#does that distinction make sense?

[bookwyrminspiration]

Why do you think that everyone was upset that Sophie burned the warehouse down? I understand that they are afraid of the retaliations that the Neverseen might resort to, like burning down some of their important buildings, but something had to be done. The Neverseen and the Black Swan were stuck at a standstill for years, so if anything, this accelerates the conflict and will bring then one step closer to a desired end. I notice that the Black Swan want the Neverseen to be defeated but they never put in any actual effort to do this. They never give Sophie any actual direction and expect her to just know these things. It seems hypothetical that they are upset at Sophie for doing this when it will most likely help them solve their issues.

Based on how I interpreted everyone's reaction, I think a big part of it hinges on the offensive vs defensive point that Tiergan makes (p. 727). For the most part, the Black Swan haven't openly and intentionally attacked the Neverseen; the Neverseen have openly attacked them on numerous occassions, and they have then defended themselves from that.

The Black Swan views themselves as morally superior to the Neverseen. They're fighting for good, they have morally pure intentions. They do the best they can for the best reasons they can. But to them Sophie burning down the warehouse is a move that feels like the Neverseen. It shows a shift away from trying to be good towards trying to be productive regardless of the means. It's something their enemies wouldn't hesitate to do, and they had a sense of superiority knowing they were "above" that.

I think that's what is making a lot of her friends and family uncomfortable. They associate that kind of thinking and an action like that with the Neverseen, but it coming from Sophie. It shows a split in their thinking they never anticipated and they don't know how to respond.

Another aspect may be how this action reminds everyone that Sophie wasn't actually raised like them. She's part of the group and they're all relatively close, but she isn't like them. They forgot that. She's physically elven, but mentally still very human. She was made to bring a new perspective and is now putting that perspective into action, and it's an obvious change/difference that the people around her weren't ready to be comfortable with.

We can see in Mr. Forkle's reaction that he supports her and agrees with her (one of my favorite Forkle moments), and he was the one who told her she was meant to be a new perspective. Everyone else has their own hopes for her, but no one else has as expressly shared how they hoped for something new. So I think everyone else had different hopes for her--ones that may align with more elven thinking--and that's why they're disappointed/shocked by her actions. It was Mr. Forkle who had the "something new" hope, not them.

That's at least my interpretation of it! Sophie reminded them of the Neverseen, reminded them she's more human in thinking, and is defying the doing things the "right" way method we've seen a lot of. Even if she's making more progress, it unsettles them how she's doing it.

[dailyloopdeloop]

loop and mirabelle. That's it that's the ask

DAY 84: enrolled in the gossip wars

[solidwater05]

It's ADHD awareness month so l thought it'd be nice to explain why someone with ADHD might consciously make horrible decisions despite being aware of the consequences

So, let's image a situation. A person with ADHD is doing a mildly entertaining activity, let's say doomscrolling. This person also has a task to do. I made a graph where the brighter the color, the higher the satisfaction that the person gets from an activity

[ID: A graph showing a line that divides into two separate lines. The main line, and the bottom line, are a dull yellow. The top line starts off black, and turns bright green as it gets further away from the bifurcation. /End ID]

So here, doomscrolling isn't super gratifying but hey, it's better than nothing. The person has the choice to keep doomscrolling, even though it's honestly pretty boring, or they could do the task they need to do. When they're done with that task, they'll feel a lot better, so they should do that, right? Just do the task because there's literally no cons? Well. Look at this other graph:

[ID: The same graph as before, but cropped to only show the bifurcation itself. This way, the top line seems to be completely black. /End ID]

This is how a person with ADHD perceives the choice. They can logically know that they'll feel better if they do the task, but executive dysfunction makes it literally impossible to get any sort of motivation or satisfaction for gratification that doesn't currently exist. So the choice goes from 'feel meh or feel good later' to 'feel great in comparison or never feel good again'. And what's the obvious choice here?

[4lph4kidz]

been pondering this one for a while and i'm not sure where i stand on it myself so i want to know what people think about this, so (assuming there's no good way to represent hal as an artificial intelligence /non-human entity/extension of dirk):

feel free to share thoughts in the tags & replies!

[moe-broey]

Quick and rough Plumeria redesign, mostly just cause...... I gotta do what comes naturally to me, man. Give me some Shapes. Simplify that design or so help me.

