#So I KNOW it's feasable to do it

[takadanobaba]

If there's the Hisui expansion, maybe the twins aren't romanceable in the normal mod but can be in the expansion. Things would definitely be different depending if they were coming home to their spouse instead of just a friend, would probably have different dialogue and events and that sounds it could get messy.

Yeah.... I was thinking that maybe it could just be a standalone mod instead of a proper expansion if things are too hard to execute in that way. For the normal mod I do want the option to romance them as they are now, but maybe the Hisui mod will be a separate thing where they aren't romancable until you get Ingo back + work through their trauma? That way it's not too messy regarding if you romanced them prior or not

[chisatowo]

I'm slowly getting to the point where like legitimately Kanade and Mafuyu have the least interesting dynamic in 25ji to me. Tbf the fandom is Not helping

[drlavenderpepper]

i wrote like 4k words in one sitting yesterday. btw.

[total-drama-brainrot]

i now wanna hear your very long character analysis on how the drama machine affected alejandro

Yeah alright.

So I haven't actually watched All-stars, but I did skim through this video to get a feel for Alejandro's characterisation in it, since All-stars is the only canonical material we get from Alejandro post Drama Machine.

And by skim I really do mean skim; I was mostly looking out for signs of his imprisonment's influence, which for the most part seems to be as follows:

His legs fell asleep.

He developed a minor case of agoraphobia, mostly in the context of sleeping in open spaces.

His standards of human interaction have plummeted; something he's aware and accepting of.

Interestingly enough, he doesn't really seem to acknowledge the volcano itself (outside of an offhanded comment) or the injuries he got from the explosion. His focus is solely on his time in the suit, not what out him there in the first place. He even skirts over a memory loss issue, which could contribute to this.

I'll tackle these three points in more detail, and then give examples of how they can be developed into actual characterisation points instead of (for the most part) gags.

Number one; Leggy McLatin and the paraplegia scheme.

Alejandro's inadvertant and unintentional escape from the Drama Machine, and subsequent readmission into the competition (as himself, instead of as the machine) is, for the most part, entirely focal on the fact that his legs no longer work after his year of entrapment. It's a big deal - or, at least, as big of a deal as any injury or ailment can be in the context of Total Drama, considering that he doesn't miraculously get better in the span of an episode. Of course, we learn fairly early on that he's faking the paraplegia, but it's fairly heavily implied that his legs really were asleep initially (and that, in all likelihood, the massage we see him getting from an intern is what "wakes them up").

What's interesting about this particular plotline choice is that it would, realistically, be entirely feasable for Alejandro to have mobility issues after spending a year inside a robot.

Now, I'm no doctor, nor do I have any formal medical training, but I do know that not being able to move your body for an extended period of time results in a serious case of muscle atrophy. We see in canon that Alejandro was essentially locked in a seated position for the year; his arms, head and (assumedly) torso had place to move around, but he couldn't really stretch out his legs. This would explain the "weakness" of his legs in the first episode - i.e. their wobbliness, and the fact that they couldn't hold up Alejandro's body weight. The numbness he cites would be explained by poor circulation - again caused by him being sat down for a solid twelve months.

Or it could be nerve damage from the eruption, but given that Alejandro doesn't seem to have any long-term issues that stem from the volcano itself, it's unlikely.

So it can be assumed that the numbness of his legs was offset by the massage he gets after the first challenge. The masseuse kickstarts the blood circulation back into his legs, resulting in him regaining sensation in them - enough feeling to notice a crab pinching at his feet.

And, if I really want to reach into headcanon territory/realism, the reason he keeps up the "ruse" is because, despite having feeling in his legs, the muscles there are still fairly atrophied and he has a lot of trouble walking, let alone running, for extended periods of time. Though, as it stands, any long-term impact on his health would be entirely headcanon/fanon territory, due to the nature of the show itself.*

Then there's the psychological aspect to consider. Alejandro's a very prideful person by design - that's evident in both the way he portrays himself and the physical standards he holds himself to. Having use of half of his body stripped away from his is bound to be distressing, perhaps even traumatising. Hence why he tries to make himself as useful to the team as possible despite still recovering; he needs everyone to see that he's still capable.

