#WHY AM I THE ONE MAKING ASSUMPTIONS

[kaldurcalm]

Someone shared a post about the pear of anguish, saying it was used to torture slaves, and I thought its design was interesting but something felt slightly off, so I looked it up.

The first thing you see when you look this thing up is that its usage is disputed.

Apparently the mechanism doesn't seem to work the way it's said to work? It's said that people would slowly enlarge the opening in order to spread an orifice wider and wider, and that it could even break jaws.

The thing is, this device does not seem to open in this way. It seems to spring open. The screw mechanism is for closing it.

I relayed this information, thinking this was someone who would actually care about fact checking. "It might not actually have worked in this way. Its usage is disputed."

For some fucking dadblamed reason, they took this as me... questioning the existence of racism? And denying the suffering of black people?

I do a little more digging, and it's basically the same thing over and over. One guy insists that it's totally a torture device, because why else would it be in torture chamber museums?

I don't know, buddy, maybe because people like to make up stories and scare others.

That's one running theory for the existence of this thing: people wanted a good story. They wanted to be able to sell that story in order to make money. So they made elaborate devices and charged people to see them, or displayed them in order to scare their guests.

This part of the speculation, by the way, is from medieval times. There are no modern accounts of this item's usage.

We have so many accounts of slavery. We have so many ways to spread information. We're still able to converse with some of the children of the people who are still alive. We can still see the documents they left during that time.

Why would they leave this out? If it were actually in use, why would they relay the whippings, the confinement, the rape, the starvation, the harsh working conditions, the lynchings, the forced assimilation, and just... not mention this part?

Their friend piled on. I told him my statement was based on the way the device functions, and not "white people wouldn't do that." I told them that I didn't expect better from him, because I didn't know him, but I did expect better from them.

Apparently this was me making assumptions.

Gonna be honest, I didn't read the entirety of their responses, because this sort of thing is maddeningly upsetting to me. I thought I was safe to say something because, when I accidentally sent them a video by Alexis Nelson, they called it funny and informative. I know that doesn't seem like much, but... honestly, Alexis isn't going to be up everyone's alley, and sometimes that's due to bigotry. So I thought they would actually care, and not be mad about being checked. I've been in that situation plenty of times, and I normally don't say anything if I don't think I'm going to get through. I only say something if I have hope for that person.

I thought I might actually have a potential friend, and said person responded to "Hey this information might not be accurate" with... honestly, I can barely even parse the way they worded things? Something about slavery happening whether it was disputed or not.

I just wanted to fact check an unsourced facebook post.

[coldbycrossfade]

MAN THAT REALLY COLORS THIS RESPONSE IN THIS CONVERSATION SO DIFFERENTLY FOR ME

[sixofcrowshyperfixation]

Wylan:

Jan Van Eck: Alys is pregnant with a son, who will become my true heir

Wylan: Cain instinct is real, I wanna kick this unborn child into the next realm of existence, he can never truly be my brother, Kaz is more my brother than that thing

[crispyjenkins]

savage price of piety "crispy has lost control of their life again" celebration sneak peek

okay here's one from one of my favorite things i've ever written, which isn't actually posted yet, but everything for it so far is tagged with #savage price and is linked on my fic masterlist, which is my pinned post! (mostly gen but with a surprise rarepair, time travel/reincarnation, found family, william miles’ a+ parenting, accidental subterfuge, desmond goes by miles mostly, inspired by study of flight by @esamastation but with a twist!, only somewhat historically accurate swears)

  But it’s Ezio that broaches the subject, Leonardo having had to return to his studio so as not to upset said city’s patrons,

  “Were you raised in Castello Tarazed?”

  ... What.

  Desmond stares at him in bemusement, wondering how the fuck he knew anything about that, and also why that’s the first thing he’s asking him. Isn’t he curious about Desmond’s father? Don’t he and Leonardo already have a theory on his relation to the Auditore?

  Ezio doesn’t elaborate, crossing his arms as he leans against the support of the rooftop loggia Desmond had been taking a break in, rough-spun sheeting pulled aside to let the sunlight in. Back-lit as he is, Ezio’s expression is even harder to see with the hood, though Desmond isn’t sure he’d have been able to actually read it even if he could.

  After another minute of blinking at each other, Desmond slowly asks, “What?” and no, he isn’t thrilled when it gets a fond little uptick of Ezio’s mouth, pulling at their shared scar.

  “Castello Tarazed,” he repeats, with a nod upriver towards the area of Rome it’s in, the rione that’s been known as Borga for... a very long time. It was even still called that in the 21st century, if Desmond is remembering one of Shaun’s rambling info-dumps right.

  They can almost see it from the Island, situated right at the bend of the Tiber that stretches between the Vatican and the Castel Sant’Angelo, and though they can see said castel from where they are right now, they are too far away to pick Desmond’s old home out from the skyline.