I don't have a lot of complex thoughts about it, actually! Just the idea of having a "sexy" outfit that draws the eyes to certain parts of the body -- while simultaneously being modest and Sharp. Having an edge to it. Also!!!! The luna moth inspired wings!!! I wanted to stay within her og color palette, but I've also always thought luna moth wings would suit her... the top wing is vaguely heart shaped, too!

[ink-the-artist]

I think if I’d known and gotten into the furry fandom as a child Id be in it today, bc like most kids I’d play with friends pretending to be animals, but I’ve since lost that part of myself the same way I’ve lost the ability to play with stuffed animals the way I naturally did as a child. So I think it’s cool there’s people who retain that part of themselves to adulthood. I’ve retained those child instincts too just in different ways, mostly in my art but instead of drawing characters id want to be it’s drawing places and worlds id like to be in. And I think this is true for most people whether they realize it or not that they carry these child instincts of playing pretend into adulthood in various ways, like larping or dnd or playing video games

[polyamorousmood]

Weird though it may sound, I think compersion and jealousy are not mutually exclusive. You can be happy your partner has found another person that enriches their life while also being put out they're giving you less attention because of it. That won't happen in every situation, but its okay if it does. Your compersion doesn't mean you don't still need to address your jealousy, but neither does your jealousy invalidate your compersion,.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

i still haven’t written out my 261 metapost but i can’t stop thinking about the stsg subtext in that chapter . the parallels between geto slaughtering the village and gojo slaughtering the higher ups…. the fact that gojo does it right after declaring that he has to “catch up” to geto

[tswwwit]

Wait, does the cheating thing on the bond always works? bcs that would be kinda freaky for R!Dipper like imagine you get pinned down by someone in the corner of a br or smthng and then said person kissed you and proceeded to explode into red mist and you literally have no idea what happened.

Also, would the constellation mark be a "cursed" Mark over the years, like you would give birth to a baby and the doctor says "😟 I am so sorry ma'am,,, I'm afraid your baby has the Cipher Companion mark. ( could also be something equally as science-y like Ursa Major, Constellation Calamation, etc idk)" And you just burst into tears.

Would that mean that dipper would get into a special program(demon wrangling program or smthng, demonologist? Maybe)? Or would the parents hide it away hoping that Bill would never take their child away?

(Sorry this au is just very interesting to me,,,, I hope u get more motivation, keep writing author 💪)

These are all options! The fun part of reincarnation AU being left ambiguous is that technically any of them could happen.

[rinbylin]

galaxy-brained mlc take of the day: mlc is wuxia, yes and maybeee not exactly? it very much is a wuxia aesthetically, but it's actually - conceptually - xianxia story in the core. (this is different from suggesting that it is a xianxia show.) however xianxia can (or should) be considered a subgenre of wuxia, not its own separate distinct genre despite the idea of 仙 xian being fundamentally at odds with the idea of 侠 xia, because they both stem from the same belief. (as seen in mlc, it works with the conventions of traditional wuxia aka li xiangyi the sigu sect leader, to get to the real bits of xianxia concept aka li lianhua's story.) so, mlc is wuxia through and through, inside out. send tweet 🫡👍

-

ok wait I can explain

so, this must be premised on the understanding that any discussion of "仙 xian/deities" in this context is only as its abstract idea of living a life distanced, detached from worldly, human woes instead of the possibility of immortality existing in mlcverse. (if you think about the deities in xianxia stories being basically human beings who have cultivated themselves into immortality.)

this is the explanation of xianxia as a wuxia subgenre (古仙武侠) in the baidu article of wuxia genre:

武侠中的侠，是脱胎于墨家“以天下为己任”的使命感；而仙侠的侠，通常是传达着“能力越大，责任也就越大”的朴素精神。侠乃入世，仙为出世，道教阴阳的无情大道（无情指寻求自我的不断体悟，以达精神的成仙，非没有感情之意）与武侠江湖的有情众生，即是矛盾也是循环，象征着太极之道，这也就是为何古仙武侠也属于正统仙侠流派的原因。

rough tl:

the xia of wuxia is born from the mohist ideal of bearing a sense of responsibility for the world

while the xia in xianxia focuses on the idea of "with great power comes great responsibility"

the idea of 侠 xia is secular. the idea of 仙 xian is beyond the secular - it is to pursue a life of suppressing/taming your own emotions (it does not mean to be completely removed of the ability to feel. it's a pursuit of self-realisation that makes one attain the status of a "deity" spiritually.) 仙 xian is then inherently at odds with wuxia jianghu's deep empathy and connection with the secular world, but it's also connected back to it. this is why 古仙武侠 is considered to be a part of the wuxia genre.

