#i forget abt the fact that i have to do Something to justify me being here lol

[tumblasha]

a review of the first week of cabo verde

so i've officially landed in the praia, cabo verde, airport seven (7) whole days ago, and i want to share my initial thoughts. this will be long, so here's a numbered list :)

1 . i feel like i'm a kid back in brazil but also a 21 y/o tall kid

so caboverdians speak portuguese (bc it's taught in formal schools) and they also speak kabuverdianu (creole, different across all the islands). being someone that can translate / speak at the store for the person they live with [1], it just feels like i'm a kid with a limited vocab

living in a beach town where everything is at a slower pace and is within walking / bus / taxi distance made me feel happy :) vacation!dasha is alive and well

2 . cabo verde is also a tall kid (but 48 y/o)

this one is sorta very much on me.

so i did the classic American Tourist thing and never actually learned anything about the history of the country i will be traveling to (sorry). since coming here and asking my co-workers and friends-of-misti about the general vibes of this country, i've learned so much! a lot of which Make Sense, a lot of which Confuse Me

older caboverdians tend to see themselves as not-african. i also learned that some ppl in some countries in mainland africa also don't consider themselves african bc of the way that the label "africa" comes with various histories, most of them negative bc of europe. this is why "kriolu" / "creole" are such popular words ! also younger caboverdians acknowledge that they are african / black if that applies to them

race is phenotypical here. which is what i expected (closer to how latam sees race ig?? more like how brasil sees race ig??). what i'm trying to say is that if you introduce yourself as "from the usa", they'll always say "no, where are u Actually from" and won't rest until u say something like "peruvian, chinese, etc." bc a lot of ppl outside of the usa don't believe that the usa has "actual indigenous ppl anymore" [2]. it also means that speaking english in the street invites ppl to ask you ur race

being east asian (chinese) in cabo verde is sorta .. rough. the microaggressions that i've seen in the two (2) days that my chinese-american roommate face is kinda Wild. when the person leading our cultural training said "oh sometimes ppl will call u 'china'" to my friend i thought that it meant that it would replace "ma'am" in the usual "yes, ma'am" / "no, ma'am" conversations with strangers, not that random ppl will yell "china!" multiple times to my friend when we're sitting on the sand. this has ties with macau and the rest of the chinese gov't building universities, casinos, and having a Business Presence in the country. but at least we got tourism industry students to invite us to clubs bc my friend is chinese-american??? [3] it's just really weird to me bc i haven't faced any racial / appearance-based ... acknowledgements ... even tho i clearly look like a foreigner in a sorta-racially-homogenous place (talking abt the mostly black island santiago)

independence day is not really celebrated here : ( ppl have conflicting opinions on the independence of the country. most of the country likes the day (july 5) bc it's a day off from work. other ppl say that it's hard to be a country with growing pains and would rather have portugal's gov't deal with building the infrastructure. other ppl are putting in the work to ease the growing pains. kinda sad since massachusetts, rhode island, and brazil (afaik) have big celebrations (fireworks and everything) rather than just a random ceremony where the president speaks for a bit and everyone goes home

a lot of the night life is european. someone pls teach me how to vibe to edm and house music and general non-lyrical music fjewiaofj but also shoutout to that club with brazilian funk. if only i learned the dance that my são paulo friend taught me </3

3 . the food is sorta fantastic here ngl

yes, i'm behind on the foodposting, and idk if i'll ever catch up lmao

for my lovely friends who eat meat, cachupa / caxupa is one of the loveliest things to eat. it's a meat-based (with veggies!) soup dish ?? it usually has either fish or pork tho. it's the national dish for a reason <33 also the seafood is good. sola-approved!

for my lovely friends who don't eat meat, i found a vegan place like 8 min away from my apt! also bc i'm in a City, it's easy to ask for things to be made vegetarian (plus there's always couscous and salads lol). also veg cachupa exists

for all my lovely friends, the food isn't Too too varied. i feel like the most common foods are pizzas, pastas, burgers, and shwarmas. also chinese foods are translated in an interesting way: noodles are pasta / spaghetti, dumplings are pastels (the empanada-esque brazilian translation), etc. there are also a bunch of brazilian churrascarias and one (1) indian restaurant

also i tried to be Cool and add some hot sauce to one of my pastas and i had to pretend i didn't want to kill myself in front of the Adults on the table

4. kabuverdianu is a cool language

i learned duolingo's haitian creole to get the vibes of a creole language. though this is attached to portuguese instead of french, a lot of the characteristics are the same. the words borrowed from the european language are spelled in a way that makes sense (maybe in a way that makes more sense to spanish-speakers?). i also like how gendered things tend to just be made gender neutral (usually defaulting to the masc way). i can hear it and understand it if spoken to me slowly, but after that ... oof!

5 . marcha do orgulho made me v happy

what if i change my "go to carnaval in every continent" goal to "go to pride in every continent" hehe. i think it was so Good how the pride that had 30 ppl last year exceeded their goal of 100 ppl this year by A Lot. even though there were a lot of ppl from the EU who backed the event (logistically spread the word i think??), the ppl who showed up were mostly black and made it such a fun time :,)

i also met a trans woman who claimed was the only trans woman in her island :,0 [5] she traveled all the way to santiago for pride

6 . overall i'm excited for the summer

i think that i'll spend a lot of my time reading a book by the beach and learning kabuverdianu while telling myself that i can maybe be an immigrant like my parents [4] or at least work abroad for a few years maybe. i'm excited to be an adult. i went to the beach (one on the other side of the island) today, and i just feel refreshed. i got to swim in the water like if it were a pool and hang out with the fish lol

---

[1] my parents as a kid, my roommate as a taller kid (now)

[2] overheard at a bar in barcelona

[3] my roommate will prob talk abt it more since she's doing the indentityX blogposts that misti hosts lol

[4] for those that don't know, there's at least a two-gen moving maternal history in my family line. my grandma moved across the country after high school. my mom moved across the continent after college. i wanna Continue that somehow bc i feel like it'd be cute

[5] lots of gays and lesbians, according to her, but being trans is a whole different thing there

[revelca]

aggretsuko s5 was the best and the worst at the same time, and here's why.

so, the last season of aggretsuko is here, huh. it's one of my favorite shows ever and i just really want to discuss all that happened in s5 with someone. it's totally okay if you disagree with some of the stuff below, i'd love to hear your views and opinions!

so, obviously, it wasn't perfect. it was fun, but it had some issues. luckily it was better than s4 and had some really good moments, but the 2nd half of the season was a big misunderstanding. i decided to make a list out of all the stuff that bothers me:

retsuko literally got forced into politics. saying she's a people pleaser is not enough to justify it. i'm not saying "you can't do politics in aggretsuko", i'm saying that it would be better if she went "maybe i can make lives of regular office workers like me better?". and what was the politics arc for, anyway? there was no point but if you have to do it then just don't force her into that? give her a reason that would make her go "maybe it's not that bad of an idea".

why were retsuko and haida always going to a grocery store that was far away? plot hole! you see, after the stalker incident in s3 retsuko moved and i remember haida literally saying something along the lines of "the shop below keeps it safe and light at night". in additon, the building retsy lives in was shown several times and there really is a shop below her house.

remember when retsuko dreamed of being a lil blushy bride with a big smile in a beautiful dress all the way back in season 1? it was important for her, it was her dream. and in the end, haida and retsy just went with the civil marriage thing and? why?? honestly, why...

one of the biggest issues is obviously the fact that we didn't get enough about retsuko's and haida's relationship. since when were they even together?? i might've missed this part, but my point still stands - we really didn't enough about them. 5 seasons of waiting and this is what we get?? i just didn't get the feeling that haida and retsuko are actually happy and in love with each other, so them getting married so suddenly was a big suprise to me. and it's not like there weren't any opportunities for them to show affection to one another! i'm not saying they should act lovey dovey all of the time, but take for example retsuko's visit in haida's house. when they went out for a walk to the garden, he could say something like "i know it's hard, but deal with them just for today, okay?" or "sorry that i'm making you go through this. you really shouldn't have went here with me." stuff like that is what would make it feel a bit more like a real relationship and this exactly what their relationship lacks.

in the end we didn't get a single bit of info abt whether haida have found a job or not. he was supossed to get into IT and? after visiting retsuko's parents it was never mentioned again?? did netflix really just forget about it?

this isn't really an issue, but i still wonder who have hit haida with that truck. his brother said that he didn't do it but how did he even know that happened? not like haida would've told him about that considering their relationship... is, yknow.

and now, to the good stuff!! i have to admit, the 1st half of s5 was good, great even. those honestly were the best aggretsuko eps after the stalker incident in s3.

