are you okay?" Werner ask.

"Oh, yeah. Just remembered how amazing you guys are for defeating that monster, hehe."

‘Why the fuck did that go up?’ You glance at Mukoda and seeing him looking at his food. You did it as well. It was a good thing that it was only temporary and not permanent, but still.

The food you two made is a bit dangerous, and just seeing Mukoda's expression, you already know what he was thinking. That is, unless you two don’t shut your mouths.

‘We should keep this a secret’

‘Agree’

Unknown to the both of you two is that the Will of Metal group has their own thoughts, but instead of thinking how dangerous their discovery about the food is, it’s: "These two lovebirds are meant to be’

Five days of traveling and the group hasn’t reached the destination; with that time frame, you're starting to think about having a second thought about using the skill you have.

But at the same time, you don’t want to risk vomiting your soul out.

"Don’t worry, in this state, it would take 2-3 more days."

‘Yehpe…’ You thought, huffing as your feet were getting tired with all the walking and walking, then climbing, then walking again.

"Our current location is quite troublesome. It’s not really dangerous. But we have to be careful in the remaining part of the trip." Werner said, and with his words, everyone cheered.

with you and Mukoda joining them, even if you two have a tired expression.

On the way to the next capital, the group found a giant red monstrous boar, and because it was big and they couldn’t carry it all, you and Mukoda asked the group if you two could put the remains in the item box.

Collecting the fangs, meat, skins an various vulnerable from the previous monsters to sell it, there was one info that you learn from which is to leave half of it.

Despise the fact that you and Mukoda can carry it all; you two agreed that you did not want them to be suspicious as you only have a small tiem box after all.

"I’m excited to cook for tonight! It’s been so long since I tasted meat!" you exclaimed, stretching your arms.

"You said it! "I'm going to cook my favorite food!" Mukoda excitedly said, as he too couldn’t wait for it.

With the meat from the boar, it has the same taste as a regular one in your world. And it’s easy to cook; it despise not knowing what it tastes like at first but after the final result.

You and Mukoda made one another's favorite meat. while he cooks stir-fried red pork with ginger. Yours is just simple fried pork with miso soup on the side. What could be better than soup on the side or bread?

Yummy!

"Itadakimasu!"

Just seeing their reaction is enough to satisfy your two hardships in cooking the meal for tonight. And wow, maybe it’s too good, as they're showing too much expression.

‘I’m starting to think of opening a restaurant because of them’ You whispered to Mudoka, to which he simply chuckled. But, like they said, if it’s too much, it will be bad news.

You two are just sharing where you got the ingredient from when all of them went quiet.

"Why are you guys so quiet? Is there something you don’t like about the food?" You ask, but when they simply tell you that it wasn’t that, but the presence behind you,

‘Behind me?’

What do you know? not only for your happiness with their reaction to the food you two made, or cheering the fact that you can finally eat some meat after so long... but this monster behind you also wants to eat it.

"Humans… Let me eat with you!"

Next Chapter ---> Part 2

#campfire cooking in another world #Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi #Anime #anime food #anime isekai #Isekai #manga #tondemo skill #tondemo skill de isekai hourou meshi #sui #fel #campfire cooking in another world with my absurd skill #food anime

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lintwriting · 3 months

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I made a post earlier talking about how bashing fics are the result of the disconnect between the level of suspension of disbelief expected from an author vs from their immature audience.

Most authors expect a level of shared disbelief. "People will get this is just some handwave-y nonsense for the story. They will suspend their disbelief." They do not realize that kids won't know this automatically. Kids don't need to 'suspend their disbelief' because they will simply believe the nonsense.

And then the kiddos grow up and feel betrayed because they realize that they've thought about this way more than the author ever did.

But what if the authors DID think about it? What if they planned for that? What if they realized that the preteen to young adult demographic is PRIMED for this kind of relationship to their media?

Introducing the DECONSTRUCTION (and Madoka Magica)

Now, this term is a bit controversial. It's a mode of analysis that, from what I can tell, exclusively comes from the Anime Analysis/Tv Tropes side of the internet, and nowhere else.

Because of those hazy origins, it's a little hazy what it even means. When I use it, I mean it's a media that subverts tropes by applying a lens of realism to it, specifically to "expose" the shocking truth behind a functioning cliche/genre. Usually in reference to genre fiction like superhero shows, mecha shows, fantasy shows, etc.

It became a coined term with its application to Neon Genesis Evangelion, but people would be more familiar with it for shows like Game of Thrones or Watchmen or Madoka Magica.

You think this is just your average high fantasy? THINK AGAIN! The main character DIES because that's REAL life in the hard medieval dark ages.

You think this is just your average superhero comic? THINK AGAIN! These superheroes use their powers for selfish reasons instead of selfless ones because THAT'S MORE REAL.

You think this is just your average show about sparkly girls fighting monsters? THINK AGAIN! These girls have been conned into their supernatural powers and fighting is dangerous and depressing because THAT'S MORE REAL. GRIMDARK is MORE REAL.

Now this can be mundane realism ala Vermeer, or the grimdark realism you see with all those Watchman superhero comic knock-offs in the 90's or all those Madoka Magica magical girl knock-offs or all those Game Of Thrones knock-offs in the late aughts. Choose any realism you like because Realism is subjective!

check out here for a breakdown of why "grimdark" does not make "realistic" and here for why realism is subjective/unnecessary for writing. I'm not going to be getting into that here.

HATING the term """DECONSTRUCTION"""

Now, opponents of the term DECONSTRUCTION point to this very subjectivity as the reason why it's functionally meaningless as a term.

"Madoka Magica isn't 'more realistic' compared to other magical girl shows. Other magical girl shows like Princess Tutu show ALSO portray depressing, deep, and dangerous situations happening to magical girls. How is what Madoka does any more 'realistic' than what Tutu does, especially when both of them ultimately reaffirm the Magical Girl Genre?"

I think this, at its core, misunderstands why people call something a deconstruction. This is an understandable mistake because the anime people who coined the term didn't even understand why they felt the need to call something a deconstruction.

The original term Deconstruction analysis, from before the anime/TV Tropes side of the internet appropriated it, comes from philosopher Jacques Derrida. Derrida, in simplified terms, explained the infinite gap between thought and communicating that thought. The infinite gap between concepts and the language trying to describe those concepts.

So it's pretty ironic the way we've completely butchered his term into this anime "genre deconstruction" mode of analysis and then completely butchered this "genre deconstruction" mode of analysis into "making something more realistic."

But while this "genre deconstruction" is not real deconstruction, I'm going to analyze it on its own terms anyways because I do find it meaningful, if not the way we define it now.

In my opinion, deconstruction has nothing to do with "realism" and everything to do with the "exposing the shocking truth behind a functioning cliche" part of its definition. It doesn't matter if Princess Tutu is 'realistic' because it doesn't portray itself as 'in conversation with' the magical girl genre.

CLICHE and the Generation Cycle of Growing Up

You ever notice how deconstruction's most famous examples are from genres made for adolescents? Magical Girls, High Fantasy, Superheroes. Hmmm?

That has everything to do with the way the cycles of cliches work. Overly Sarcastic Productions has some really great videos breaking down how writing is all about tropes.

And how there's a cycle where a trope begins FRESH AND EXCITING where authors all remix each other. Then all the good stuff gets said a million times until the trope becomes a shorthand for a specific function. Then people get sick and tired of it and actively fight against its usage.

This often also coincides with the generation that was young when the trope was popular growing up and looking back on the trope.

Ex: You love Disney Romances as a kid, grow up and realize no prince is coming to get you, and get tired of "love at first sight" stories because the love often feels like a shorthand plot device instead of genuine romance, leading to parodies and then a new generation of Disney movies with no romance at all.

Ex: The cowboy Western Genre has gone through this. Multiple times now. First with traditional westerns that are now dead. Then with Space Westerns in Japanese animation. Also dead, though we do get reboots from time to time.

Ex: Joss Whedon/Marvel Humor.

