#i feel the need to say. not related to any ship or anything happening irl aside from the stuff about fame

[crunchycrystals]

bang the doldrums bridge. you agree. reblog.

[utilitycaster]

sorry if this is something you don’t want to answer! you’ve said that questions about how you THINK the campaign is going to end are annoying, but i’m curious about how you personally WANT the campaign to end, given the various possibilities we’ve heard and what might still be considered?

At this point? For them to go with the Accord's plan, and for it to work on the general scale, though obviously not without potential casualties. It's the only plan that has at least attempted to consider the needs of multiple disparate groups of Exandrians and Ruidians and which has considered the possible long-term impact. It does not have complete representation and it is not perfect, but it's the only plan that isn't just, in the end, one arrogant guy who thinks they have all the answers and can make the choice for everyone else.

I will say: I am generally hoping Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein get out of this intact (Vax de-orbed but still a celestial, to be clear). I am open to a multitude of endings for Bells Hells since that is the burden of the main campaign party for the big final battle.

I do not want to go into this in depth on this ask though I've alluded to this extensively in a lot of places but: I am drawn to stories for them being narratively interesting and satisfying, which is a broad term but not an all-encompassing one, ie, you can't just say "narratively satisfying is whatever makes the viewers happy." Some people are drawn to stories more because of an individual character that speaks to them, or shipping, or lore alone, or an ending that validates their pre-existing irl views rather than their thoughts on how it should end based on the premises of the worldbuilding and the plot. And they can do this, and I am not stopping them, but I do, from the bottom of my heart, know that if someone's priority for storytelling is anything other than "this would be narratively satisfying" and that you have a decent understanding of narrative satisfaction (ie, following from the coherent worldbuilding and the established characterizations) I am, in the realm of the appreciation, analysis, and creation of stories, better than they are. Pretty much any critique I have of patterns of fandom behavior (roving shipping; "why is no one asking my blorbo how they feel" disease; projection of personal trauma; refusal to accept death or tragedy and the related obsession with fix-it fic; the idea of someone deserving a fate not because of what has happened within the story itself and what they've done but because of what has been done to them in an unseen backstory) boils down to that: it's not coming from any understanding of story structure.

[naranjapetrificada]

The first thing I should ever have said about Izzy and the last thing I intend to say until at least October 26th.

[Although I am not Her strongest soldier, so who knows if I will stick the landing.]

So to start with, I was a "late" arrival to the show. I knew it existed of course, but I only occasionally saw things that reminded me it existed. The first time I saw a mention of "grumpy/sunshine" it was with a picture of Ed and Stede, so I guess on some level I knew there was shipping going on, but that was literally all I knew. I didn't even know it involved Blackbeard lol.

Which is all to say that I first approached and watched season 1 removed from basically anything anyone had to say about it. I think what actually got me to watch it wasn't anything anyone had to say either, it was from youtube recommendations? Like I think I had watched a couple Taika interviews or something and ofmd stuff started showing up? So after catching a few clips and intentionally spoiling the kiss for myself (life is too short to be queerbaited) I watched it in April/May 2023, and was Changed by it the way so many other people were. It grabbed me so hard I started looking for fics, and when fic grabbed me even harder I became a regular tumblr user for the first time ever in June 2023.

What I didn't do, before the second half of 2023, was care particularly much about Izzy Hands.

I remember describing him as psychologically fascinating to the first IRL friend I talked to about the show, and joking that he just needed a good dom. As much as his decision to call in the navy was a threat to Stede's and Ed's lives, I saw his actions as part of a thing needed for the story, and while I knew he was one of the season's villains there wasn't really any heat behind that assessment.

For me he was there to set things in motion, and to serve the narrative in certain ways, to be a foil, more storytelling tool than man. That doesn't mean I didn't think Con did an excellent job adding layers to him, he absolutely made Izzy take up space and feel more present and textured than he otherwise might have. But when I began to zoom out and consider things on meta level, Izzy existed to do a certain thing or occupy a certain place in relation to the narrative and other characters more than anything else. And that was fine.

Then I started reading meta here, and found myself surrounded by passionate conversations about Izzy from many directions occurring with an intensity that I couldn't wrap my brain around. I saw people tying themselves into knots to justify and excuse the behavior of a textual antagonist, and I was baffled and because I still saw Izzy for what his role in the narrative was, it literally made no sense to see his behavior explained away. In the framework I brought to the fandom when I first arrived, trying to explain away Izzy's behavior would be like looking at a forest fire and trying to explain away processes like combustion and oxidation. Or if you'll allow me to borrow another extended, nature-based metaphor from a fic in an entirely different fandom:

Again, because from where my head was at, it didn't make sense to look at Izzy's morality as a zero sum game because in this metaphor, he was functionally just a brackish body of water. I'm not saying the morality is brackish, I'm saying the morality was literally not the point because like an estuary, an antagonist "must exist" because antagonists exist for specific reasons directly related to storytelling goals.

So there was no real heat behind my feelings about him or his actions, beyond the natural emotional reactions we have to characters and their behaviors before we zoom out. I was of course upset with his treatment of Lucius, which was targeted compared to other members of the crew. I was annoyed with the way he talked to and about Ed. I laughed when his plans had the equal and opposite results of what he intended, which you could argue happened with every single plan he made for the entirety of season 1. And yes, especially as a Black person living in the US, I felt the fear and betrayal that comes from seeing someone call the cops (which given the show and its writers, it does not feel like a stretch to describe calling the navy that). I wondered if there was any coming back from a choice like that, which is a big overriding question for the series as a whole.

I'm not here to debate any of the points in the previous paragraph. I know how I feel and you feel how you feel and there's already been so much said about the morality of it all by people who have explained themselves well, so let them convince you or not. Instead I've been trying to talk about the two sides of my experience before and after getting into the fandom with Izzy.

Before: Izzy Hands, Narratively Useful Antagonist Portrayed Compellingly And Effectively by Con O'Neill.

After: Izzy Hands, Unfortunate Avatar Of The Sadly Common Tendency For Certain Fans To Hyperfocus On A White Antagonist Or Secondary Character When There Already Exists A Protagonist They're A Foil Of (And Also It Looks Bad TO Do That When The Protagonist Is Someone With A Marginalized Identity).

I'm not here to argue the merits of those assessments either, because that's not the point. The point is the vast gulf between them and how the latter does such an incredible disservice to the Izzy we were given and that so many people claim to love. The latter comes from a place where morality is the focus, which I'm sorry y'all, feels like it originates with people who refuse to countenance Izzy's role in the story as well as his characterization.

Viewers who were willing to see Izzy as an antagonist, who don't view the word "antagonist" as a value judgement in and of itself, who don't think that finding an antagonist charismatic or compelling means anything about their own morality, those people can look at the show we were given and take it for what it was made to be. I'm not saying that it's only the Izzy stans (not enjoyers, not jar people) who start fights or that people who understand that Izzy is an antagonist don't also have deep morality related feelings about him and his actions in the first season. What I am saying is that sanding off Izzy's rough edges and trying to make him into something he isn't poisons even the possibility of having a discussion about him because people enter the conversation with two completely different understandings of reality. If you cannot accept the job that season 1 Izzy was given to do to move the story along, well you might as well have watched a completely different show for how much that fanon Izzy has anything to do with the canon one.

This show deserves better than that. The writers deserve better than that. Con O'Neill deserves better than that. Israel Basilica Hands deserves better than that. We all do.

[spiralling-thoughts]

hello!! first of all just wanted to say that i cert much enjoy all of your district 1 thoughts!! do you have any other velvereen thoughts to share? she’s still a mystery to me

also- i always refer to you as spiral but i noticed you have been using the tag #roka ramble and spiraling

is roka your actual name?? would you prefer to me switch to calling you that instead?? (or something else entirely?)

ps- loved your district 8 fashion post! any thoughts on d1 fashion??

okay i think i have asked way too much in one ask so sorry and ily <3

No need to apologise I enjoy getting asks and try my best answering them 😊

You can refer to me whatever you like I don't mind and have multiple nicknames irl, rokaya is my real name and roka is a nickname my parents and siblings refer to me as a short cut

I think fashion in D1 changed over the years I headcanon that by the events of tbosas they had 70s.80s insperd fashion by Katniss time they had a quite luxury outfits there is also alot of elements of businesses wear while they are the wealthiest distric they still would prioritize comfort and practicality and there is work uniform for every business

As for the Velvereen thoughts I have plenty

Like I said before I I headcanon her being a triplet she is the youngest out of her sisters by 10 minutes satina is the eldest twin and mullberry is the middle twin

Due to the fact that Velvereen faced alot of envy and people often tried to take advantage of her and her family because of their wealth she often has a hard time trusting people and always second guess their intentions she also has constant fear that people are judging her and constantly side eye whoever she suspects is judging her

(Sorry got to add my silly shipping headcanons)

That's one of the reasons why she befriended and eventually feel in love with facet I headcanon that facet is someone who wears his heart on his sleeve and doesn't ask for anything and is also a bad liar he Also doesn't judge anyone for being emotional , she found comfort in the fact that she can always get the truth out from facet and that he would never use her and he didn't care that she is from a wealthy family

Her favourite sweet is chocolate cake with strawberry cream and facet got her one on their first date

I headcanon that district 1 has a program to help poorer citizens of the district and Velvereen is a volunteer in this program she helps making food for the poor citizens and bake for orphans

Was closed off from friendship for 2 years when she learned that her friends only befriended her for her money when she was a kid

Is suprisingly a good Baker she Also plays tennis she is a average student her personality is more athletic than academic

People assume she is a tomboy but really she just keeps her dresses for special occasions she Also DESPISES eyeshadow satina can beg her to put some all she wants she won't add eyeshadow

She fidgets with anything around her neck wither it's her collar her zipper and even though she is not a accessories person she always has a necklace on because it's her go to for fidgeting

She absolutely hated Palmyra first it was her being late to bring food then it was her getting angry at Velvereen for sharing with facet and telling her to abounded him then throwing the biggest fit when she saw facet comforting Velvereen and making it clear she is acting that way because she hates livia and so Velvereen should hate facet wich started a shouting match another one happened when Palmyra suggested that Velvereen act more "Capitol like " and that the Capitol viewers could relate to her if they saw her like them wich Velvereen wasn't having it how could they relate to her when they don't view her as a human being and gawk at her like an animal and have delightfully watched as d1 children were murdered she called Palmyra crazy and delusional right to her face

She gave Leo's friends a hug at his funeral and the next day bought them food and toys and new clothes and they shared their memories about Leo

Her nickname is venny and she rides a bike

She was weary of panlo and terrified of lamina because it was the boy from D9 who killed jade and the girl from 7 that killed Leo despite remembering how terrified both kids were when they killed them and facet reminding her that none of the tributes are their enemies

She has a bit of temper and might unintentionally lash out and scream if someone got on her nerves

When the hunger was taking over Velvereen started biting her hand and at some point facet had to pull her hand away because she was close to breaking skin

Kinda assumed that she could fight if she grabbed a weapon and wacked people over the head with it like a tennis ball and facet was looking at her like:😑😑😑😑that won't work, and she replied with: I KNOW BUT WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?