Eventually his legs fully recover, because this is Total Drama and things like "realistic healing processes" and "lasting damage" don't seem to exist in-universe.

Number two; snug as a bug in a rug.

Alejandro's shown to have started sleeping in a sleeping bag throughout All-stars. He even canonically states that he needs to, because of his time in the Drama Machine. He cites that sleeping whilst srpawled out makes him uncomfortable, unspokenly referring to the fact that, for a year, he'd only had the option to sleep in an incredibly cramped position/environment.

This is interesting since, for the most part, you'd assume that someone held in close-quaters captivity would develop claustrophobia instead of a form of agorophobia, and yet Alejandro seems to have internalised the need to be in an enclosed space to sleep. Maybe it's symptom of just how long be was encased for - a year is a long time - or maybe it started out as claustrophobia, but the indefinate nature of his captivity morphed the initial fear into a twisted sort of coping mechanism.

It begs the question; what else can't Alejandro do in open spaces?

Is he perpetually uncomfortable with the openness of the outside world? Does he resort to hermiting himself into closed-off corners and enclosed rooms, just to feel a semblence of normalcy after he escapes the confines of the Drama Machine? Would he take to wearing tighter but more concealing clothing, just to immitate the feeling/pressure of being trapped in a too-tight enclosure?

Is his need for a snug sleeping space indicitive of him missing his isolated imprisonment?

Which brings us nicely into the third point.

Number three; long-term isolation and the effects thereof.

Alejandro explodes out of a glorified toaster and one of the first things he really comments on is Heather's off-putting personality and her facial hair. In a positive manner. He's so starved for human contact that he attaches himself to the first "friendly"/familiar face he sees, which in this case is Heather, and focuses on the aspects of her that make her human.

If he were a "weaker man", I have no doubt Alejandro would be clambering for attention from his team, mostly for proof that he's no longer completely isolated. It's a well-documented phenomenon; people who experience a long time in isolation, or who suffer through long periods of loneliness, become desperate for socialisation (and physical contact), to the point their immune systems and biological rhythyms (from circadian to infradian) start to deteriorate.

Realistically, Alejandro would've come out of the Drama Machine a desperate and sickly mess, riddled with insomnia and paranoia and incredibly touch-starved. But, as established, the show isn't exactly true-to-life when it comes to things like this, so...

As it stands, the fact that he emerged from his prison and immediately jumped back into his charming persona attests more to the fact that his flirtatious act is so deeply ingrained into his psyche than it does to his mental wellbeing. It could be argued that he's using the same act/mask/persona as a tether to his old self and an anchor to normalcy, as he'd likely crumble into an inconsolable mess without the scaffolding of his "TV personality" keeping him upright (metaphorically of course, as Alejandro is in fact not upright in the show. He's upside down for the majority of his time on All-stars).

Or maybe he's just built different? Who's to say.

We don't exactly know what went down during his year away, so it's impossible to make any concrete statements as to whether Alejandro was afforded the luxury of other people's company, or if he really was kept 100% isolated in the machine. The only thing we do know is that he likely had access to a phone, though didn't have the capability of using it without assistance, since he calls Heather out for never trying to contact him but also states the impossibility of him doing the same in turn.

Number four; lava damage and the lack thereof.

It's sort of explained during his scene at the end of World Tour, but Alejandro's whole "being trapped in the Drama Machine" deal - alongside being a parody of the scene where Anakin Skywalker is first put into the Darth Vader suit - is stated to be for his own benefit. He's essentially being locked away into a healing suit. Again, just like Anakin - they both even sport similar burn wounds.

He mentions at the beginning of All-stars that he doesn't really remember being put into the machine, and it's safe to assume that the majority of his time in the contraption is likely fuzzy to him as well; being fully concious of complete isolation for a whole year would be enough to drive anyone completely mad, and Alejandro is decidedly not insane (for the most part). Ergo, it's also a safe assumption that the inner mechanisms of the Drama Machine act as a sort of stoporous healing chamber, keeping Alejandro semi-concious and healing his various lava burns over the course of his concealment.

