#Rather Irritating

[sharkneto]

Staff: we got rid of prev tags because it made it confusing for clicking through to people's blogs!

Me: fighting for my goddamn life trying to click on the right spot on mobile to get to someone's blog and all it's doing is reloading the post I'm using to click through

[fortheloveofexy]

I've seen a lot of posts in the wake of tsc calling out how the Foxes mistreated Kevin and never really gave him the same degree of compassion and patience that they gave Neil (and like, fair enough, there's definitely a disparity in how the two are treated by the broader team) but I think it's important to remember that it's very likely most of the Foxes didn't know just how bad things in the Nest were, especially when Kevin first came to Palmetto.

Like, they knew he'd been hurt badly, but were they ever told the full extent of the abuse in thr Nest? Probably not, because unlike Jean, Kevin was media trained. It was ingrained habit for him to conceal the true conditions inside the Nest to all outsiders, and that's not a habit he'd have been able to break easily. The only people who knew the full extent of what he'd been through were probably Wymack, Bee and Andrew.

Add to that Kevin's abrasive personality and his tendency towards nitpicking and perfectionism, and it's no wonder that the Foxes' patience with him ran thin after a while.

[bumblingbabooshka]

Patreon Request: Spock [Patreon | Ko-fi]

[anghraine]

This is probably my most "born and raised in the rural western USA" post ever, but there really is a kind of annoying white dude who shows up in the western states at times, and occasionally even comes from them, who I keep encountering. This kind of guy might not be an obvious bigot (though sometimes he is), but regardless, is one of the most irritating creatures on the face of the planet. Common traits:

goes around in full wannabe western cowboy (21st century edition) cosplay and never shuts up about the plight of the rural poor and his own history of poverty in small town rural America. he understands in a way that these city elites never will.

turns out to be from a comfortable middle-class family in Missoula. (as one example; there are lots of variants of this)

affects an obviously fake drawl in no way characteristic of the actual region he comes from to go with the cosplay.

the hat is pristine, the boots are unscuffed, the belt buckle is ... wrong, and the obligatory truck was bought new and couldn't pull a Toyota out of a mud puddle or make it up a moderately steep hill in half an inch of snow.

assumes everyone he professionally interacts with has no more experience of actual rural life and/or poverty than he does himself, especially if he's in the arts in some capacity. The poors don't care about Art, you see (sometimes stated, usually strongly implied with little comprehension that he's saying it).

relatedly, has intense food+social class opinions and appears to think that cheap food for the proletariat is, like, the Olive Garden.

throws around his red state creds while giving the distinct impression that it's been 20 years since he saw a cow.

the more liberal versions talk a lot about awareness of their privilege and positionality as white men, but don't really do anything to support marginalized colleagues. unless "picking on younger and less powerful men who haven't done anything wrong" counts.

[justthedismount]

"Simone for beam gold" how dare you treat the People's Republic of Beam that way

[tiredmoonslut]

I think I get why the writers chose to make Nynaeve sort of underwhelming in the Power in the second season, but it does irritate me nonetheless that they've equated her not being able to channel unless angry to...not being able to channel at all. Something I loved in the books that I feel the show is sleeping on is that Nynaeve is angry so much of the time. She channels all over the place in the books because she just has that much residual rage in her. She learned how to break the damane collars, heal, use telekinesis, throw fire and lightning, make balefire, create whirlwinds, and reverse stilling before ever dissolving that block. And I feel like the show's writing is robbing us 😭 I wanna see my girl tugging her braid and getting pissed and kicking ass all at the same time

[dailykugisaki]

Day 278 | id in alt

At least one of the students is a horrid menace to both curses and curse users. I was beginning to lose hope.

[vivelareine]

My (finished sometime in the future) book on Marie Antoinette in pop culture/media/public consciousness is going to have a section on the infantalization of Marie Antoinette into a perpetual teenager that presents her as being in this Poor Girlhood stasis while ignoring her adulthood and especially her last few years, all while presenting an inflated version of life at Versailles in order to forward this narrative more strongly, and said chapter is gonna be hot.

[tethysresort]

This week has been an unending round of minor terrors and I am too stressed tonight.

So instead of writing back to all the wonderful, nice people who commented on my fanfiction.  I am having another executive disfunction moment and am instead going to write a book review.  Because it sounds like a fun thing to do with the new books I am reading.  So you might see more of these in the future!  (Although I would note that I am a geologist, not an English major.  So I really have no idea what I am doing!)

This week I read A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik!

It was a light and fun read after I had gotten a little ways into the book (the start was a little baffling and I wanted to kick El).  El is an engaging main character with a very distinct (bitchy) personality.  Her life and problems give a nice insight into the problems of her world (which are numerous).  She is definitely a Chosen One of some sort, but I am not convinced she is the only one in the book.  The adults in her life are occasionally over-the-top in terms of awfulness but it’s a YA book, so I am willing to give it a pass because at least everyone agrees that they are awful.  (There’s nothing quite like a YA book that tries to convince you that the awful adults are justified in making their nasty decisions.)  By the end I was enjoying the way that El had changed in response to the events of the story and looking forward to what she would do in the next book. 