Also ofcourse she and facet cuddled every night at the zoo she was going back and forth between being like: I have to kill to survive to stupid teenage girl in love who is happy her boyfriend finds her beautiful even at her dishevelled and dirty state (sorry)

I was once doodling her and accidentally made her very tall so headcanon that she is rather tall don't ask about her hight I am bad at measuring it

[berrycake99]

On Alastor's sexuality:

Ok so a thread I NEVER thought I'd have to make, but shit's getting out of hand and I am a little bit annoyed now.

For the longest time, I've defended Alastor ships because I really don't have a problem with random fanart/fics, regular fandom stuff...

But it's getting ridiculous, the latest post I've seen is headcanoning Alastor to be "bi-romantic", ofc getting rly defenssive if someone just says ANYTHING else.

The 'hypersexualization' of his character doesn't lay in him being portrayed in very sexy fanart or fics. It's the fact everyone's using Alastor for claiming their sexuality to be more valid, straight up jumping over his entire character. He is a beautifully written complex morally gray character and ppl only seek to see "wELL wHaT hIS seXuAL pREfErEncE iS", is it really that important???

Even if he's not confirmed aro, he is still asexual and just slamming any other title before ace to make him into your sexuality and then gripping onto it so effin hard is childish.

And you can't even make the argument of his sexuality actually being somewhat important to his character (like how for exemple, Vox being bisexual and having internilized homophobia is important to his actions and relations to others in the show, or how Angel being hypersexual is important part of his story with sex-work industry - I know hypersexuality is not a sexuality, but here too the "sexual" identity/part of a character is valid to include in understanding their psychology, do you see where I'm going?)

In regards to Alastor, nothing of sexual nature is really important to his role in the story. I don't mind anyone having fun and making any type of story they like, I do not think that is 'erasing the rep' because the ace-spectrum in itself is a spectrum and is very different for anyone, and everyone is valid.

What is erasing the rep is just making "headcanons" of his sexuality based on your own to make you feel better that you portray as factual. The reason I always say I don't mind is bcs I say the 'fun' doesn't change the show's flow. But some ppl actually do want that to happen, which is not okay.

You can't make an artist change their oc to fit your own standards. At that point, you're self-inserting.

Ppl are being as disrespectful to even harrass the VA into making a statement to explain to y'all that it ain't happening nothing will be canon and chill tf out. And then they still make the "ok no sex scene but there will be romance we have 2 more seasons to go!"

Did everyone forget Vivzie confirming Alastor will be single throughout the series after pilot or???

Not everything needs to have romance and sex in it..I understand these are important factors for ppl in general which is why I encourage everyone to make their own story, that way you have full freedom of expression to say it the way you want it to be. But expecting the show itself to change into your secific place on the ace-spectrum is just very distastefull.

Not to mention this is done only for the characters with no precisely defined sexualities, but mostly Alastor. Imagine someone going "you can't tell me Angel isn't bisexual. Look at the way he looks at Vaggie in this screenshot!" everyone would loose their shit. But for Lucifer, who is still unclearly straight/pan/bi or Alastor who is ace, ppl go "OMG AN EMPTY SPACE! OPPORTUNITY TO SELF-INSERT!" Stop. Again, how is this important to the story..

No shade to any RadioApple, RadioDust, StaticRadio, whateverRadio shippers. I myself find some of the fanart cute and I understand. But please don't try to force the idea of a non-canon dynamic you like onto every ace person irl and the show itself. That is very stupid. Make a fanfic, enjoy the show. Alastor will probably have an amazing lore in the future. He is more than his sexuality.

[doukeshi-kun]

Hey! I’m not sure if this falls into the “personal questions” category, if so, feel free to ignore this ask, and I’m sorry in advance!

You don’t have to get personal and speak about yourself at all, I’ve just been very clueless lately, about whether or not I might be aromantic. I’d say I’m pretty emotional and I do love, but the how romance is portrayed, and the idea of a “typical” romantic relationship has always seemed so shallow and meaningless to me. And I get second hand embarrassment from other people’s romantic relationships irl and in the media. And I can’t really tell platonic and romantic love apart, to me, romantic love is just love paired with sexual attraction (and sometimes it’s like super cringe too.)

I do crave connection with people who are “more special” to me than just friends, but I just don’t know if I’d call that romance, and I’ve never had a crush either. What would you consider the best way to feel less confused about this feeling of mine?

i'm actually happy to talk about aroace stuff because i know i won't be able to talk about it freely irl lmao. this is a bit long!

aromantic doesn't mean you're 100% not having any sort of romantic attraction towards someone—it generally means having little to no romantic attraction. besides, there are a lot more identities fall under the aromantic umbrella like grayromantic and demiromantic. i suggest you to read more into these identites if you're feeling conflicted and having those 'jumps' in your attraction.

these are all my opinions and experiences 👇 yours might differ bcs each human is unique to their own :)

i don't really want to get too personal here... but like a few years ago, there's this person whom i really wanted to befriend and i'm only ever interested in the idea of becoming his friend. however, people around me were taking my interest as something romantic and started shipping us together into a couple. it icked me so so badly because i knew i would enjoy being his friend but not his partner. i like the thought of being friends and that was it. that is all. no romantic relationship or anything. i have no desire to do romantic things with him, i have no desire to evolve the friendship or anything, i don't even like him romantically.

for me, that was my discovery of platonic attraction. i knew i wanted to form a friendship, and that was it. nothing more. i think the biggest sign that i feel stromgly that i'm aro is that i don't remember having a crush and i don't feel the need to pursue a relationship with someone else. like once someone started to make flirty comment on me irl, i'm repulsed by it.

i honestly don't know how exactly to describe romance or romantic feelings, mainly because i only perceive romance through medias and not through myself. i become sure i don't feel romantic attraction because i know how it feels to have platonic attraction and aesthetic attraction. i just don't know how it feels to have romantic attraction because well, i don't experience that, how would i know tsksgdjsjs💀

a lot of my friends are in relationships and when i listen to their experiences of anything like that, i could not relate at all. sometimes i'm like "why and how do you guys feel that way" or like "do you HAVE to be in a relationship with them? is it even necessary? is there any difference between being their friends and partner?"

there are more varieties of relationships that could be formed with someone whom you regard as "more special". romantic relationship isn't the only relationship —there are queerplatonic relationship as well. for me, relationship is basically having your intimate needs to be met lol

i really understand the confusion and the feeling of alienation when facing a romantic relationship irl. we're stuck in a world where everyone is into someone and someone is into everyone. the best way that i could think of to deal with this confusion is for you to figure out what kind of attraction you're feeling towards someone you happen to be interested with, be it for any reason really—because at least you can be certain about how some attractions feel like.

[im-no-jedi]

my thoughts on TBB season 2 episodes 7-8

and why it’ll probably be a long time before I’m able to rewatch these episodes again 💀

this is gonna be long and probably not very coherent, but I’m gonna do my best cause I need to get my feelings out 😅

I wanna start by saying I think these were some of the best episodes not just in TBB, but in SW media overall. the issue of Clones rights is something that we’ve been desperate to see addressed ever since TCW. we got hints of it in TCW, but it was never a prevalent issue since the series focused so much on the Jedi. Umbara was the first major instance we got of this, after a few smaller hints (Rex with Cut and the Separatist attack on Kamino were standouts for sure). but this was the first time we saw real, true focus on the rights of the Clones, especially in relation to their significance outside of war. it was done perfectly imo, even though it ended up being what kicked off the official start of the Stormtrooper era 💔

I told this to @jam-n-ham and she agreed with me, but Riyo spoke not just for her own beliefs, but for the entire fandom as well, and I really appreciate that 💙

another thing I absolutely loved was seeing TBB work with Rex again. them sneaking into Rampart’s ship and that whole endeavor was very reminiscent of their TCW arc with the refined chaos we know and love about them; it’s easily one of my favorite moments of the entire series now 😁

speaking of Rampart... DING DONG THE BINCH IS GONE. OMG. I legit thought he was gonna be more of a problem throughout the series (and he probably still will be 🙄), but for now at least, he’s finally outta here. hallelujah \o/

one more thing I have to mention is Omega. oh my sweet baby girl. this episode was such a good showcase of her character. it showed her sweetness and curiosity, while also giving her a chance to express her feelings about what happened on Kamino. her little rant was everything, and I’m so proud of her; she’s becoming a very expressive and strong young woman that I wish I had gotten to see more of when I was younger 💙

alright. now time for the feels™

I want to state that this is something extremely personal to me, so I’m going to speak mainly from the heart in regard to this. it’s really hard for me to make a more thoughtful judgment about it, especially since the season isn’t over yet, and we don’t know how things are going to play out fully. all I know right now is how I feel. so here we go.

I’m personally absolutely devastated about Echo leaving.

I know, I know, pretty much everyone can relate to this right now. but let me explain.

I struggle greatly with loss. of any kind, really. mostly in terms of relationships and people. throughout my life, I’ve struggled to maintain relationships with people and have had many people permanently leave my life, either by choice or circumstance. I can’t handle death very well, and I rarely can bring myself to even say goodbye to people. the very idea of someone leaving, even temporarily, is hard for me to handle.

this is further worsened because I also get extremely attached to things. this includes physical objects, people, animals, fictional characters, franchises in general, you name it. my specific brand of undiagnosed neurodiversity means that I get extra emotional when anything happens to something I’m attached to. @jam-n-ham can vouch for how excited and emotional I get when we’re watching something together. I don’t cry irl very often, but I get extremely emotional watching media of any kind.

so imagine my reactions to when a fictional character either dies or leaves in some manner. yeah...

when Fives died, it devasted me in a way that I’ve never fully recovered from. it legit traumatized me. to this day, I literally cannot even look at screencaps or gifs of when he died. it’s only been recently that I’ve even been able to acknowledge anything from that arc in general. I feel similarly about when Kanan died in Rebels as well (although that one is a bit easier for me to stomach because of how it was done).

and for me, characters leaving, even if it’s on good terms, affects me in an almost identical way. to me, Echo leaving TBB is no different than when he “died” in the Citadel arc, another moment that traumatized me. it doesn’t matter that he said he’ll be back or whatever. he’s still gone in my eyes.

I’ve been very attached to Echo since we first saw him. I actually liked him more than Fives for a while. I was ecstatic when we found out he was still alive and got rescued in TCW. and he’s been an absolute joy to watch in TBB. although he’s @jam-n-ham’s bae, he’s my boy and my bro and I love him very much. there’s a reason I made him my best friend in my self-insert series 🥰

I really wish I could explain this better since there are many instances of characters leaving or dying that hasn’t affected me so badly (again, I handled Kanan WAY better than Fives, and I literally can’t count the number of times I’ve watched the Umbara arc). I’m in a sensitive place in my life in general right now, so that might have something to do with it. but I feel like I would have these same feelings no matter what simply because of my trauma and my specific attachment to Echo as a character.

