#black joy is the revolution

[dipperdesperado]

joy is our solarpunk secret sauce

Something that I feel like is sorely missing from activist spaces and thinking about the future is joy. It seems obvious when you really examine it, but if we see ourselves as imagining the solarpunk futures that we want to live in, but we don’t bring emotion into that conception, the pictures we create will ring hollow. I see joy as an important component of liberatory theory more broadly, so doing joyful things is a form of praxis to me. After all, to be joyful and aware of the injustices of the world at the same time is revolutionary.

Focusing on joy has to be an integral part of how we conceive of doing solarpunk stuff in real life. Joy is what will keep us going in our journey to build community-driven innovations and creative-driven lives. This will also bring more people into the movement, since joy is enticing, much more so than doomerism or pessimism. This is more inclusive and can create a snowball effect towards change.

Joy in my conception comes from fun, pleasure, and play. Having a sense of security, assuredness, and community feed into the ability for these emotions to thrive. This has an inherent decolonial thrust to it since joy stands at odds with mechanistic ideas of productivity and efficiency. It’s very difficult to increase profits exponentially without the inverse result happening to joy. This shift in focus allows our priorities to shift to a more harmonious relationship with ourselves, each other, and the rest of nature.

How do we incorporate joy into our movements?

Creativity is a latent fire within us that just needs the right environment to shine. Whether that’s through art, writing, or performance, this can be a fun and cathartic way to create engaging spaces and experiences for our movements. A solarpunk community can create a public art installation relating to a solarpunk idea like upcycling that celebrates the community’s cultural diversity and plurality. Make them interactive and engaging, have some different events going on a la a market or festival, music playing in the background and you can create the space for people to learn more about their possibilities for liberation without even really realizing it.

Community is implicitly a fundamental part of joy. Creating space for communities to form gives joy the room to grow. Connecting with the earth through community gardens, experimenting and iterating through ideas in co-working spaces, or connecting with your neighbors at a potluck can lead to good vibes and memories, showing us that another world is possible, and that we have the ingredients we need to create it. We also want to make sure these spaces are truly inclusive and accessible so that people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds can live in concert with the liberation movement.

Celebrating success can also be a way to highlight joy in our movements. It doesn’t matter how “big ” or “small” the success is. Sometimes, throwing a party over a tiny win can re-energize folks and get them excited to continue participating. Throwing a party, shouting people out on socials (depending on how it relates to security culture), and sharing stories can make a hopeful and inspiring energy. Hope is what encourages people to continue striving for a better future.

Humor might be one of my favorite concepts when it comes to thinking about joy. Humor might seem like a weird thing to think about as a form of praxis. However, I propose this; we live in a surreal world! The manifestations of the systems we see don’t match most of the things many of the supporters of these systems chirp about. I mean, meritocracy isn’t real, economic mobility isn’t real, and discrimination is rampant. There’s something deeply sad and ironically funny about that. But that’s a like low-hanging fruit (but deeply resonant) form of humor about collapse. Humor can also be a way to lift spirits and lighten moods through more positive jokes, sharing memes, wholesome acts, and a willingness to be childlike in a sense of possibility.

Having joy as an integral component of our world-changing work is huge to me, so it makes me sad that I don’t feel like many folks talk about it nearly as much. I think that what stalls movements out and keeps people from feeling welcome in them (besides systemic oppression, don’t wanna diminish that) is how it’s framed as hard work that we have to do to save the world. And on one hand, that is true, but on the other hand, that doesn’t mean it has to feel like work all the time. Like, if we want to build a world where we can leisure and play, but our construction plans are full of hardship and toil, we won’t be able to realize our ends. Having an inviting movement allows more people to come in and have a pathway to understanding all the important tough truths. Hope comes from joy, and we need hope to create the future that we want to see.

[gatheringbones]

best books I read in 2023:

sophie strand, the flowering wand: rewilding the sacred masculine

alex iantaffi, gender trauma: healing cultural, social, and historical gendered trauma

matthew desmond, evicted: poverty and profit in the american city

betty dodson, sex for one: the joy of selfloving

ching-in chen, andrea smith, jai dulani, the revolution starts at home: confronting intimate partner violence within activist communities

robin stern, the gaslight effect: how to spot and survive the hidden manipulation others use to control your life

nick turse, kill anything that moves: the real american war in vietnam

lori fox, this has always been a war: the radicalization of a working class queer

arline t. geronimus, weathering: the extraordinary stress of ordinary life in an unjust society

roxanne dunbar-ortiz, not a nation of immigrants: settler colonialism, white supremacy, and a history of erasure and exclusion

eyal press, dirty work: essential jobs and the hidden toll of inequality in america

rabbi danya ruttenberg, on repentence and repair: making amends in an unapologetic world

michelle dowd, forager: field notes for surviving a family cult

starhawk, the empowerment manual: a guide for collaborative groups

betty dodson, orgasms for two: the joy of partnersex

timothy snyder, black earth: the holocaust as history and warning

kidada e. williams, I saw death coming: a history of terror and survival in the war against reconstruction

judy grahn, another mother tongue: gay words, gay worlds

jennifer m. silva, coming up short: working-class adulthood in an age of uncertainty

susanna clarke, piranesi

megan asaka, seattle from the margins: exclusion, erasure, and the making of a pacific coast city

starhawk, truth or dare: encounters with power, authority, and mystery

laura jane grace, tranny: confessions of punk rock’s most infamous anarchist sellout

molly smith, revolting prostitutes: the fight for sex worker's rights

richard c. schwartz, you are the one you've been waiting for: applying internal family systems to intimate relationships

timothy snyder, our malady: lessons in liberty from a hospital diary

peter levine, trauma and memory: brain and body in search for the living past

kylie cheung, survivor injustice: state-sanctioned abuse, domestic violence, and the fight for bodily autonomy

timothy snyder, bloodlands: europe between hitler and stalin

joan larkin, a woman like that: lesbian and bisexual writers tell their coming out stories

cj cherryh, hammerfall

[blackexcellence]

Black Girl Magic 🪄🎆has entered the chat! Consider us a Black Girl Fan Page 🫶🏿🫶🏾🫶🏽🫶🏼🫶🏻 Let's celebrate Black girl magic in all its forms...

Black Girl Magic means many different things to many different people, but maybe we can simply define it as the resolve of Black women and girls to triumph in the face of structural oppression. These three words are a celebration of the resilience, strength, and beauty of Black girls and women, who have overcome countless obstacles and continue to inspire and uplift others. As a society, we need to acknowledge and celebrate the power and potential of Black girls, and recognize the vital role they play in shaping our future. Black women and girls are the backbone of their communities, often taking on roles of leadership and responsibility from a young age. Unapologetic in their pursuit of their dreams and refusing to be held back by societal expectations — Black (women and) girls are trailblazers, creating their own paths and shattering stereotypes along the way. Simply put BLACK GIRLS ARE MAGICAL. 

Now let’s get one thing straight “magic” is not to say that Black women are mythical or superhuman. This magic is a very different: magic in realness, in love, and the way we rally around one another in the face of institutional oppression. This magic is not sorcery or the supernatural, but what Black women can achieve each and every day as a million little revolutions, and a million little acts of defiance, that say you belong here. It is magic against the very real injustices faced every day: survival; more likely to be killed at almost three times the rate of white women, yet without headlines appealing for change. More likely to die giving birth, and the most suspended of any student group in the USA. And suspended for what? For how they wear their hair, for how they dress, by asking questions. Even in the workplace, there is both antiblackness and sexism to navigate: misogynoir. 

Despite these challenges, #BlackGirlMagic is conjured each and every day in a million different ways: through hair, writing, painting, poetry, dance, performance, fashion and dress, culture and history, music, and even speech. The Black experience is often narrated as a struggle, Black Girl Magic challenges that by exploring the joy, amplifying these voices and stories, and changing the narrative.

But we cannot do this without YOU: so POST your favorite depictions of Black Girl Magic, no matter how big, no matter how small. We want it all: the extraordinary and the everyday. And don’t forget to tag your content with #blackexcellence365 for the chance to be featured. Make sure you join in, follow, and smash that share button using the tags #BlackExcellence365. 

[sugolara]

𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝

Feat. Katsuki Bakugo x Shoto Todoroki x Izuku Midoriya x fem! reader

A series. Book One

cw: gore, quirkless! au, apocalypse! au, zombie! au, weapons, death, angst, lots and lots of blood, cannibalism, suicidal thoughts, updates thursday/sunday, slow burn, cross-posted on ao3, wattpad, qoutev

˗ˏˋ+ ´ˎ˗ After a deadly virus leaks all over the world, every country is forced to close down it's borders and airports to prevent anyone from coming in and out. Though, it's to late for some people. The dead has rose and is looking for revenge.