The Scholomance itself is a fascinating bit of worldbuilding and I really enjoyed learning the history and layout of the place piece by piece.  (And it was good that my library copy of the book had a few sketches as part of the front and end notes.)  It is a suitably creepy place with multiple levels of terror lurking in every decision the students of the Scholomance make.  The students are stuck in realistic levels of moral decision making too, so that the entire world is shades of gray. 

I did have some major questions about the logic of the world and specifically the main threat of the book.  I felt like there were a couple of logical holes (or maybe internal consistency) problems with that threat and some serious unanswered questions about some of the main characters (that I am more certain are plot points rather than holes).  This is the first book of a trilogy though, so maybe they’ll be answered in one of the other books!

I enjoyed the book.  I have not decided if it would be a bookshelf keeper (it would depend on the next books in the trilogy). 

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

really wish my one friend would quit flirting with me. and trying to goad me into hanging out more. and assigning us fictional characters that are oh-so-coincidently either couples or with romantic tension. and then interrupting our gameplay to ask me repeatedly if I think they’re “like us” (which they rarely are…). and matching my icon on discord without asking (again, usually by insinuating a couple connection). and giving me random things I do not want and did not ask to receive (and then forcing me to take them???).

[yashley]

you ever think about how a choice that wasn’t even really a choice for fearne, but her being the only one with the ability to perform the ritual that made it her* choice as everyone around her buckled to try to help her out of that situation and the ramifications of that choice that she had scarred her so deeply that now she is terrified of making another mistake that will dramatically affect the people around her who she loves, and then when another situation followed, she was led into a situation that she did not want to be a part of, but under the veil of friendship reluctantly assisted and it blew up literally once again, took that overwhelming burden of guilt and while her friends stood by and once more let her be alone in her guilt and scarred her further.

now it feels like she can’t make any choice for herself, she can’t make any move because that will ultimately inevitably lead to her making a mistake and all of her precious friends will look down at her in disappointment and that there is not a single friend amongst them who has the emotional wherewithal to what’s happening with how fearne has changed and how she is shutting in on herself and how she is slowly imploding breaking at the seams because she’s being lost in the sea of guilt and no one else notices and no one else sees that she feels like she can’t do anything anymore from the smallest carefree little action that has no plot repercussions to a character centered decision that is integral to her own character arc that has been in the works for her character since the campaign’s conception

now she can’t even say anything, and if fearne does have an idea to do something. She quietly mutters it, and if they hear her they hear her enough to respond that ehhh that's not a good plan and that’s not gonna work and we’re not gonna do that. We’re gonna do this and fearne being fearne, trusting in her friends and doubting herself to the point of despair will nod her head that they were right and then we go on with our day until the next moment happens where she wants to think of something, she wants to do something, and it’s dismissed as the silly dumb fearne not thinking, that She has her own thoughts and feelings, and drives and desires but because she is drowning in doubt and drowning in guilt, She freezes up and doesn’t move and everyone around her just pushes her on, and even in the moment where she is faced with the situation that she is terrified of undertaking, and she is terrified of becoming a Nightmare version of herself her friends push her forward, her friends dust off her shoulders say your doubt is misplaced, and don’t worry about it and you need to do this, it should be you. This is for you.

They just completely dismiss and ignore her when she actually does speak up so what does that do? that means that she remains silent. She doubts herself more. She even more will only make a decision if it’s signed off by all these fucking people around her who claim to be her friends. she can’t even move without frantically looking to people around her for confirmation that that’s a good idea she’s not gonna fuck up. Everything about her that was supposed to be free and fun and sweet has just rendered her into a character who feels like they have as much agency as characters who would be absent for the majority of the campaign.

shes been so chained up by doubt and so chained up by guilt and hesitation and fear that she just is a person who affirms everyone else’s desires and ideas because what she wants will inevitably end up being horrible and everyone will hate her for it and they’ll leave

and it’s like if they deem fearne even capable enough to be the vessel she will leap at the chance to be useful and to be told her path and it’s like. fearne was ruidusborn first. how has this campaign done such a disservice to her character that the only thing fearne is certain of is that she doesn’t really matter. she’s a ruidusborn and holds a primordial titan of fire inside her, and she still believes she doesn’t really count are you kidding me

[leahcee]

no no no because I am very mad at how k*vin feige and the mcu made thanos and the blip this huge life altering event that was so traumatizing and heart breaking just to make it “silly” and have “funny” throw away jokes and restaurants in future films like that’s why ur shits quality is declining bro

[sysig]

Heck yeah, Requestober!! Thanks for doing this again, it's always so much fun! I've got two TPoH ideas to choose from if that's alright, whichever you're more in the mood for. Either Dial annoying RGB, as he does, or Dial and Click being an awful chaos duo? Either would be great!

Day 17 - Boundaries, Dial

[citrusinicake]

stone sword mentality final vs wip

as can be seen in the wip it was originally gonna be drasticduo instead of starfox but the posing was way too reverent compared to how i perceived their dynamic to be so i decided to change it to starfox because... well *gestures at whatever tf they had going on in s4*

[gothe]

i love people who don’t know me very well assuming that i don’t mean it when i say i’d kill some guy. ‘i’d kill him’ can sound like a joke. it’s funny to me because actually i was a violent child who was infamous around my elementary school when i was only in first grade for being such a menace, i’m more capable than anyone.

[blondiesdomain]

He's a 10, but you have to initiate EVERYTHING