Ex: The isekai/transmigration genre is currently going through this. The West has no conception of transmigration and barely any understanding of isekai—likening them to portal fantasy with nary a thought to how its become its own niche genre. But it IS a niche genre now, resplendent with bizarrely specific tropes and cliches that have a functional logic underneath inscrutable to new viewers.

I watched a C-Drama recently where they didn't even bother to explain transmigration beyond a shot of a girl's ghost hovering another girl's sleeping body. And like, if I was a Westerner, I would have NO CLUE what that was supposed to mean.

Of course, as a Scum Villain fan, I know that it was a visual shorthand meant to imply Transmigration, where the girl was transported into another dimension via the body of another girl, but this implication is reliant on the understanding that you've already seen this trope a thousand times now.

("We don't need to show this again, you get the drill." NO, we don't! Not here in the West. Please explain. At this rate, we'll be getting to parodies of transmigration and then no transmigration at all—all before the West even gets a whiff of what "transmigration" means. Beyond like, niche anime/webtoon fans.)

The point is, you get to a point where you don't even notice how terminally cliche your genre has gotten unless you get confronted by someone out of the loop. And that acts as a neat metaphor for the way childhood works.

A lot of the "truths" of the world, like that 'adults are to be trusted' or that stories are 'simple retellings of events,' are actually just thought-terminating cliches you've been taught as a shorthand to make things simpler to understand/easier to control.

That's why adolescent media, rather than say speculative Sci-Fi for philosophical thought experiments or literary fiction, is at the core of "deconstruction genre analysis."

This ""form of analysis"" is just the result of artists noticing the happy intersection between the form/function of adolescence and adolescent media, making for the perfect metaphor. A marriage of literary convention and human psychology. "Medium is the message"? Make it "Genre is the message."

As such, actual realism is secondary to the the psychological aspect of "breaking down a thought terminating cliche."

Madoka Magica is not more realistic than Princess Tutu.

IT DOES, however, directly reference the magical girl genre as we know it within the show itself. Madoka, the main character, draws sparkly magical girl outfits in her notebook and imagines her Magical GirlTM hair styles when she finds out that she can become a magical girl. These are not just magical girls to her—these are Magical GirlsTM. She's as familiar with the cliches of the genre as we are.

This is in service to highlighting that we're meant to be engaging with the idea of the genre itself, not just the themes of selflessness and depression within it. Madoka Magica also has a lot of Brechtian techniques within the framing of the show, with the series' first shot even beginning with literally "opening the curtains" to break the fourth wall a little bit, highlighting that it's a bit self-aware/meta. That way, we can see the intentional "wider commentary on the genre" aspect to it.

(Like the way Spider-verse uses "canon event" and the multiverse as a clear reference to extended audience canon culture to signal that it's making a meta commentary on the wider discussion of Miles Morales and the extended universe, not just his personal struggles as a character.)

So, Princess Tutu is NOT less realistic or less depressing than Madoka Magica. In fact, it even "deconstructs" fairytale cliches. It isn't a Magical Girl genre deconstruction as we think of it, though, because it isn't making those overt commentaries on the Magical Girl Genre thought-terminating cliches, the way Madoka Magica is (tutu is moreso about fairytale ones). Tutu isn't winking and nodding at us the way Madoka does when she doodles magical girl outfits, or when episode 3 happens, or with Kyubei's whole deal.

CONCLUSION: Magic Children Fighting the Genre

So yeah, a lot of these deconstructions have nothing to do with "realism" or being "darker" and everything to do with the "exposing the shocking truth behind a functioning cliche" part of its definition, usually for cliches that are in that late life cycle, oversaturated stage, matching the way its audience has also grown more cynical in life. The stereotypical grimdark aspects come from that same teenage impulse to bash, to be edgey to be "more real."

In my previous post, I also liken "bashing" to the way victims of religious indoctrination finally escape and start spitefully "bashing" the religion out of a sense of betrayal. This comparison especially rings true for this post about deconstruction, as the term for the American Evangelical movement in which "Christians rethink their faith and jettison previously held beliefs, sometimes to the point of no longer identifying as Christians" is-- quite literally -- Faith Deconstruction or just Deconstruction for short. Isn't that fascinating? I think it proves my point.

Anyways, to even "expose the shocking truth" in the first place, you need faith or just some sort of idealistic jumping off point, which is why "Magic Children Fighting--The Genre" is so prevalent in genre deconstruction.

You can't just subvert and "deconstruct" forever, because at some point, you're just going to run out of meaningful things to say and end up having twists for no reason, as the Game-Of-Thrones-"Themes are for eighth-grade book reports"-writers ended up doing for season 8 lol. That's its own thought-terminating cliche. Thus, some sort of idealistic genre is necessary.

And "Magic Children Fighting: The Genre" is so rich in idealism. Whether it be shonen anime "You can do it!" or magical girl "Friendship is Magic" or high fantasy's underdog chosen one narrative or... whatever mecha shows are about.

Whichever "Magic Children Fighting: The Genre" archetype you choose, you can easily turn it into "Magic children fighting the genre!"

And I think that that's meaningful!

It's beautiful when adolescent media writers do manage to go that extra mile to think about how to make it so that their audience is able to enjoy the show as adults. It's cool when they refuse to handwave explanations or cliches and put genuine thought into work that kiddos might not appreciate at first.

In my next few posts, I'll probably go into works that manage to succeed at Deconstruction (Madoka Magica, Rebellious Girl Utena), works that people do not traditionally think of Deconstruction because they failed in some way (Steven Universe), and the darker implications of works that fail to do this (Harry Potter and The Christian Bible (ha ha jk on the bible. or am I?))

in the meantime, you can read this funny post and this funny post about how svsss kind of deconstructs masculine isekai narratives

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thecrazyworldbuilder · 11 days

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Hey I love your work. Listen, I want to hear what your favorite topic is. What's something you could talk extensively about and never get bored? What has your unflagging enthusiasm and dedication?

Make it a long post! Put your heart out there! You do so much for us, I want to hear about your favorite things now. (If this isn't allowed, I am also always eager to hear about map making!)

Oh. Oh hoho.

Well I in general love worldbuilding. But in total, my interest leans towards things that are... Easier, so to say.

Neography, for example, as the "flavor" of worldbuilding. Conlangs, albeit I do tend to lean towards cryptolangs more. And mapmaking, solely geographic that is. Nations and stuff gets too trickier after a while.

I am planning on making a YouTube channel with me ranting about majority of my worldbuilding-related stuffs, with no bullshit statements like "hard worldbuilding is objectively better than soft worldbuilding" because... Those are made up terms. And as a linguist/etymologist I fucking hate made up terms. A rock is a rock, no matter what language. Things like laziness, gender, or duty and honor. Those are abstract, and easily manipulated, easily twisted. Hell in many cases these things do not exist at all (I personally don't believe in nationality, laziness and gender. Nationality is a defunct tool of uniting primitive people together, laziness is always a sign of disability or dismotivation, and gender is just bullshit).

But I could rant just a little I guess, for you the asker xD

Neography.

How genius it is to sometimes see a whole script become the face of a franchise, instantly recognizable and fancy. Tengwar, Klingon, Vulcan, Daedric, Aurebesh - You name it, they are all tasty as pie. They are done beautifully and by experts, high standard and fancy looking, unlike some scripts I prefer to call "cereal box ciphers" (The most notorious example for me is the Artemis Fowl Gnommish script. Just why.)

My @thecrazyneographist and now @fuckyeahasemic sideblogs are dedicated just to that - Neography. As well @verical, dedicated solely to my Verical script.

I have been commissioned by a comic artist in Chicago to create a script for him, have worked with r/starfall for a while, and right now my already invented scripts Satuuoorn and Wisehand/Xeotaijuep'af are being used by a gamedev for a first-person shooter/slasher >:D

I have. So many writing utensils at home. I have written calligraphy with a sharpened chopstick once. I still own it I think.

Gods just. NEOGRAPHY. It's knowledge put in written form - I am writing right now and it's a whole experience! I know how to write in Latin yes, but other scripts, scripts of MY making... That's a different experience. I can write in several made-up scripts by me: Age Mason, Verical, Taenic/Taenian and Bosutoku/Tetumonigo.