SHIKABANE ABSJSJSJ (no explanation needed) <33

haida deserved that. bro was being miserable and i loved every second of it. now he knows how tough life can be!! and that's a good thing.

as always, tadano never fails to make the show better, no matter what season is it. the thing where he bought the whole internet cafe? hilarious.

i'm bad at explaining why a show is good i was born to be toxic so that's about it haha. would love to hear others' opinions! <33

[leoleolovesdc]

I really don't get what's so appealing to writers and fans who make Bruce an abusive father. Why is it so fun? Why do people enjoy doing one of the biggest superhero of all times that dirty? How does that make any sense?

People always complain about how Batman is a power fantasy, but the fact that his actions aren't justifiable if applied real life doesn't mean that you have to fuck the character's fictional morals.

Every hero is a power fantasy, but they are enjoyable because they are good people (or people who try to be good). Bruce Wayne is a human being and he is capable of bad parenting and committing mistakes, but making him willingly hit his kids is just stupid.

Batman is and has always been about hope, about rising above your trauma, protecting who you love, using your pain to make the world a little better. Bruce doesn't go around "beating the mentally ill' just because, he does because they are dangerous people, criminals, terrorists who are constantly harming citizens with their actions.

With all that said; Bruce hitting his children/sidekicks/allies (or just purposefully harming them in any way shape or form) is incoherent with his character and all that he represents.

Batman brought Robin, especially Dick Grayson, in to help him. He didn't want a child soldier, he was comforting this kid and taking him to the police station when he asked to be trained so he could get the guy who killed his parents. He asked to become like Batman and Bruce, realizing that they were very similar, saw that he was also filled with anger and needed to be guided. That's why Dick became a better person than Bruce ever was, not because he was inherently good or something, but because even if their relationship was not perfect and troublesome at times they understood each other's pain like no one else would.

With all of Bruce and Dick's history saying that this father-son bond was filled with physical abuse just sounds wild to me. Same thing goes for Cass, Jason, Steph, Tim, Duke, Damian and any other child that Bruce parented or taken care of.

Jason and Dick are usually the victims of writers and fans who are full one Abusive-Bruce-Shit™️, and honestly, I don't think that's because they have remarkably difficult relationships, but because this fandom loves to make their favorite pretty "white" boys suffer.

No one cares if it makes sense for Bruce to be abusive towards his first sons, they just care that Dick and Jason are angsty. My prove of that? When do you ever see content of Bruce being abusive towards Cass? Damian? Steph? Duke? Never. Because those characters are either women or people of color largely ignored by both canon and fanon.

I'll admit that Damian and Tim do get angsty abusive dad content at times, because regardless of their actual relationship with Bruce Tim is a sad white boy and Damian is the largely white washed blood son, but they are still not the most common alternatives whenever family angst is the focus (despite the large fanon torture porn industry that Tim Drake goes through it is usually focused on other aspects of his life).

I don't really know how to end this, at this point I'm just ranting about annoying batfam fans, but, yeah, don't fuck over legacy characters by making them abusive dads bcuz u like saying ur fav has it worst👍

Little edit: In this post I talked abt Dick as a white guy, would like to apologize for that, I do know that he is romani but ended up forgetting to add that. Either way my point still stands as, just like Damian, his race is pretty much ignored by writers and parts of the fandom

[editrevue]

Kuina and/or Stella for the ask game

I'll do both!! Kuina is under the cut so the post isn't insanely long on the dashboard. [ask] thanks for being patient btw! I know I'm answering the rest of these a little late.

Sexuality Headcanon: everyone in revue starlight is wlw in some way! I will admit I haven't thought abt the juniors' labels much until now, so probably questioning wlw and currently unlabeled :3

Gender Headcanon: Stella gives off the energy of someone who has no idea you can just choose your own expressions. once her eyes are open to it I think she'd be absolutely fascinated. unsure if she would explore her own though! maybe? she/her but would definitely love neopronouns! she'd identify as a princess and/or a magical girl 100%

A ship I have with said character: ohhhh my heart is exploding I love Stella and Shiro so much they're literally the pair ever. I love me a good devotee trope, a knight and their princess, and the poor things they make me so worried. I just want them to be okay!!! and maybe this is me being biased as Shiori, but I also have a huge soft spot for Stella and Shiori, it's something I never see talked about that I wish I saw more! I think people forget Shiori is still a junior even if she is an edel. hehe

I think about the fact that stella had a dream about shiori in her new juliet card like all the time!!!!!!!!! and the!! the!! the kiss stella and shiro had on stage!!!! it's so cute omg

A BROTP I have with said character: all of the Juniors, especially Ryoko and Shiori! she'd also get along well with Yachiyo and Mei Fan solely because they're. always around the juniors helping them and are also the youngest edels outside of Shiori.

A NOTP I have with said character: i think it's obvious, none of the upperclassmen outside of Shiori, but for personal reasons I'm not a fan of Stella and Ryoko as a ship!

A random headcanon: there was a post I saw forever ago or tags or smth about what if minku only recognized fumi as the girl who always gets pranked in ichie's vlog videos and so I think it'd be so so funny if most of the juniors barely knew about the previous frau jade which means they wouldn't idolize fumi all that much and that includes stella! she would just think fumi is cool and awkward, "shiorin's silly older sister who brings us snacks and looks mad all the time" skdakjsdskjd another fun one is that stella would probably try to tack an anime trope onto random situations to justify them happening, "this is just like in ... !", or would constantly act and pretend like she's the main character in an isekai or something

General Opinion over said character: Miss Stella!! My favorite real life magical girl. Not much to say that wouldn't have me endlessly gushing and rambling about her tropes and what about them makes me so normal so I'll keep it brief but Stella. Stella, Stella, Stella, she's probably my favorite junior! Maybe it's the Homumado of it all between her and Shiro that does it for me or maybe it's because of my memories as Shiori being so fond, who knows!!! who knows. nothing but good things and opinions about Stella! I wonder what kind of event we'll get with her that gives her a new card like Shiro, Kuina, and Minku recently! I bet it'll be with Ryoko to round them all out omg

Here's Kuina!!

Sexuality Headcanon: same as stella I hadn't thought about the juniors' in this way all that much because i often feel it's not my place to but something about her makes me want to say she'd have her lgbt awakening fairly early on, she's always idolized her upperclassmen. she plays up her denial when teased because of her dramatic personality but, maybe bisexual! we need more of those <3

Gender Headcanon: whoa siegfeld junior high your class president is gnc as f-

i don't think she wouldn't care about neopronouns much? but minku would, and Kuina enjoys seeing all the fun ones Minku adds to her hoard. I don't know my personal headcanon for Kuina yet unfortunately! maybe another time!

A ship I have with said character: Kuina and Minku!! I don't think I could see either of them with anyone else they're just so perfect for each other to me. mini yachimei how could you not love them !

A BROTP I have with said character: easily easily easily Kuina and Mei Fan! especially with the new circus event coming out, the parallels between Kuina and Mei Fan and Minku with Yachiyo, Minkuina and Yachimei .... you know, you know. I love that Mei Fan watches out for her and that both have so much to relate and reflect from each other, and I love that the edels have their assigned junior to see themselves in or be a senpai towards. Also, Kuina and the other juniors + Shiori naturally! they're besties!