Sort of like a medical coma. Inside of a robot. A portable medical coma.

The "healing properties" would also justify why Alejandro's whole body hadn't deteriorated from muscle atrophy, or developed any (visible) burn scars from his stint in the Hot Sauce. Of course, as far as burn scars go, unless they're significantly deep they do tend to fade into near-invisibility over time. That, paired with the ~magical healing properties~ of his confinement, likely resulted in his lava burns scarring over into insignificance.

Then again, I once again have to take cartoon logic into account - the show itself likely just didn't consider the semi-realistic consequences of a year of entrapment, and wanted Alejandro to be near-enough the same character he was at the end of World Tour before the consequences™.

The main point here is this; Alejandro doesn't seem to remember the majority of his injuries following the volcano eruption in the World Tour finale, or if he does he's had a year of semi-conciousness to work through his thoughts and feelings on the matter, and as a result he doesn't seem to carry any (reasonable) trauma regarding lava, volcanoes, or other related stimuli.

He does, however, retain some "quirks" from his time in the machine.

Number five; an overview.

Alejandro comes out of the Drama Machine with a surprisingly little amount of visible trauma, both in terms of physical damage/scarring and observable mental changes.

He developed a very minor case of agoraphobia, spurned on by him becoming accustomed to existing in a very small, very cramped space, but otherwise attunes himself to the outside world incredibly fast.

Is this probably related to his social training, as a diplomat's son, and his heavy reliance on a "suave and charming" persona. He's likely battling with a lot of internal issues throughout the season, but squahing down his inner turmoil under his determination to win, which explains how/why he falls so easily into his scheming mindset - it, in and of itself, is a coping mechanism, though not a very healthy one.

*The paralysis of his legs was in all likelihood genuine, and a result of poor circulatory issues and minor muscular atrophy, which was almost immediately treated by the masseuse intern after the first challenge. Realistically (and how many times have I said that word) he'd have some lasting weakness in his legs, and maybe require the use of a mobility aid and/or physiotherapy. This is not the case, because... Total Drama.

There are subtle signs of the mental impact of his imprisonment, mostly in his immediate attachment to Heather (despite her taking away his reproduction privileges the last time they spoke, and her being Heather) and his innate need to prove himself as useful/capable despite his gameplan riding on him appearing pitiable and unthreatening (due to his "sleepy legs"). He's so starved for social interaction and validation that his actions are directly contradictory to his gameplans.

Though in the case of his Heather attachment, he could just be like that. He was also fairly infatuated with her in the latter half of World Tour, and the pineapple scene speaks for itself.

In conclusion; Alejandro is either completely goated and (for the most part) just shrugged off the trauma of being trapped in a tiny box for a year, or he was already so traumatised that the imprisonment was just another needle in his haystack of turmoil.

[ghostbiie]

i just want everyone to know that cel and zolf would still be alive today, since elves and dwarves have longer lifespans that humans

so zolf is 51 and cel is 97 (according to the fandom wiki)

lets say rqg took place in 1860

that would mean that rqg took place 164 years ago

meaning today zolf would be 215 and cel would be 261

which is a feasable age for them to be since dwarves can live to be over 300 and half-elves can be over 250(i had to do way too much research to figure this out for some reason??)

in conclusion, cel and zolf could know what a skibidi toilet is

have a nice day

[generalissimomayhem]

I was drifting to sleep with this idea based on this drawing. Please don't take it seriously.

So uuuhhhh... I think Elenois might have a sort of crush onto Robertsky, its your typical puppy crush that makes you twirl your hair in your finger when you think about them™

The problem is that she's too scared to even do something about it.

(Selenne is fully aware of this and tries to push her sister to actually DO SOMETHING.)

Robertsky on the other hand, is not aware; like yeah, they exchange words and are amicable towards each other, but that's... about the extent of it. Robertsky doesn't even consider a friendship between the two to be feasable. MUCH LESS SOMETHING OF WHAT ELENOIS WANTS.