I do want to say though that I’m glad him leaving was presented the way that it was. I actually already knew he was going to leave at some point WEEKS ago due to spoilers, and I spoiled myself again before seeing the episodes, so I knew it was coming. it didn’t make it hurt any less, but the fact that he left on good terms with everybody is nice to know at least. Omega had a strong emotional reaction, which was understandable and realistic, and I appreciate that as well (considering I had a similar reaction 😅). also, I support what he’s doing and am glad that he feels like he’ll make a difference with Rex supporting other Clones in need. he’s a good boy, guys 🥺💙

so yeah. although I’m positive we’ll see him again (along with the likely possibility of him rejoining TBB at some point), it’s still incredibly painful that he’s gone and separated from the others. I feel like this will be addressed with Omega in the show, since she seems to be going through similar feelings. and if not... well, I still have my self-insert series that I can use to address it LOL

tl;dr because of my trauma dealing with loss and my strong attachment to Echo as a character, I won’t be rewatching episodes 7-8 for some time. I’ll be reassessing my feelings again once the season is over, but for now, this is where I stand.

ilu Echo. I hope I see you again soon 💙💙💙

[autistic-partisan]

welcome! this is a silly little editing blog that makes icons, pride flag edits and stimboards! please check the blog description for request status.

fictive, kin and selfship friendly!

sideblog for stim gifs: @nanmo-wakaran

to-do list,

a stimboard for each d4dj character masterlist.

gif used in the header

more info (byf, how and what you can request, mod info) under the cut

REQUEST SOURCES:

- primarily enstars and d4dj.

- here's my anilist so you can see what else i might be familiar with (although it is not maintained super well).

- i accept oc stimboard requests!

will not do: live action sources (might make an exception sometimes), irl people, ships that are generally categorized as ‘proship’.

i will not use fanart for stimboards, unless it is made by the requester or the requester can show me proof of the artist's permission to repost. picrews that allow reposts are ok (preferred, even)! please make sure to give me a link to the picrew you used, so i can credit it in the board.

ABOUT THE MOD:

you can call me del (🌒), i’m 21↑, any pronouns, autistic and autigender, queer, singlet; a cathearted robotkin with a sweet tooth. i lovelove love!!! stimboards! i love sweets and chocolate and cakes and desserts! i love plants and trees and grasses and flowers and leaves! i also happen to be incredibly socially awkward, please do not mind that.

DNI/BYF:

if you are lgbtphobic, ableist, or a bigot in general, you won’t like it here and also i will probably just block you.

i do not vibe with exclusionists! i think “contradictory” labels and pronouns are totally cool. stop building these divides, don’t be a cop!

also please note i have a strong preference for it/its pronouns for myself and will also use it for certain characters sometimes!

GENERAL REQUEST INFO:

- multiple requests are ok, but please send them in separate asks!

- let me know if you want your requested post to say no kin tags or no f/o tags, anything like that.

- for stimboards, let me know if there is a specific type of stim to avoid. i will also in general try to tag common triggers for all stimboards.

- if i made your request but you would like me to change something, don’t hesitate to tell me.

- when requesting something for a character make sure it is clear who you mean by using their full name and/or specifying the source media.

- the pride flags can be lgbt related or disability pride flags. if it is something that has multiple iterations, please specify by describing it or sending a link. i will need a link for more "niche" pride flags as well.

MAIN REQUEST TYPES:

- pride flag bordered icons: send me a character, what flag you want me to use, and what shape you want the icons to be. you can specify what cards to include if you want. you can ask for matching icons of characters with the same flag.

- colorpicked flags (gacha games only): send me a character or a specific card / other piece of official art, and the flag you want me to make. normally i will also include bordered icons made with the edited flag in the post, so feel free to specify what shape to use.

- stimboards: send me a character or characters. you can specify: card(s), themes, colors, stim types. if i don’t know the character(s) well i will need these specifics. i also accept stimboard requests for any general theme, as well as otherkin, oc or pride flag stimboards.

thank you for reading! i hope i managed to include everything important in this post. in case you have any further questions, feel free to send me an ask!

the tags i will be using can be found on this post.

[olderthannetfic]

Hello, I’m a very anxiouse proshipper and I’m looking for guidence I guess. For context in 2016, I was a part of the undertale fandom, and the popular problematic ships at the time where frans and fontcest. When drawing fontcest, I got a horiffic message in my inbox, going into detaile about ilr animal abuse related to some fontcest art I drew, and I’ve been turned off to being openly proship since. Throught the years I’ve been feeling very fucked up about calling myself proship, or making anything problematic. At one point I drew vrabbit (fnaf), and HCed him as a pedo cuz that’s the most obviouse vibes he gave off. I never drew him doing anything pedophilic, though I did draw him around his own (killed and robotociced) kids, and got a callout post made on my (that has now since been half deleted, I say half because it was initially a post made under a keep reading, and that og post is gone, but reblogs of the post remain). Recently Encanto came out, and the new ship there was an uncle and neice ship of bruno and mirabel, so of course I drew some art about it, but was scared to post it. And when I finally did, some people got upset at me, understandably so, but instead of ppl just blocking me and leaving, they would confront me directly, saying my art was now tainted, or that they hated me for “normalizing their abuse” (i’ve been abused too, I think, I don’t know if it counts as “real abuse” anymore because it was just sexual assult, and that feels like it’s the bottom of the barrel in comparason to someone being raped on the daily). But it sucks, because I’ve always been into this stuff, I don’t know why, I don’t know if I’m coping, I don’t know if something’s severely wronge with me, I asked my therapist once and they said so long as it’s art, it shouldn’t matter and it’s fine, but I feel like a shitty human being on a near constant basis when I start thinking about it. I��ve remade my blog like 2 times already, I’m wondering if I should do it again, this time just be more clear that I’m proship, or if I should just shut the hell up, because I don’t want more people coming to me about irl animal death. Like I don’t even take these ships all that seriously, I’m just some ace guy putting my kinks onto characters, I don’t care that characters are naked cuz a body that doesn’t arouse me on it’s own, and I want to be able to hc characters as something horrible ontop of how horrible they already are, like vrabbit was litterally murdering children, who’s to say he’s not some repressed pedo trying to counteract that shit with child murder instead? Idk, I don’t know if any of this was consistent, I just want to know if I should even be worrying about this shit or not, if I should start over again, or if I should just give up and forget the ritual of making art and posting it online in the hopes that someone sees it and thinks “ah, I vibe with that”. I’m just, tiered, man. Sorry to come to you with all this shit.

--

Nonnie, I think you need to talk to your therapist again.

Humans have all kinds of wacky fantasies. Nothing especially bad ever happened to me, and I was looking at snuff stories on the internet as a 13-year-old. Nothing you're into is unusual, and the way you're engaging with it sounds pretty mild and no big deal.

If you feel awful on a daily basis, that's about anxiety or self esteem or depression, not any realistic reaction to your art. Your therapist needs to hear how much you're struggling.

I don't think you need to use the word 'proship' if you don't feel like it. I no longer use it for myself because it's far too tame and watered down for my actual views.

Remake or don't, but turn off all anon asks or the equivalent on every platform. Accept DMs only from people you follow. Block early and often. Post your stuff, but make it very clear you have a zero tolerance policy for jackasses.

[evilkitten3]

multiple people have been complaining about my takes on luz's mom... like ok first of all i never disliked her, not once. believe me, when i don't like a character, i'll say so.

but to get to the point, camila's role in the story is complicated. and you aren't supposed to automatically know exactly what she's thinking. the show opens with the concept of "local middle school weird girl is being sent to bore-ification camp by her mom who wants her to be less weird". that's a scenario that a lot of neurodivergent people can relate to, yours truly included.

a lot of the time irl talks about autism focus on how difficult it can be for the parents, to the point where for a lot of us it's exhausting just to hear someone bring it up. bc we know it's tough on the parents, but it's tough on us too. but in camila's case, it's handled really well. whether luz is autistic or adhd or both or neither, we're not shown a mom who hates her daughter for being true to herself, we're shown one who's concerned about her child's future and just wants what's best for her. you never get the impression that there's anything but love between them. and this show doesn't exactly skimp on the mommy issues.

that said, the story follows luz. so when she's being sent off to camp, you see how upset she is by it, how she feels that who she is is being rejected. as an adult, it's easy for me to understand where camila is coming from. but when i was 14? no way in hell.

luz's mom is probably one of the best fictional moms i've seen in a long time, kids' show or otherwise. her relationship with luz is a lot like mine with my own mom (except unlike luz i do not speak spanish fluently, and my spanish is limited to what little bits my mom drops in here and there). my mom has also sent me off to places for my own good (not sure how many of y'all were here when i got shipped off to wilderness therapy, but... that was A Time), has also had difficulties with accepting me for who i am, and sometimes needs to take a step back and let me explain where i'm coming from.

camila is a flawed person and an imperfect mother. this is actually extremely normal. she has made mistakes and bad decisions. this is also normal. acknowledgement of this, be it in meta or jokes i make while watching the show, is not an attempt to demonize her, to give off the impression that i personally dislike her, or even to imply that she's a bad mom. i have, and this is true, been making jokes about all of the characters this entire time.

but all that aside, for the majority of s1 and a good chunk of s2, we don't see camila. she's spent most of her time as a character so far as more of an idea, as a goal for luz to reach - getting back home to her mom. to be clear, before she pops back up in s2e10, all we've seen from her is her sending her kid off to sad camp and her not realizing that there's a fake luz (which i'd say is justified bc like. why the fuck would she have any reason to think the girl who looked and sounded exactly like her daughter was anyone other than her daughter???). that isn't really a lot to go on.

tldr: i am watching this show for the first time after avoiding as many spoilers as i could. i do not have prior knowledge of these characters. let me consume the story at my own pace and stop expecting me to know things that haven't happened for me yet.

[desidarling123]

FACT CHECK: Did JKR sue people for writing Wolfstar fanfiction? [FALSE] [with sources]

So, if you're at all active in the HP fandom, and ESPECIALLY if you're on TikTok, you've likely come across a post or video claiming the following:

JKR LITERALLY SUED PEOPLE OVER WOLFSTAR FANFICTION! AND THAT'S ALSO WHY SHE MADE REMADORA CANON -- TO SPITE THE SHIPPERS!

I'm not sure who first started this claim or how its various permutations grew, but it spread at the speed of light across social media. This widely-circulated meme summarizes it:

For the LONGEST time, I didn't know what to make of it. The claims were vague enough that they seemed like they could be true -- after all, JKR is a megacunt and a renowned TERF. You don't need to fact-check either of those things.

But then -- for the first time ever -- I came across a video on TikTok claiming that what was being said was NOT true, and that it was being used SPECIFICALLY to stir up drama. Which was... crazy, to say least.

And that led me, well, to do my own research & fact-check. I've taken the original video's structure and added some exposition as well.

So here's the truth:

That 2003 case the above meme refers to? Not even REMOTELY what the situation was about. Hell, not even CLOSE.