A NOTP I have with said character: none of the upperclassmen! I don't think I could see Shiro/Kuina much but that's basically it!

A random headcanon: Kuina is a squishmallow collector and enjoyer, she's embarrassed to show anybody outside of Minku but it's something she dedicates a lot of energy to!!! and she never cared a lot for idols until Minku, and now she goes out of her way to keep up with the new trends and news just to talk about it together.

General Opinion over said character: I LOVE KUINA!!!!! That's my little special guy!!!! I feel so responsible over everything that happens to her she's like a little sister to me and I love her soooo much omg, she's probably my favorite junior alongside Stella!! and yes this is my bias but I wouldn't want to leave the others out bc all of the juniors are such good characters!! I cannot wait for the circus event to make it to the world wide server, Sun and I only play in ww but we do keep up with the translations!! that story makes me feel so much in all directions so I'm literally kajshdkhasdhadshd crazy crazy but anyway! Kuina! She's so ambitious and dramatic it's so funny, it's so cute the way she sees Akira and the others :sob: she deserves more cards asap i'm so serious btw

[nostalgia-tblr]

(okay so I apparently can’t send asks from my sideblog but I saw your asks post!)

13, 30, 60, 66

You get to choose the fic for the 60 and 66 ones because I bet you have something you’d like to say abt those particular ones <3

13. Do you listen to music while you write?  If yes, what have you been listening to recently?

Yes! I have a playlist of Songs That Evoke The Right Sort Of Feels For Fic-Writing that I change up from time to time and some of them are there for inspiring one specific story and some are more generic. Recent adds to that have been from ongoing attempts to listen to some slightly-more-modern music by buying secondhand CDs of artists who were born in this century. I am weird about telling people what music I like, I always feel I will be judged, even more than I normally assume that, not sure why that is.

30. How much do you edit your fics?  Do you edit as you write or wait until you finish the first draft?

I don't think I *do* edit, really? At least, there's no stage of going over things and rewriting beyond just fixing typos. By the end I'm usually like "well I spent AGES on this I am not changing any of it now, I don't want to have wasted those minutes thinking of each sentence." It's written, it's done, I'm not willing to change it now that it's in a form I like! Maybe that means I edit as I go? Does it?

60. In [insert fic], what inspired the idea for the plot?

I am gonna go with Forget-Me-Not, picked for being recent enough that I can remember why I wrote it. It was one of them "fandom-inspired" works because MCU fandom (what I know of it) seems to see Frigga entirely through the lens of how nurturing and comforting she is (or isn't, but usually is) to Loki and this is obviously quite reductive especially when there's only two women on Asgard who have names. And she gets used as the Perfect Loving Mother in contrast to Odin The Worst Parent Ever and like many fannish dichotemies this is both understandable and a bit reductive. So I decided I should write something where she is not the Best Parent Ever, but where she can justify everything she does as Good Parenting and so it's fucked up but the reader can see how she ended up there.

BTW when I say "spite" was my motivation for a fic this is usually what I mean - that something in fandom has annoyed me to the point where I want to write the opposite thing just to make a point. (Even a stupid and/or petty point is still a point!)

And also because I have read enough Historical Shite to know that everyone - everyone!!! - knows when a queen is pregnant. And yet I am seemingly expected to believe that Odin came home carrying a baby and Frigga wasn't pregnant and yet somehow Loki being adopted is not common knowledge? I had to plug that plothole for my own mental wellbeing! Frigga having mindwiped everyone including her own children kills two birds with one fucked-up stone!

66. What’s a fun fact about [insert fic]?

The bit with Donna and the chameleon arch in Continuity Errors (or, Five Things The TARDIS Half-Remembers) is something I'd been trying to turn into a fic since literally 2005, ie 'The Companion Becomes A Time Lord' Is Not Necessarily An Unreservedly Good Thing. I don't know how long I'd been trying to turn 'continuity errors' into an in-universe bit of jargon but that was Bloody Ages as well, I'm sure of it.

[chattycups]

eta: omg help 💀

i just wanted to add this post took place PRIOR to the resentment box comment made by the streamer omfg what bad timing on my part LMAO. i swear; the time stamps are there 😭😭 but I was not criticizing that, or people who are excited for it: this was abt people villainizing ray mond in the situation and saying she doesnt DESERVE chatty & that he should just leave her-- that he'd be perfectly valid to give up on her atp bc she hasn't been around and/or she was 'toxic' anyway... which was s/t i was seeing in meta chats .. and then that same day during stream, strimmer brought up resentment box and discourse WENT CRAZY lmao i would / should edit or delete this post so it doesnt seem like im being one of the dicks who is criticizing the idea as a whole but... welp. i still stand by saying that ray mond isn't 'undeserving' and she doesn't love less or whatever..... it was just... an unfortunately timed post that now seems like i was talking abt something else, end me 💀💀

my least favorite chattercups take I’ve seen a few people say is that… “chatterbox should move on”, “he loves her more than she loves him”, “I wouldn’t blame him if he moves on from her atp”, “resentbox would be valid” type of things…

and you know what?

no. I WOULD blame him, and I think you should too, LMAO

he promised to wait for her & he promised her a loyalty like she’s never had before… if he doesn’t wait for her, that tells her he’s not much different than everyone else before him.

but that’s not who he is tbh and I really really doubt that’s ever going to happen…

but just the fact that I’ve seen people unironically give this take??? it just makes me sadge…

you are not real yearners or piners…. you don’t understand the real loverboys and lovergirls of the world…….. :/

lmAO no but seriously, what I hate is the idea that she doesn’t “deserve” him. yes yes his male pining IS very romantic of him, I know…… but I think that because the last time we saw Ray, she was in such a bad place mentally, it’s clouding peoples’ view and their memory of how down bad, caring, and loving she was. let’s not forget our girl, the first among us, the FIRST chattyray truther….. Ray Mond herself. the biggest chattercup stan of them all.

let’s not forget who said that he was the best thing that ever happened to her…

and who pursued who: It was RAY who wanted that fucked-up clown guy.

it was ray mond who was not afraid to bark at chatterbox when the rest of us were too afraid to say what we were all thinking LMAO…..

ray mond, who tried to baby trap and force him to propose at gun point…..

ray mond who painstakingly organized a whole days event for him (yups to cups) that was actually so fun and sweet and romantic ?????!?! like that was a crazily thoughtful and sweet gesture, when she could have just tortured him all day jajssj.

and she made them get matching tattoos that day… 🥺

ray who said if he dies (which she has forbid him to do) she is going to cut off his dick and keep it…….

……… so. yeah.

jajsjsj she’s just as romantic in her own way! I know chatty sadgefarming about being a sad lonely clown without his mask is making people sad for him and they just want him to be happy……

but don’t forget that ray really did (does) love him deeply, and changed him with that love. she has been very sweet and romantic to him too…. the waiting is more than justified, BECAUSE of all the love and care she has shown to chatterbox. and its been a lot. the reason he’s able to be patient and wait for her is BECAUSE she was so good to him.