(Unlike, Selenne, Albertsky is completely in the dark, he doesn't know about this mess.)

Robertsky thinks of her (and her sister) as unnotainable, them being models means that they have far more important contacts and friendships than a simple, jaunty shoemaker. Which makes him not put any real effort beyond a couple of greetings; this kills Elenois on the inside, man.

But idk man, they could resolve this if they actually SPOKE, but that's just me.

[do-you-like-this-pjsk-ship]

Hello and welcome to the Do You Like This Project Sekai Ship Poll blog!

The purpose is all there in the name: Do you like these ships? The goal is to have a general idea of the communities opinions on every feasable ship in the game by the time these polls all conclude!

Important things to know:

• Ships between siblings are not going to be posted, and this includes Toya X either of the Tenma's.

• This account mostly runs on requests so send them in! Though I don't post request asks, know that your submissions will be put in queue!

• I will be doing poly ships, but only of just the units, (Polyneed, Polyjump, etc.) if you want me to make a poll of any other poly ships, send a request!

• Poly ship requests involving more than 3 characters are currently not accepted. Any submissions involving 4 or more characters will be deleted until further notice.

• I will not be posting any Playable Character X VOCALOID ships outside of Miku.

• I will not be posting any Playable Character X NPC ships unless requested.

• You can request VOCALOID X VOCALOID or NPC X NPC ships as well.

• I will refuse every ship that is incestuous or pedophilic in any way shape or form.

• I don't want to see any hate towards ships and I espescially don't want to see any hate towards shippers. Friendly debate and discussion is totally fine, but any actual attacks will not be tolerated.

• Likewise, I don't want to see any hate towards people who don't ship something.

• Questions for the mods or general rambling about your favorite ship in the askbox is welcome!

Two mods run this account: Mod Luka and Mod Honami

Polls will be posted at Noon and Midnight CST!!

With all that out of the way:

[stealingyourbones]

I have this one idea for like secret siblings!bat of your choice where danny is like. Aware he has a Lost Sibling and has good memories of them and devises like. A plan to reunite.

This idea works best with accepting jack and maddie but could be figured out otherwise where its like. Jack and maddie have reason to go to an event in gotham that danny cant/wont go to (maybe bc of one of their intentions) that the waynes are going to as well. They know exactly which wayne is related to danny and they run into bruce and said sibling and just gush like "omg you look so much like our adopted son danny! Wow thats crazy you have the same name as dannys sibling haha [proceeds to tell 101 stories dannys told them about him and his sibling while said sibling steadily gets more and more "oh sht this is my brother theyre talking about" and bruce keeps giving suspicious glances]" maybe this could be fun with like. Cass or smthn i never see her being dannys secret sibling but anyone could feasably work

:0 WITH CASS?! Bro I’ve never even thought about doing a twin au with Cass before that would be SICK. I don’t write trans au stuff but you certainly could do stuff with Cass being Danny’s identical twin. If you wanna do siblings I think that’d be best tho cause Cass is half Asian and Danny is… not. Genetics be wack so having Danny be a sibling would make a lot more sense.

The Fentons approaching Cass who very much so doesn’t wanna confront anyone and the scientists ramble on about Danny and she just goes “oh fuck. I found him.”

[thesugarhole]

being serious day 1 blog:

was going to spend the day at the library to better simulate a focus environment but my mom had some exams to do that required general anesthesia and had to have someone pick her up after, so i stayed home to both take her and pick her up