In 2003, JKR sent a cease-and-desist letter to an explicit adult HP fan fiction website, called "Restricted Section". Here's the letter:

As the above letter states, the site was sent a notice because of overarching concerns that minors would accidentally stumble onto the sexually explicit content the site hosted after searching up 'Harry Potter'.

The hand-wringing over minor safety probably seems dated now, but it was, in fact, standard practice in the early 2000s - sexually explicit fan content was being removed across the internet for those exact concerns. In fact, just the year before, in 2002, fanfiction.net was purged of NC-17 content (which would happen one more time, in 2012).

I feel ridiculous stating it, but just to be clear -- in the above letter and all my subsequent research, there's NO evidence she went after Wolfstar -- or any ship, for that matter -- directly.

In fact, the letter goes an extra mile to declare that "our clients (JKR) make no complaint about innocent fan fiction written by genuine Harry Potter fans", but that, "there is plainly a very real risk that impressionable children... will be directed... to your sexually explicit website".

But that leads in nicely to the next point -- the website DIDN'T shut down, as per the letter's request. Instead, they added password protection to ensure only members older than 17 were accessing it.

OK, but why did JKR and Warner Bros go after this site in the first place? Most believe it was because of a widely-publicized article in THE SCOTSMAN that talked about the website. But, once again, this article doesn't go after Wolfstar in particular -- it only goes after Harry x Draco and Harry x Snape. The inclusion of latter was arguably what generated the biggest controversy -- the pairing of Harry, a fictional minor, with an adult character, in slash stories largely written by adult heterosexual women, was not one that could be cast in a good light to the general public. It's hardly a surprise JKR's lawyers sought to do something before the controversy got out of hand and worried parents started to make calls.

What I said before still goes, though. The legal core of the issue was ALWAYS to do NOT with the ships, but the EXPLICIT NATURE of the work -- and the (very real) concerns that the series' then-mostly-under-18 readership could find said works with very little as far as guardrails were concerned. (I know, because I was one of those kids)

TLDR; JKR did NOT sue people over Wolfstar fanfiction, she sent a cease-and-desist notice to a website that was not taking adequate precautions to prevent minors from accessing the explicit adult content on the site.

To be clear -- this is not meant to be a statement on what to ENJOY in your fandom ships. You can ship Wolfstar, Remadora, both, neither -- it really doesn't matter. I think the fandom is critical enough of the author to have reclaimed her work on our own terms, and people should be allowed to just, idk enjoy things.

But propagating straight-up falsehoods is dangerous, especially when it comes at the expense of 1) a safe fandom environment (see: the current fandom ship wars between Remadora and Wolfstar, which are difficult to watch) and 2) serves as a distraction from the ACTUAL garbage JKR engages in (of which there is plenty -- no need to make it up lol).

Also, truth be told -- inter-fandom ship wars don't generally add anything productive to the necessary conversations that need to be had about her works. The thought that dashing fan ships was a key motivator in her writing rather than, I don't know, plot concerns, is ludicrous on face, and gives fans a level of control over the original writer that just... doesn't exist IRL? And certainly didn't back then?

And again -- the books would have been VERY different series, plot-wise, if Sirius Black HAD lived. Him being in a relationship with Remus, confirmed or implied, has no relation to that decision.

If we have talk Harry Potter, I'd rather talk about just about anything else -- the racism, the misogyny, the lack of any sort of organic queer rep and JKR's inability to just own up to the problems in her works. But the minutiae of ship wars -- and the inevitable stream of disinformation that comes with it, sans any kind of concrete evidence -- is one I'd prefer to pass on.

SOURCES:

Cease-and-Desist Letter Copy: http://archive.is/HTLsq

THE SCOTSMAN Article: http://archive.is/VdEaY

Restricted Section Updates Page:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030815233612/http://www.restrictedsection.org/news.php

BONUS: The original TikTok video I came across whose structure and sources I shamelessly stole to read and build out my argument. I copied a lot of their wording because it explained it better than I could, you just get some bonus snarky commentary from yours truly

[random-thought-depository]

Continuing from my last post about science fictional “hyperspaces” (wow, I think that might be the most viral original post I ever wrote; it’s amazing what being reblogged by @argumate can do for a post!):

As a science fiction writer, these are the features I find attractive about “hyperspace” that incline me to favor it over other explanations for “fast” interstellar communication and travel:

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Hyperspace lets space still feel big. Wormholes/portals and instantaneous “jump drives” tend to make space feel small (though wormholes lend themselves nicely to space outside the wormhole network feeling big and to a feeling of sharp discontinuity between “known” or “civilized” space within the network and “unknown” or “wild” space where the network doesn’t reach). Start-anywhere go-anywhere jump drives without serious limitations have the additional issue that they’re more-or-less equivalent to teleporters, so they create the ultimate MAD setting where defending multiple fixed locations from a peer adversary is very difficult, and they minimize the strategic advantages of sustainable stationary banditry over unsustainable hyper-exploitive mobile banditry, and since the likely implications of that are very depressing I prefer to avoid it (except maybe if I was deliberately setting out to write a dystopia or explore the idea).

I want space to feel big in my writing, to give the reader some feeling of the vastness, grandeur, and inhuman scale of the universe. For my main science fiction setting, I think I’ll give hyperspace travel an effective “speed” of something like 5-10 c in Sol’s local neighborhood. That way interstellar journeys are more manageable than they’d be with journeys through our space, but journeys to other inhabited solar systems usually take at least a year or two (Sol to Alpha Centauri may be less than a year in hyperspace, but add in travel time to and from the Sol and Alpha Centauri hyper-limits, which is probably going to be at least a couple of months for each leg, and it’s probably about a year).

---------------

Hyperspace feels more like the sort of thing that might plausibly be useable to almost hairless apes with near-future-ish technology. With warp drives and wormholes and jump drives and so on I get the niggling feeling that’s the sort of thing you should probably have to be on approximately the level of an Orion’s Arm Archialect to do. Real theoretical warp drive and wormhole proposals tend to involve stuff like exotic forms of matter and energy and very large amounts of energy. Hyperspace would be a natural phenomenon, so it’s easier to explain it in terms of people exploiting natural phenomena we just don’t know about now, no weirder than being able to travel faster than rowing would allow by building a sail to catch the wind.

You can say that there are some rare atoms that naturally have a structure that extends into hyperspace. With human senses and 2020s technology they just look like ordinary atoms of silicon, iron, etc., but with the right kind of machinery you can detect them, sift them out of the surrounding 3D atoms, and concentrate them. Once you’ve got enough of them, you can make them the core of a pair of transmitters that you can use to send and receive radio messages through hyperspace. With more energy, you can “push” on these structures and “push” those atoms into hyperspace, and then if those atoms are part of a larger solid object the rest of the object and anything touching it gets dragged along with them (with a certain size limit, perhaps related to mass being “pushed” and energy used, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally sending the whole Earth into hyperspace the first time you try this - that’d be one heck of an oops; maybe a later disproven small theoretical possibility of that happening would go down into the history books along with “before they exploded Trinity they were worried it might ignite the atmosphere”); thus you can send a whole ship into hyperspace instead of just information. When you want to leave hyperspace you can reverse the operation and “push” the ship back into our space.

That gives you a nice highly valuable “handwavium” that can be a hook for various plot and worldbuilding points, e.g. there’s not much obvious economic reason to colonize Mars IRL except maybe tourism (anything you could mine there you get more easily from near-Earth asteroids, and it’s too inhospitable to make much sense as a settler colony), but maybe there’s a huge mother lode of these hyperspace-touching atoms somewhere on Mars. These hyperspace-touching atoms would be especially valuable if the process of using them for communication or in hyperdrives “strained” these structures and at some predictable rate caused some of them to “snap,” causing the atoms to become ordinary 3D atoms of silicon or iron or uranium or whatever. Then there’d be a continuous need for (relatively) large amounts of new ones even in a steady-state economy; you couldn’t just keep recycling them and recycling them and just do a little mining to make up for recycling inefficiencies. This would also be an interesting limit on use of hyperspace; using hyperspace radio or doing a hyperjump involves destroying a small amount of a precious resource, so people wouldn’t want to do it frivolously. This might augment that sphere analogy limitation on hyperspace communication I talked about in my other post; even if a hyperspace radio message from Saturn to Earth got there a little ahead of a radio message through our space, you’d probably send a radio message through our space for anything that isn’t time-critical, because the message arriving ten minutes sooner usually just isn’t worth the predictable cost in “snapped” hyperspace-touching atoms.

--------------

Hyperspace would be an environment, so you can do interesting things with it.

Since hyperspace offers a short-cut because it’s more compact than our space, I like to pull on the idea that it’s like our space but in a more compact state, so it’s similar to what our space looked like when the universe was younger and smaller. Going to hyperspace might be a little like time travelling back to a few tens or hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, before the first stars formed. The environment of hyperspace might be a little like the inside of a giant molecular cloud, but “warmer” and extremely impoverished in heavy elements. The gas density might be a few thousand to a few billion atoms per cubic centimeter (by comparison, sea level air is about 10^19 molecules per cubic centimeter while the interstellar medium averages around 1 atom per cubic centimeter). The gasses and plasmas in hyperspace would be almost pure hydrogen and helium. The cosmic microwave background temperature in hyperspace might be around 50 K; that’s warm in comparison to what it is in our space (around 3 K), and warm enough to probably be a big part of the reason hyperspace has no stars (present day star-forming giant molecular cloud regions have gas temperatures around 10-20 K), but by human standards it’s deeply cold; it’s upper atmosphere of Uranus temperature. With no stars, I’d guess hyperspace would be a place of more-or-less total darkness outside the range of any lights humans passing through might bring with them.

Alternately, if I want hyperspace to have a murky and mysterious quality and be a place where visibility isn’t good and sensors don’t work well (so a vibe a bit like B5 hyperspace), I could say the Big Bang nucleosynthesis era lasted longer in hyperspace and there produced a substantial amount of heavy elements, some of which then condensed into dust (probably more like smoke if it’s similar to interstellar dust in our space - nanometer to micrometer particles). This dust would probably be pretty insubstantial on human scale distances (again, if it’s like the interstellar medium matter in hyperspace would be about 99% mostly hydrogen and helium gas and plasma and 1% dust, and even a relatively “dense” hyperspace with billions of atoms per cm^3 would have less than a billionth the gas density of sea level air), but over AUs it would scatter light and that effect might add up. This would make hyperspace similar to a dark nebula.

If I want to take the “hyperspace is a scary place” further, I could add sources of energy that might further confuse sensors and add dangerous radiation and other dangers to the mix. Maybe hyperspace has a few large black holes or something, with energetic accretion disks and polar jets fed by all that relatively dense gas and adding turbulence to it. Or maybe spacetime in hyperspace is “lumpier” than spacetime in our space and hyperspace has weird “rivers” formed by something related to whatever force drives cosmic expansion and some of the gas/plasma gets caught in that and accelerated to large fractions of the speed of light and then slams into the low-velocity material in the “still” parts in places, creating lots of turbulence and various other interesting and scary things (powerful magnetic fields, radiation, locally intense heat, maybe some of these collision zones are even giant naturally occurring inertial confinement fusion reactors; maybe that’s where the heavy elements in the dust come from). Maybe hyperspace has a lot of cosmic strings; it makes a certain intuitive sense that, hyperspace being more compact than our space, its cosmic eggshell might be densely veined with cracks.