DONT BETRAY AND DISCOUNT OUR MOTHER LIKE THAT jsjsjsk dad would not approve > : c

[calico-kiwi]

Oh noooo a complex female character how scary 🙄

????? help is this abt sandra lynn?? LMAO

look, i’m here to enjoy the series and, y’know what? i’m really enjoying it! i’m having a blast :D

characters are allowed to be nuanced and flawed and not perfect and she’s a character who very obviously has had some ups and downs, both in her life and how the party (and her daughter) has viewed her

i think she’s a beautiful character and i appreciate her complexity and the thought that’s put into her, brennan did a great job of keeping her consistent and i genuinely do appreciate her depth

but this is very much a thing i am watching for fun and that i’m not trying to analyze, and i get secondhand emotions from things i’m invested in pretty easily

so the whole situation with her that’s going on in sophomore year had me a bit more stressed an anxious than even some real life stuff was causing me

the easiest way for me to sort of process how i’m feeling about her is to recognize sometimes i’m upset with her (which, she’s not the only character i’ve done this with btw, i was plenty distraught and torn up about the whole gorgoug zelda situation and gorgoug forgetting the generator felt like a kick to the stomach) and then move on

she has her moments good and bad and instead of justifying either, i decided to take a step back, detach myself and go “i like that she did this! i did not like this!”

because quite frankly i was getting far more stressed out than something i’m watching to have a good time should make me

so yes, a complex female character indeed, and deep down, i do love her. but i’m allowed to be mad with her too and y’know what? i’m mad at her sometimes because i love her

so i understand if you sent this because you felt like i was attacking her, but i’m really trying not too and i think you missed the whole point of that post which was “i am going to feel about her how i feel about her in the moment because i am genuinely distressed and this is a fictional character”

also it’s ok to not like characters???? like if i said i hated sandra lynn that’s ok??? i can still hate something while admiring or i appreciating the fact from a meta standpoint her character is amazing and incredibly well played and developed. it’s when the hatred stems from bigoted thinking that it’s a problem, and it’s very much not, i’m just having an emotional response to a character in a series i’m emotionally invested in

good on the fantasy high d20 gang for impacting my emotions so much because that’s how you know they’re doing a great job!!

anyways this was fun to answer, i don’t get asks often, and it gave me a chance to rant :P

i would appreciate it though the next time you sent an ask (to anyone) to not come out swinging first, cause for this kind of situation something less accusatory wouldn’t sufficed just as well

like, “i was wondering, why don’t you like sandra lynn? i understand she’s done some shitty things, but not everyone is perfect and it feels like you’re holding her to some double standard of being unflawed because she’s a women” (i am not holding her to a double standard, im sorry if that’s what it seemed like, as i explained earlier in the post i responded to her actions that way to help preserve my mental lol)

that type of question gets the same point across, gives more detail (took me a minute to figure out who tf the original ask was about) and better explains what i may have messed up on so i can clarify, fix, or potentially apologize for it! (all in a less butt hurt or “let’s start some internet drama” sounding way)

thanks for the ask (no thanks for it being so rude, though i can understand where your frustration’s comping from), here’s a response, i wasn’t expecting anyone to come across that post and i’m just glad you’re not a bot or scammer in my inbox

i love just Never Shutting Up (as you can see by how long this got (unintentionally)) so please, i will talk about literally almost anything if you give me the chance, COME TO MY INBOX

[theaspers]

more rambling abt raiden ei. if u like her. maybe dont read this lmao it’s things i’ve said before

im gonna be honest my main reason for delaying playing through raiden story quest 2 stems from the fact that im reluctant to give ei a second chance lmao ik i said i would but i have this gut feeling that this patch will try SO hard to erase her of her sins, or if not, make it seem as though it’s not as big of a deal than it actually is.

somehow the way she’d been written, in the inazuma archon quests + her first story quest, just absolutely rubbed me the wrong way. from the start, it had always seemed to me that the game sort of had a trajectory towards forgiveness for her, despite everything she had done. in the earlier parts, we would see npcs who were struggling in inazuma or people dying, but in the next scene, somehow we would see people who still praised her, people who held no form of resentment for her (i guess thats a whole different matter in itself tho) or her actions.

when confronted with the deaths and the cost of her actions, she’d simply acknowledged that she knew what was happening and raiden had her tacit approval to carry out what was necessary to achieve her “eternity” even if that meant death for her people. i understand respect and i understand reverence. but the ppl who held resentment for her actions (or ppl opposing her ideals) are somehow never shown or, even if they are, are never portrayed to be having a justified reaction to being under the rule of a tyrant. the first story quest almost felt like a joke bc like ??? some of the inazuma ppl were suffering and suddenly ur just supposed to forgive and forget ???

to me, this patch just seems like mhy backtracking after they realised that they’d left the inazuma quests on a far too unsatisfactory note for a good portion of the players and are trying to fix that alongside trying to redeem ei.

HOWEVER i am willing to recognize that this is the only way for her and inazuma to move forward and for the story to develop further. she has to acknowledge her mistakes + try to fix it by doing better. i understand this. BUT i cant help but feel that its such cheap writing bc mhy only did this long after the ending of the archon quests and her story quest and so it feels as though it’s a last minute and a “oh woops ppl dont like that ending so we gotta tack something on at the end to make it better” and i dont want to sing mhy praises for pulling tacky shit like this lmao

(sure u can also argue that the ending of the inazuma archon quest itself was never supposed to be the “actual end” but to me, genuinely, it seemed as though they were ready to be done with inazuma then. there was indication that the traveler was supposed to move on to the next part of their journey so. idk lol)

(ALSO SIDE NOTE after writing all of this down: i forgot the ppl of inazuma doesnt know … that there were two of them …. so the part where they respect her … i guess kinda makes more sense LMAO oops)

[nickyhemmick]

Hi, be careful what information you post on the conflict as it’s not as one sided as you’re making it out to be. Israel is being attacked as well. I’m not saying everything Israel is doing is correct, by no means is that true. But innocent people are getting hurt on both sides and that’s not okay. A lot of the posts I’ve seen have just been thinly valid antisemitism, so be careful the ones you reblog as well. You can be anti Israel without being vitriolic to the innocent people who live there. Palestine is not as innocent as everyone claims they are, but they don’t deserve to be kicked out of there homes either. Israel is complicated but innocents don’t deserve to be killed either. A lot of people post about Palestine blindly, I just encourage you to look into both sides a bit more and not make it out to be a situation with one right answer. If it was then this problem would have been solved a long time ago.

~ A Very Stressed American Jew

blah blah blah both sides blah blah blah Palestine isn’t innocent blah blah.

For the stuff about anti-semitism: yeah I agree. People can be posting things that are anti Semitic while pretending to be anti-Israel. I’ve reblogged stuff abt that fact, too. And I always try to make sure what I’m reblogging is talking abt Israel’s cruelty and doesn’t mention anything anti-Semitic. If you see something that I’ve reblogged and you feel it’s anti-Semitic, then let me know.

Second of all: the only 2 sides there are is the oppressor and the oppressed. Palestinians are the fucking oppressed, and I say this as a Palestinian (and an American!) If you want to see how “complicated” this problem is then go onto Twitter and watch the videos Palestinians are sharing and THEN tell me we aren’t innocent. Like bro, throwing rocks or rockets in SELF DEFENSE is 1000000% justified and something I will always defend. Don’t go to Israeli media (which, anyway, doesn’t mind showing you the gang beat-ups of Palestinians lol)

Also, while you are saying there are Israeli citizens that are innocent (which yes, 100% true) you seem to ignore the Israeli citizens out in the streets calling for lynching of Palestinians, entering homes to kill fathers in front of their children, raping the women, forcing themselves into Palestinian homes, and calling for the death of all Arabs, all with the help of the IDF and police. Don’t fucking tell me the citizens are all innocent, many of them are part of this and have been for generations. They are just as complicit as their government in this. I don’t care if they were brainwashed into all the hate they feel, they still are out there adding more fire to the problems. (And NO, I am not referring to IDF soldiers who are forced into duty in this).

The US has brainwashed you into thinking that Palestinians are horrible, that there are two equal sides, that it is a very complicated mind-boggling situation that can’t be solved! That’s all false. I implore you to look at Palestinan sources, both videos, pictures and websites like decolonizepalestine dot com. You already have some awareness of the reality from your ask, but you telling me there’s “both sides” is telling me you have some more work to do. This has been a 73 year old war. Simple. Israel, when attacked, has the Iron Dome, their citizens have bomb shelters, they have a million other protections Palestinians don’t. Palestinians, when attacked, have none of that. They suffer. They die. They get raped. We always pay the larger cost in whatever rocket fire is expelled. Netanyahu said he will bomb Gaza until there is silence. Yeah, that totally sounds like a complicated situation!