the relationship between xian and xia is conflicting because the former is all about distancing yourself from worldly issues while the latter necessitates an active effort to do something about them.

but it also means that both wuxia and xianxia acknowledge this weight of human emotions and connection to the world. it's just their respective responses and the outcomes they want that they differ in. what is the ideal person? wuxia says it's to be someone who can propagate and execute the ideal of doing something about this weight of your connection to the world, while xianxia says it's to learn to be at peace with that connection, and it's ok to not do anything about it actually - which might even be harder than trying to do something. (and focusing on your own cultivation can be a good thing for the world, in fact.)

with this, I hope it sounds less absurd that I'm connecting mlc's story to the concept of xianxia. lxy's life was a traditional wuxia archetype. (I've already harped on enough about how he fits into the quintessential mohist model of a xia leader.) what happens after, aka his journey as li lianhua, is the real story of mlc. it's a breakdown of that quintessential wuxia hero. it is a story in which the main conflict faced by the protagonist is to struggle with all the worldly woes including his own past and the cases' victims, in defense of the serenity he has found in the past 9 years. it is a natural battle to fight for someone such as llh because as long as you're still human, you will face the implications of human connections and the innate feeling of compassion and urge to do something about it (part of this, I guess, manifests physically in bicha breaking him down and the resistance to cure).

and relating that to an excerpt from an article discussing xianxia in relation to wuxia:

武侠剧的精神内核也是仙侠剧的精神内核，而“仙”实际上是实现新形式的“侠”的手段，由此扩展了“侠”的深度和其实施的时空范围。武侠之中的侠义精神，可以强调其自在，更强调其是自为的，前者是需要逐渐成长和觉醒的。然而对于高于人的仙而言，作为上位者的“侠”之精神，则应该是内在自觉且自为的。

rough tl:

the spirit of wuxia dramas should also be the spirit of xianxia dramas. xian should in fact be another way to bring out and explore the idea of xia.

the spirit of xia in wuxia can be an emphasis on the spirit of freedom, and even more so, the idea of agency and autonomy. the former is gained through growth and awareness. but for xian aka people who occupy a realm above the people on the ground, the xia spirit they embody should manifest in their inner awakening and agency.

it goes without saying that nobody is a deity in this show, and never will be. only in ep 40.5 it came so close to possessing that otherworldly, surreal edge, but that's all to it. deities do not exist in the mlcverse.

but but. it's interesting to point out in the ep 3 flashback when lxy walked through town in the aftermath of the sigu sect vs jym battle, commoners were heard describing it as 神仙打架 百姓遭殃 when immortals fight, commoners suffer. of course they didn't mean it literally but figuratively, that those people of wulin jianghu are high above, detached from the people on the ground. which is. contradictory to the idea of 侠 xia to begin with. so... it could even be interpreted that li lianhua living the spiritually "immortal" life embodied the xia spirit even more deeply than he did as li xiangyi the sigu sect leader, the "immortal" in the eyes of the commoners. actual immortals do not have any real attachment to the people, but a cultivated "immortal" does and is destined to feel and learn to deal with it over and over like llh did. it all comes back in a circle indeed.

[flagellant]

Actually lawful good means nothing, the alignment chart is a mechanical way for a facist game designer to try and squeeze all morality into fewer boxes than most uquizes have results for.

It is really rare for me to see as spicy a take as "the alignment chart is fascist"

[lanternlightss]

watching a playthrough of the prologue while doing other things and what im gathering is that i need to draw my human loop with heavier eye bags

[front-facing-pokemon]

[fluentisonus]

part of the problem is that a lot of hugo's politics are really well thought out & considered & good but then some of them are like. entirely vibes-based to the point of feeling muddled & inconsistent & even straight up Bad sometimes. which is annoying

[payaso-affairs]

Watched battle of the super sons and it was fun!

Thought abt Boy Son Damine ofc he is very cute

but I was immediately distracted by J'onn and whatever the hell they decided to do with him this time /pos

I have to love. How cunty they get with him-

[moe-broey]

Amateur Hour but I gotta outsource this. Aromantics. Heed my call. What is "romantic" love to a non-believer?

Bonus Round if you're not entirely ace -- does experiencing any amount of sexual attraction influence your answer? Also acknowledging that both aro/ace identities exist on a spectrum. Believe me. I am deeply familiar... with so many kinds of spectrums........... 🧍

Also if this breaches containment It's Not That Serious........... just a personal question. For a friend. Me 🙂‍↕️