This gets into another interesting aspect; hyperspace might have something equivalent to terrain; hyperspace travel may be easier in some directions than others. And there’s lots of worldbuilding and plot hooks you could hang from that idea.

For example, let’s look at that idea of hyperspace having “rivers” formed of exotic spacetime structures and filled with gas/plasma streams moving at high fractions of the speed of light. If the edge of these “rivers” has a gradual enough velocity gradient and the plasma in the “rivers” is ionized, with enough skill a spacecraft pilot might be able to catch that “current” with a magsail and ride it, then when they’d gotten about as far as they needed to go they could leave the “river” and do magsail braking against low-velocity plasma in the “still” areas. Just gotta be careful to stay well away from the dangerous collision zones! This might be a huge part of the short-cut offered by hyperspace travel! It could be that distances across hyperspace are only modestly shorter than distances across our space (say, Alpha Centauri is 1 light year away in hyperspace), but the really big savings is you can catch one of these hyperspace “currents” and use it to get up to large fractions of c without expending any fuel. A set-up like that does raise some awkward questions about conservation of energy, but I could say something like “the hyperspace ‘rivers’ are areas where dark energy is being converted into kinetic energy, slightly slowing down the expansion of the universe in the process.” It’s not like we know much about how dark energy works, or even what it is, so for all we know that’s a thing that might happen under certain conditions.

Those collision zones would generate substantial radiation, including light, so unlike a calm hyperspace a turbulent hyperspace with energetic “currents” would probably have light. Don’t know how bright it would be; all that dust (made of heavy elements built up over the eons by inertial confinement fusion in collision zones, I like that idea!) would absorb a lot of light over cosmic distances, and stars are pretty bright but most of our space is pretty dark.

That set-up would make hyperspace travel kind of like sailing; there would be “currents” or “winds” you want to catch, and travel might be a lot faster along directions where the currents are favorable. Travel times in hyperspace might only loosely correlate with distance; Alpha Centauri might take longer to reach than Zeta Reticuli. There would also be hazards you’d need to avoid, e.g. the collision zones.

Maybe part of the explanation for the Fermi Paradox might be that Earth is in the middle of a big “still” part of hyperspace; few ships went here because we’re in the middle of a cosmic doldrums that takes years to crawl across.

With a set-up like this, hyperspace may have “weather” that influences interstellar commerce, and “climate change” on historical timescales that influences the trajectories of interstellar societies. Ages when hyperspace is particularly turbulent might cause Dark Ages as hyperspace travel becomes very dangerous. Ages when hyperspace becomes unusually calm might also cause Dark Ages as there are no fast hyperspace “currents” to ride and hyperspace travel becomes relatively slow. In one age hyperspace “currents” may be arranged such that a world is isolated; a few thousand years later the hyperspace “currents” might have shifted and that previously isolated world might be much more accessible and back in the mainstream of interstellar civilization.

One wrinkle: a turbulent, energetic, opaque hyperspace such as this probably wouldn’t be good for sending radio signals across. Maybe the universe actually has multiple “basement” levels, hyperspace is just the one that’s “closest” to our “living room” level and the only one that’s “close” enough that ships can travel to and from it, but there’s a clearer layer that’s “farther away” but still “close” enough that you can send radio signals through it, and that “deeper” clear layer is the one used for interstellar communication. Bonus idea I like: the deep clear layer is even more compact than hyperspace (by orders of magnitude) so it’s overall a much better short-cut in every way except being “too far away” to send ships through it, so finding a way to send ships through it is a huge potential breakthrough that tantalizes generations of scientists and engineers who so far have not managed to figure out a way to do it.

Really, on that note, I like the idea that the universe is analogous to an onion with many “layers,” and hyperspace and the deep clear layer are just the layers that are most easily accessible from our space. There are a lot of “basements” below the deep clear layer, and generally as you get farther “down” the “basements” get smaller, denser, and hotter; going “down” is a little like time travelling to eras closer and closer to the Big Bang (though this isn’t a completely reliable rule - the deep clear layer is smaller than hyperspace and perhaps warmer, but seems to be a lot emptier; maybe most of its matter has been sucked into black holes?). Maybe the whole thing is a bit timey wimey wibbly wobbly and if you go “down” far enough you eventually hit what 2020s science knows as the moment of the Big Bang. As well as “basements” there are also “attics,” but they’re less accessible because going “up” is harder than going “down.” If going “down” into the basements is a little like time travelling to the early universe, going “up” into the attics is a little like time travelling to the deep future, to places that look kind of like what our space may look like in the deep future black hole era (assuming the Big Rip doesn’t destroy our universe before that deep future proton decay story has time to play out). The “attics” are vast, empty, and deeply cold; cosmic microwave background temperatures a tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero and precious little else to generate energy, maybe one atom in every cubic kilometer of space. They probably expanded too quickly for stars to ever form there. The total number of layers might be large; maybe hundreds or thousands, maybe billions, maybe a number so big it would need to be expressed in scientific notation. I like this idea because it makes hyperspace feel less implausibly convenient for humans; we’re just taking advantage of a particularly convenient part of a big macrostructure that’s mostly inaccessible to us.

----------

Hyperspace is a natural phenomenon, so it probably isn’t going to be neatly quarantined to just being a thing humans can use for communication and travel. Hyperspace-related phenomena are going to show up in nature, and this offers a neat explanation for any exotic soft SF-ish natural phenomena you may be interested in incorporating into your setting.

Hyperspace (and other “basements” of our universe) also gives you a built-in parsimonious explanation for any other bits of soft SF technology your setting might feature. Want your setting to have e.g. Star Trek style forcefields? You can say they work through interaction with one of the “basement” layers of the universe.

On that note, I have an idea for a more hard SF version of the Babylon 5 “going beyond the Rim” thing or Stargate ascension, based on the “onion universe” concept I described above, which might serve as a partial explanation for the Fermi Paradox. Maybe some “layers” of the “onion” are “superhabitable” to advanced machine intelligences (though not to primitive flesh and blood beings like us). You know the aestivation hypothesis? If advanced machine intelligences could move to an “attic” they wouldn’t have to wait billions of years for our space to cool down; the cosmic microwave background temperatures in many of the “attics” would already be some tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero. Maybe they could move to a nice big cold “attic” and live there and “mine” a nice compact “basement” that is rich in matter and energy, getting the best of both worlds. Most of these “attics” and “basements” would be completely inaccessible to humans, but beings with better technology and more resources might be able to access many more of them (or maybe even get beyond the “onion” and search the entire multiverse for universes with conditions more to their liking). So the universe’s most powerful and most enduring civilizations might usually leave our space and move to another “layer” or universe that has conditions more ideal for them, and thus be mostly undetectable to us.

--------------

See: the concept of hyperspace is loaded with potential plot and worldbuilding hooks if you use a little imagination, and I like that!

[ficforthought]

On being SO DONE with M*sha, a rant a decade in the making!

After giving this some thought I'm going to go ahead and give my opinion on Misha and yesterday’s situation in public for the first time ever. I was going to just post on Twitter but since this has been 12 years in the making I have exceeded the number of tweets I can put in one thread! There’s A LOT in here, so my summary is also long. I'm aware that I will lose followers over this, I'm not looking to offend anyone but it will inevitably happen. I wish anyone leaving all the best as fellow human beings.

TL;DR - having kept quiet for so long I’ve finally reached my limit and it’s all come bubbling out. I’ve never been a fan of Misha, I’ve been ambivalent for the most part, but have never criticised him in any hateful way, that's not who I am, but after all these years of putting up with his bullshit, attention seeking and troublemaking I am DONE. Deleting his tweet containing the word Wincest and replacing it with an APOLOGY just to pander to his Minions and save face is the straw that broke the camel's back. He has consistently pushed his ship on not only fans but on other actors (despite Jensen's discomfort, and him having repeatedly made his feelings known on it), he has stood by while his Minions/Hellers have harassed, victimised, doxxed and sent death threats to people based on their FICTIONAL ships. He has pandered to their gatekeeping, constantly demanded attention in obvious and not so obvious ways, and to the best of my knowledge never criticised their actions even though he's aware of it in a very real way. Some of his Minions have now taken their shit into The Boys fandom and created negativity for Jensen before the guy has even got a foot through the set door, and how is that supporting one half of your ship?

Misha has claimed to be a victim of targeted harassment from Wincest/brother fans (not only shippers) yet his fans have said and done the most despicable things on his watch, all in the name of what he must think is entertainment, or even his idea of a ‘joke’.

Any respect I had for the man based on his humanitarian work has gone because I can only take so much hypocrisy. He and his pandering because of a desperate attempt to be woke and wholly inclusive (which is actually impossible, no matter how good intentions are) are beyond pathetic. Whilst I have never seen why people think he’s so great I have friends IRL and online who genuinely adore the man, yet they have been shocked and upset by his contempt for half of the fandom that made him somewhat famous. It's disgusting and I'm not scrolling by any more. Misha, I hope to never see you on anything J2 related in future because none of us need that kind of negativity, *especially* not J2. Be gone, foul fiend!

OK, so to the too long part. Please be aware that these are my opinions as a fan of the show, of Sam and Dean, and J2, not only as a shipper. I can separate canon and fanon, and can view canon from a gen or shippy PoV. Whether you agree or disagree with my opinion let me be clear that I do not condone constant bashing and hate of a person or character so this isn’t the start of a regular thing for me. It's possible to have an opinion and not show the same vitriol that has been following this man around for years, and that’s what I’m doing. I've not posted this to prompt more negativity, it's simply to get it off my chest and make it clear how I feel. I stand by my philosophy of ship who you want to ship, enjoy it, but don't force it on other people and don't be a dick about it…hmm, that kinda sounds like familiar behaviour, though, does it not?!

I have ABSOLUTELY NO ISSUE with other people liking Misha, Cas or Destiel when it’s for the love of the characters and the ship. What I *do* have an issue with is people who are the true definition of a Heller. I don’t see that as a generic term, don't be ignorant and think I do because I know the difference between actual ship fans and the crazies, both ships have ‘em and I want no part of either of their venom. If you are reading this and class yourself as a Heller then you are part of the problem so run along and as you are all so fond of saying, 'get help' and take your bestie king with you.

I’m stating my opinion in what I feel is the most mature way I can, because unlike many people on SM, I am an adult and can act accordingly, with forethought and without resorting to temper tantrums and bullying of other people to get my point across. I am able to tell the difference between reality and fiction, I don't tar everyone with the same shipper brush and I don't expect everyone to agree with my opinion, but as we know opinions are like arseholes, we all have them and sometimes they stink. Unlike some, for the most part in life (online and offline) I *do* stand by what I say and don’t backtrack or delete things to appease the masses. I have spent a lot of time writing this out to be as clear as possible without being intentionally hateful. Bear with me jumping between actor and character where relevant, at this point they're conjoined. I will say this before I go any further, it doesn’t end well for Misha, I don’t mince my words and if you don’t like seeing facts and opinions laid out, this isn't the post for you.