No. That simply won’t do. And if you do want to do your readings, do not read Zionist powered publications like the New York Times and the New York post and the like. I repeat that I agree that there is a lot of anti-Semitism in anti-Israel posts, but none of my posts have reflected that, and if they have let me know and I will take them down. This isn’t a religious matter and I understand that, there are Palestinian Jewish ppl as well! They are also suffering under this racist colonial rule

But Palestinians are innocent. We are. We one MILLION percent are. Just because we are fighting back after generations of colonialism, abuse, murder and rape doesn’t make us any less innocent. It makes us fucking fighters for our rights, because a lot of people don’t give a fuck about us and haven’t for 7 decades. Don’t forget that Israel is the instigator of the violence, all the way from 1948. Israel is being attacked because we’re fed up, and it’s not like we’re making much damage anyway, so don’t try to make it out to be that there are both sides that are equal here. Because that isn’t true.

[shifuto]

pls that person w/ the shipping takes makes me spiral every time they talk. they make it a moral thing and let me tell it makes me mentally unwell like unironically it makes me paranoid that im a Bad Person, esp when they start moralizing abt specific ships w/ nothing actually even wrong w/ them. it's rlly damaging to me. like god. god. you dont have to post this but i needed to let it out to someone who seems to Get It.

sorry this got really long X_X

tl;dr: you should try applying the logic people use against shipping or certain shipping dynamics, to fictional violence and question why only one is considered problematic while the other isn't. Sex negativity and a culture that abhors weirdos, while trivializing violent behaviour irl and in fiction, should tell you a lot

I think you should go ahead and preemptively block people. You have nothing to lose and much to gain. I do that all the time and it has made my navigating here much better. Guess the exception for me would be the Zexal fandom, since it's so small. Sometimes I will see wild shit like this and roll my eyes and hope people block me then because I'm one of those freaks in everyone's dnis hahaha

I hope this helps some. Have a nice day and stay weird anon, don't give in, there's others who appreciate you just how you are

here's the things: these are fictional stories with fictional characters that don't really exist. Yeah sure, it could be "a reflection of reality" and like.. what about it? It's still fictional lol

I used to struggle with this a lot myself, and used to be harassed, sui baited and everything back when I was on another fandom, because I draw/write porn of fictional characters. What helped me a lot was getting the logic these people use and apply it in other fictional settings such as.. violence, and question why only one is considered extremely problematic, and the other is not only socially acceptable but normalized. Trivializing violence actually "helps" justify atrocities against certain groups, even more using a Good vs Bad framework: violence is acceptable against "bad" people. Who is "bad" people? High rates of racism, antisemitism, ableism, etc everywhere should give you an idea..

all I hear about in fandom spaces is how things related to fictional sex and fictional relationships are the bane of society and "wouldn't someone think of the children**" and fictional violence is like "well, you can just blacklist tags if you don't want to see that kind of content" hmm.......

it reminds me of some of the drama that went down years ago about how "video games make people more violent***" and that not only is untrue, video games give a way for people with violent tendencies to cope and that's a good thing. Also, no one is watching horror movies and thinking they're itching to kill others, even if they are, they can just keep to themselves and have fun watching gruesome shit like nobody's business. Thinking is not a crime. And liking certain things it's not a reflection of someone's whole character (see: kinksters and how they get shit from literally everyone just because of what they like/what turns them on, and people seem to forget they're a whole human being with a life outside of kink)

a lot of the shit people cry about in here are non-issues where I come from, no one loses their head about it. If someone dislikes something they can do something about it, or they don't and that's fine too. "Right" and "wrong" are relative concepts, there's a lot of room for nuance and fiction is still fiction in the end of the day

considering a lot of folks here are from countries that are nuts with purity culture, sex negativity, and anything not "normal" is considered degeneracy that needs to be purged, it's no wonder you get the most wild takes from people in fandoms. In particular, young people, are very susceptible to accept things as facts and might not have enough maturity or critical thinking skills to process what they absorb. Unfortunately, it spreads because who can argue with that?

[sarcasm] of course incest is horrible, and age gaps are bad, and dysfunctional relationships are toxic and people who write or draw those things are just as guilty of "normalizing" and "romanticizing" it, and they are probably secretly trying to groom children with fanart of some kid's cartoons because they're a predator! People writing noncon fanfiction? Actually rapists in denial! People writing alien character X human character with massive age gaps? Obviously it's a pedophile, same with people who age up characters for porn purposes! People who are into monsters and robots and other stuff? Degens that should be shot! [/sarcasm]

as if it's fictional media causing damage to people and not people themselves.. really makes you think huh? It's easy to just blame the art, and if it doesn't exist, then there will be no more issues, right? As if censorship ever worked as "intended" and not as a tool to control people's thoughts and behaviours

the point of fiction, at least for me, is that there's no limit to what you can do. You can write or draw anything, you can go absolute batshit crazy with your rape bdsm fantasies with age gaps and monsters and shit. It's not real, and that's the fun of it. Authors tend to tag things out of courtesy, so that people can control whether they will see it or not. You can't get that from a published book, so we're spoiled in fandom spaces with content creators being very amazing at that. A lot of people I see complaining seem to be actively looking for that kind of content themselves, or they don't want it to exist near them at all. That's just such a stressful way to live when you can just... block people, blacklist tags, not engage in things that trigger you.. lol

** that's a logical fallacy commonly used to shutdown queer people and sex workers, among others (x) *** broadly, researchers have not found any connection between violent video games and violent behavior (x)

[robininthelabyrinth]

S.I.N.G girls group has a song called 1,2,3 Wooden Boy. Listening again after MDZS it gives so many vibes of it being WWX singing abt LWJ. Please write something based around the songs lyrics? Canon time period or modern AU I don't mind, it could work either way - the only era marker it has is 'Tokyo Tower' which could be substituted with a ridgeline or cliff somewhere, a place with a view from up high.

“I like it when you’re jealous,” Wei Wuxian said. His head was on Lan Wangji’s shoulder, which he’d claimed as his own long ago. “You have such an ice block for a face; how am I supposed to know that you like me?”

He could feel Lan Wangji’s incredulous stare, but he ignored it.

Sure, there was the whole marriage thing. 

Of course, there was always the fact that Lan Wangji rarely left his side, even when he was on an inventing spree that made him forget to eat or sleep properly. 

He even had the right to touch Lan Wangji’s forehead ribbon, unlike everyone else.

And, yes, they did go all the way back to that silly little village so that they could buy Wei Wuxian’s betrothal hens from that farm – they now happily laid eggs in the little henhouse next to the rabbit field, and Wei Wuxian got to collect them every morning that he remembered.

So maybe there were some context clues regarding Lan Wangji’s affection.

Still, facts only ever got in the way of a really good story.

“Remember that time you got jealous when you saw me kissing another boy?” he asked nostalgically.

A moment of silence, and then – 

“When the soul-eater was attempting to extract your soul through your mouth?”

“Yeah, that time! You were very dashing. All narrowed eyes and sword out – very handsome. You’re so handsome when you’re jealous.”

“…not jealous.”

“Sure you were jealous,” Wei Wuxian said. “You touched me all over afterwards like you were trying to cover up the image of someone else’s hands on me.”

Lan Wangji retreated into dignified silence, which was a pity. Wei Wuxian had been hoping he’d try to defend his actions by saying that he’d been checking Wei Wuxian’s meridians; he had a great comeback planned for that.

Oh, well.

“And there was that time that I hid in the water just to catch your attention –”

Lan Wangji gave him a much more suspicious glare. “The waterborne abyss?”