* i have to get re-used to driving even though i dont have a car. rookie mistakes

headache started brewing

spent all morning and most of the afternoon cleaning the house with her

while she was there i came back home and finally analyzed/ opened up my portefolio to update it. turns out it needs less work than i expected it to. reworked the cover & back bc i dont want my face in there, also removed some projects i dont think are relevant to the type of design i wanna do (theyre on behance regardless)

this was roughly 2-3 hours of work though and my headache got worse. saw that it was close to the time to pick up my mom so i went to rest my head for a bit

pick up mom, back home. go get something to eat with her bc she hungry due to having to clean her guts for it = chicken soup, jello and pills for like 4 days

has an inflamed stomach and a mass inbetween stomach and. i forgot the name. they took part of it for a hospital biopsy that can analyze it more thorough. awaiting results

here writing this. 7pm. head still hurty

tldr: first day got very little done in terms of job hunting, but could be worse. could have done nothing at all. i need to check if the library isnt on different schedules due to labor day on wednesday, but the main plan is go there tomorrow all day and finish editing my portefolio, as well as translate my cv to english/update europass (<- havent needed it yet but who the fuck knows). i think its feasable.

im wondering if it would be worth it to charge my transport pass (30 euros) just to have a bus library<-> home. its not a long walk, 20mins/1,4km/0,6 miles?, but carrying my laptop in summer-like heat is a drag. ive eliminated as much weight as i can from my junk but just that plus a water bottle is enough to tire, can you believe it. or maybe im just kinda lazy.

[thewomancallednova]

Some spoiler-y obervations on today's SNW episode, "Hegemony":

I'm really glad we got to see an adult Gorn that looks more humanoid. When Sam found those anomalous human readings I was really concerned they'd go with a "TOS Gorn a weird Human-Gorn hybrids" thing.

ERICA GOT TO SAY MULTIPLE SENTENCES IM SO HAPPY

I was 100% sure Batel was gonna die when she made a log entry at the start :D Pleasently surprised by how that went

I kinda wish the Gorn weren't such a drawn-out plot with SNW. The feeling I'm getting is that they're just doing "Arena" but with eight episodes scattered over three seasons and I don't really see how that's gonna be better than "Arena". For what it's worth I'd love to get a closer look at how Gorn society in SNW actually works, like how did y'all build those spaceships if you keep cannibalising everyone. And to this episode's credit they did tease in that direction.

Definitely more on board with Scotty by the end of the episode than at the start. I really hope we can keep Carol Kane next season and have her mentor Scotty. I like what SNW has done with Spock, Uhura, Chapel and M'Benga; so I'm optimistic about Scotty, but my first instinct whenever a new major TOS character appears is generally to groan.

How exactly does a demarcation line within a solar system? Like, I'm no physicist, but don't planets usually rotate around stars? Wouldn't that shift planets in and out of Gorn/Federation territory depending on the time of year? Incidentally, there's a Trek novel (by Peter David of course) that explores that exact situation, where a planet is in (IIRC) Tholian territory for two days every year.

Pike's voice when he says "Spock" after seeing the destroyed Caygua is just TT

Seeing Pike interrupt Battel's mission here with a subspace phone call, I wish we'd see that more often the other way around. "Sorry honey, can't talk right now I have to make the pirates revolt against their captain, I'll call you back later okay?"

Love the music cues reminiscent of TOS. And I'm glad in general that the post-Berman Trek shows got to recover from the "sonic wallpaper" directive.

The Starfleet delta pattern on the space suits is really distracting. Like, I know I'm supposed to look at how they're hand-holding but wow, that is a lot of deltas!

It kinda rubs me the wrong way that Spock and Chapel killed the Gorn on the Cuyaga, just when the planetside story gets all about how maybe we can talk with the Gorn. Probably doesn't help that the Gorn took like ten seconds to suffocate and seemed to be in excruciating pain throughout. Like, c'mon Chapel, shoot him already, it's be more merciful.

I think SNW is actually quite clever with connecting its Gorn continuity to that of TOS. The SNW Gorn ships like very different from the TOS ones, which is great because in "Arena" no one recognizes the new ship. The Gorn are only revealed as the perpetrators in conversation with the Metrons, so I think it's feasable that Kirk just doesn't know of them (as long as his relationship with La'an doesn't get any further) and the rest of the crew didn't want to interrupt during the conversation with the seemingly very powerful Metrons. After Kirk is teleported by the Metrons Uhura screams, because 60s show (she should be used to teleportation right, being in Starfleet), but the SNW retcon that she knows of the Gorn and their horrors really gives that moment new depth and makes it less silly.