  Desmond licks his dry lips and glances away, before forcing himself to look back. “It’s been abandoned for years,” is what he says, though he isn’t sure why. His time in the Castel Sant’Angelo wasn’t great, he’ll admit, but the years before that with a man that raised his sons like Bill Miles did...

  When he’s thought about revealing everything to the remaining Auditore, of explaining his life in the future, he’d never once considered telling them about this.

  Standing over him, Ezio hums thoughtfully and unpins Desmond from his gaze, surely aware of his discomfort. “Eight years, yes. Locals say it’s haunted.”

  Suddenly Desmond can’t feel his fingers. His right arm. The back of his head where it used to be cradled by the Animus.

  “The tenders of the nearby Frisian Schola who were around that long ago claim everyone on the grounds of Tarazed was killed in a single night, but someone powerful covered it all up to avoid the scandal, and then never sold or gave the property away.”  

Why is he asking this, why is he phrasing it like this, why doesn’t he just accuse Desmond like everyone else—?

-

[cassiefisherdrake]

I have seen a LOT of posts now like "Cayde is clearly just a marketing tactic, it ruins the oomph of Forsaken, his presence is going to ruin the story and remove the stakes of previous lore," and it's like. you realize that is the point, right? like, THE Point, right? That generating discussion is The Point of marketing, right? And that we don't know how Cayde's presence will or will not affect the story because we don't know what the story even IS yet and that is part of The Point, right? That we cannot assume it stomps on previous storylines because we don't know what the story is yet and that is also part of The Point, right? Can we just acknowledge this for a minute?

[lith-myathar]

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[daz4i]

i get why people are against ai fics but like. i also get why people want them, yknow? for someone who has no time to write, or can't figure out a writing style, or isn't confident in their english etc etc etc (writing is hard dude) then yeah it makes sense they'd want to find a specific premise and seek it out that way when it's cheaper than getting a commission esp if they want smth long

THAT BEING SAID in order to write a fic for you chatgpt steals from other fic writers and that's. simply not cool to say the least. even more so if you later post it on other sites and esp ao3

but i kinda hate the sentiment of "if you like the idea so much write it yourself" bc dude, it's not that simple 😭 i get where these people are coming from too i just find it annoying as hell

[babygirlgiles]

Apparently the thing I’ve learned about Hunger Games fanfiction is that typically it’s less of a study of the universe and the characters that inhabit it and more a study in people’s reactions to the universe and/or people’s assumptions about like. Life in general. Idk I just have so many questions for these ppl. What do these people think living in poverty is like? Do they really think Katniss’s one room home on the outskirts of the country’s poorest region has a wall thermostat? How do they think that thermostat operates, in a region that regularly goes long stretches of time without electricity? How do they think glow in the dark stars are manufactured? What about plastic pee on a stick pregnancy tests, how do they think those are made? Why do siblings or family members never share beds, especially when it’s literally mentioned in the book? Why do they think that Katniss and Peeta, whose relationship has been subjected to endless government scrutiny and who live in a region known for it’s lack of government oversight, would ever want or need to get legally married? Why do they think that Katniss would ever change her last name, which is in many ways one of her last connections to her dead father and her dead sister? Where do they think lactose free milk comes from? Why does Katniss have a dishwasher? Why does Katniss. Have a dishwasher.

[sadsongsandwaltzes]

This does bring forth a question about the worth of remaining connected to the mother country or land of origin, as we understand it.

Does it matter to care about the country (as a nation) your ancestors came from when you have no stake in the game? And really, does a specific chunk of land and the governing forces on that land really matter, considering throughout history borders have shifted, governments have changed, people have migrated?

Do you believe you can uphold the legacy and culture of your ancestors regardless of the piece of land on which you stand?

[shorthaltsjester]

imodna to me is c3 widojest (i am not a fan of widojest)

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

A Crown So Cursed

conclusion to the Nightmare-verse trilogy, a YA urban portal fantasy

follows a Black girl trained to fight nightmare-monsters in Wonderland, to protect the people of both worlds

but the nightmares start coming for her in the real world - at a convention, and even her own home, and the crew have to prepare to fight a greater evil tied to Wonderland’s past

[tothechaos]

have a really specific autoclave inspired illustration in mind. getting annoyed by getting the composition together but i can see it very clearly in my head

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

hey let's all just take a moment to remember that sometimes the characters we hate (even with very good reason) mean something important to some other people out there, ok?

[pochapal]

kind of funny how indirectly the story is signposting the reader to start thinking in the general direction of my notion of the 1-10 culprit theory

[spacedykez]

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[groupwest]

she like. quoted fire walk with me at least three times i swear. i swear to god