Conlangs.

Me and a friend are running @conlangcrab about them.

Conlangs are such an intricate part of worldbuilding. They give the world their own sound.

Though I am too driven-crazy by ADHD and unable to keep my sails steady on a singular conlang project, unmedicated, I usually prefer cryptolangs instead; An invention/coined word o'mine standing for "the middle between conlangs and ciphers; ciphers that change written information while keeping it pronounceable". Check out @cryptolangsguy for more info on that.

I so dislike when conlangs are done bad* in worldbuilding; Just as I dislike bad neography. In many cases writers are monolingual and really don't know the struggle of knowing several languages (fyi, I know 3 irl. bugger, ong).

Mapmaking.

I will just share all the maps I've ever created JUST for the RP server I am DMing, as well as the current map of Raskol - The setting for the oncoming Caramel Dice playtesting campaign.

Raskol

RP server

#worldbuilding #thecrazyworldbuilder #ask #fantasy worldbuilding #fantasy #worldbuilding ideas

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sburbian-sage · 3 months

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Hi skepticArbiter!

I don't know how long it's been on your end since you posted that GristTorrent ask, but your offhanded proposal of a Universal Grist Bank has driven my ADHD to heights of hyperfixation that have never been seen before. It has been months. Being a native Smith of Coins that's about what you'd expect, lol. Anyway! I bring it up because the session I'm currently in is serendipitously about the absolute best group I could ask for in making the idea a reality. It really feels like the Shine itself legitimately just manifested itself and forced whatever the infinitesimally small chance of something like this actually happening I swear to dog.

Thirteen of us, all have made it through at least ten sessions (with CERTAIN PEOPLE at significantly more than that-- 32 if she's to be believed and I've seen no evidence to the contrary and lots of proof that it's true) and managed to naturally reroll our native classpects. All of us. Not a lick of vagabouncy. It's insane. Both of our cardinal aspects’ first playthroughs were duet sessions. There's public proof several places on the replayernet going back timestamps that our Bane of Stage, Page of Mist, and Rouge of Sand have been sessionmates before. The Bane of Stage hunts Azurites for Fun and Him Time, 12 confirmed PK kills that I am aware of. Our Waste of Law(aforementioned 32 session legend) is awesometier. Several of us are pre-replayernet loose veterans. Our tactician classes, Flux player, and Mind player have been freaking out like ants when their trail gets stepped on. No major glitches or bugs so far, knock on wood. It feels too good to be true but in discussing it all of us dealt with capital-b-Bullshit scenarios with Light players in our last runs so I'm just trying to enjoy it without ruining it worrying.

I'm sending this message primarily to let you know that this is actually happening, and to thank you for coming up with the UGB in the first place. But also, I have come with some questions. I have never had to deal with the Others before (miraculous in it's own right tbh) and thus have absolutely no idea what to expect. I'm not part of the side that's doing the bartering, but I've known a good chunk of this group over the replayernet for a pretty long time and consider many dear friends(another insane thing to actually happen- us ending up together) and I am. Concerned. Everyone says “oh they do impossible bargins” and “will take parts of your soul” but I've never seen anyone actually SPECIFY what the terms for their deals are. It's not that I don't believe it's really that bad, it's just I'd much rather know than not know, you know? Is it a faux pas I'm not aware of to talk about it? Since you had to do it yourself for your ring journey I figured you'd be as good a place as any to ask and since it's over text it might not be as impactful for you as asking my friends face to face potentially could be for them, I apologize if that's incredibly insensitive of me.

For further context, the group is split so some of us are working on bartering with the others (Rouge of Sand, Guide of Void, Maid of Rage), some of us are actually making the physical server and programming the necessary software (myself, Witch of Time, Sage of Dreams, Heir of Sound), some are doing both (Waste of Law, Ward of Mind, Sylph of Flux), and our Seer of Space, Bane of Stage, and Page of Mist are covering taking care of session stuff where they can for now so the rest of us can focus on getting everything together for the bank.

Thank you again, and in advance for any insight you are willing to share,

snugglySocialist

Holy shit! I'm glad that an offhanded statement I meant mostly as a joke finally led to good things happening, instead of just getting me in trouble. Though that could still happen if I endorse this and it turns into an All Or Nothing situation, so pull through if you can. I said it before and I'll say it again, if you pull this off then not only will you have the eternal of gamebreakers, people who accidentally break their game, and anyone in a Ring Journey, but your handles will be put in the history books right next to the guy who figured out the Alimentator hack.

As for your question, I'm afraid I'm not a good firsthand source of information on this topic. I did not make the bargain for the Ring Journey I'm on, someone else did it. You are right that information is hard to come by, but "it's difficult to talk about" is only one reason out of three. Some people hide the nature of their bargains for protection. Especially if it's a larger operation like a Ring Server, if the presence of the server hinges upon X condition being fulfilled, and some malefactor wants to take down the site, best not to let them know which conditions to break. The third reason is that "not disclosing details of the bargain to other people" may itself be a condition of the bargain. It is, in fact, as annoying as it sounds, and all of these combined (not to mention the fact that writing down anything about the Others is a passive source of corruption) makes this topic a bitch to gain any information about.

For your purposes, the institution of a Ring Server isn't that big of an ask, so I don't think the price will be literally impossible or metaphorically impossible (like "consume the hearts of all of your friends and set yourself on fire", that's basically their catty way of saying "we're not giving you a deal"). However, something like a Universal Grist Bank has significantly more "oomph" behind it than an online archive, social media page, or weirdass elitist bookclub. Standard bargaining practice is to respond to any price they give you with "that is too much", in which case they'll either lower the price, or solidify that the price is set.

As for the actual prices, it varies. The Transamphibian founders can't use their real names anymore. CorpseParty got shut down because someone used the server to try and scry cross-session, which apparently violated the deal. In general though, the prices set seem almost spiteful. "They take bits of your soul" is more metaphorical than literal, like really fond memories, your reputation, relationship with someone important, and in the worst cases your ability to engage in a hobby that you consider fundamental to your sense of being. I think there's at least one case where someone's condition was that they can't use any Replayer Network, which effectively unpersons them (this information was shared secondhand for obvious reasons and thus couldn't be verified). It's impossible to tell what the deal is until you have it, and all of your efforts to establish the UGB are basically bottlenecked into dealing with those guys, who can make or break the entire project. And they know this. And you have no power over them, only than knowing that they will not do anything to you unless you ask them to do it. There's really no further advice I can give you other than...

Lawyer up. Read the fine print, argue for fairness as much as possible, and don't let yourself get worked over any more than is necessary.

Once you accept a deal, stick with it. There are no "grace periods", take-backs, or hiding an infraction. If the terms of the deal are broken, the UGB goes up in flames basically forever (unless you make another deal to "recover it").

Genuinely, genuinely, don't chew off more than you can swallow. If the terms of the contract are unlivable to any of the people undertaking it, don't do it.

There is one other aspect I should mention, which is that if the conditions of the deal only concern one person, the deal will still be upheld once that person dies. So if the condition is "nobody can upload Build Grist" and someone uploads Build Grist, then the website is kill. But if the condition is "none of the founders can alchemize anything anymore, and all of the founders end up dying, then the site will stay up. Though it'll obviously need new administrators. Sorry for the macabre example, but this is a little-known facet of Other bargains that not a lot of people know about, and it's why a lot of the older servers and networks are still up.

#sburb #replay value au #ring server #bargaining with the others

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tinylittlecubby · 24 days

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In the following possibly concerning for my psychiatric health rant , I will be covering what the actual definition of parasocial is, the function and normalness of regular parasociality, why some mediums invite stans more than others and what would need to change to eradicate stan culture. Im unfortunately just someone with an internet connection and im writing this on mobile so if any degree of understanding in regards to those facts can be maintained I would be very grateful!