[alpaca-clouds]

When White (or allistic?) people travel...

I am gonna travel a bit next week. Well, "a bit" really means: I am gonna dip across the border for a few days into the Netherlands (I am living really close to the border) and bike around a bit. At least as long as the weather is gonna play along.

But it has reminded me of this one thing I always saw when I was traveling.

And I am to this day not entirely sure whether it is a white people thing or an allistic people thing. And that is this need to travel often into a fantasy land.

Now, there are those people who will travel to some hotel ressort and hang at the beach for ten days. Which is valid. Laziness is a myth. All power to you. Just consider to maybe not do it on indigenous land. (No, really. The gif is there for a reason. Do not travel to Hawai'i.)

But there is this other kind of travel happening too. The travel, where you wanna see this other country - but not as it really is, but this idealized fantasy version of it.

I most often saw this in relation with Japan. Because let's face it. A ton of people, who are into Japan, are into Japan because of anime and the stuff they have "learned" through anime, with maybe some Japanese self-mythology put into it when it comes to stuff like honor and samurai and what not. And then they travel to Japan and are very, very disappointed, because the Japan they arrive in is not anime!Japan, but just another place. Another speck of earth so to speak. Where just normal people live, not anime characters. Sure, there are cool shrines and temples to visit. But all in all it is just a place like any other. It is not fantasy.

But it is a thing I have seen with a lot of white people travelling. They do not want to visit a place but the fantasy version of that place. Like, with Hawai'i they wanna go palm beach, hula dancing, aloha and what not. They do not wanna go to a place where the indigenous population is exploitated and gets further and further pushed from their land. If they go to South Africa, they wanna go to this trendy place, watch some whales and what not, not see the rampant poverty and crime. Or when they go visit Greece, they wanna see that country with those nice ruins and stuff, eat some good food, and once again not be confronted with the poverty.

I still remember when I was a teenager and got send onto this Christian youth trip to Corfu, Greece. Now, it was knda funny, because it was a Christian youth trip - but our hostel was right next to the local brothel. But the pimp was actually a super nice guy, just so you know. Like, I got bullied on that trip by some of the other teens and at one time he just threatened those bullies to set his dog onto them, before inviting me and my friends over for dinner.

Now, the entire trip was two weeks and every day there was the option to go somewhere. Either to the beach or to see some sights. I did not go along. Partly because of the bullying, partly because I never got the idea of "seeing the sights". Instead I made friends with some local kids and hung out with them. At times I went with them on some trips they did with their families... And the irony is: I have seen much more of that island than anyone else on that trip. Just not... the ruins and stuff, that everyone else wanted to see. But I saw a farm where I got to taste some fresh honey, got a street dog to the vet, somehow ended up on a small fishing boat, was at a party where a kid got babtized, and visited a couple of villages that usually tourists just drive through. I learned a lot about the place and how the people live there.

And I do realize that it is not feasable for everyone from that group of 60 teens to just do that. I get that. But I also have to wonder... What is the value to visit the same ruin that has already been photographed like 2 million times?

Again, I get hanging at the beach. I do. But... looking at stuff that I can look at online? Yeah, no.

I guess what my rambling is aiming at...

Tourism kinda sucks. And even the entire idea, that it somehow helps the communities just does not really match the reality. Because the truth is that the money generated through communism mostly gets gobbled up by big companies, while the tourism at the touristy places also makes everything more expensive for the people who actually live their.

And tourists just do not want to see the people actually living there. They are not interested in the real place. Just in a fantasy. A fantasy that the tourism sector tries to uphold.

But it is... not really good, is it?

Like, hundreds of people or even thousands visiting either ruins or cultural heritage sites is not actually a good thing. It harms the environment and everything. And in the end it also hurts the people actually living around it. And they kinda have more of a right to be there than any tourist.

We really need to rethink how we travel and how we vacation. Because this isn't it.