Inspired by, ''The Walking Dead''

(ongoing)

playlist!

" Space Junk - Wang Chung " Wolf - First Aid Kit " Into The Black - Chromatics " My Life In Rewind - Eagulls " Hush - Trills " Bad Before Good - Dayone " Run Boy Run - Woodkid " You're So Cool - Jonathan Bree " So Bored - Gorgeous Bully " Operations - Duster " Blue Light - Mazzy Star " Civilian - Wye Oak " Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers " Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses " Skyfall - Adele " Struggling Man - Emily Kinney (original: Jimmy Cliff) " The Last Pale Light In The West - Ben Nichols " Up The Wolves - The Mountain Goats " Blackbird Song - Lee DeWyze " Be Gone Dull Cage - Kiev " Into Dust - Mazzy Star " Warm Shadow - Fink " Tomorrow Is a Long Time - Bob Dylan " Poison Tree - Grouper " Rhymes Of An Hour - Mazzy Star " You Are The Wilderness - Voxhaul Broadcast " Running - Delta Spirit " People, Turn around - Delta Spirit " The Lion's Roar - First Aid Kit " Pain - Boy Harsher " The Setup - Favored Nations " The Old Death - Ben Nichols " Revolution - Red Shahan " The Man Who Sold The World - Nirvana " Beautiful Mess - Balian " The Day The World Went Away - Nine Inch Nails " Mr. Splitfoot - Paris Motel " Empty Words - Bowery Electric " No Longer Making Time - Slowdive " Step Away from the Cliff - Blue-Eyed Son " Paradise - Silverberg " Take Care (To Comb Your Hair) - Ty Segall " Glad I Had a Friend - Galt MacDermot " Machine Gun - Portishead " Shadows of Planes - Duster " No Peace at All - Aldous Harding " Save Us from Ourselves - Digital Daggers " I'm No Heroine - Emily Wells " Salt in the Wound - Delta Spirit " It's All Right - Sam Cooke " To Build a Home - The Cinematic Orchestra " 6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps " Edge Of The World - Dayshell " Bye Bye Bye - School of Seven Bells " Arsonist Lullaby - Hozier " It's All Over - Johnny Cash " The Stars Just Blink For Us - Say Hi " Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division " Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Guns N' Roses " Runnin' Down a Dream - Tom Petty " Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller Band " You Are Not Alone - Mavis Staples " Welcome - Harmonia & Eno ‘76’ " Hope We Can Again - Nine Inch Nails " outside - Oneheart " sleepless - Odyzon " Alesund - Sun Kil Moon " Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd " Don Abandons Alice - John Murphy " Wicked Game - Chris Isaak " Rule of Rose OST - Playing Airship " 1908 - Repulsive " I Shall Cross This River - The Black Atlantic " Easy Way Out - Low Roar

table of contents:

Season 1: Episode 1: Begin Episode 2: Not alone Episode 3: Gone but not forgotten Episode 4: You belong in this world Episode 5: Because all life is precious Episode 6: Musutafu, we'll meet again Episode 7: Izuku: I'd always thought there be more time

Season 2: Episode 8: During these two weeks Episode 9: Diopside, like your eyes Episode 10: For the first time in a long time Episode 11: Almost complete Episode 12: Determined to survive, stay alive Episode 13: Fear Episode 14: Katsuki: You are going to beat this world

Season 3: Episode 15: Away with you Episode 16: Three months ago Episode 17: Slowly withering away Episode 18: Don't die, not yet Episode 19: How long before I’m alone Episode 20: Nothing else to lose Episode 21: Shoto: Everything you would be will be gone

Season 4: Episode 22: Trouble Episode 23: For however long that'll be Episode 24: Searching Episode 25: The fallen city Episode 26: Stay who you are Episode 27: All together Episode 28: F/n: With you beside me

Season 5: Episode 29: Here Episode 30: Cruel Episode 31: Too loud Episode 32: Back on road Episode 33: All is lost Episode 34: Safe in your arms Episode 35: And so it begins Episode 36: At stake Episode 37: Sorry or whatever Episode 38: Familiar eyes

Season 6: Episode 39: A relief Episode 40: Upcoming trouble Episode 41: Never to easy Episode 42: To good for death Episode 43: Old memories Episode 44: A stroke of luck Episode 45: Be aware Episode 46: Bait Episode 47: A thump in my heart Episode 48: Belong to me Episode 49: One step closer (Towards you)

Season 7: Episode 50: Sorston Episode 51: Tenderness Episode 52: Here to stay Episode 53: The start Episode 54: Crushed Episode 55: Reporting to duty Episode 56: Good morning and goodbye Episode 57: An end to sorrow, grief & regret Episode 58: On the move Episode 59: Confirmation Episode 60: The world was on fire and no one could save me but you

Season 8: Episode 61: Not who you were Episode 62: Just you and me Episode 63: The Plaza Episode 64: The other side Episode 65: To be ready

to be continued...

Book two: To The One You Left Behind

taglist: @mikeyswifie @k0z3me @sky-angel101 @stevenknightmarc @nahwajinswhore @mn-0p @a-helen113 @azrral @mary-jinx @chixkadee @flowers-4-you

[the-hottest-band-tournament]

Welcome to the hottest 80s band tourney

In this tournament you can submit an band from the 80s here and we’ll see who’s the hottest

Submissions are now closed

Submission requirements

It must be a band no solo artists

I need a list of the members and the instrument they play

They had to have produced at least one album during the 80s

Choose the lineup that you want just make sure that they just all performed together during the 80s

For a list of the lineups check here a quicker list of submitted bands is down below. We are trying to get to 256 submissions so don’t worry about submitting to many bands.

List of submitted bands

will be updated

Guns’N Roses

Mötley Crüe

Queen

Hanoi Rocks

Iron Maiden

Poison

Rush

Anthrax

Possessed

Bon Jovi

Skid Row

Talking Heads

Warrant

The Cure

The Bangles

Def Leppard

The Traveling Wilburys  

U2

Dokken

Blondie

Duran Duran

Quiet Riot

Aerosmith

Dio

Metallica

Winger

The Human League

The Clash

Cinderella

Nirvana

The Smiths

The Police

They Might Be Giants

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

R.E.M.

Spın̈al Tap

Tin Machine

Red Hot Chili Peppers

ZZ Top

AC/DC

Beastie Boys

Depeche Mode

The Pogues

Bauhaus

Prince and the Revolution

Joy Division

Fleetwood Mac

Devo

Van Halen

Van Halen (again)

Led Zeppelin

Joan Jett and The Blackhearts

Genesis

Primus

Ramones

Yes

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Kraftwerk

The Alan Parsons Project

Hall and Oates

Echo and the Bunnymen

Tears for Fears

The Psychedelic Furs

Misfits

Living Colour

XTC

Adam and the Ants

Run-DMC

King Crimson

Public Enemy

KISS

N.W.A.

Whitesnake

Black Sabbath

Deep Purple

L.A. Guns

W.A.S.P.

Pantera

Styx

B-52’s

Vixen

The Go Go’s

The Residents

Pretenders

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Asia

Jethro Tull

Green Day

Journey

Wham!

Pet Shop Boys

The Who

Scorpions

Heart

Ratt

The Beach Boys

Queensrÿche

The Cars

Foreigner

Marillion

GWAR

Max Webster

Twisted Sister

Stray Cats

Megadeth

The Stone Roses

Slayer

Operation Ivy

Bam Bam

Cybotron

Steve Miller Band

The Highwaymen

10cc

Fugazi

Minor Threat

Dead Kennedys

Blackfoot

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Dire Straits

Electric Light Orchestra

The J. Geils Band

Judas Priest

Motörhead

Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young

Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Chicago

The Replacements

The Kinks

Pixies

Men at Work

Stryper

Faster Pussycat

Thin Lizzy

Grateful Dead

Sepultura

Bananarama

Nine Inch Nails

Foghat

Blue Öyster Cult

Culture Club

Tesla

Soundgarden

Berlin

Boston

Public Image Ltd

Pink Floyd

The Professionals

Starship

REO Speedwagon

Extreme

Shonen Knife

Night Ranger

De La Soul

Salt-N-Pepa

Earth, Wind & Fire

X

X Japan

The The

The Time

Steely Dan

Godley & Creme

The Tragically Hip

Dexys Midnight Runners

The Cross

Sonic Youth

Roxy Music

The Rolling Stones

Hüsker Dü

DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince

New Kids on the Block

Huey Lewis and the News

Eurythmics

A Flock of Seagulls

The Blues Brothers

Love and Rockets

Strawberry Switchblade

Los Lobos

Santana

Oingo Boingo

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

A-ha

Crack the Sky

Crowded House

Yellow Magic Orchestra

Eric B. & Rakim

Commodores

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

KIX

White Zombie

UB40

Great White

Bruce Hornsby and the Range

White Lion

.38 Special

The Tubes

Utopia

The Sugarcubes

Faith No More

Throbbing Gristle

Ministry

'til tuesday

Sparks

Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

The Oak Ridge Boys

The Judds

Dinosaur Jr.