I’ll say right off the bat what most of you have surmised - I’ve never held Misha (or Cas) in high esteem but I have never *hated* on him. I have shared mild criticism of his actions and opinions on Cas over the years but never, I feel, in any way that has made me feel I have something to apologise for. I have said several times I've been unhappy about Misha crashing con panels, taking attention away from J2 when at those cons *most* people paid their hard earned money to see the STARS of the show they love, first and foremost, and anyone else is a very nice bonus. The odd appearance here and there crashing a panel is fine (and Misha isn’t the first or last person to do it), maybe take up a few minutes then leave, but when someone commandeers an entire panel, that's just not on. It's not only selfish, rude and attention seeking but also disrespectful to other actors, fans and to the organisers who work hard to make sure everything ties in to give us the best con experience we can have. Everyone gets their turn on stage, there's no need to try and hog any more of the limelight, Veruca Salt style. Oh, and if you’re reading this and not getting that reference, (a) you shouldn’t be on my blog because you’re far too young, (b) look it up, and if you still don’t get what I’m saying… well then please refer to point (a). Thank you, kindly!

There was a time in Kripke's era where Cas was - I feel - intentionally used as a pawn by the writers to divert *canon* from the ‘questionable’ relationship between Sam and Dean, i.e. Wincest focus. Prior to that people (other fans) lightened up and just accepted the fact that Wincest had been there since day one in terms of the writing of the show and the fandom. All the cast and crew knew - J2, Kripke and JDM in particular - and made light of it, never judging, never shaming and often encouraging it because they understand it’s a fun part of fandom. Wincest was present enough to be part of the not so subtle subtext, as I said people just accepted it. Kink tomato was alive and well, so was ‘don’t like, don’t read’ and we all just scrolled over things we didn’t like without turning everything into a personal vendetta and excuse for bullying others who didn’t share our views. When the angels came into the plot I think most of us Wincest fans gave the Dean/Cas innuendos the small laugh they deserved and then turned back to the focus of the show which was the brothers, as it had always been intended. Misha, however, milked those moments as much as possible which was amusing at the start but got old *very* quickly, not just for fans (shippers and non shippers alike), but for other actors, in particular Jensen who is on record MULTIPLE times showing his dislike for Destiel. He told people outright that's not how he was playing the relationship between the two characters and CATEGORICALLY said "Destiel doesn't exist" but did it end there? No, it did not because neither fans or Misha let it go, in fact Misha only pushed more, goaded fans into flogging the same dead horse as much as possible. He’s never stopped, not even when there was so much discord in the fandom, a huge wedge was driven into it because of ships, which IMO he heavily contributed to.

Fast forward to over a decade later (a decade, seriously man, let it fucking go!) he didn’t even stop when Destiel did partially go canon. I have never doubted that Cas loved Dean (Sam, too) because in SPN lore angels are made to love, even rebellious ones. I, along with many others, liked that about Cas because who doesn't love a rebel, especially one rebelling for very good reasons, and because of those two wonderful men? Sam and Dean allowed him to see beyond what he'd been brainwashed to believe his entire existence. The fact is that although the nature of that love changed for Cas, it never did for Dean and was CANONICALLY UNREQUITED because Dean was incapable of loving anyone else as much as he loved Sam. All that mattered to Dean, even when he saw other characters as "family" was still Sam…ALWAYS Sam, every step of the way. Again for those who have too much Misha shaped wax in their ears, that’s canon. Whether people choose to see that love platonically or romantically is up to them, soulmates don't always have to be romantic, either way, brotherly love won out above all else on the show. No amount of Misha screaming ‘hey look, Destiel!’ changed that, but it sure didn’t stop him trying, did it?

So now that the obvious has been stated, here's something else we all know - never once in all of the years on the show did Misha drop rallying of the troops to his precious, ego stroking ship. Never once (that I am aware of) has he called out his Minions and Hellers on their continued harassment of everyone involved in the show and other fans despite the fact that they have bullied, victimised and wished bodily harm, rape and death on people who don't see their ship and because didn't get the ending to the story that they wanted. Not once has Misha shown any remorse for the trauma his "fans" have caused, and I’m taking REAL trauma, here, not the kind Twitter stans see as ‘triggering’ - people have been driven to close SM accounts, attempted, and in some cases succeeded in taking their own lives. These Minions have openly mocked Jared’s struggles with depression and anxiety, and Misha - who claims to be friends with J2 and be supportive of them in every way  - has stood by and let it all play out, knowing full well some of the goings on, if not the full extent of how toxic these people are. We know he sees things being said online, and I have absolutely no doubt he spends time online searching his name for things that are relevant in some way to him in an effort to insert himself into a current conversation, or even start one so that attention is on him. Gotta stay relevant, somehow, right, Mish?

He has actively encouraged bullying by his actions of enabling the behaviours above, both by the flogging of the aforementioned dead horse, AND by not objecting to unacceptable behaviours. Remember when Minions and Hellers were slating J2, particularly Jared, for not posting on SM about BLM and other topics? Yeah, he didn’t ask them to stop doing that, either, even when he was tagged in things along the lines of ‘If Misha can post why can’t J2?’ etc. There have been some token protests, con vids I've seen have show his 'objections' which IMO have been done in a very tongue in cheek way, meaning that those people who needed to be pulled aside and told to change their ways just carried on, because their evil overlord didn’t explicitly explain it in terms a three year old could understand that bullying and forcing your opinion on others is WRONG. Not all of his cult are young and impressionable, not by a long shot, but many of the more vocal and vitriolic ones are.

As a father himself I wonder what Misha would do if he found out that his kids were behaving in ways his Minions are? I’m aware they’re young, but kids are cruel and bullying doesn’t just happen online. Even at whatever age they are, would he laugh it off the way he appears to have done with all of this fandom toxicity? Not bloody likely! I wonder if he’s as desperate to gain the approval of his family, friends and colleagues as he appears to be for that of his Minions/Hellers? I would certainly hope so, but that question can only be answered by Misha, himself, and I can and will not presume to speak on someone else's behalf on things in their personal life. For the record I would never presume I know what J2's answers would be on anything, however I do feel that after 15 years I have an accurate gauge on what kind of people they are so would be confident that any opinion I had on a matter aligns with their morals and ethics. As much as J2 have shared of themselves with us - willingly and under no pressure to do so, I might add - we don't *know* them, but we know enough to have an informed opinion. I can’t say the same for Misha because based on the behaviour he’s repeatedly displayed, things I've heard about from other fans as well as people I know IRL who have had direct dealings with him through cons or GISH (including some very actively in the early days when it was GISHWHES) he just hasn’t seemed like a person I wanted to follow on SM. I’ve never watched any of his solo panels, though I have watched ones with both or one of the J's, mostly being left irritated because of his behaviour. Watching the J’s put up with that shit is painful, and it’s a testament to how good they are as actors that they managed to hide at least some of their disdain for as long as they did. Microexpressions give them away, particularly Jensen, and they certainly have faces I have spent many years watching closely. Beautiful faces to go with beautiful souls, both of them! <3

I have precisely ZERO interest in Destiel as a ship, very little interest in Cas as a character anymore (though I did like him in the early days,and his relationship with Jack in late seasons) so I have absolutely no reason or desire to follow anything Misha does. That said, I've obviously been peripherally aware of some things he's been involved in because of friends, from things I’ve seen on SM and general fandom stuff. Despite the things I've already mentioned about his behaviour, up until now I have been able to maintain a level of respect for him as a person because of the humanitarian and charity work he's done. He seems like someone who really does want to change the world for the better and I am in full support of that fact, so much so that I have supported TWO campaigns relating to him. I bought one of the Super Good t-shirts for the campaign he did with Michael Sheen (a true angel!), the SPN/Good Omens x-over to help homeless charities, and I chose the design with text only and not artwork of Michael and Misha on, basically because I didn’t want to be wearing something with Misha’s face on it and I make absolutely no apology for that, whatsoever. I also bought Alex's #TheEndHasNoEnd shirt, which some of the profits went to Random Acts who do great work, so again, despite not liking Misha I still willingly contributed for a cause bigger than me, and to support Alex, who I absolutely ADORE. I'm aware that Stands aren't popular with some of the fandom, however since most of the cast of SPN are happily affiliated with them then I don't feel it's my place to either judge, or to discuss topics I know next to nothing about. But I digress, as a decent human being I have shown support tangentially to a man who I don't care for out of respect for the work he does outside the fandom. Telling you this isn’t to paint myself in a good light - I don’t need your approval, I’m a big girl, unlike some I don’t need constant validation! - only to provide background on how I’ve actively *not* hated on Misha.

Now though, any respect I had for him has come to an abrupt end, the events of the past 24 hours has seen to that. Whilst I have been annoyed at his behaviour in regards to shipping, I don't feel it's ever gone this far, or at least not that I've seen first hand. This man has, IMO, contributed to so much toxicity in the fandom by way of things I've mentioned before, he's claimed - without actually saying the words - that Wincest fans weren't interested in him as a character when he came onto the show, and hasn’t felt included because of the fans’ love of the brothers. Um, hate to break it to you, love, but when you come onto an established show that is about two people, and you’re a *guest star* you can’t expect everyone to love you. Some characters we as individuals do fall in love with straight away (Bobby, Charlie, Crowley and Rowena are good examples for me), it takes time to establish a dynamic, so if that’s how he felt then it was incredibly naive of him as an actor to expect instant acceptance from anyone. Also, why wait until after the show finished to bring it up AGAIN … oh wait, yeah, that would be to step back into the limelight in a way intended to garner sympathy from Minions and INTENTIONALLY piss off bro fans and Wincest shippers alike? How fucking self centred, desperate and disrespectful do you have to be to shit all over the finale of a show that for the most part accepted you and kept you in paid work for 12 years? Well, Misha Collins levels of all of those things, obviously.  

So, on the topics of self centred, desperate to stay relevant, attention seeking and being oh so needy, the tweet yesterday from Amazon mentioned Castiel. He wasn’t tagged in it, so I refer to my earlier comment about searching online, because how else would he have possibly seen that? It’s possible someone sent it to him, I appreciate that, but if we go off past behaviour it’s not any stretch at all to believe that didn’t happen. So, once again, having seen the tweet he took it upon himself to - oh so predictably - turn it into something relating to Destiel. When I saw it I immediately rolled my eyes and thought ‘here we go again’, but then also had a little smile because I really liked the fact that he explicitly mentioned Wincest, therefore seeming to accept that his poor old dead horse wasn’t the only one in the race. I actually mentally tipped my hat to him then because it appeared that he’s matured enough to acknowledge by name the ship that predates his inclusion on the show. Great, I thought, this is a positive thing in a sea of negativity surrounding the man and his sunken ship, because what followed was Wincest trending in the US (it may also have been other countries as well but I had to sleep!) … largely due to the fact that Hellers were responding to it, calling him out on mentioning the dreaded ‘W’ word. I’ll repeat that because it’s been a rare occurrence up to that point… the Minions were actually disappointed with their overlord for mentioning another ship. We all know what they think of it and I for one, don’t give a flying fuck about their opionion. Ship and let ship, it’s all fun (or meant to be) so we have different tastes, that’s life kiddiwinks, deal with it. I mean, you really don’t have much of an example set for you when your king has proven several times over to be one of the biggest obnoxious brats out there, but just give it a try for your own sakes, yeah? Awesome, good on you, besties!