Damnit, he was onto him.

“Fine, fine, maybe it wasn’t all to make you jealous. Why can’t I rewrite history to make it better?” 

Actually, that was an excellent idea. He could write it, and Nie Huaisang could illustrate - maybe they could even get some actors to do a play!

“In my version of things, we were always friends and everyone knew it,” he announced confidently. “We still met when I came to study at the Cloud Recesses - oh, and the fighting over the Emperor’s Smile, that’s still a thing. But we went on all sorts of travels together in our youth – hunting for some sort of random thing, anything. Yin metal, like the seal I made; we could’ve been set on a mission by one of your sect’s ancestors –”

“Ridiculous.”

Well, maybe a little bit.

“I never did anything that wasn’t a little bit justified, we called each other ‘soulmate’ and pined dreadfully over each other, and there wasn’t a single time when we didn’t see each other, no matter how implausible - well, except for the time when I was dead, I suppose -”

“Wei Ying.”

Wei Wuxian laughed and relented. “You know, when I was younger, I thought you had a wooden face, and that you hated me. Who knew we’d end up here? If I dive into the water, you’d look for me in an instant.”

Lan Wangji was quiet, and Wei Wuxian thought he’d returned to what he was doing.

After a while, though, he spoke. “I would have spent the rest of my life looking for you.”

Wei Wuxian’s smile widened.

“You don’t have to, though,” he said. “I’m right here.”

[rickriordanfandam]

opinions on riordanverse ; my edition

a lot of people have been doing this so i decided why not right. probably gna lose some followers or smth but anyways. pls respect my opinions! if u disagree, thats fine, but please be polite. unless any of my opinions strikes u as morally wrong then pls point it out to me respectfully. thanks!

- i actually liked drew. im so sorry to everyone who hates her but full offence, why. think about it this way ok, first of all drew became hc because silena died. silena was the traitor, the one who betrayed chb, yet after she died campers celebrated her as a hero? and then drew suddenly has to replace her and live up to idk that legacy she left behind,, when all of a sudden this girl named piper swoops in and takes her place. idk abt u but i wld be salty abt that too. not only that, but as an asian, the chances of drew having faced racism/bullying as a child is pretty high (she studies at brooklyn academy). which means that when she finds out shes a demigod, and arrives at chb where most of the campers are white (this is an assumption btw), she’d obviously be scared of being bullied for her skin color right?? so the first thing she wld do before the campers get to bully her is to bully them before they can do so. (sentence structure here is wack i apologize) ofc this might not even have happened, drew could have had a perfect childhood && was a b1tch for no reason, BUT EVEN THEN HER ROLE AS A BULLY WAS PRETTY VITAL BECAUSE THAT FURTHER SHOWED THE CONTRAST BETWEEN HER AND PIPER,, HIGHLIGHTING PIPER AS A HERO//GOOD CHARACTER,, AND THEREFORE MAKING READERS LIKE PIPER MORE. anyway stop hating on drew please. ALSO WHY IS THIS SO LONGA SDFJHG

- jason isnt bland, the fandom just kinda erased his backstory (thanks to @pjohoo-memes for the phrasing lol)

- reynabeth wouldnt have lasted/would have broken up several times. idk i just see them as two extremely powerful characters who have firm opinions and will definitely clash at some point. in a platonic relationship,, i can see them as really good friends but as lovers? idk i just think theyll break up

- PIPABETH

- i dont really like jercy,, i see them as better friends than lovers. also idt jason and percy were that close..?

- the dam and not my type jokes are srsly cringey and were never funny. ik that seems hypocritical since my username literally makes use of the dam joke but honestly i dont actually like the joke. its not funny to me and has never been funny

- the seven were not best friends. they definitely argued,, and honestly probably werent as close as the fandom makes them seem. like ure dumped with 6 other people, out of which u only know a few. my introverted ass would have jumped off the argo 2 quicker than leo valdez could bomb camp jupiter up. also leo was a dick to frank. so what if frank is bigger sized?? thats not a valid reason to tease him

- the fandom needs to stop hating on octavian while worshipping luke. if u hate luke and u say u hate octavian too, then okay. but if u tell me ure a luke stan but u despise octavian?? imma disagree w u. luke was worse than octavian im sorry. first of all, octavian being a dick was kinda justified. hes been after the praetor position for so long, and everyone keeps saying to “wait for jason” when suddenly this dude, whos a son of NEPTUNE (neptune wasnt liked much by romans), and the camp decides to make him praetor?? dude i would be pissed off big time. and then afterwards, he finds out that greek demigods are real and the dude they made praetor is greek. AND THEN GREEK DEMIGODS COME TO CJ AND ONE OF THEM BOMB IT UP?? octavian has been told all his life that greeks are scum and this dude called leo valdez attacks cj. sure it was an accident, but did octavian know that? no. so it was honestly justified that he was such a salty prick im just saying. also some of yall be hating on octavian for cutting a teddy bear open and thats the funniest shit ive ever heard i swear 

- luke didnt go to elysium

- travis and connor stoll r way too underrated. the two have been head counselors of the hermes cabin since luke was revealed as a traitor, can u imagine the stress? luke, the person they probably looked up to as a brother, betrayed them. and they didnt even have time to process this when they were  thrown the roles of being hcs. that would have been so stressful and i would probably have broken down if i were them. the stoll brothers taking turns to wake up at ungodly hours because a new camper is crying and homesick and terrified, the stoll brothers having to comfort and take care of new campers, having to deal with the amount of people in that cramped space because not enough campers are being claimed fast enough. having to resolve issues between campers in the hermes cabin all the time. the stolls arent just comedic relief, and we need to stop treating them as such

- tratie shldve been canon idc idc

- demigods of the demeter cabin arent talked about enough and i love the fact that meg was demeters kid. like she isnt the child of one of the big three yet shes so powerful.

- we need to hype clarisse up more her character arc was phucking amazing 

- rachel is overhated. sis found out greek gods exist and regularly come down to earth to fuck around and went “ok cool”. queen shit behavior methinks

- the floor 19 crew of mcga is srsly underrated. like do u even remember halfborn gunderson, mallory keen, tj, etc??? bc i feel like we only remember samirah, magnus, alex, and sometimes blitz and hearthstone

- sadie (tkc) was kinda annoying at first. i like her more now tho but i rmb not liking her for a phat while

- tkc and mcga need more love

- carter kane and jason grace arent boring. theyre just really sweet boys who are too good for this world and yes yes yes 

- hazel and frank (especially frank) need to be hyped up more. i hardly ever see anything about them. also yall seem to forget that frank was literally made praetor and that even hecate admired hazel and was willing to fight beside her because of how powerful she was

- frazels age gap is kinda sketch but i still think theyre really cute

- nico definitely had trauma from going to tartarus on his own

- GROVER IS PERCYS BEST FRIEND

- annabeth isnt smarter than leo but neither is leo smarter than annabeth. ive seen a lot of discussions about who is smarter and heres my hot take on it: neither. theyre equally smart, just in different ways. leos a genius mathematically speaking. he has no issues solving math problems meant for people much, much older than him. annabeth on the otherhand, is great at strategies etc. she can make an army of 1000 more powerful than the enemy, even if theyre outnumbered. so in my opinion, both are equally as smart//u cant compare their intelligence, because their talents lie in two different areas.