The Moody Blues

Pat Metheney Group

INXS

Status Quo

Melvins

Pandora's Box

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

New Order

Meat Puppets

Descendents

The Fall

Spandau Ballet

Thompson Twins

Tom Tom Club

Jane's Addict

Bob Marley and the Wailers

Modern English

Cutting Crew

My Bloody Valentine

Black Flag

Wire

The Cult

The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Specials

Missing Persons

Simply Red

The Romantics

Madness

Violent Femmes

Skinny Puppy

Cocteau Twins

The Damned

Simple Minds

Frankie Goes to Hollywood

TISM (This Is Serious Mum)

The Cockroaches

The Allman Brothers Band

Cold Chisel

Midnight Oil

NOFX

The Crucifucks

America

Bad Religion

Helloween

Mother Love Bone

The KLF (a.k.a. The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, a.k.a. The Timelords) [same group, just used numerous names]

Dog Police

Frank Chickens

Men Without Hats

Europe

Can I submit propaganda?

Not right now. If you do I won’t post it until the polls start which looking right now could be a while. But it will be posted eventually

can I submit more than one band?

yes!! Go wild

Some blogs that inspired this

@billboard-hotties-tourney

@the-80s-music-colosseum

[aquagirl1978]

Deck the Halls - Fenrir Godspeed x Reader (Ikemen Revolution)

A/N: The first of 12 Days of Christmas - a very old request by anon for New Year, New Celebration event and part of A Series of Firsts challenge.

Pairing: Fenrir Godspeed x Reader

Prompt: carrying the other in their arms & first celebrations

Requested by: Anon

Word Count: 368

Tags: fluff

What a year it had been since you fell into Cradle.

It had been hard at first to be separated from your family and friends. But the members of the Black Army had been so warm and welcoming, easing your transition to Cradle, that before you knew it, they were your family, and Cradle your home. 

Your heart warmed as you looked around the room, your new family gathered to celebrate your first Christmas in Cradle. Luka had spent all day baking treats for the festivities. Sirius found the tray of treats and was happily gobbling up a loaf of cake. Ray, seated in a large armchair like the King that he was, had a litter of kittens sleeping on his lap. And Seth, whom no party would be complete without, was leading the group in singing Christmas carols.

And then there was Fenrir.

Fenrir, your best friend and lover and the entire reason for you staying in Cradle when you had the chance to return to your world. But how could you do that when your heart and home was here in Cradle? 

Fenrir, who was sneaking off with a tray of Luka's treats for you to enjoy in his room later. Fenrir, who had tied small bells onto each kitten's collar so that they'd jingle as soon as Ray stood up. Fenrir, who was stealing bits of Sirius’ cake and chucking it into Seth’s opened mouth, quieting his loud singing.

“Hey…” Familiar arms wrapped around your waist, Fenrir’s breath warm as he whispered into your ear. “I heard about this crazy tradition where if you find yourself under the mistletoe, you have to kiss the other person.”

But he stopped you, pressing a finger to your lips.

Tilting your chin up, you saw a sprig of mistletoe dangling over your head. You spun in your spot, a joyful smile spread on your lips as you leaned towards Fenrir to collect your kiss.

“Not here,” he said, his eyes glittering with mischief as he picked you up in his arms. You threw your arms around his neck, giddy with joy as he carried you away from the party towards his bedroom, eager to be kissed. And more.

Tagging: @kissmetwicekissmedeadly @chaosangel767 @alixennial @redheadkittys @queen-dahlia @ikehoe @kisara-16 @kpop-and-otome @lordsisterxotome @lucyw260 @yarnnerdally @crypticbibliophile @judejazza @maries-gallery @xbalayage @xenokiryu @vivislosingitagain @corpiote

[lheautontimoroumenos]

gonna try to keep this quick (sorry i did my best but it's still pretty long), but i feel like people are not aware enough, even in France.

so last week, a 17y old boy was killed in Nanterre (what we call the "banlieue", so in periphery of Paris) by a cop. they made him stop on the side of the road and threatened him violently asking him to open the door. on the video, we can see the cop duo at the driver side window. one of them has his gun drawn to the boy's head. the other one says "shoote le" (shoot him) and the cop with his gun drawn says "jvais te mettre une balle dans la tête" (im gonna put a bullet in your head). the boy whose name is Nahel is logically scared so he speeds away. the cop shoots him in the car, bullet in the thorax and the car hits a wall. Nahel is dead and the video is quickly relayed on twitter to mass outrage.

most left leaning people condemn this and ask for justice, but the media keeps asking them to ask for calm and order (which some do, looking at Roussel) but some don't, which alienates them in the political landscape (the favorite word of the right rn is islamogauchiste aka islamiclefty).

but the right, god the right. first they said Nahel deserved it because he was driving without a license. then it was saying he was a criminal that had already been convicted (the cops leaked a fake criminal record). so not a criminal, but he was an Arab so he would've become one, right? and he should've just obeyed the cops and he would have been ok, that's the behavior of a criminal. I think you get the gist, fascist and fascist adjacent justifications for a cop murdering a boy.

since then, there have been riots in Nanterre and all around France, and the State, Macron (President) and Darmanin (Interior Minister) have sent cops galore. Now, the last time something like this happened was in 2005, when we had less social media and the only pictures and videos we had were from the media (opposed to the riots). Today with Snapchat and Twitter, we can see the pov of the rioters and people are realizing that amidst the anger people feel, they find joy in community, and the vibes in the riots are good and joyful at times (a guy asking another guy to go take a yop for him in the market they're breaking and stealing from comes to mind). They can't say just as easily that they're angry and irrational animal because they see the humanity in the riots (they shouldn't need it but well).

now there is a debate amongst both the rioters and the left who stays mostly outside of it. Are they being useful? breaking and burning the right things? should they go to Paris and take the risk of fighting against cops in streets that they don't know as well as their own? factually, they are mostly burning cars, trash and big companies' shops. But people are choosing to only see the rare schools and libraries being burned downed (who were, for a lot of them already falling down because the State doesn't give money to the periphery). Now, it seems logical to say that burning down your middle school is not going to help against police violence. But it feels like the same people who praise the revolution any chance they get refuse to understand that it comes at a price, with violence and at least a bit of destruction. And the right is using this to discredit the whole movement.

back to fascists. First, the cop "unions" Alliance and UNSA Police published a press release calling the rioters (so mostly Arab and Black people, but also poor white people living in the periphery) "nuisibles" (pest, the word used for animals harming the ecosystem). They wrote that the cops will resist, that they are at war, that they will bring order back. In short they want to kill POC. And they have help. Fascists groups have taken advantage of the situation to walk around blocks during the day and beating up people with bats and at night to illegally arrest rioters before tying them down with zip ties and giving them over to cops. and these people arrested who are sometimes barely older than 18 end up with 18 months of jail for burning trashcans and 10 months for stealing a can of Monster (and those are not suspended sentences).

and while these people end up in jail (thus making it more likely that they will end up with shitty jobs and shitty pensions), Jean Messiha (far-right guy) created a gofundme for the cop and his family that has already gathered more than 1.5 million euros. A cop kills a child and wins the million.

so is it violent? yes of course it couldn't be otherwise. but violence is sometimes necessary, especially when you have to fight back against cops, their fascist friends and the State that allows them to keep existing. The rioters deserve full support, even if the criticism of some of their actions should exist. The danger is for this criticism to overcome our support. It shouldn't. Because if they are alone like they were in 2005, the right and the far-right will take advantage of the situation. Last time Sarkozy was elected and the risk is greater this time, with Les Républicains (the republicans) being basically dead and leaving their spot to Marine Le Pen's fascist party Rassemblement National (national gathering).

so if you're french, don't let the people around you talk shit about the situation. and if you're not, be careful still, fascism is rising and they're not as scared as they were 20 years ago.

[waksworldrebooted]

MTV Era Motorcity Masterpost (+ NEVER BEFORE SEEN INFORMATION)

In 2000, Chris Prynoski pitched a cartoon called Motorcity.

He made a card and a website promoting the show, which wouldn't see the light of day until the Walt Disney Company got their hands on it.

THE SETUP

"MotorCity is The Dukes of Hazzard meets Akira. It's American Graffiti and Big Daddy Roth rumbling with 8 cylinders into the world of Sci-Fi. It's the heart of American car culture driven to the next level."

 "Sex, cars, Rock & Roll, and the freedom to wrap your ride around a tree trunk goin' 160."