An unexpected development - to my joy and that of other Wincest shippers - them doing that got the topic trending, only *kept* trending by the fact that were all coming online asking why it was trending. Wincest shippers barely lifted a finger, we just flooded each other’s timelines with lovely content and basked in the Hellers - and Misha - shooting themselves in the foot, which was awesome. But did the vitriol stop? No. Did he get the attention he so clearly craves? Yes. Was it in the way he wanted? Fuck no, so poor, emotionally wounded baby backtracked after seeing that his name was trending alongside Wincest because that’s *so* not what someone narcissistic to do it in the first place, wanted.

Now here’s where I could easily have just moved on with an unusually fond chuckle, giving him an ironic pat on the back and a ‘thanks, Misha’ for being the one to instigate hours of fun, but once again his despicable behaviour made that impossible. It’s been more than obvious for many years that he cares more about what his fans think than anything else to do with the show and the fandom in a larger sense, but to delete the tweet and APOLOGISE for daring to be so insensitive to the snowflakes’ delicate sensibilities for mentioning Wincest in the first place was absolutely disgusting. Stating , “I used a term that I had never really given any thought to other than, "that's a thing?! Yuck." is not only complete and utter bullshit, it’s pandering of the highest order.  

We all know he has referred to Wincest on multiple occasions, so to say he hadn’t thought about is a flat out lie, which IMO is an insult to everyone, not just Wincest shippers. Does the man have no self respect at all, why would you contradict yourself in the face of such overwhelming evidence? Instead of either ignoring all the people calling him out, or addressing it with another tweet saying ‘yeah, that happened’ or something similar he chose, I repeat, CHOSE the route of claiming he didn’t realise he was being offensive to people who felt ‘triggered’ by him using the word Wincest. He basically shat all over an entire ship and large sector of the fandom in an attempt to appease his own fan base which consists of a lot of children (or those that act like children) who have no idea what RL is like.

Once again, he’s reinforced the idea that if you shout loud enough at someone just because you don’t like something they said, they will back down and apologise for something even when there’s nothing to apologise for. If he wants to be such a role model then he could easily have pointed out that a fictional ship doesn’t condone RL incest, any ACTUAL trauma people have suffered because of RL situations, and made an effort to make sure people understand that. He COULD have used it as an opportunity to do some good in the fandom by encouraging people to build bridges, to accept that people are entitled to their beliefs and that sometimes we see things differently but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat others with BASIC HUMAN DECENCY because of it. Instead he YET AGAIN chose to show that he cares more about what Minions think of him, keeping them onside to constantly stroke his unbelievably fragile ego in everything he does.

It is my understanding that Misha is big on (or claims to be big on) putting positive energy out into the world, treating people with respect, helping others and accepting people for who they are, not who you want them to be… all this after YEARS of consistently practising what he preaches only when it suits him. He sends out a message that it’s perfectly OK to bully, to spread hate, to draw attention to yourself at the cost of others, to throw colleagues and friends under the bus and at the same time use them to further your own agenda and get hits for your YouTube channel. Is this really the legacy he wants to leave? Is this an environment he wants his own kids to grow up in as well as future generations? Is this what he thinks is a valuable contribution as a human being? JFC, the arrogance, hypocrisy and the need for constant validation this man exhibits is nothing short of cringeworthy… actually it’s beyond that. It’s deplorable behaviour, it’s not new, and he will continue to act like this for as long as he’s being enabled and this harmful cycle needs to end.

I have friends IRL and online who are (now, possibly, were) big Misha fans, who have supported him from either the beginning of his run on the show, or since they started watching, and this is how he repays this behaviour? He’s willfully alienating decent people (including multishippers) all to make himself look good by being seen to do everything he can not to offend people. Spoiler alert, you DID offend people, you continue to do so time and again and we’ve had enough. I can’t imagine how exhausting it must be to be such a perpetual people pleaser, but let me say it’s not doing you any favours in any way, shape or form.

Misha, you are *not* a role model, you’re *not* someone to look up to when you can't live up to the ideals you preach. You’re spitting in the face of people who have supported you even after some questionable things in the past, who gave you the benefit of the doubt because we’re all human and we all make mistakes. The key to growing as a person is not to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over, understanding *why* what you said and/or did was a mistake and making a concerted effort to make changes. I don’t ever see you doing that, you will continue down this path of only caring about Minions under the guise of caring for people in general. You are transparent, you are sad and despite the fact I’ve never particularly liked you, I didn’t speak up because I didn’t want to get involved in the drama. Well now I have spoken up and I’m saying you’re a disgrace, you have no respect for other people and nobody is fooled anymore. If it hadn’t been this tweet it would have been something else, but I for one am glad it happened so soon after the show ended so we can finally be rid of the limpet-like behaviour. It’s over, let it go for the sake of what dignity you might have left, for the sake of your family and friends and for the sake of anyone who isn’t capable of seeing through your ‘it’s a joke’ mentality.

You have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Misha.

For anyone who made it to the end of my ramble, thank you. This has been a cathartic exercise and I’m drawing a line under it now, I don’t think I could possibly make my thoughts any clearer. I urge you not to get caught up in any petty squabbles with his Minions, let’s celebrate J2 and other cast and crew members who have shown us all respect and who I am proud to call part of the SPN family. There’s always one member of the family who needs to be frozen out for the good of everyone else.

[skipps-writes-for-gojo-satoru]

I'm not sure Gojo has ever even shown an interest to any girls.

He calls Utahime weak and teases her by making fun of her, essentially- which she hates. Mei Mei is incredibly strong and beautiful, and Gojo acknowledges her skill but that's it. I also noticed that in the anime (the manga doesn't have honorifics, so please correct me if I'm wrong) but he calls her Mei-san rather than Mei Mei. Therefore, I don't think he ever tried to get much closer to her than the interactions we've seen. When she asks him if he'd comfort her if she cried, he tells her that's she strong- she wouldn't cry. I thought it was interesting that while Mei Mei's question was slightly flirty, Gojo answered so simply, without any teasing.

He calls Shoko by her first name, which is understandable since they spend more time together being in the same grade. He realizes that her ability is rare and useful, but like with Utahime and Mei Mei he doesn't go any further than that. He mostly speaks to her about work related things and doesn't flirt or tease much at all.

Honestly, I think Gojo actually respects his female colleagues and mostly pokes fun at Utahime because she's so uptight and strict. Shoko and Mei Mei are more relaxed and self-assured, and Gojo recognizes their skills and compliments them for it rather than teasing them. I doubt Gojo really thinks Utahime is truly weak more than he just loves riling her up. Other than that, Gojo's pretty respectful.

Also, in the Hidden Inventory arc, Gojo was bombarded with screaming from all the girls excited to see him. Other than pulling his shades down so they could see his face- after they asked him to, btw- he didn't really do much else. He didn't even react much to the teacher giving him her phone number. His only comment was "what a fun school," and it's interesting to see that while lots of girls do appreciate his looks, he acts only mildly amused.

Other than that one model as his wallpaper, we don't really see Gojo flirt or show interest with anyone. He only really teases Utahime to piss her off- I suspect he hates how much she follows the rules like Nanami does, who he teases often as well. He likely just enjoys annoying people so stern because rules just don't sit well with him (especially because of what those "rules" had done to Geto).

It's just a possibility, but he could be one of those guys who's more interested in work than pleasure- I know, he's handsome, but not all handsome people are players and cheaters. I think that's a horrible stigma and a lot of attractive people irl are judged and criticized solely for their looks. People make too many assumptions on someone just based on their genes, and I think it's pretty shallow to think Gojo's a womanizer just because he's attractive. And he knows he's attractive- but when did being confident in yourself make you a philanderer? Gojo has never used his looks manipulatively at all.

It's definitely a possibility that he would be a womanizer, but I'd say it's unlikely based in what we've seen. To sum it all up, Gojo doesn't show interest in anyone. He teases Utahime often, likely for the same reason be teases Nanami- they're too uptight. Shoko and Mei Mei are both incredibly skilled and beautiful sorcerers, and he does acknowledge and compliment them for it, but he doesn't tease or flirt with them. He's respectful, and he works with them as his colleagues. He didn't get distracted by the teen girls fawning over him either, or suddenly get overtly cocky or show off, only sliding his glasses down so they could see his face, and even then he acted only mildly amused. Also, when Miwa asked him for a picture, he didn't even stay and chat with her or anything (I know she's a minor, but if he truly was a womanizer, he would have at least stayed to hear her compliment him or anything to feed his ego) Maybe ask her "Oh, you want a picture with me? The strongest? How cute~" A flirty comment, a joke, something to fuel his own ego, but he doesn't do that. He doesn't act in a way that conveys he openly pursues attention from women. He just takes the picture with her and walks off casually.

Therefore, other than the fact that he's handsome- and I know many people who would assume things about someone based on their attractiveness, which is a terrible stereotype- Gojo doesn't show much interest in flirting at all. He could be the type of guy who works more than plays- and there's plenty of guys who are handsome but aren't super interested in playing around. Being handsome doesn't automatically mean he's the type to sneak around and have affairs here and there. It's completely realistic for a handsome man to be uninterested in any kind of relationships- not all men are sex crazed, and being a tease to his friends doesn't make Gojo a flirt either. Teasing your friends is perfectly normal.

Therefore, Gojo being a 28 year old virgin is totally possible- not everyone's a sex crazed teen who only thinks about what's between their legs, and basing it on what normal Japanese teens do is unfair. Neither Gojo or his lifestyle is exactly normal, and there's definitely barriers when it comes to experiencing normal youth activities for Gojo's generation- especially Gojo's generation. Yuji's generation definitely has more freedom to do fun things because of what Gojo has done to give the youth more freedom- things he hasn't been able to experience himself in his youth, like playing baseball during the exchange event. That was the first time they ever did something different to tradition, and that was only because of Gojo's consideration.

Gojo's youth was filled with blood, exorcising, and choosing between life and death. The deaths Yuji and co. witnessed were what Gojo experienced as well, if not worse. Gojo's task in his youth was to protect the weak, and he found that burdensome. At least, until Geto betrayed them, and Gojo realized the new burden he had to bear in changing the Jujutsu world because of what it had done to his only best friend.

There are definitely more important things in Gojo's mind than just losing his virginity, like saving people and choosing who to save, whether he should kill or not kill.

Gojo is the strongest, but he also bears the biggest burden- and that burden is something he chose to bear, and being the strongest is something he chose to be. Because before Geto left, it was "We are the Strongest." Now, Gojo worked tirelessly so that he could say "I am the Strongest."