- while i do agree rick riordan isnt a god and that hes bound to make mistakes,, AND that hes given us a lot of representation,, if the representation offends the people its sposed to represent, then theres a problem. im talking about piper as a poc and wearing feathers in her hair. im not a poc, so i cant speak for them on whether or not its wrong, because i dont know either. HOWEVER, i have seen multiple posts BY pocs talking about how they didnt really like rick’s representation of piper, and thats an issue. pocs have been and are still oppressed and discriminated against by many. as a white cis man, we cant really blame him for not knowing (tho he could have done a research,, asked some pocs,, idk), but by representing pocs in that manner, hes influencing impressionable kids/teens into thinking “oh pocs wear feathers in their hair all the time” etc, which isnt true. the pjo/hoo series is extremely successful, and kids who read the books will probably start forming inaccurate opinions on pocs. the amount of fan art that depicts piper with feathers in her hair dont help either. “but rick said so in the books, so its canon” yeah well rick isnt a god and he can get some things wrong at times. im not saying we should cancel him, im saying we should start educating ourselves and not spread false info like pocs wearing feathers in their hair all the time. also that snake song shit where she sang Summertime was just- yeah. bc heres the thing you can be racist, and still include minorities, but portray them in a racist way. And even then, ignorance isn't a thing to admire. Getting those facts wrong still has a major impact. It continues to perpetuate racist stereotypes.

“ With the feather thing, I looked it up myself; it takes less than five minutes to figure out that Cherokees don't braid feathers into their hair. I didn't grow up in the country where my parents are from. I have many other first/second generation American friends who have also been through that, with a bit of a disconnect from their culture. But something that most of us have in common is that when we didn't know something, and when our parents weren't that big of a help, we looked it up. We sought out resources online and through other people from our culture to be able to connect more with where we came from. Some of that took a Google search. So I find it hard to believe that Piper, a girl who Rick's trying to portray as someone who is attempting to connect with her culture and is totally against racist stereotypes, wouldn't know that eagle feathers aren't supposed to be braided into your hair casually. She may be disconnected from her culture, but she's also shown to want to connect back to it. Piper wouldn't be casually braiding feathers into her hair while also telling off people for being racist. It makes no sense.” - reddit thread (down below) 

for those of yall who wanna know more please please read this, it has a lot of things i wanna add in here : https://www.reddit.com/r/camphalfblood/comments/gy3gl2/piper_mcleans_portrayal_is_innacurate/ 

as well as https://finding-my-culture.tumblr.com/post/189422373260/maxie-ratties-and-cattie-finding-my-culture 

i will be posting screenshots of these in future posts so if ure viewing this on ig and u dont have tumblr,, dont worry 

- the fact that most of the strong female characters in the series refuse to be “girly”, and ngl i dont really like that. just because ure girly doesnt mean u cant be strong. 

- piper would have been a great way for him to start making the strong characters act girlier, but instead he went with the “I’m not like other girls” trope which is quite obnoxious to hear constantly, and I don’t think it’s necessarily great for younger girls to read that idea growing up.  the closest we've ever had to a strong female character who was also into "girly" things was Silena. when I was younger I admired Piper's "I'm not like other girls" thing, but then I got older and realized that the whole mentality of "not like other girls" is super obnoxious, and a little bit toxic

i have a heck load more that i cant rmb rn but yeah feel free to add more 

[sheisbeautyweareworldass]

What do you think abt blackdale? Cause i think Lucie and Jesse have great potential as seperate characters but together they just feel weird, like not just the age difference but the vibe they give off is just.... Not shipable? Idk i was just wondering what you thought about it

yall really want to me get dragged huh 🙏

first let me make it clear that i'm not a blackdale hater! on a scale from charlestair to thomastair, blackdale is above the former, fairstairs and jordelia! what means that i'm neutral about it at least 98% of the time.

(my neutrality probably comes from the fact that i don't really care about jesse and sometimes forget that he's a real character)

i do have an opinion, however, on the age-gap and other things. i'm aware that the "death time doesn't count on your age" logic was introduced in tftsa and we're supposed to be used to it and not question it B U T it's one thing when this thought it's being applied to a boy who spent a few months dead and now wants to have a parabatai. it's something completely different when this logic is applied to a ghost who has been dead for the last 7 years and is the romantic pair of a 16yo girl.

yes, jesse didn't age physically. but he wasn't completely dead, was he? jesse could see, hear, speak and even think. mentally he did age. in avery aspect except physical, jesse is a 24yo man and lucie's a minor - he and charles were born in the same year.

i don't think jesse was written as a predatory man, just in case anyone is wondering. but i believe that the fandom swallowed too easily the "he's dead!" excuse to justify the age-gap in blackdale and it throws me off how little i see people talking about it.

[autisticburnham]

Past Tense Parts 1 & 2

Boy, rewatching this in 2020's gonna probably be a fucking trip

Trill has purple seas and Bajor has green ones???

They really named a Ferengi Belongo, huh?

Quark looks so fucking floored that Ben knows the Rules of Acquisition

Christ, forgot the cops wake Benjamin by pushing a gun into his shoulder

The dude thinks Ben and Julian are wearing matching pajamas. He thinks they're a couple

Business Man really almost walks past Jadzia

I know literally everyone who reviews this episode comments on this, but definitely not a coincidence that the men of color immediately get arrested while the white woman gets whisked away into some high class fantasy

2020 does definitely highlight how crowded and underfunded the sanctuary districts are, not to mention the fact that I seriously doubt they get any medical care, just how quickly disease could kill all these people and how little anyone would care

Business Man, you're white as fuck, you having a Maori tattoo isn't impressive, it's gross

Discount? I wish I could say government databases charging government employees for running searches and giving them ads was surprising

This guy sitting next to Ben is so sad he won't let him draw on him

Welcome to beurceacy, Julian

Christ, the cop is so condescending

Uncle, doesn't this Gabriel Bell hu-man look exactly like Captain Sisko?

Oh, Benjamin, I wish riots did start a watershed moment in history

I like to think that more than Benjamin being a history buff, Bell is one of his personal heroes

"Benjamin "power stance" Sisko triple dog darring this dmv worker to call them out for writing their birthdays 300 years in the future" @jvlianbashir 's post lives in my mind rent free

Gross that this lady is like "oh, you're not mentally ill? Well, then, I'm so sorry for not treating you like people"

"It's not that they don't give a damn, they've just given up. The social problems they face seem too enormous to deal with" that may be sharply resonant with the average person, Ben, but it's starkly clear that the people in power do genuinely not give a damn

You know what? I'm actually thrilled that disco is exploring exactly Julian's question as to whether or not humanity has really changed and how the Federation would react to a devastating crisis. Like, I know that that's ds9's whole theme as well, but it's going to be so fucking nice to have a hopeful Star Trek message about the future during this fucking year

Love Julian immediately trying to throw hands with Hat Man for beating someone up

I feel like there's a not so subtle element of racist assholery to Hat Man sarcastically asking "Oh, have we done something to offend you?" abt beating the dude up

Julian, you are too tall to sleep width wise in this alley

Controversial opinion, but Julian's homeless trash is the best outfit he wears

The sanctuary districts existing at all is disgusting, but the fact that there are babies here is horrific

Hell, yeah, dude! Class solidarity!

Christ, the hard cut from the sanctuary district to the business party isn't subtle at all

Those protests in France are undoubtedly a good thing, Business Lady

Granted, I'm white, so I could totally be out of line here, but I actually like that two of the Business People are poc, and that they're just as much privileged assholes as the rest of the Business People. I feel like despite the implications of institutionalized racism with Ben and Julian immediately being arrested, this helps subtly showcase that a very large part of the problem is capitalism bc there's not solidarity between poc if that lack of solidarity can help some of them get rich

Love Julian's tos style double fist punch

Fucking gross that they know that the government killing thousands of sanctuary city districts residents will mean absolutely nothing if the government can "justify" it with the death of like 5 government employees

I love how charmed Miles is by Nerys wanting to yell at Starfleet

"Right now, this ship is all that's left of Starfleet" the disco writers really like this episode, huh?

Class Solidarity Guy's kid just said that this whole thing started bc a guard got in a fight with a dim. Of course it's the fucking cops that escalated the situation in the first place

Of course white ass Hat Man is just trying to personally benefit himself rather than help all of the people here and also has no problem escalating the violence

I don't like Hat Man, but I do like his line "Why do they sound so surprised? You treat people like animals, you're gonna get bit!"