"In the near future, concerns over global warming, pollution, and the ever-worsening problem of gridlock in America’s major cities brings about the Anti-Combustion Acts of 2009." "These laws banned the use of any vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. At first there was a lot of vocal opposition. But the so-called "Digital Revolution" as well as the advent of amazing new transportation technologies neatly filled the void, and the benefits of an improved environment along with a safer, faster and more efficient means of getting from point A to B managed to win even the staunchest opponents over. The oil companies and car manufacturers were forced to shut down under the political and economic pressures." "And a new era was born. Cleaner, faster and safer. America’s cities became modern utopias where its citizens could travel without fear or hazard in comfortable flying boxes affectionately known as "living rooms", and Detroit (The Renaissance City), became the finest example of this new policy. But with all of this wondrous innovation, something was lost. Something inherent in the soul of old America, something called freedom. The freedom to go anywhere. Anyhow. As fast, or as slow as you want. The freedom to speed. And the freedom to die." "This is where our characters come in. A few radicals realized that although you might never die in the "living rooms" , you’ll never really live in them either. So in the "Live fast and die young" mind-set, they fight the law. Scavenging parts and gas from Detroit’s massive underground, Mike Chilton and his gang, as well as a few others are trying to recapture some of what it meant to risk all for the freedom of speed."

THE CHARACTERS

Mike Chilton: A young talent on the illegal race circuit. Mike's right leg is always twitching and itching to jam a gas pedal to the floorboards, and his foot is as lead as they come. He's got gasoline surging through his veins and a 450 horsepower soul. His heart burns to drive and it's all he can do to keep moving faster and faster so that the flames don't consume him. He might be a gangly 19-year-old kid, but his ride has as much muscle as he'll ever need and he knows how to use it.

Vehicle of choice: Retrofitted '77 Trans Am

Julie Capulsky: An Anthropology student with a quick mind and a quicker pulse. She's a city girl with a passion for adventure who's secretly writing a paper on the underground "Burner" culture. As she gets to know Mike and his crew, she feels the freedom of the road and learns the power of a rumbling big block at her command. She is torn between the high performance life of a Gearhead and the love of her father who has sworn to take them down.

Vehicle of Choice: Any Hot Rod that'll give her a ride.

Lt. Capulsky: Julie's Dad and head of Detroit's Anti-Combustion Enforcement Division. He's old enough to remember when the highways were the arteries of America and the drivers were its blood. He rode with Fast Eddy in his youth and understands the joy of inhaling the fumes of burning rubber as the hot road turns his tires to black jelly. He's forced to deal with enforcing a law he's not sure he believes in. But that doesn't stop him from holding the record for the most illegal auto busts in the state of Michigan.

Vehicle of choice: Police "Living Room"

Ed Pirelli: (Fast Eddy) The old-timer who serves as Mike and the crew's link to the past, as well as their guide for the future. A wrecked hulk of a man, Eddy lived in a time when America was the land of wide-open spaces, and you had the liberty to go where, when and how you wanted to travel. You had the freedom to live, and the freedom to die. None of those damn boxes.

Vehicle of choice: Retrofitted '58 Chevy Roadster

Greg Raden: This young cop looks up to Lt. Capulsky as his ultimate hero. Born after the Anti-Combustion Act, He doesn't understand the rush of a vibrating steering wheel responding to every reflex of your sweaty palms. He wants nothing more than to grind the gears of the "Burners" to a halt.

Vehicle of choice: Police "Living Room"

Dave Earnhardt: Mike's worthy rival on the race circuit. He's a speed demon who stops at nothing to win. He might be Mike's worst enemy on the tar, but he'd take a speeding bullet for him off the track.

Vehicle of choice: Retrofitted '69 Camaro RS

Holly Biscayne: A fellow "Burner" who has a thing for Mike. She's jealous and suspicious of Julie's big city motives. She wants to make sure that when the checkered flag waves, she'll be on top.

Vehicle of choice: Retrofitted '05 Jaguar convertible

Brute Conklin: The bastard child of internal combustion and computer technology. This crafty gearhead beats "The Man" at his own game with a never-ending digital assault on the computers that control the Global Satellite System.

Vehicle of choice: Chopped 98' Harley Pan-head

Claire Constance: This ice queen might look like a hot number, but she's really a wet blanket who tries to smother her best friend Julie's fire. She can't understand what's with risking your life in the "sewers" when you can be shopping in style in the safety and comfort of your own clean home.

Vehicle of choice: None if she can help it

Promo card released in 2000

Concept art made shortly after the trailer (ones that closely resemble the final show)

From left to right: Luv (Dutch), Holly Biscayne, Chuck, Mike Chilton, Julie Kapulsky, Claire Constance, Texas, Greg Raden (Tooley), Lt Kapulsky (Abraham Kane), and The Mayor of Detroit

Pitch Trailer

[thespectralvision]

The other part of my Scarlet Witch 60th Anniversary Collaboration! These designs were such a joy, and a good excuse to finish designing Wanda's appearance in the fan comic I'm slowly working on making one day.

My Wanda is somewhere between comic!verse and MCU. Eventually I'll get into the nitty gritty details of her background but I am very fond of her, and I'm having a blast working on visualizing my story in this way.

The first design is her 'hero' outfit - The White Witch of Wundagore, combing elements of her MCU outfit, and the Midgaard look from the (now sadly defunct, RIP I miss my Wanda) Marvel Future Revolutions Game. I wanted her to keep the red and black, but also something that matches White Vision a little more. Since my story is part of the multiverse and MCU-adjascent, I also liked the idea of the Red, Gold, Blue, and White as those are the colors of the Sokovian Flag Marvel designed. In this setting she's a folk hero from legend, representing a nation that was dissolved and I'm having fun exploring Slavic/Eastern European folklore and combing it with comic and MCU lore about the character. The 2nd is her 'full powers' design - The Living Darkhold. While her *true* form when she's like this is something unfathomable and cosmic, I pulled from her corrupted form in Multiverse of Madness as well as Avengers 187, and some other comic designs I've liked over the years. My entire thought process was 'if Wanda was a villian in a Soulsborne game, what would that look like?' She is a shadowy, glitchy being in this form, hard to fathom and pin down when she harnesses the power of Cthon/The Darkhold.

I've got an outfit breakdown I need to finish compiling as well - I'm coming close to finishing some proper character sheets for myself of Wanda and Vision that hopefully I'll have time to complete and share soon.

[allamericanb-tch]

crimson rivers thoughts (19)

@tastetherainbow290 this was CRAZY and very long i read A LOT

chapter 51

"I love him so much. It tears me apart that I can't make him see just how special he is." i need a james

james and remus being friends

“The Hallows would sooner believe Sirius fell in love with the actual moon before they believed he fell in love with a servant” 😭😭

these fools need to hug each other

they told each other their birthdays! look at them opening up to each other

sirius is so cute just talking to the moon

lily mention 

regulus being mad bc he fell asleep on sirius 😭

“Sirius will sleep when he's dead, and hey, that'll probably arrive for him sooner rather than later. Silver lining? Bad joke.” YEAH IT WAS A BAD JOKE

day three! they’re going to escape today right? i hope 

sibling moment

more weird creatures?!

AUGUSTA NO

SHE LIVES!!! huzzah alice

yes emmeline 

“"You know," Sirius muses, "if James were here, he'd be beat-boxing right now."” sirius’ name is so ironic bc that man is NEVER serious 😭

regulus calling james his fiancé ❤️‍🩹

sirius 😭

“I am going to be sexy until the day I die” yes you are sirius

“Did he know he was engaged prior to Regulus announcing it when he sent the bagel? No. Is he going to protest it? Also no.” james is the realest ever

WHAT ARE THEY DOING

i’m gonna cry omg

i know regulus makes it but why would they torment him like this. 

evan 💔

YES

i am jumping with joy rn

chapter 52

boggarts?!

oh no so many warnings for this chapter

dorcas!

lucius?! 

the boggart 😧

oh!

they’re making into a competition of course they are

"You remind me of my Alphard. He cared so much it killed him." 💔

biological warfare 😧

VANITY 💔

sirius lost regulus AGAIN?!

oh!

narcissa?!

vanity 💔

JAMES?!

oh it’s a boggart

poor reg he just can’t catch a break

this is so sad omg i am actually going to cry

marlene!!!!! huzzah!!!

cannibalism as a metaphor for love 

“she could have put it though his chest. he wishes she did.” 💔

fiancé 🤭

oh no

AUGUSTA 💔

i’m crying omg

i love alice

this is so sad

poor frank omg 💔

oh no bellatrix has found sirius

no he’s dissociating 

i know sirius is alive but OMG

bellatrix doing what she does in order of the phoenix when she kills sirius ah stop it don’t do this to me

rip bellatrix black you will not be missed 🙏 

HE LIVES!!!!!