[chisatowo]

Had a shower rewired my brain moment and now Ran x Chisato might be a thing in the band swap au oops

[monsterqueers]

You know, I can see why sometimes people think callouts are necessary;

When you are in a communal space and being harmed, or have suddenly become privy to serious harm, you want that harm to stop. One of the first things you learn on how to do that, once asking them to stop doesnt work, is to ask for help.

In small communities like forums or discord servers, you ask the community leaders for help. They talk to the person to make them stop or ban them from the small, non life-essential community. If the harm was bad enough they might encourage you to bring it to court (such as an adult soliciting nudes from minors in DMs).

Often this is done without the details being aired to the rest of the community (if the issue was in private).

But bigger websites like tumblr or twitter or youtube are not these kinds of small communities. Banning someone from a huge swath of the internet materially effects their livelyhood and ability to access community and care. The support staff for these websites usually take time to get to the case and often do nothing about it when they do because its not what they consider a TOS violation, even if its harm done.

This means if it cannot be solved by blocking, and you cannot leave because the space has things you need, your final tool to make harm stop is by airing the dirty laundry so social shame hopefully does something.

HOWEVER THE VAST MAJORITY CALLOUTS ARE NOT LIKE THIS

Most callouts are petty drivel attacking minorities (but especially trans women in particular) and filled with lies.

The person making the callout though, often genuinely believes that they are making harm stop like above though- because their definition of harm is much wider and includes things like 'trans woman having sex with consenting adults in a way I dont like', 'I was in conflict with my ex a lot because we could not communicate', and 'reblogged a fanart shipping naruto and sasuke once'.

They think that things that personally upset them out of disgust count as real harm. They think any conflict is always abuse.

Or at least, that is what the people making them will claim, and its hard to sort them from the true victims.

I think a notable part of why callouts are such a plague is because of the structure of social media as a whole. We dont HAVE the usual tools to curate our spaces well enough anymore and protect our communities from bad actors and people know this. Its the drawback of being so connected. They cannot see another way to do this, so they are loathe to let go of a tool that -in theory- can.

I think its something that is overlooked in conversations about this.

Its rare a plea to abandon callouts altogether has a feasable answer for 'what do we do with the confirmed serial abusers, scammers, and cult leaders that DO exist? How do we prevent them from hurting more people? They already had community support and love and they did harm with it. You cannot give them a rape babysitter a la the missing stair essay (of which the story shows works badly) over the internet. You cannot make them go to therapy over the internet and ensure it works. You cannot still act like nothing happened without making their victims feel unsafe and unsupported. What is there left to do?'

And honestly, I DONT have a good answer to assuage these concerns.

With new social media the way it is, with site moderators that only step in for TOS violations if that, how CAN we keep known serial bad actors with no true commitment to doing better from harming others except by warning people to not trust them?

Internet safety tip PSAs only do so much, and not using the megasites is not an option for most people either.

Trying to make callout posts be more accurate by trying to educate what is a calloutable offense has done nothing to reduce erroneous callouts.

People already commit to 'only spreading REAL callout posts', but they still spread bunk posts regardless.

It just... sucks all around.

-This post is not a perfectly worded and cited essay, do not treat it as such-

-This post is saying all the callouts crying wolf have ruined one of the few tools left to oust actual unrepentant serial abusers and scammers from communities without cop involvement, not that one should spread callout posts, dont clown!-

[fondesmode]

OKAY, can we talk about watcher!grian? i really wanna talk about watcher!grian + hermit!grian for some reason.

SO, for like the last couple years i’ve been seeing fanart and things of Grian if he was still linked to the watchers in some way, and how certain things keep happening because of said watcher stuff.

now I initially thought it was a neat concept, but was huge copium on the fanbases side.

BUT I WAS WRONG??

So in season 9, a couple things have happened. For starters, Grian confirmed the existence of other universes! which is kind of a big deallll. But y’know, it could just be a coincidence, right? surely it’s just an oddly convenient thing to confirm, right??

NOPE.

Not only is the colour symbolism for the rift (it being purple) a major thing, because the rift is the link between other universes, and purple has been heavily linked to watchers in the past.