1) i would rather do a flip off the bellagio instead of meet any of the people who's art/content I consume I just want to say that first

1b) however I have participated in fandom since I was literally 7 years old so I know way too much about fandoms in general and also parasociality.

2)the partition between social worlds is an illusion. If it happens in one place it happens in another. People putting artists on a pedestal and then tearing them down is something that also happens in arenas outside of popular culture like the sciences and in peoples very own homes. Uniqueness of circumstance is rare and the breadth of human capability in terms of horror and beauty is present no matter the field.

3) Parasocial relationships have an actual psychological function (more on this later) Because of the term 'relationship' and the cultural baggage around that term it is assumed that it is something that is purely done outside of the bounds of the time it takes to consume the media. Even the term caring is loaded more than it should.

Art and media should push us to care and ultimately, a parasocial relationship is JUST caring about a subject ( like a person or object or idea) BUT they/it LITERALLY can not care about you back due to lack of knowing SPECIFICALLY you.

Off of that definition that is why in order for media to be effective a parasocial relationship has to exsist. It makes sense to care about one character over another depending on how a film is written, and this state/relationship of caring last the duration of the film.

That feeling of caring about the character can persist beyond the literal duration of the film due to how emotionally moving it could've been however I find that for films most people do not continue that state beyond the literal duration of the film (in terms of fantasies about the character as I dont find that there are many fanfictions for example about movies -unless they have been made into TV shows as well- etc), due to it being one of the shorter mediums today both in the media itself and the promotion cycle/exposure to the people involved, which is why I picked movies.

I want to make that distinction cause people often say we need to eradicate parasocial relationships altogether and I dont think they understand that parasocial is a sociological term that was coined in 1956/57 and has an extremely long history OUTSIDE of social media. And if the term was coined then that means the phenomenon was going on prior.

Also, films are fake. Literally everyone knows this, no one gets mad at anyone for saying that cause we all know this. However films, when the term was coined, were seen as THE medium that facilitated parasocial relationships (in the sense i described above in terms of the duration of the film, rather than the sense that is used now in terms of being a stan)

And about movies being fake and maybe that being why people stan actors less (sometimes def not all the time)

A) the amount of films and TV shows that try and use this narrative to go far beyond actors zone of consent ìs one of THE main problems with the entertainment industry. They are real people doing fake things but they are still people first.

B) i personally believe that it is in a streamers best interest to create a degree of a character to be on stream (can be a genuine persona or just to the degree of customer service agent. Aint nobody their god damn selves when being a customer service agent but they also aren't not being themselves. If you know you know.) So they too are in an arena of fakeness as well. This lack of understanding is why they constantly have to tell their audience "bro i don't know you AND you don't know me"

4a)and in regards to the statement that I made in terms of parasocial relationships having to exsist, I'm saying that with finances/politics/sociology in mind. There is a business theory in the arts that if you have 1000 true fans (defined as someone that will buy ALL of your merch, concert tickets,will listen to 90% of your music and genuinely enjoy, talk about the music to their friends to get them to like it as well etc etc) you can make your art on your own terms and consistently from a financial stand point. However, that kind of consumer is the exact type that participates in the parasocial relationship outside the duration of the medium and can take them to stan town. And record labels know this, that is why pop music lyrics are the way they are and even when they aren't romance oriented they still market the artist to be as 'authentic' as possible so the development of the parasocial relationship can continue outside the literal duration.

4b) in terms of the psychological function of parasociakity I would read into how children develop relationships with their toys. During active play it is developmentally normal for the child to act as if the toy can react back to the child's own affect/actions, that's why children will talk to or feed etc their toys. Outside of active play sometimes the child will mention the toy (usually in terms of requesting for it to begin active play OR talking about it like they are a friend and saying to a parent "do you think Bella would like this dress?" And the parent knows they are talking about the toy and would respond in kind and maybe they buy the little dress to dress up the toy (think of build a bears model of the type of inventory they sell) it is also common that if they are playing with a sibling or a friend and the other child is being rough with the toy the main child will use language such as "you are hurting them!" suggesting the child believe that the toy can feel literal pain the same way they can (because they are a literal child duh)

A child being able to show the capacity to communicate, empathize, emote and respond to stimuli the object may provide back (like if its a talking to) is absolutely MAJOR and is used in clinical studies during neurological testing in children literally all the time. And if you as an adult were to go up to a child and start berating them for this dynamic pal....you yourself got problems.

This is one of the many types of ways that children learn how to socialize and it happens concurrently with other types of learning in terms of interacting with peers, adults that may use language they dont know but helps them build they own language tool kit etc etc. It is absolutely NOT to be seen as the ONLY type of socializing. That is horrifying and I dont know what the hell would happen if it was literally the only type of socializing a child or even an adult would be receiving (also I dont know how that would literally happen either like do they live in the woods with literally no one else around??)

I say all of this to say that parasociality should NOT be demonized because doing so would be inconsistent with the overall cultural narrative about being social animals. If we are social animals then it makes sense that parasocialism exists. UNHEALTHY!!!!!!!!!!!!! parasocialism ABSOLUTELY needs to be extinguished i am not fighting anyone on that at all. Being a legit stan is VERY VERY SCARY! and I dont mean arguing about charting stan I mean hacking airport security cameras stan (if you know you know unfortunately)

My personal hesitation in terms of putting hope into this changing though is we would need to do the following

Reduce the social capital tied to perceived authenticity

Remove profit motives tied to artists being accessible

Eradicate amanormativity

Build safe,accessible and thriving third spaces

Invest in psychiatric infrastructure and resources

Create a healthy culture that supports the notion that individuality and interdependence can exsist at the same time

Eradicate misogyny

Eradicate ageism

Eradicate racism

Eradicate classism

Eradicate ableism

Eradicate whorephobia (BIG ONE!! the amount of female/non binary stans that are wild about their targets because they feel like its the only safe place they can express their sexuality via fanfiction, fan erotic audios (which is new and the audio stuff i dont know too much about but its something I'm seeing more and more)amongst other things is a proportion that is tooooooo high!

And the list goes on and on and on honestly

(Added this poll on accident because I'm on mobile and it won't erase oooppss)

I dont know if any of this made sense I feel like I just blacked out and I'm coming to but yeah yell at me if you like or ignore this its just my thoughts about parasociality and the like okay byyeeeeee

#thoughts #fandom #parasocial relationships #parasocial #you can scroll through my blog and see that it is a fandom blog and that i can be quite parasocial myself #in the way that it is used colloquially #but i promise i just have too much free time

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 year

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By: Joseph Burgo, Ph.D

Published: May 11, 2023

In 1942, the psychoanalyst Helene Deutsch published a landmark paper in which she described a particular type of person who relates to the world and to other people in ways that appear normal but who, over time, comes across as inauthentic. “Every attempt to understand the way of feeling and manner of life of this type forces on the observer the inescapable impression that the individual’s whole relationship to life has something about it which is lacking in genuineness and yet outwardly runs along ‘as if’ it were complete.” Hence the term she coined to denote such people—the “As If” Personality.

When these individuals come for therapy, they often appear to engage enthusiastically in the psychotherapeutic process, though over time, no progress is made; a feeling of futility might plague the therapist. The challenge is to recognize and address a fundamental dynamic crippling the work: rather than being used to convey meaning, the words employed by the client instead conceal and ward off an internal truth felt to be intolerable. The personality enacted for the therapist’s benefit embodies a kind of performance, the simulacrum of an actual person with emotions and connections to other people, when in fact, the person feels empty inside and unable to engage authentically with anyone.

In the early years of my practice, one client (a highly intelligent and verbal young man) once asked, “If you tell me what you believe my unconscious is saying based on what you hear, how am I to know if you’re right? How do I know if some other formulation isn’t what’s actually true?” It’s ultimately up to the client to decide whether an intervention is accurate, of course, but this young man couldn’t connect my words with his inner world to assess their accuracy, largely because he relied upon language to obscure rather than to illuminate. He appeared to be a willing client, but the way he communicated instead made sure I’d never get anywhere near him.