“bellatrix died with tears on her cheeks” WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT

alice ☹️

poor frank omg 

“we’re starting a war” AHHHH i love you dorcas

chapter 53

narcissa ☹️

james finding out about his district ☹️

oh i forgot about mary i hope she is safe

i forgot dorcas didn’t know about remus

oh!

i really hope remus didnt leave omg

effie!!!!

lily what

“Euphemia passes her thumb over the letter in her pocket and really, really hopes that Remus is included in that.” we are all hoping

mary! she is safe

the great hall 😯

enemies to lovers marylily endgame?!

sybill 😭

i still am confused on so bingley is

kingsley and sybill love

barty and amos 😭😭

“i don’t even like men” “you do not darling” i love barty

sybill is HILARIOUS how did she not know she was in a relationship with someone

sybill telling everyone about their Secret mission

barty too?! okay everyone’s just getting in on this i guess

barty seducing amos into letting them go on the mission he is So Funny i love him so much 

thunderbird thieves ATE

oh no james what happened

REMUS LEFT NO

poor pandora ☹️ she has to leave her dying father behind that is so sad

uh oh 😧

james saving the day as always

revolution!

lily: “we have this under control.” meanwhile everyone in the background screaming that they’re all going to die 😭

the ring is a tracker!

dorcas being a prepared queen 

“"You're crazy," Rodolphus states. "I like crazy." "I like women," Dorcas replies. "Only."” icon behavior i love dorcas so much

rodolphus being a respectful king

mission mission mission

oh no the password

POPPY!

marlene what are you doing

oh no no no no

they got regulus thank god but they can’t leave sirius behind

oh no oh no oh no

why would you end the chapter like this

guys my heart is beating so fast rn i’m not even joking and i have to end here bc i have to go back to school ahhhh 

chapter 54

oh no everything is going wrong

dorcas literally Killing It

“At one point, James runs out of bullets, looks at his gun, then just throws it at the Auror in front of him” 😭

remus kill count: 2

eek

james and his bleeding heart

FRANK NO

dorcas telling james about sirius why is this chapter so sad

james what are you doing

oh. remus doesn’t know about sirius

barty 😭

marlene 😧

MARLENE!!!!!

ugh snape

voldy 😧

sirius in azkaban that is FOUL

chapter 55

kingsley 💔

poor andromeda ☹️

effie ❤️‍🩹

i’m gonna cry ahhhh

LILY

oh no

poor remus omg 💔

“revived six years later just to disintegrate before her very eyes.” oh

lowkey forgot about aberforth

boooo dumbledore 🍅🍅🍅

chapter 56

sirius being chronically bored

sirius calling voldy a dead fish 😭

sirius is a certified yapper

sirius just. swallowing voldy’s blood 😭

WHO IS BINGLEY

OHHH HES MARY’S BROTHER

marylily? marylily. 

remus and lily friendship ❤️‍🩹

lily being in love with mary <3

effie ❤️‍🩹

marlene ☹️

barty and rodolphus? okay

opulent another vocab word

JAMES

chapter 57

of course it didn’t pick up with james’ pov. 

pandora being an oblivious queen 😭

dorcas being lily’s The One That Got Away ☹️

lily 😭

lily ☹️

mary next ahhhh

kiss kiss kiss

afhhhhh i need jegulus happenings its been too long

this is so sad ☹️☹️☹️

“aturally, Regulus freezes like a startled hare under the gaze of a watchful wolf.” get it bc remus is a werewolf

nooo don’t fight

yay they’re friends again 

"Dumbledore of the Albus variety” 😭

JAMES?!

james….

“and he's so nervous and full of anxious anticipation that he's struck with the impulse to beat-box.” JAMES 😭😭😭

sirius 😧

“you’re hot” then sirius 😭😭

"Are you, like, allergic to prison?" 

prongsfoot is prongsfooting

☹️

chapter 58

ALBUS AND ARIANA WERE IN THE SAME HUNGER GAMES?!

ALBUS VOLUNTEERED FOR ABERFORTH?!

side note — i love that their names are albus and aberforth and then theres just 💫ariana💫

regulus is learning all the lore

so grindelwald killed ariana? and that’s why albus killed him?

albus dumbledore, always pacing in his office. 

regulus is so regulus

"If I can't persuade the leader in you, then let me persuade the man who knows what it is to be in love, let me persuade the brother you are. I love James, and Sirius is my brother. Please."

"We have a deal."  HUZZAH!

dora you are a little icon 

sprout! 

trojan horse 😧

ahhhh wolfstar and jegulus happenings will be happening soon 

marleneee don’t be mean to the love of your life

this is sad

i’m giving you an all tomato. which means you give me the whole tomato, or else.

they’re swapping…. please don’t die marlene

the way mary and sirius are always together briefly in every fanfic 

MARYLILY KISS!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!!!!! a cheek kiss but a kiss nonetheless 

barty 😭😭

oh regulus

effie 😭 god i love her

barty is so barty 

DID HE JUST BREAK SOME RANDO’S ARM 😭 REGULUS WHAT THE HECK MAN valid honestly. defend your man’s honor.

“needless to say regulus ends up in solitary” yeah we all saw that coming

aberforth! he’s really starting to grow on me

regulus is so regulus

pomona having an Extensive Wine Collection is so real

why does marlene have it out for lily (i mean i know why but they need to Be Friends)

oh are they Being Friends now?

yes they are and i love them ❤️‍🩹

chapter 59

ugh snape

why is this literally the red scare

OH WAIT is severus dumbledore’s ‘source’

“Potter is a fool, no doubt about it, but he isn't the biggest fool in this room. No, that honor goes to Riddle.” bars

did anyone else stop breathing when they read the suffocation part

"Now, I present you with my own to do something that's very on brand for James and I, which is me arguing with literally everything he just said."

“Oh, yeah, Sirius remembers what he did. He got sexy.” 😭😭 sirius 

“My pasta is calling my name, you have no idea." ME FR

of course remus is volunteering to go get sirius

😧

sirius you did not just say “welp” 😭😭😭

i miss evan 💔

oh!

i hate that remus knows exactly where sirius is but also yay for the mission?

sirius nooo

eeeeee they’re kissing but can they Get Out Of There

"He never got to eat his pasta." 😭

dead body chute 💀

ok severus

ok i have to read another chapter…

chapter 60

james 😧

dorcas is So In Love and i lover i love dorlene

pomona 💔

i hope this has a happy ending 

"The world doesn't revolve around me, Dorcas." "Mine does." I LOVE DORLENE

bingley!

i love bingley and lily being friends

MARYLILY!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!! ITS HAPPENING!!!!!!

oh?

“hope can be found, even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light.” dumbledore core

they’re immune ?!

DID SIRIUS GET IMMUNITY FROM INGESTING VOLDYS BLOOD 😭

regulus climbed the tree?! i am proud of him ❤️‍🩹

i’m crying

“he needs his glasses”

effie ☹️

“Before Regulus ever found the sun in James, Sirius was the brightest light he knew; his guiding star.” ❤️‍🩹

crying still

chapter 61

james pov!

he’s high 😭

“no! my skin” 😭😭

“what did the big flower say to the little flower? hey there bud” james im in love with you

“I love you because you're you. And you—you're my friend, Remus.” ❤️‍🩹

"We're alone, love." ahhhhhhh jegulus is So Back

baby

molly got glasses for james omg 

fab and gid 💔

eeee they’re kissing 

"I love you, James. I loved you from the start, I love you now, and I'll love you for as long as love is something that exists—and, if it ever stops existing, I'll reinvent it just for you."

🎶confess i loved you from the start🎶

remu and sirius

sirius you can’t just tell remus you think you should break up ?!

no don’t break up ?!

remus 😧

huzzah!

they’re kissing again

should i end here while it’s happy(ish)? i think i will i read so much today

[dipperdesperado]

Radicalism 100: Get Started from 0 or, How the Hell Do I Get into Organizing as a Newbie?

I spend a lot of time talking about social change stuff. I feel like a lot of it might not be accessible unless you’re already one who sees yourself as a changemaker. Let’s change that. Let’s talk about how to prefigure the world you want to see, even if you don’t have any experience.

Before I do that though, I want to do some quick framing. I am coming from the place of someone who has some relatively specific foundational values that I prioritize and act from. I believe in horizontalism, mutual aid, solidarity, autonomy, joy, love, and transformative justice. I don’t brandish human nature as a weapon against better futures. If you have a view of people and or society that is purely of negation, then we probably won’t see eye-to-eye. If you think that domination and bootlicking is also necessary, then we definitely won’t see eye-to-eye. Hopefully, you’re curious or open to working towards egalitarian goals through egalitarian means. If you are, this might be useful to you.