But GRIAN HIMSELF uploaded ANOTHER VIDEO about Minecraft Beta! again, could be coincidence, BUT LIKKEEEE... this man has done beta content before. It could be for some extra views n things (which fair enough bc its fun to do that) but like, HE MENTIONS EVO! HE LITTERALY HAS A WATCHER SYMBOL IN THE VIDEO JUST IN THE BACKGROUND! and HE PLAYS THE LIL TUNE HE DID FOR EVO!

for those who don’t know. (somehow). Evo is a minecraft series Grian started with a bunch of other creators around 5 years ago. The goal was to start from one of the oldest versions of the game, and slowly update as the series progressed. Finding “watcher” puzzles and clues before eventually ‘unlocking’ the next update. Watchers are basically the gods of the world, with the power to update and things, and build structures no survival player could.

SO WHY, WOULD THE GRAIN MAN HIMSELF, HINT FOR PEOPLE TO WATCH IT 5 YEARS LATER, AND HAVE HEAVY FORESHADOWING RELATING TO WATCHER!GRIAN!?

yeah. So basically in conclusion. Grian knows. He’s not dumb, he knows exactly what he’s doing here. And it could all be just to make his viewers go insane and then lead to nothing, making this post pointless. But alas, i have joined the copium gang, which is starting to seem more feasable than copium now.

So hey besties, how we all feelin?

[appalachiananarchist]

Kentucky had a trigger law. Abortion is now banned with no exceptions made for rape, incest, minors, or fetal anomalies. Kentucky is a poor state, and the rural and Appalachian regions of KY are remarkably so. One of the biggest barriers to care in these areas is transportation--we don't have any sort of real public transportation, and most people do not have cars or reliable access to them. Attempting to get to another state to have an abortion is not feasable for the poor. By enacting such a complete ban in a state where so many residents are quite literally trapped in their current location, you have not only completely stripped females of their right to control their own body and future, but have ensured the worsening of numerous socioeconomic problems in a state already riddled with so many. The state will force pregnancies and then refuse to lift a finger to fix the messes it causes (being things like poverty, homelessness, abused or abandoned children, and drug addiction) or care for the life it forced into being. From the very bottom of my heart, I want every pro-lifer to know that you are unworthy of the air you breathe. I want every politician to know that you are worthy of even less.

[negativepeanuthoarder]

the conservative argument around "trans species" kids in schools is so dumb. Like

1. these are middle schoolers we're talking about. They will grow out of it. Kids play wolves and warrior cats at recess all the time and then grow up and can function just fine.

2. "the teachers aren't allowed to question it" yeah if a kid is wearing wolf ears or a tail to class and isn't being disruptive they have no reason to. if the school even allows those at all.

3. there are no litter boxes in bathrooms. that was suggested as a way to help student's service animals, not for the students themselves. no school does this.

4. "what about parent's rights" your right as a parent does not extend to policing children that aren't yours. your kids not being allowed fox tails is a decision you can only make for your children, not for other parent's kids. some parents are going to be fine with their kids doing this.

5. "there are kids barking and growling and hissing" kids do weird shit. kids have been hissing at each other since at least the 90s and they're going to keep doing it. they will grow out of it. if a student is being disruptive then the teacher will send them out of the classroom.

6. "they're just accepting mental illness" yeah what else is there to do? there are a lot of mental illnesses you can't get diagnosed with until you're an adult. doesn't mean they don't have it. also I need to stress that this is 13 year olds we're talking about here. of course children raised in this current environment are mentally ill.

7. "it's escapism" if it's not affecting their daily life and isn't causing them to hurt anyone or anything, mind your goddamn business. it's not much different then you watching marvel movies or the office 19 times in a row.

8. "they're running between the halls on all fours" no they are not. just because you see a kid on tiktok doing that does not mean that children are doing that in school. It's fucking HARD to walk on all fours and I know because I HAVE and DO (well I've lost a lot because I stopped doing it regularly). it's a great workout but it's also not feasable to do on a day-to-day basis because it's SO MUCH ENERGY.

9. "maybe people have too much freedom" that's a statement that should apply to gun control and not children pretending to be animals.