As the treatment progressed, he began to offer alternative interpretations to my own. “That’s one way of looking at it,” he might say. “But it could also be …” At that point in my career, I viewed such client-therapist interactions through the lens of dependency and the common defenses against it; I would have pointed out how he was relating me as if we were colleagues or co-therapists and couldn’t allow himself to be a client depending upon me for help. While that formulation is true, I would now add this: while it appeared as if we were engaged in a psychotherapeutic process, he was thwarting my attempts to make contact by substituting an alternative reality for each one that I proposed. Therapy became a competition via language to define what was “true”; he ultimately won that contest and moved on.

Historians of psychoanalytic thought view Deutsch’s formulation of the “As If” Personality as a precursor to our understanding of borderline conditions and pathological narcissism, and my own clinical experience bears that out. The use of language to obscure or annihilate hated truths regularly features in psychotherapy with clients afflicted by disordered personalities; helping them to connect with and tolerate acute psychic pain is a central challenge of this work and means developing a more authentic language connected to emotional truth.

* * *

In my more recent work with gender-distressed youth, I find myself again confronting this disconnect between language and emotion, but it feels less to me about disordered personalities than a social media-induced kind of dissociation. One teenage girl, trans-identified, talks at length about her daily interactions with her mother, her peers at work and at school, but the space between us feels dead. At times, I have a feeling of futility, that if I try to make sense of the actual words she employs and events she describes, we’ll remain stuck in a place without meaning.

Another client, a highly intellectual young man, uses sessions to expatiate on the socio-cultural construction of gender, explains to me why he rejects masculinity and embraces the feminine, but has no connection with his body. He never masturbates and finds his nocturnal emissions to be disturbing. Now and then for reasons that mystify him, he will begin to weep in session. He feels relieved by his tears but has no words to describe what he might be feeling.

Yet another teenage girl, also trans-identified, adamantly insists upon her desire for cross-sex hormones. Like my other two clients, she has no relationship with her body. She spends much of her free time playing video games online, inhabiting her avatar, and interacting with the avatars of other online players she’s never met in real life. The possibility that testosterone will make her sterile or eventually lead her to have a hysterectomy bothers her not at all; she finds the idea of sexual intercourse to be disgusting and has no intention to marry or have children. She has never masturbated and finds the idea “gross.”

Like many young people who survived the lockdown years by going online, these clients have spent so much time inhabiting virtual worlds that they’ve lost connection with what’s visceral, immediate, and real. They live in a realm of imagination where anything is possible, where infinite malleability has taken the place of a physical world with reality-based limitations. By changing your name and your avatar, you can transform yourself into someone entirely new. The laws governing this alternative space give rise to a belief that you can change the very nature of reality simply by describing it in a different way.

The apparent re-creation of reality via language lends an “as if” quality to their personalities. They seem to have an internal psychic life that’s meaningful to them, they appear to have friends and other social relationships, but their emotional lives lack depth. Because their words have become untrustworthy guides to truth, I’ve taken to teaching my clients about how we human beings come to recognize our own feelings as they arise—when it comes to sadness, for example, through the perception of bodily sensations around the eyes, chest, and back of the throat. With the first client I described above, most times when I ask her to move her attention down into her body, she will begin to cry.

For many young people, social media usage has severed the connection between specific words denoting feelings and the visceral indicators that help us to identify those feelings. The signifier has become detached from the signified. As a result, language becomes a disembodied and self-contained set of internal rules and interrelationships without connection to psychic truth and often external reality.

* * *

In our daily interactions with other people, we usually assume that the words they use to communicate accurately represent the meaning they intend to convey; this fundamental assumption underlies all cooperative efforts to engage with other human beings. But in our modern world, it’s increasingly difficult to believe that much of the language exchanged conveys meaning or objective truth, especially in the contentious realm of social media. Like my patients described above, the public language deployed in this space often serves to deny or obscure truth, to replace it with an alternative reality constructed via language. Life on Twitter often boils down to a war of words to determine whose version of “reality” will prevail, a dynamic obscured by the misleading appearance that both sides are using language in the same way.

In her keynote address last month at Genspect’s historic “The Bigger Picture” conference in Ireland, Helen Joyce, author of the book Trans, drew attention to this issue. While proponents of the affirmative care model for gender-distressed youth speak and write in the empirical language of fact-based science, they actually disdain it. Gender ideology is like a cuckoo bird invading the nest of empiricism says Joyce, appropriating its language and apparently respecting its methods while all the while subverting them. Like my long-ago patient who spoke as if he was authentic and in contact while deploying language to obscure truth, the gender ideologues publish studies in professional journals, written in language that appears to respect the empirical method but actually undermines its assumptions and replaces objective reality with their own disembodied version of “truth.”

The work of Jack Turban, for example, relies upon copious footnotes and citations to other studies which, upon closer examination, either have nothing to do with the position he claims they support or directly contradict it. Turban writes as if he were devoted to the scientific method and its standards of proof but actually cares nothing about them. Colin Wright, Jesse Singal, and Leor Sapir have devoted thousands of words to debunking Turban’s claims, highlighting his factual errors and misleading citations; for those of us firmly rooted in reality, their efforts are crucial, but for Turban and his acolytes, they are irrelevant. Gender ideologues only pretend to care about empiricism, mimicking its techniques for understanding objective reality; what they really intend is to replace immutable facts and objectivity with their own subjective version of the truth.

This dynamic reflects core tenets of post-modern thought and critical theory, where so-called reality is supposedly determined by the discourse around it, and whoever controls that discourse has the power to determine what counts as “true.” While it appears as if gender ideologues are engaged in good faith debate over what scientific studies can tell us about, say, the reality of biological sex, their position really boils down to “because we say so.” They amass flawed and flimsy studies published in professional journals and devote entire books to “proving” sex actually occurs along a spectrum of possible expressions, all in order to control the discourse around the nature of sex. Objective truth is irrelevant; whoever speaks with the loudest voice gets to decide what is true.

Helen Joyce’s observations were inspired by a philosophy symposium she attended focused on the work of British philosopher Roger Scruton; she was particularly struck by his delineation of two opposing views of human nature that give rise to very different ideas about how a society should be governed. One views human nature as a blank slate and believes it can be improved and eventually perfected; from this perspective we are evolving toward an ideal society. The other, “constrained” by the facts of biology and our evolutionary heritage, believes humans cannot fully transcend their bodies, and society must therefore pass laws and uphold traditions that restrain the more brutal aspects of our nature. The American economist Thomas Sowell believes these conflicting visions characterize the conservative versus progressive debate in the United States.

On a broader level, these opposing views also help us to understand the current battle about sex and gender, especially on social media. On the one side we have proponents of biological reality who hold that facts are facts and sex is real; they believe in the scientific method and esteem empiricism as a mode for apprehending truth. On the other, we have those who behave as if they care about the scientific method, but in fact care only about wielding power.

* * *

Just as Helene Deutsche’s landmark paper led to deeper insights into borderline states and pathological narcissism, recognizing the as if quality of contemporary discourse helps explain why our society exhibits so many features of the Cluster B Personality Disorders. Disordered personalities characteristically display overly emotional and irrational forms of thinking along with an unstable sense of self and its relation to others. As patients, they at first appear to engage in the psychotherapeutic process but remain quietly hostile to the process. They will defend their fragile sense of self in often hostile and verbally abusive ways against attempts by their therapist to illuminate painful psychic truths.

Due in part to the rise of social media and the increasing influence of virtual online spaces, young people today inhabit an as if world that mimics reality but actually denies many hated truths about it—that sex is real, binary, and immutable, for example. Adopt a new avatar or change your pronouns and you can become somebody else, even alter your sex. Your subjective belief about who you are overrides objective truth. And if anyone should challenge your self-image by asserting so-called “facts,” you are justified in weaponizing language and hurling abuse to ensure that objective reality will not prevail. Rage, invective, and crude insults to dehumanize the other are the order of the day.