How Social Change Happens

There is a lot of talk about social change and a lot of different opinions on how that change occurs. A useful framework to work from is one that imma remix from Joanna Macy.

Harm Reduction and Stalling → This is where giving, charity, and advocacy work live. Think of the survival programs that the Black Panthers did. These are good things, and they provide immediate benefits to folks. However, it’s not radical, as far as the meaning of the word goes. So, it’s great (and necessary!) to organize a mutual aid group that does food distro. What that doesn’t do is address why your group has to do that in the first place. This is something that ideally allows you to survive as you prepare to make bigger changes.

Systems change and Social Revolution → This is where the good shit happens. It is understanding the terrain you fight upon, what you’re fighting against, and finding the weak points to create and widen spaces of autonomy and liberation. This is where we decide how we act within the systems, how we change those systems through collective action, and how we build counter-systems to delegitimize the oppressive ones.

Rebuilding Mental Models → To create a new world, we have to become different people. I don’t mean that in an inactive way—through the practice of harm reduction and fighting the system, we realize our own power and become more capable of creating the world that we want. As we reconnect with reality, and illegitimate the current hegemony, we become more able to see the path ahead. The great and terrible thing is that we have to walk that path.

These are the three buckets that encompass our work ahead. Maybe a better way to think of them would not be as distinct buckets, but as spaces or zones of activity with permeable edges, where specific actions are occupying multiple buckets at a time, and where we travel from zone to zone, bringing information from previous legs of the journey. Stated differently, doing harm reduction might lead you to changing your mental models which might lead you to working towards systems change which might change your mental models which might improve your harm reduction efforts and so on and so on.

With that (admittedly open-ended) theory of change established, let’s get into some practical things you can do to get started. Again, this is built for if you’re not sure of where to begin. This will, hopefully, allow you to get started from 0 (which in my mind is you saying something to the effect of “damn, I know the world is cooked. What the hell do I do?”). Maybe you’ve heard people answer that inquiry with “Organize!”, which isn’t very useful. So let’s talk about that: how to start organizing and be successful when you don’t have the background or confidence yet.

Step 0: Read!

I am a big proponent of praxis (practice informed by theory) over theory or practice alone. Just reading doesn’t change the world, and just doing stuff may lead to some happy accidents. If you have to pick one, do stuff, I guess? But, we don’t have to do that. We can read, do stuff, review the successes and failures, and repeat. In order to not trap you in one mode or another, I’ve recommended a couple of things that should give you a good foundation for more readings and more actions.

Why We Should Democratize Everything

Radical Municipalism | The Anarchist Library

Modules - Economics for Emancipation (economics4emancipation.net)

Once you read these, you’ll be able to know that the world can look different than it does right now, and that there are tangible things that you can do to make that happen.

Step 1: Figure out Your Interest(s)

The next move is to understand what you’re interested in. It can be easy to feel like you have to participate in a certain kind of fight… but the reality is that if you pick an area that you already have an affinity for, you’ll be able to engage with it more sustainably. And hopefully, if you get some wins, you’ll be able to engage and support other important sites of struggle. For me, broadly speaking, my goal is to create solarpunk autonomous zones IRL, in the heart of the empire (the so-called United States). For my interests, the main areas of affinity + need within the solarpunk umbrella are:

Building Intentional Communities (like communes and ecovillages and shit)

Radical Urbanism (Tactical Urbanist projects, Tenants organizing, occupations)

Creative Care and Joy (Mutual aid, herbalism, medicine, etc)

Community Resiliency Training (CERT, Self-defense, Wildtending, Urban Foraging)

If that seems broad, blame it on the ADHD. I put time into each of these areas to try and build towards my solarpunk goals at the local level. You don’t have to be as eclectic as I am, but think about the things that get you excited, and go after those things.

Step 2: Get a Lay of the Land (find folks and people who are doing the cool stuff)

Once you’ve searched your soul and excavated some insight, you can begin your fun. Try and find people in your area who are into the stuff you’re into. If you like the idea of mutual aid, find a local food not bombs chapter (and encourage them to work towards system change!). If you like environmental stuff, look for groups that you feel like embodying the values you're developing. Some good ways to do this are:

Finding social medias. I like to find the most popular version for the thing I’m trying to do and excavate other groups from that. For example, I do some organizing work with an Indigenous education group here, and since it’s a tight-knit organizing community, I can use their IG to find other orgs. This also works well for in-person stuff.

Pull up to events. Try to show up to marches, protests (if you’re ready), and popular education events and look for folks representing the ideas you’re interested in. Folks tend to have flags, pins, and outfits at those sorts of things that let you know where they stand. I’d specifically look for Libertarian Socialist groups, Anarchist groups, and communalist groups. I’d also look into solidarity networks.

Step 3: Start working with folks!

Once you find some folks, start working with them if you like the vibe! You’d be surprised at how much you can learn. I moved about a year ago, and I learned so much by diving into the organizing community. Imma be moving again, and now I can carry those learnings forward into my new communities. Ideally, you’re getting involved in actions, doing study groups, and growing your confidence.

Step 4: Do an analysis of your place!

As you get more comfortable and you start to understand where you’re at, you can start working more intentionally toward system change. This is something that folks don’t do nearly enough, but if you can pull it off well, it’ll be well worth the time. The goal is to understand the challenges and opportunities present in your place. This is very much a whole area to explore, but you can start by looking into Asset-based community development and Community-based participatory research to create a guide of sorts for your community to follow. This is an area that I’m currently working on, and it helps contextualize your actions.

Step 5: Dive deep!

At this point, you might be ready for bigger actions or more capacity building. You might even be ready to steward a campaign. Just know, this is work that doesn’t really have an end; we can always strive for more. If you take nothing else away, know these two things:

Everyone has the capability to steward in a new future.

Surround yourself with genuine community to keep you going.

If you can approach this work with confidence and community, you’ll be able to weather any storm.

[ratsoh-writes]

Hey y’all! Say hello to flavortale!

These monsters are a relatively simple au! Like the dance and theatre monsters, after being trapped underground, they experienced an artistic revolution to cope. For this au, they discovered the joy of putting their art into food!

Now how did they do this when every other underground au struggled with food shortages? The answer is the barrier, or how the mages in the Great War made a very big mistake. They did in fact trap the monsters under the barrier, but they failed to put a limit on the barriers shape and size. After the entrapment, the monster kingdom quickly discovered this and just simply increased the barrier any time they needed space. They even broke the rocks above, claiming sections of land on the surface. No one could get in, or out, but no one could also stop the barriers movement from the outside even if they wanted to. The humans abandoned that area and left the monsters to themselves

With the ability to expand a certain amount every year, the royals biggest concern was making their people self sufficient as they could no longer rely on or even receive imports. Most expansions were made for farmland above whole underground, monsters made their homes. Over time they grew bored though with the same palate of food each day, and they began experimenting new ways to cook, leading to a culinary revolution!

Now here are the girls:

Taffy (flavortale sans):

Taffy is a freckled skeleton monster aged 60 with dual colored magic. She is mostly mint green with patches of peachy ecto scattered around her body. It’s best seen in her freckles, which show the different colors. She stands 5 feet tall. She has a pleasantly plump and curvy ecto.

Taffy is a motherly kind monster who seems to adopt anyone who enjoys her foods. She’s a both a scientist and artist dedicated to the art of creating new flavors and textures with sugar! Shes incredibly creative! She’s affectionate and enjoys the company of her loved ones, but can be a bit overbearing when it comes to wanting to baby them. It’s quite funny given how most of said friends are much larger than her, but she finds a way.

Taffy owns a prestigious candy shop in inner ebott with her sister and best friends. They’re a four monster team determined to amaze everyone’s minds with how delicious their sugary treats are! She’s also leased out some of her more popular recipies and treats to be mass produced and sold in mellowmarts around ebott.

Taffy despite not knowing how to conjure a weapon before the crash, did go back and learn in adult classes. Her magic weapon is a massive battle axe nearly double her height. She named it sugarcane

Taffy’s special ability is stretch. As long as the object is hand sized or smaller, no matter the material, if she concentrates she can stretch and mold that material to her desired shape

Things she loves: candy of course! But her favorites are chocolate truffles with a flavored cream on the inside, bubbly grape soda, very brutal gory horror movies, stuffed animal bunnies, dance pop, leg warmers, frilly aprons, little kids, stickers, fancy wrapping paper, fairy roses, light up shoes, novelty candies, the color black

Pudding (flavortale papyrus)

Pudding is a freckled skeleton monster aged 39. She has a peachy pink magic and stands at 6 feet tall even. Her ecto is curvy in all the right places making her look very soft and cuddly. She’s a beautiful monster.