And that's not something you can do while sleeping around. I think a lot of people fail to recognize just how hard Gojo works for himself and others. They just think, oh he's the strongest, so it should be easy for him. But it's really, really not that simple, is it? Especially when you have to do it on your own, and even then Gojo realizes that his strength alone isn't enough to save people. He can't save everyone by himself- It's not enough for just him to be the Strongest, so he works diligently to build and inspire his students to stand with him.

He's actually a very deep and emotional man who cares about his students and especially, even now, his best friend. Everything he does is for their sake- he sacrifices the normal life he could have lived, like Nanami had done, for their sake. And he fights with the higher ups, takes the brunt of their ire, and laughs it off, acting as if he fine, like a dad pretending he's superman for his kid's sake. But Gojo is burdened, and he's tired, and he hardly sleeps, and he has the most missions- he's the Strongest, which means everyone needs him, and he bears it.

Sorry for ranting again tho. I think I went into two different topics lol oops- 🤔

OUR SAVIOR 🤔 EDUCATING PEOPLE pay attention ya'll another thing I've noticed in the latest episode is that in his phone contacts he actually writes Utahime's name properly like formally no emojis or teasing shit he actually sees them as his colleagues people he can rely on his field of work and yes about the whole thing when he bursted into riko's class man was absolutely clueless just silent as a teacher tries to give him his number. I'm pretty sure as a child Gojo wasn't allowed to attend public schools due him being in danger or putting others in danger so he doesn't know much about public schools or normal people in general since he spends all his time with people from the jujutsu society.

That is definitely true just because someone is good looking that doesnt mean he's some cheap womanizer. I see a lot of people shipping him and Utahime together which is understandable ship who you like but I don't think Gojo as any ulterior motives like wooing Utahime by teasing her he just is plainly teasing ya know like friends do but in this case Utahime hates his guts and he doesnt know. I mean it takes some amount of hate to try to throw hot tea at someone 😂

While certainly I agree Gojo's teen like wasn't the best it was like he literally had a full time job at that age but who's to stay he didn't go messing around one time? I'm sure during his teen days he wanted to experience things he didnt get to to but now could because he lives on his own now. But maybe he didnt at all who knows? Which also raises another question, I wonder if he has any romantic experiences? And this was all before what happened in the hidden inventory arc after that I can see him more becoming invested in his duty and with what happened with geto as well would of definitely had a huge impact on him to try harder even though hes the strongest so that the next generation wouldn't have to experience the things he went through.

It's really sad if you really think about it what hes been through and what he has to shoulder all while keeping the facade that he's okay, I bet there were times he cursed his powers and his life....but he bears with it anyways because everyone is counting on him....

And don't be sorry at all! I am actually really learning alot about Gojo from you. Please continue to tell us your thoughts and feelings. I don't mind at all ❤ and thank you for taking the time to write 💕

[ikari-cat]

Update on Summer 2022 ._.

I’m in a blank state at this point, despite the many things I need to do, but I’ll get a general sense of what’s been happening in my life 

At the rate I’m going with Uni, I should graduate by next year with my BA in PSYCH. However, as you can guess, I have yet to find any careers or inspirations to continue pursuing higher in this field. This is bittersweet since the subject overall is still my favorite subject, but there’s just no drive in me to consider graduate school. I have yet to find a job using my associate’s, and it just rubs me the wrong way that we keep relying on these papers to just get a slot in an interview, I’m really hoping that by the time I take my internship class that I get a sense on what I can do within my major, but otherwise I’m going to take a gap year after regardless.  Our housing situation is still a mess, the lawyer my mom hired has reassured us we just need to wait for a court letter in order to finalize this eviction crisis, regardless I should clearly be saving money by paying no rent yet my part-time job has clearly been used to pay off my car. I REALLY hope I get another job soon but I’m just too stubborn to get a job not related to my field. I need all the vibes right now fjoiwjfowijfwof wfo M and I have been steady, when I got on birth control it was a wave of emotions, but overall I think we’re stable and just trying to cope through the crisis right now. Our San Diego trip was great, and I love how it gave us a better idea of our goals in terms of outings now so something to save till next year. But yeah I’m on BC! It has definitely cut back my acne breakouts so overall my self-esteem is doing better, I was able to go to my campus gym and it was fun so working out more than well ever lol

Interestingly enough, M has encouraged me to make my own website, or instead, actually consider blogging as a career, and honestly I’m just??? It’s never been something I’d consider, as CLEARLY I’m mostly blogging over fandom interests fjwoifjwoifj but I do like the idea of having my own website tbh SO we shall see lmao  As for fandom interests, it’s safe to say I’m fixated on dimileth rn, like I kid you not it’s the only thing I want to talk about where I don’t feel like I’m forcing myself too? I love ikarishipping, but I can’t get like super hyped about it as much anymore due to how limited the material they have is (also with them being kids + their franchise being meh is just??? I basically love drawing them older and that’s that?) and then I wonder because of the franchise it made me switch back into fire emblem with dimileth because overall it’s adult-oriented? Yes the games are still aimed at teens, but clearly, WE ARE KILLING PEOPLE and able to interact with the characters fjwifojwfowjf BASICALLY I am now the average adult fan who is more worried about my irl experiences rn 

Will I change my username again? No, I think I’m settled with this one, but I will say if you cared enough to stay for a specific type of content from me (mainly a ship) then really don’t have major expectations. I think that should have been cleared since pretty much I entered Uni and didn’t post as much anymore but just in case you needed a confirmation. I’m not like DROPPING anything, but just still in a struggling case, so if I draw something I just draw something on a whim and that’s that? Honestly maybe I should of considered doing art as a career, and yet here we are jfowijfowfjwof w

This is too long now but overall, I am still in the same mess I am, so yee

[azazelsconfessional]

((RPer tip/reassurance since I feel like. A lot of you in the housamo rp/ask blog community may be new to this.

(and I'm not saying this because I think this is happening or because anyone told me it might be. I just remembered some things I've seen, y'know, in my day. Because I've been at this on and off more than half my life.)

TL;DR: as far as I'm aware the housamo rp/ask blog community is a bunch of independent rpers. That means you have no obligation to go along with anyone's interests but your own, anyone's headcanons but your own, or even to play with anyone you don't want to. We're not a set group of any sort, so there can be multiples, people's interests and perspectives aren't going to line up, etc. . .and that's fine!

Roleplay 'exclusivity' refers to the practice of only playing with certain people or only doing certain things with certain people(only playing with one particular version of a character; only shipping with one person or character or version ofna character; etc). It's common in roleplay groups--i.e.,among non-independent roleplayers--but it's also practiced among independents. These people are more likely to coordinated with/expect from one another alignment of headcanons, etc(although it's not always required/expected--it's up to the individual rpers!)

Please don't pressure anyone to conform to your own headcanons, ship with you, etc. Offering or asking or talking about it is fine if they're cool with it! Similarly, don't feel like you need to do anything you don't want to. It's your blog. We all have fun in different ways.

One of the joys of rping and ask blogs for me personally is seeing all the different ways people portray a character, a world, how different people write and depict things even if I don't agree/mesh well with them myself. Seeing different interpretations and especially seeing how those interpretations may mesh with each other. If everyone conformed to the same things out of some obligation, it just wouldn't feel as fun to me--and probably not to everyone involved either.

On that note, I never engage in exclusivity myself. It's not my thing. In general my only standards relate to shipping and, like, not being an ass.

Anyway longer post under the cut. If you ever have questions about rp stuff, I'm totally open to trying to answer them! 👍🏾

'independent' rpers are rpers who aren't affiliated with/attached to a group/other player. That doesn't mean they don't play with orher characters, just that they aren't obligated to play with anyone in particular or by any rules/regulating aside from their own.

Oftentimes in rp communities there are rp groups. These groups often require things like applications to get into(to see if you have a good handle of characterization, writing etc). Usually within these groups, everyone plays with each other and their characters' "official" depiction of/reference to other characters will refer to the corresponding character/rper in their group. Sometimes these groups have specific scenarios/timelines/aus/etc, especially if they're crossover groups, and the character exists within whatever the boundaries of that may be.

Sometimes these groups call for exclusivity--that is 'you do not use this character/account outside of this roleplay'.

Exclusivity and independence (or a lack of it) also applies to individual rpers/blogs/characters too. For example, there are two Azazel blogs that I'm aware of, my own and Azazel-One-Who-Sees-All(played by Eden-The-Moon-Dancer) If someone were to say they were exclucive with Eden's Azazel, they would not play with my Azazel(or in rarer cases any interaction with my Azazel would have the in character expectation that he act like Eden's, usually for comedic or dramatic dissonance) because 'their' Azazel is Eden's. Thus they wouls consider Eden's Azazel their 'canon' Azazel, and any references made on their blog to Asazel would be to Eden's. Exclusivity doesn't need to be mutual--if I were to say 'ChatWithAna is my MC' that doesn't mean Ana can only play with me. Grace is allowed to do whatever they want in terms of their blog and play with or not play with whoever they want.

Exclusivity isn't just character based. Some people exclusively ship with certain people(I've seen this among people who are in a relationship irl. . .in my experience it means there's something wrong if one or both partners don't feel comfortable letting the other write fictional relationships with other people. It's not always that way--some people only ship with people they're really close to because it's a quality/enjoyment control thing. But I've seen "my partner rped a ship with someone else and this counts as cheating on me" actually happen way too many times not to throw a red flag at it.) but will play with others. Some people don't play with multiples(people who play the same character as them) or people who play with other versions of their character(i.e. if I required exclusivity from people who played with me, I wouldn't play with someone who played with Eden's Azazel.)

However, especially in small communities of indie rpers like this one, please don't feel obligated to do or play something or with someone if it doesn't suit your fancy. You don't have to interact with other rpers at all if it suits you, just like you don't have to answer every ask if you don't like it.

Just because someone ships something or has certain headcanons doesn't mean you have to apply them to yourself or agree to go along with them. That expectation is for exclusive rpers and rp groups--and even then there's a limit to what's reasonable. We're all independent rpers. Please don't pressure anyone to act according to your interests or be exclusive with you if they aren't interested, and if you don't want to do something you can always say no, even if there are expectations in play! On that note, if someone says they're not interested in doing something with you, don't be discouraged! You're independent! You can still reference and enjoy it, it's just not for that person in particular.

Also having certain standards/being uncomfortable with certain things/etc isn'f exclusivity. It's okay to have certain standards(although you also need to understand that not everyone will be in alignment with them and it will likely reduce the amount of people who will/can play with you.) That's just having restrictions--most people have them on a 'rules' page that's linked for accessibility. You don't really get to complain about people not reading your rules if they can't find em lol. It's also okay to be super open and not really have any restrictions!

Just. Mind your manners and remember that this is supposed to be fun for you but you can't force anyone to have fun your way. Discuss things! See if things can be worked out/experimented with! But don't have any expectations and don't feel any obligations. I see this happen way more often with ships than anything.))