Welcome to Twitter, a place where daily interactions between two conflicting visions of human nature resemble one prolonged eruption of borderline rage. On one side are those who insist reality must be what they say it is; they feel sorry for themselves and persecuted by those who, on the other side, assault them with facts and arguments about objective reality. It takes a non-defensive therapist with a high tolerance for pain and a strong sense of self to work with disordered personalities, in part because they so often attack your own sense of self-worth when they feel threatened; it’s no wonder that even the rationalists ultimately resort to contempt and abuse as Twitter discourse descends into name-calling on both sides.

How are we to heal a disordered society such as ours? Most of the time, I’m cautiously optimistic that the Colin Wrights and Jesse Singals of the world will eventually prevail and, through dispassionate analysis and assertions of fact, reinforce our connections to objective reality. But sometimes, in the dark of the night, I worry that the proponents of radical subjectivity will win. Like my long-ago patient who defeated my efforts to connect him with psychic truth and who ultimately destroyed his own treatment, they will shout the rest of us down with brutal abuse, in the process annihilating all the glorious achievements of Western Civilization and the Enlightenment.

Ideologues like Jack Turban don't post for truth, but for narrative. This is the guy who, like Kendi, blew up his core premise with a single tweet.

Turban's strategy is one he's learned from media on both sides: publish the narrative you want to be true up front (especially in the headline or summary); that's the story the initial wave of your most regular readers will see and retain; when forced to clarify, correct or retract, do so quietly; now you can say it's correct, but you've already convinced your regular readers of the original version.

It's designed to create repeatable memes, with the theater of linking to studies, regardless of whether what he's citing actually says what he claims, or even refutes something else he's already said.

#Joseph Burgo #antiscience #anti Enlightenment #anti science #gender ideology #queer theory #objective reality #mental health crisis #my truth #delusion #subjective reality #subjectivity #radical subjectivity #authoritarianism #woke authoritarianism #chronically online #mental health #mental health issues #religion is a mental illness

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wolfisland · 9 months

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also basically what happened with this dude, because id actually rather be candid about it because i fucked up, and thats not something i wanna hide either. i did fuck up. intensely. if you're familiar with me and previous urls (specifically bìfēy) you may have actually witnessed this

so timeline:

- ive known this dude (went by catboyfleas at the time i believe) since i was 13, which i consider childhood for me as someone who Does Not Remember Their Childhood. we'd had an on and off friendship because he's incredibly abrasive and rude and overall the reviews from anyone whos met him that i still speak to are generally "hes a cunt", and id been pretty vulnerable to this treatment growing up

- roughly 2020-2021 (????) i criticise a person (jen truëfaggōt) who, as far as i was and am aware, is not and was not bisexual and had no right trying to coin flags for a bisexualgender flag in my personal opinion when there were already flags made by bisexuals, especially when this person had a history of biphobia

- he accidentally misgenders this person by using "king" when telling her to stay in her lane, as said person used he/him at the time and identified as gay for men, though also tma. we were not aware that this would go under misgendering as we thought it was the correct gendered term

- this person is very upset which is fair and accuses him of misgendering, and of fucking course instead of apologising he doubles down on the "well i didnt know!" and im working to try and translate dipshit speak into an actual explanation for his actions, as this person accuses him of intentional misgendering which it genuinely wasnt. i cannot stand this dude anymore, and i will throw him under the bus for a myriad of reasons now that hes no longer around to essentially mock and gaslight me for sport. but he didnt do this intentionally.

however the lack of apology is in itself transmisogynistic and me trying to apologise for him and explain things is still transmisogynistic and didnt fix it. i am genuinely and deeply sorry for this. at the time i wanted to explain on behalf of my friend, who for the better part of 10 years id been constantly insulted by and belittled and had to essentially be a pr agent of in many circumstances, and i felt that as i'd been the one to initially interact with that person, it was my responsibility to try and fix the situation. we are no longer and will never be friends again.

it was not my role to apologise for him or explain his actions, and i should have cut him off as people suggested. i was pretty strongly attached to him due to him being one of the only people whod stayed part of my life and defended me when i was being abused by my parents and partners, and i felt i owed it to him to try and fix this. i didnt really have anyone else i knew irl, and i truly did not think he had poor intentions, but actions do speak louder and continuing to make excuses for him contributed to the damage he'd already done.

- the situation later devolves into all of the attention and blame being shifted onto me, as he just logged out essentially after continuing to double down on how he never meant it as misgendering as he couldnt have known - iirc he claimed he wasnt even aware you could be tma and still be mlm in any capacity.

i end up being held accountable for his actions, and i believe this person actually at a point called me a dog? like a lot of it was very very peppered with antiblackness and bimisogyny — something she ALSO had a history of, and i will not back down on that, there was definitely warranted criticism for my actions, but i was treated with far more hostility and bad faith than he was, and after not long at all i was the sole target of criticism (rather than him) until a callout was later posted for the person, revealing she wasnt even transfem, and proving she'd been racefaking as well.

however that callout also ended up being filled with absolute baseless BULLSHIT theorising about other completely uninvolved people being sock puppets of her, and this actively harmed those people. the authors of that callout never apologised and disappeared and i do not associate with them nor do i condone the flimsy and dangerous accusations levelled against uninvolved people.

i did not write the callout but my testimony was involved, and i actively condemn the majority of the callout. it hurt others. i didnt want to hurt other people like that, i cant imagine how much stress they were under after those false accusations of being someone else entirely, and i am so sorry that they were dragged into this and subjected to that.

i wanted that person held accountable for her antiblackness and bimisogyny, as there genuinely is not an excuse for that, i didnt deserve that either. i absolutely deserved criticism for my behaviour and responses and i deserved to be held accountable and still do, but there wasnt an excuse to talk about me like i was some purposefully evil animal and the instigator of all of this and that i was aggressive and cruel. i wasnt. that was never my intention. ever.

i regret not nipping that in the bud and im genuinely sorry for my part in it. i should have listened when warned to cut him off and i should have never tried to speak on his behalf or apologise for it. i kept poor company and thats on me. i believe i have genuinely learned from this and i am remorseful for it, but i also understand anyones skepticism around my intentions or actions. everyone is entitled to that. just because im apologising doesnt mean im entitled to anyones forgiveness, especially not like... tma peoples? but the apology is still important to me. i am sorry. i do regret this. i will do better.

i have worked very hard to do better and Be better and i do hope that reflects. i care a lot about this topic and especially as a black bi woman. its important to me that i work to make sure people feel safe around me.

so. for anyone who was NOT aware of this and has no interest in associating with me further after learning it, i fully understand.

and if you were involved with this and have stumbled across this and were one of the people harmed by it, i am genuinely sorry. id considered reaching out to certain people affected directly but its been made very clear that these people do not want to hear from me or anyone else who'd been even tangentially involved in the callout and ive chosen to respect the right to peace and privacy. but please understand that if given the chance i would like to directly apologise, provided it wouldnt cause further distress.

#txt #transmisogyny

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arcticflowerz · 2 years

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POC4POC

A term that is exclusive to POC’s/people of colour who have a preference in attraction to other POC’s or are exclusively attracted to other POC’s.

I have not been able to find any POC4POC/Person of colour4Person of Colour flags anywhere even tho I’m sure it has to have existed already at some point. This is my take on a POC4POC flag. I tried to use a range of skin tones, obviously I can’t include every single skin tone that exists on this flag as that would probably be thousands of stripes but hopefully this range is okay.

Flag by: @arcticflowerz

Do not repost my flags/the things I coin with out credit.

This flag was made by an actual POC. DO NOT USE THIS FLAG IF YOUR TRANSRACE! THIS FLAG IS EXCLUSIVE TO BODILY POC’s. By “bodily POC” I do not mean you have to be “POC passing” to use this flag. You can still use this flag if your white passing or not. By “bodily POC” I’m referring to being biologically POC and having POC relatives in your family tree. For those who don’t know what transrace is, it’s a transID label that means “you were born one race but BELIEVE you should have been born another race instead.” I DO NOT SUPPORT TRANSRACE, AS SUCH, THEY CANNOT USE THIS FLAG.