Pudding is a total babe. A very spunky kind and goofy skeleton who loves a bit of soft teasing and jokes. She’s one of the only papyrus’s who enjoys puns. She looks up a lot to taffy and is determined to live up to her sisters reputation although she has no talent for cooking. She’s a flirt, but panics when they flirt back. She’s very easily flustered. All bark no bite

Pudding works at her sisters candy shop as a cashier, stocker and taste tester. She has zero talent for cooking but an amazing taste palate so she’s trusted to confirm if the new candies are any good. Pudding wants to become a professional food critic someday but needs to build up a reputation first in the culinary field.

Pudding, eager to follow her sister, also took adult classes to learn to form a magic weapon. Her weapon is a simple spear with a cute star shaped blade at the end. It has a crystalline look resembling many of the crystals in her collection

Puddings special ability is being able to melt. Literally. When flustered, her bones go soft making her squishy to the touch. She can do it on command too to fit into tight spaces, but the effect is very temporary making that dangerous

Things she loves: the color green, rock candies, cute crystal carvings, dance dance revolution and just dance games, cheesy pick up lines, orange sodas, cute headbands and bandanas, kpop and pop music, tulips, Mary Jane shoes.

And side characters!

Cookie: (flavortale alphys), cookie is an adorable orange lizfolk monster with dark brown magic and large eyes. She’s the best friend of taffy and co-owns the shop with her and her mate bonbon. They had gone to school together, invented many of their recipes together and even lived together for several years until she and bonbon got married. Now the besties are neighbors on the same street. Cookie is a shy but sweet monster with a love for chemistry and sugar. She is the big inventor along with taffy in their business

Bonbon: (flavortale undyne), the best friend of taffy and mate of cookie, bonbon is the third co owner of the candy shop. She’s a strong muscular river monster with tan scales and cute cream eyes and hair. The three things bonbon loves most in the world is her mate, chocolate and her friends of course. She has a head for numbers, handling the budget of the little candy shop, and doing her body building exercises in her free time. She’s a cheerful and bubbly monster.

Cheesecake: (flavortale Asgore). The youngest royal at only 300 years old, and a tad embarrassed by the nickname the press gave him when his adoration of cheesecake was discovered. Cheesecake is the newly appointed representative of the flavor monsters. His father, Mordac, had retired as soon as ebott was organized, and cheesecake was voted in over two other candidates. He handles food regulation issues mostly, as well as overviewing the methods of quality testing for ebott produce.

Meringue: (flavortale toriel), the aunt of cheesecake and appointed as the second representative long before mordac, her brother, retired. By seniority, meringue is now the first representative of the flavor monsters and works with sanitation standards of businesses. She’s a jolly playful royal and loves teasing her nephew.

[plethoraworldatlas]

Basics of WoT: 4th Age

This is the starting information/overview of the state of the world in the grand scale for the Fourth Age project I worked on.

The setting takes place 25-35 years after the very end of the series (Most likely 1035 NE; A new Calendar has been proposed amongst all Dragon Peace nations, but only some have decided to start phasing it in, using two calendars until 1100 NE/65 PD "Post Dragon Reborn")

The Industrial Revolution has taken swing, the new Printing Press in particular igniting a thousand different fires of revolution and repression

Powers and abilities from Ages past creep back into the world, and new Powers never seen appear as well

The "Peace" of the Lands

The Dragon Peace unites all of the Westlands (also called Marhol) not occupied by the Seanchan, as well as the Aiel Three-fold Lands under a order of peace, with the Aiel taking the role of the primary Peacekeepers

The Griffin Truce, named for the Seanchan Raven and the Lion of Andor as the signing took place in Caemlyn, has formalized non-aggression between the Dragon Peace United nations and the Seanchan occupation and its Imperial Dominions

The Seanchan Empire under Empress Fortuona rules its Dominions, yet under the the Viewings of the Doomseer, they have yet to return in force to their fractured home Continent to reform the Empire as a whole

Republicanism has become a fire sweeping through a world of Monarchies, splitting the young Empire of the Sun and the founding member of the Republic's League, the Rivers Republic

The White Tower is rocked by scandal after the greatest journalistic reporting of the century reveals to the world a major secret of the Hall, as well as the different directions the Ajahs move

The Black Tower raises in prominence, yet the world still distrusts male channelers

The great Empire of Shara has collapsed to the joy of those they subjugated for centuries, only for the "Restoration Peacekeeping" to lead to strife as outsiders try to decide the fates of entire peoples

the Aiel balance their role as peacekeepers with the reckoning coming towards them; Fueds with the Seanchan, the uncertain future of the Three-fold Lands, New visions of possible futures guiding their choices as peacekeepers yet still each choice made to prevent one dark future seems to cause another. The Clans united under the Dragon Reborn, but what of the new holds in the Wetlands? What of the remnant Free Shaido? What of the Warrior society's without wars?

The Atha'an Meire have formed their Empire of All Seas in reaction to the new age of imperialism, Traveling and Gateways, and industrial trading

The Shadow's Corruption has diminished from the Blight, yet monsters and Trollocs and Darkfriends and Turned remain; With the Dark One sealed away, however, the now Free Trolloc are said to have turned from the chains their old master put on their minds, and collaboration between the White and Black Towers lead many to believe those forcibly Turned to the Shadow may yet be saved. Ancient hate does not die easily, and the Broderlanders and the world at large itch to take the new frontiers of the Wild North, to Crusade against what is seen as the last vestiges of the Dark

The Borderland Bloc has formed to unite the weary borderlanders among the Dragon Peace and rebuild greater and with more prominence; In 2 years, the First Premier Imperator's 12 year term shall end and a new ruler of the Bloc must be elected, with nearly every choice leading the Bloc into one grand conflict or another

Everloyal Darkfriends scheme still, and those forced to serve the Dark fight to survive a world where there is little mercy for those so much as touched once by the Shadow. Dreadlords attempt to carve out realms of their own

This and more is the state of the world.

Will the peace hard fought for stand strong, or is such a thing a fantasy during the rising Age of Empires and Industry? Will the world become one where all peoples and perhaps even all species exist together, or is domination inevitable? In a new age, called the Fourth Age by some, will the times to come be known as a Great Ending, or a Great Beginning?

Notes:

I ramped up on some of the poetical wordings for this. Also, my notes are harder to read than I remember. Marhol is directly from @highladyluck from Tumblr, I was working on this long enough to see them post their idea for the name of the Continent and I always liked it better than Westlands. Obviously, Rand wanted the Dragon Peace to bring, well, peace, but it's still basically just a Renaissance version of the EU; These are nations that have fought since their founding, facing a changing world, an empire occupying their Continent's western coast, and strung together under an agreement they were forced to sign with peacekeepers they don't understand as a culture who also aren't honestly the best option. The Aiel got flanderized in the last books by Sanderson, but there are serious issues with them being last minute made into basically the nationality of Peacekeepers. The Seafolk Empire is interesting in that it forms to protect their trading culture as well as the ports they were granted yet remains a brutal empire. The Borderland Bloc is similar, the borderlanders basically thanklessly fighting the Shadow for centuries while many thought the Trollocs they fought fairy-tales, being the most devastated nations after the Last Battle, unifying to rebuild each other and make sure the rest of the Dragon Peace remembers them; Still, every choice for the future leader is an iffy one. Don't worry, Malkier has been reformed, it has an interesting place in this mess. Everyone admits Shara was a mess, so I decided to try and fix it; Shara is the name of the Continent, but also the Empire that ruled it, and the other nations they oppressed and erased are "free" with its fall. This being the beginning of the age of imperialism, though, how "free" they are under "reconstruction" is soon to be decided. That's it for this one, go ahead and ask questions about the summary, keep in mind I will be doing posts for basically every nation and faction I have so asking things like "what's up in Andor?" will be answered later or have a special post to ask under. Please share if you like, this is basically my first big attempt at a project like this.

[ferretwithahat]

Out of every game I've ever played, Disco Elysium probably effected me the most. I played it when I was tired and stressed, unable to even speak to my family or friends, due to my throat being scarred to heal from surgery after months of illness, spending hours in bed exhausted and healing, with the streets of Martinaise being one of the few things able to distract me from the pain that the necessities of being alive caused me. Learning about Harry's self-destructive tendencies and my desire to see him get some form of a happy ending led me to identify my own self destructive tendencies.

I tried to do a second playthrough, and when I heard Tiger King in the Void, my mind got flooded with all of the memories of the game, and I just cried, the memories of how all that Harry went through and his desire to forget, the memories of the ways that I had hurt the ones I love wrapped up and forever linked to those same memories of this game, now forever in the back of my mind. And forever in the back of my mind is the possibility of getting better, that if someone like Harry could get better, than maybe an idiot like me could too.