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hiiragi7 · 1 year

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Why are yiu anti trans intersex dumd dumd terf

I have been over this on my blog. Many, many times. In-depth.

I believe the experiences people are describing are real experiences, however I believe they should use a different term and not "transintersex", as you cannot transition to intersex, that's just... Not what the word intersex means, by definition you need to acquire those characteristics without any controlled external influence in order to fall under the intersex umbrella.

If you do not fit that, it does not mean your experience is not valid, it just means you are not intersex.

There are other terms people have coined, such as salmacian, bigenital, altersex, among others, and I'm sure you could coin your own, non-intersex-related terms as well. People do it all the time.

Also, please do not call me a TERF. This is not accurate to my beliefs or identity, and compares me to my abusers and oppressors. I do not appreciate it.

Aside from being inaccurate, it digs up trauma memories I would rather not think about right now. I am not a TERF.

If you'd look at my blog for more than two seconds, you'd see I'm actually nearly constantly arguing with TERFs who just will not get off my back for my posts about intersex identities. I despise TERFs.

I am a genderqueer intersex transsexual. I am very open about this. I was kicked out of my house by transphobic parents as a child for being transgender/transsexual and was made homeless at 17.

I have been a part of queer spaces, queer community, and queer advocacy for the better part of a decade now. I actively fight for the rights of queer individuals, create resources for others, actively try to get gender-affirming care and clothing for those individuals I know personally, try to keep others in my personal life up-to-date with laws or healthcare changes when it comes up so they stay safe, and always speak out against any kind of hate or discrimination against our community.

I feel you do not grasp the meaning of the words you are calling others and placing traumatized oppressed minorities among the same ranks as oppressors openly identifying with hate groups.

That is extremely bad faith and hurts people. I hope you grow to be a better person and realize you aren't performing queer advocacy, you just sent hatemail to a genderqueer intersex person on tumblr.com.

Learn how to block people instead of making your hatred my problem.

#intersexism #intersex

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presumenothing · 1 year

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assorted translation notes on the novel opening sprinkled with peanut gallery comments (or possibly vice versa, idk):

yes that is a cluedo reference in the case title i couldn't stop myself and i'm not sorry

"…of the sixth month": not july, because this is in lunar calendar

"lucky pattern lotus parlour": ok i spent like at least One Whole Minute considering whether or not to talk myself out of this one. still didn't, still not sorry, alliteration funny

"bingshan town": could also be pingshan, flip a coin

anyway li lianhua arriving in their main street with his wholeass house like. it's Free Real Estate

"town god/local shrine": original term here is 土地庙 for the record. anyway who's gonna write the crackfic where li lianhua wakes up one morning in some random town to find that the locals have set up an entire shrine offering right outside complete with massive incense burner and all

wait hang on li lianhua was spring cleaning for TEN DAYS STRAIGHT??

"surname Li, named Lianhua": if anyone has come up with a better way of rendering 姓李，叫莲花 please tell me because i haven't

pov you're swiping through tinder when suddenly one of the profiles is just like Jianghu's #1 Most Very Mystery every biodata field is We Just Don't Know, Man and the pic is a badly circled cryptid sighting (idk i don't use tinder)

(li lianhua voice) "excuse you i didn't do two things i just did the same thing twice. technically speaking"

"lifelong learner": well Actually what the results for 皓首穷经 kept insisting on giving me was "hoary head" but i didn't go with that, so there but for the grace of me goeth you, shi wenjue

im sorry but the true utter crack au where he picked 李乌龟 instead (because yknow. turtle. house and all) and we are forced to live with the consequences

yunhe my dude you should've just bought a roomba instead of wasting your money on that incense and letter paper

"precious softwood": specifically nanmu, which (to collective unsurprise) was also used for shipbuilding, among other things

just........ the sheer over-the-top hercule poirot short story energy of this entire intro part, really

"king of hell": none other than 阎罗王 ofc

"a sound of dismay": he straight up "aiya"s here. i just could not figure out how to work it in for the life of me

"dust and sawdust": curse this stupid language that made both of these words contain dust this sounds So Awful

it has been 0 days since li lianhua last said "ah" (the counter never moves past zero)

toss em eggs, bystanders, we believe in you

(cheng yunhe walking in) you live like this??

"could only work with what he had, dead or otherwise": the original actually invokes 死马当活马医 (a saying which Literally means "treat a dead horse as a live one"), blast the english language for not having an equivalent

fang duobing's intro paragraphs? 10/10 sheer hilarity no notes

....why is "commit robbery"" up there on the list next to "plant crops"

"melancholic young master": 多愁公子 (he's got 99 worries and somehow li lianhua is all 100 of them)

how HAS fang duobing known li lianhua for literally just as long as he's been in the jianghu tho

ok three crackfic proposals in one post is a bit much even for me but. the one where li lianhua keeps accidentally digging up non-dead people/lost treasure/unmentionable secrets when actually he just wanted to borrow some onions for tonight's soup. honest

(this may possibly just be canon)

aaaand fifty taels, welp

#mysterious lotus casebook #me? serious on main for more than ten seconds? it's less likely than you think #莲花楼

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zootzcoinzthingz · 9 months

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RECENTLY EDITED DUE TO A MISTYPE IN OUR IDEALS SECTION LMFAOOO. WE DO N O T, IN FACT, SUPPORT CRINGE CULTURE.

ᜊ.. Hi there! feel free to call me zootz! you might recognize that name, that's because this is a sideblog of @zootzbootz

Onto proper introductions now, I go by many names! like zootz as said previously. however, you can also call me drew, louis, ruyu, or lordy. I am a highly feminine transgender rosneoman with a shitton on xenos tacked on! my pronouns are rot/cae/rat/bro/he/cloud/slush/narc/star and nor/mal. orientation wise, I'm an orchidbisexual mainbi cupioromantic omniaesthetic queerplatonic vincian! I reclaim "fag" btw :3 ... oh, both myself and the body are of adult age!

I'm part of a system, though general I'm going to be the main one running this blog!

ᜊ; I made this blog because I find coining terms to be incredibly fun, and wanted a special place for my terms! so, what can you expect from me? primarily, gender and orientation coinings or things that align with such. I can also make name, pronoun, and title packs either for fun or per request. I might also coin other terms. such as things relating to plurality or alterhumanity!

quick side note: I enjoy some media lot of people consider to be "problematic" I consume my interests critically.

ʚ ideals! ɞ

instead of having a traditional dni, I've decided instead to opt for an "ideals" list. letting you all know what we believe in so you can choose to opt in or out based upon that.

we support the following

1. xenogenders and neopronouns

2. "contradictory" labels (mspec lesbians/gays, lesboys, turigirls, etc)

3. genderfucky, pnc, and gnc folk

4. all forms of systems and plurality

5. alterhumanity, otherheartedness, copinglinks, otherkin, constells, endels, transspecies in a non transid way, and new-age kinnies

6. movements like acab, blm, defund the police, stand with ukraine, free palistine, etc.

7. all those with mental health disorders. even/especially the demonized ones

8. objectum and posic identities

9. pro-kink (our blog will be sfw but we DO support y'all!)

10. religious/spiritual folk (who are pro-queer)

--------

we don't support the following

1. pro-contact (harmful) paraphilias

2. alt-right stuff

3. radfems

4. radqueers

5. xenoids (due to the fact they are inherently anti xenogender)

6. capitalism

7. shielding bigotry with religion. (not exclusive to chritianity)

8. transid (transage, transabled, transrace/rcta)

9. narc abuse truthers

10. anything else that would oppose our ideals

ʚ want to send a request? make sure to follow my rules! ɞ

1. you cannot be against any of our ideals listed above!

2. do not request me to coin anything hateful or harmful.

3. send your request no more than one time.

4. be okay with the fact that there's a chance your request may not get made.

ʚ things I will and won't coin/post ɞ

WILL

- genders inspired by just about anything (minus a few fandoms)

- name/pronoun/title packs

- terms exclusive to conditions that we HAVE

- reclaim/remake/recoin terms made by exclusionists. (they will be given new names to avoid confusion and association)

WON'T

- poc exclusive genders/terms (our body is either white or whitepassing so I'm not comfy with that ! it's not my place!)

- terms exclusive to conditions we DON'T have

- hateful/harmful terms

- terms based off of dsmp, killing stalking, or any other fanbases I end up declining (they're just not my thing and I need to feel some connection to what I'm coining. it has nothing to do with the "problematic nature" of the media. I'm literally a south park fan LMAO)

ᜊ! who can use my terms?

everyone! even if you don't fit my ideals. if one of my terms registers with you, feel free to use it. you simply can't request new ones, and I'd prefer it if you didn't interact with the blog itself, or me at all.

the only exception to the "everyone can use my terms! " thing is if it's exclusive to a certain group.

❥ about reposting our terms.

if you repost our terms on Pinterest, it MUST have a link back to the original coining post, and you must align with our ideals.

if you post our terms on any lgbt/queer/mogai, etc wikis you must assign proper credit to me ofc.

moreover I'd appreciate asking before reposting my terms anywhere, but it's not required as long as you follow my other conditions.

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sapphyreopal5 · 6 months

Note

Do you know anything about reality shifting?

Hello Anon, thank you for the interesting ask. So to make sure I have things straight with what you're asking, it sounds to me like you're more or less talking about either the so called "many worlds theory" pointing to parallel universes with all possible timelines occurring in each of them as is described here or about essentially "shifting" to somewhere else while meditating perhaps as is said here, am I correct? I also assume you chose to send me this ask because of the spiritual and metaphysical nature of some of my posts. A brief definition of reality shifting states "Reality shifting is the practice of shifting your subconscious to an alternate reality and is largely based on the Multiverse Theory." Instead of quoting this entire article, I am going to focus more on some of the comments I read in response to this article even one from the original author who has a PHD.

One user asked because I too like to have things laid out in normal terms (not a physicist here afterall and most people here on Tumblr aren't either):

"I am not a physicist or mathematician but am trying to grasp the arguments. Are you saying that, actually, 'universe' is a synonym for 'mentality'? It is a scientific fact that we different mentalities and we see the world and universe through our own personal bias. That is perfectly acceptable to me."

The author responded to this comment with:

"Not exactly. A universe is really a set of observations that you or I make about reality. In quantum many worlds, we believe that each possible observation of a quantum experiment, which as random outcomes, have their own universe. So, if I flip a (quantum) coin, there is a heads universe and a tails universe. Each one has a copy of me in it, one of me observing heads, the other observing tails. It doesn't have to do with bias so much as how we slice and dice what we observe (which could be biased). I say a coin has heads or tails but that is an interpretation of that coin that I have made. Even if other people agree with me, the coin doesn't know that it has heads or tails. Therefore, there cannot be a heads universe and a tails universe."

Anon, I chose to highlight the last tidbit of the author's response here and also the first part of it because this implies to me the many worlds theory is in fact more of how we interpret the universe as opposed to literal universes, which is what a commenter on this post was refering to as "new age wizards". The full comment I talk about here is stated as such:

"Well, lets see: Yuri reminds us that relativity allows observers to disagree on the simultaneity of two events. It’s useful to keep this in mind, for this is still compatible with an objective reality. I don’t think you are justified in saying it isn’t on the basis of the experiment with qubits. This is an imprecise statement; poetry, not science. Physicist learned a lesson when they used the term “measurement” instead of the term “interaction” which precisely fits the phenomenon. “Measurement” smuggles “consciousness” into the discussion, and this empowered a flood of new age wizards claiming to have been vindicated by science. I’ve noticed physicists like Sean Carroll have recently become much more careful about the way they explain these things. Your explanation of this experiment I suggest makes a similar error. It is not objective reality that is being proven wrong. It is that our understanding of what objective reality actually is, is once again being expanded to include observed facts that we’ve never observed before. Reality is no less objective, it’s just not quite the way we thought it was. Our understanding of it has become more sophisticated again, just as Newton’s understanding of it became a special case within the greater and more accurate Einsteinian model. So please, don’t unnecessarily unleash the crazy. Reality is what it is, and we are discovering it."

It has been stated here ultimately that we "live" in many universes based on the understanding of how we perceive things but share one objective universe. Now, if you would like to know what my guides have said from a divination standpoint before I even delved more into the many worlds theory just today (did a little bit of research years ago), they have told me that it is "New Age bullshit" (namely, with their view being literal parallel universes existing side by side). Now there are divine blueprints, which are variations of the divine plans with said milestone events but things happening at slightly different times and sometimes even friends and lovers can change in this sense based on the small decisions we make every day. These do exist in the astral/spirit planes and can't be accessed from the physical but literal universes of every possible outcome happening side by side is not a thing. Sorry if this disappoints anyone reading this.

As for whether time travel is possible or not, my guides also also said no which this article here implies is the case coming from a theoretical physicist. Hermes one time said to me "should anyone attempt to go time traveling, they will end up in the astral planes and remain there". He also said the 2002 movie "The Time Machine" holds a lot of accurate truths about what would really happen should someone attempt to time travel. The ending where Alex is "side by side" Philby in "different times" in the same place as seen in the clip below is really Alex in the astral plane and Philby being in the physicals plane. Someone I went to high school with was talking about time traveling in the sense of doing so mentally, I believe looking he was talking about "reality shifting" via meditation or doing so via dreams as well. He did get caught skipping class a few times in high school meditating by the trees and even one time was seen feeding a squirrel. Oh the people I made friends with in school...

youtube

Based on the view of reality shifting being more or less about mindfulness meditation and essentially picturing yourself and your senses being elsewhere, I think that it sort of can be perceived by the senses but not nearly the same as actually being there. According to this Forbes article, it states the following 3 traits are most common amongst those who partake in "reality shifting" in this sense:

"Absorption refers to an individual’s capacity to become deeply immersed in sensory experiences, fantasies or imaginative activities. Individuals with high capacities for absorption tend to have vivid imaginations, a heightened ability to concentrate and a propensity for intense emotional and sensory experiences."

"Dissociation is a psychological phenomenon characterized by a disconnection between thoughts, identity, consciousness and memory. It can manifest in various forms, ranging from mild detachment or spacing out to more severe experiences of depersonalization and derealization, where individuals feel disconnected from themselves or their surroundings."

"Fantasy-proneness is characterized by a heightened tendency to have intense and vivid fantasies, daydreams or imaginary experiences. Individuals who are fantasy-prone often find it easy to immerse themselves in imaginative worlds, sometimes to the extent that they have difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality. Fantasy-prone individuals typically have a rich and detailed imagination, allowing them to conjure elaborate mental images and scenarios."

In this sense, when I first heard the term I was thinking it may have to do with something like this. I don't partake in reality shifting so much but I have had experiences of being in the astral planes physically. I also have posted about things like dreamwalking and other places I have visited while doing so. While I of course believe this is my reality and what I've experienced in the past including all of my physical senses being truly present (and not imagining things), I think that reality shifting is more or less vividly believing you're somewhere else. I think things like virtual reality gaming is becoming more of a thing (the Oculus was very popular this past Christmas season for example). It's also interesting that in past years 3D movies were more popular but less 3D movies are made today. It seems this goes back some to the fact that many 3D movies were made as 2D and simply converted to become 3D. it seems also the glasses were uncomfortable to wear for some people and the simple fact it's more expensive to make 3D than it is so called 2D. I wonder if this reality shifting trend going on with namely teens and younger adults yo speak of Anon is going to make 3D be more in demand one day.

Overall, I would chop up reality shifting as being more or less about having a vivid imagination is what it boils down to. I believe that people can travel to different places via dreamwalking or even somehow entering the astral plane physically like I did one time wide awake (hello Stranger Things!) but reality shifting is not quite the same thing.

Thanks for the interesting ask Anon!

#reality shifting #time travel #anti new age #philosophy #many worlds #metaphysics #dreamwalking #dream walking #divination #psychic #alternate universe #divine blueprints #divine plans #the khala

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