And I did that second playthrough eventually, once I had healed and could speak again and eat without pain, tears at a stupid amazing song and all, and you know what, I saw something else in Disco Elysium that second time around that I missed the first time, something astounding.

I saw a world where everything that's could have gone wrong in the past did go wrong. A revolution to overthrow the old and decrepit monarchy and maybe make something new and beautiful in the world, only to be violently and completely crushed by an army bearing the name of Capitalism with the goal of crushing a dream that the world could be better, crushed for simply not fitting in with their algorithm. As for the people's present, well, that seems to suck, with corporations hiring and utilizing fascist paramilitary death squads with no regards for the people their hired goons so long as the line on the spreadsheet is black. As for the future, the only thing the people of Elysium are promised is an oblivion so absolute, the very concept of a world would cease to exist.

Beneath all that gloom and foretold oblivion, there was something astounding and something beautiful. Despite the world almost being designed for the ground up to inspire despair and apathy, the people of Disco Elysium have hope. They saw their dream crushed, murdered, and branded wrong to have even been dreamt to begin with, yet the people of Elysium have hope that it's a dream still possible and will do what it takes to make it a reality. They see armed thugs bearing the name of Capitalism with a banner branded with complacency and hatred for those who dream, and the people of Elysium simply go "we have each other, we can get through this together". They look to the future and see a promised oblivion, and yet refuse to despair, taking joy and beauty in what does exist, regardless of it's longevity. The people of Elysium looked into the void and decided they'd rather die than blink. The people of Elysium looked at a broken, dying world, one that has wronged them before and declared "there is something beautiful here, something worth doing and making". And that's beautiful If Harry taught me to love myself, then Martinaise taught me to love the chaotic, fucked up, illogical, messy, kind, beautiful world that I live in. Disco Elysium changed me, and I think it changed me for the better

[constelllahtions]

03.2.24

A man, with a brittle outgrown beard half covered in drool, matted and bloody.

Long grey robes, tattered and tainted.

Head hanging aloof between knobby knees, back meeting the dark ridges and hollows of a cave.

Breaths? staggered with no discernible patterns, heartbeat? quiet and yet, heaving the darkness that took and took and took.

Mind? In chains and cuffs no better than those that clung onto his ankles and knees, suffocating the glimmers of hope and revolution that occasionally made it out onto the sea of otherwise morose thoughts and dreams.

Nightmares would be more accurate but the word falls short, failing to convey the depth of misery and fear that poison every cell in both the world within him and that around him - though the idea of one being different or rather, separate, from the other never would sit quite right with him.

For somebody who claimed to seek wholeness, he can’t help but laugh at his own naiveties around the matter, can’t help but swallow his pride (if any had survived down here that is) and admit, begrudgingly so, that he is scared. Admit that maybe he would have turned the other way if he knew this was what he was signing up for. Admit that maybe, the path of the mundane with their shallow joys and shallow dreams was one that he was finally beginning to understand.

With the corner of his mouth lifting up as the gleam in his eyes and the brightness in his chest expanded, he laughed. A broken hum; pained but overflowing with more relief and mirth than one would think any man in his position to be capable of. Even the thought of it was so ridiculous - that he would ever go back, that he would ever want to be anywhere but right where he was, that he would ever choose soulnumbing placations and cheap illusions of joy - of living - over actually doing so (or learning to, atleast). It didn’t matter that he was bloodied and bruised beyond recognition, didn’t matter that he was stuck reliving every whipping both mental and physical - no, it didn’t matter because how could it? He was alive. He was feeling it all so fully and so deeply, tunnelling into the depths of the world within him and gods did it hurt but it was real. It was real and he was with himself mind, body and soul. It was real and he was feeling a myriad of agonies with every cell he over turned in his being and he was alive. His laughter grew stronger, now echoing off the walls of the cave as the light began to reach within, and all the separation fell apart (it was never meant to be there). The separation between good and bad, between life and death, between love and hate, between worship and sin, between joy and pain, oh gods the walls were coming - crumbling - down allowing for connection between these supposed opposites in a way that was so beautiful he almost cried. The union of forces that were never meant to be apart, of feelings that were all blended within one another, moving in such whimsical harmony it made him scream. The light was everywhere now, just as the dark was - one did not take away from the other, only added to it. What a fool he was to have ever assumed otherwise.

Here in the cave, frail knees shaking as the suffocating hands of his past ghosts dug deeper into him, the man looked up and watched in complete awe as the light danced with the darkness, wisps of black and white embracing one another in what could only be described as a heartfelt reunion - sons and daughters of love come together at last.

Now standing tall, surrounded by the wise streams of oneness, the man pulled his ghosts up one by one - smiling at them with a love so full it never needed to dismiss any pain or fear, only embrace it. No, he thought to himself, nothing separated could ever feel this whole. His entire being sung tunes of love stronger than he had ever known - shattering every illusion, breaking down every limitation. Right there in the hollows of that cave, bloodied and bruised, with a mind haunted and a heart that had felt more pain than one would think it capable of withholding, he felt love. Right there in that cave, feet still in shambles but a soul that would never be caged, embracing every single feeling past present and future, he was free. No smile had ever felt so sweet.

m.f

[plenaurum]

Even the follow up to that godforsaken "Gale was a revolutionary king! Prim's death was unnecessary!" post made no damn sense and missed the point of the series entirely:

“We didn’t need Prim’s death for us to know that Coin was bad and that war was bad! It was senseless!”

That’s the point. Her death was senseless. It had no meaning.

There was no reason for her to die, but these things happen in war. Suzanne Collins herself said that she always knew that Prim was going to die even when she started writing the books.

“Having Gale, an oppressed Brown person, be held responsible for Prim’s death (a White character constantly representing innocence), was ugly when he didn’t even kill her. It was a convenient way to end the love triangle and leaving Peeta (another White character constantly portrayed as good) as the only option .”

Now, here’s where my opinion will get controversial: read the books without the lens of identity politics and maybe you might understand the point. Now, I’m not saying to ignore the aspects of race completely (there’s a reason why District 11, a district full of Black people, was so heavily policed). But, notice how Collins intentionally never left the race of some characters like Rue and Thresh up for debate. She was explicit in her depictions of POC. While Gale and Katniss could be read as Native coded and therefore POC, Collins herself never made it clear just what their races might be. It was purposefully left ambiguous, left up to the reader’s interpretation.

But, even if we follow your interpretation, Peeta and Gale were never supposed to be “good vs bad”. Peeta, probably due to a life that was a bit more privileged than Katniss and Gale’s, represented diplomacy in the just-war debate. Gale, understandably due to his life experiences, tended toward violent remedies. A lot of us do not blame Gale for his rage nor his violence because, again, violence was necessary for revolution. The only thing that went wrong is that his rage began to know no bounds and he began to disregard the humanity of other people, which was exploited by Coin.

Gale had always had a tendency to dehumanize other people: in Book 1, when Katniss was expressing worries about killing people in the arena and he said “it’s just like killing animals, how different can it be, really?” All throughout Book 3 (and even in parts of Book 2),  he and Katniss experienced disagreements when it came to what was justifiable during war. Him having the idea to bury the people in the mines when that is the same thing that killed his father, him not understanding why Katniss would care about the fact that her prep team was being tortured for stealing food (when Gale was whipped for poaching), and him helping to develop a weapon that essentially weaponizes human compassion (one bomb that draws people to the wounded, another that kills them all). It is the idea behind the weapon that killed her sister. Of course she was going to connect Prim’s death to Gale even though it wasn’t his fault.

Katniss said herself that Gale’s anger was not what she needed to heal after the war because she had enough of it herself. 

And not every Brown man depicted in the series was “rageful and violent”. Katniss’ father, someone that could arguably be Brown, was a source of joy for Katniss, a source of life. It was through his teachings, through his musicality, that not only kept Katniss alive, but also aided Katniss in maintaining her humanity and connect with other people (singing for Rue, singing for Pollux, how Peeta ended up falling for Katniss.) 

"The books are about war blah blah blah but at the end of the day, the theme of Mockingjay was that the oppressed fighting back will be just as bad as the oppressors and blinded by rage and hatred! What type of message is that?"

Again, The Hunger Games was not meant to be a story on “how to lead a revolution”. It was a story about war: what consistutes a war, what is justifiable during war, how do we maintain our humanity during war, etc. Collins used the "oppressed vs the oppressor" to create a conflict that would require a revolution and then war. However, during this war, innocent men, women, and children on both sides of the war died senselessly. The message it was sending was not “both sides bad", but that even during a justified war, living in a world where war is necessary is not beneficial to anyone. It was anti-war, not anti-oppressed-fighting-back. That’s the message it was sending. 

Please critique the books for what they are and not what you wished them to be.