Of course Business Man is friends with cops

I broke my nose...

The solution isn't to get everyone jobs, it's to make it so that having a job isn't a requirement to be treated like a human being

Cop, you're a huge part of the problem for so many fucking reasons, not the least of which is your being a class traitor

"In the interest of friendship," I'll allow 10,000 people to be fed

Ds9 is largely good abt criticizing capitalism, but I do dislike the "I don't want to rely on handouts! Give me the right to work myself to death"

Listen, I know DMV Lady is trapped in the capitalist system as much as anyone else and that if she tried to help more people, she'd probably end up in a sanctuary district herself, but. Her story about helping that one lady gives me Slitheen DoctorWho "I spare one person every now and then so that I can convince myself I'm a not a monster for murdering millions" vibes

I do fucking love her "Everybody tells themself that, and nothing ever changes" in response to Julian telling her it's not her fault tho

✌🌼

Well, their dad shouldn't have been a class traitor then, Bernardo

"Change takes time" "You've run out of time" Tell her, Ben!

Jadzia Dax, coming out of her sewer to shame mankind

Gross that Hat Man is coming on to Jadzia despite how uncomfortable she obviously is and doesn't stop until he realizes she's "with" Julian

Can you imagine if Jadzia had gotten hurt here? Imagine you're a doctor getting ready for surgery and you find a giant slug in a woman

Idk why, but "Invisible" Man gives me Neelix vibes

I do like how Julian and Jadzia work with the frame he understands and just ask him to give the combadge back. "Shockingly," treating him like he's a valid person makes him agreeable

Business Man, you're rich enough that breaking the law won't even mean shit for you

Christ. "The public are starting to view them as people! We have to kill them all now before it gets any worse!"

I like the cop making fun of Julian for liking tennis

Aw, I forgot Class Solidarity Guy died

Forget matching uniforms, Benjamin's actual pajamas are gay culture

"How could they have let things get so bad" 🙃

Groundbreaking, lifechanging, whatever the rest of that Lady Gaga quote is. 100/10

[hollowisthyname]

🖊 Onyx!

I am. so sorry. I have been writing this for over a month at this point I think?? I've got a lot on this character but I'm not good at writing it down, so..... ah. yeah :') hopefully I got enough in this to justify the wait, but either way let's go!!

[as per usual, infodump under the cut]

TW // brief mention of suicide in the paragraph where I explain how they died, mentions of death throughout (ghost character, kinda hard to avoid)

Onyx Hart: ghost, performer, and excessive flirt. they are extremely fun to make up stuff about, especially bc they're one of my only extroverted characters. I have so so many ideas for them and they're one half of the third "cannon" pair of characters ("pair" meaning they have backstory together and I associate them with each other so it's easier just to think of the two of them as their own little group. the other two are Marcel and Sorrel, and Cory and Rhys).

they have black hair that goes down to a little above their shoulders and then flips out (think Kokichi, but slightly less drastic), and the.... sides? of their hair, like the parts that go in front of your ears or something, are much longer than the rest of it, about to the middle of their chest. their skin is v pale bc they're kinda anemic and don't spend much time in the sun, and their eyes are really bright green and reflective like a cat's. they've got freckles across the bridge of their nose and they kinda glow. I don't have all the details of their outfit worked out yet (bc I just changed it a bunch ehehe) but their general style is v punk. ripped denim stuff, chokers, pins, etc. they wear mostly dark colors but with bright accents, it's extremely cool :] the kinds of clothes they wear for performances are..... very different. their color palate for shows is black and gold, and they wear a lot of flowy stuff- silks and whatever makes them look extra cool flying through the air like they do. it's definitely fun to watch, but they're actually pretty hard to get around in. Onyx is not a fan.

so. ah. for all I've thought about this character, I don't actually have a backstory for them fully formed or written out at all. I know some basics- performing has always been a big part of their life, of course, but the reasoning for that varies. they come from a family of acrobats, they ran away and joined the circus, they were recruited by Lavka very young..... so many possibilities. so instead of trying to decide on one now, let's skip to the part I know more about!! enter Lavka, the ringmaster :D

very brief explanation of Lavka: fallen angel/deity, amnesia, still powerful and malicious enough that he decides to create a.... what do I even call it? magic circus thing??? and it traps people or he kills them or something. it's bad but very cool. think of him as like, a siren, but tall and with a lot more eyes.

the thing about a circus is, you need acts. and Onyx is the star of the show. Lavka went around recruiting people to work for him and thought they'd make a good central act. they were great, and the two of them worked together for a while. aaaaand.... that's as far as I've gotten :') I have virtually no concrete story for them, and seeing as the thing that would probably prompt them to leave the circus is meeting another of my characters and I've been avoiding deciding anything for that..... yeah.

it's the same thing for how, exactly, they became a ghost. they died by suicide during a performance, but I don't know when, how, or why. gotta work on that but I'm awful at backstory and I can't always think abt it without triggering myself :') I think my brain lets me create either a personality or a backstory for a character and. not both hgdf

however!! this brings us to their personality, which I somehow completely forgot to do earlier even though I've come up with much more for it than the backstory!!!! I said extrovert and flirt already, but I don't think that encompasses just how good they are at talking to people. hardly anyone could work a crowd the way they do- Lavka and Marcel can both be good with people as well, but they all do it in very different ways. Marcel becomes whoever people want them to. Lavka radiates power and charisma. and Onyx is just impossible to look away from- they're always doing something, and it's always flashy and spectacular and amazing to see. even when they're not performing, there's just something kinda irresistible about them. they're also a very good liar, which- esp when combined with Marcel's ability to completely change how they act at the drop of a hat- has gotten them into some. situations (it's gotten them out of them too, though, so it kinda evens out) Onyx is the kind of person who will push themself past their limits to keep up appearances and please everyone. and once they can't take it anymore, they completely shut down. they'll shut themself off from everything and everyone until they have the energy to go back to acting the way they always do in front of people. usually when this happens they go completely nonverbal, and are very easily overwhelmed. it's a stark contrast from how they usually act, and they only trust a handful of people enough to actually interact with them when they shut down. most of the time around people they're constantly being charming and performance-y, but when they're just with close friends they chill out some. they're still p energetic most of the time, and they love pulling pranks on.... everyone (especially Elis, and Cory's their partner in crime for pranks) but they're not trying to make everyone love them all the time. they have HEAPS of anxiety btw, they might be great with people but that doesn't stop them from worrying that no one likes them. they're very much a people-pleaser and have trouble saying no and setting boundaries, but at the same time they have no problem with confronting someone they don't like or who hurt anyone they care about. (it seems contradictory but it's not I promise)

and then we have their whole story with Everest. I think I explained this before but I'm not sure and you've probably forgotten by now, so basically: I came up with an Onyx-centric "au" where Onyx is one of two humans from a human world to get transported into a magical one. and from that came Everest, complete opposite to Onyx and their best friend. Everest is also mostly not included in my main story bc he's my newest character and I don't have as much about him, but he's cool and I love their whole opposites-attract dynamic. I really don't have any more backstory for this version than I do for the main one, and I'm kinda wavering between the two of them running away and getting transported together, or them not knowing each other before getting sent to the magic world but ending up in the same place and becoming friends. anyway that whole thing is kinda confusing but v fun!!

now it's time for a list of facts that don't need whole paragraphs!!

- Onyx knows sign language p well bc of going nonverbal a lot (they all have to so they can talk w Rhys effectively, this is my explanation for them lmao) - they really want to perform with Elis (they have wings, great for acrobatics stuff) but Elis absolutely hates the idea - I originally came up with them for a. wattpad applyfic. absolutely fucking amazing reason I know - they're just transparent enough that it's kinda unnerving but you wouldn't really know why unless you knew what you were looking for - various other species ideas for them are selkie and nine-tailed-fox spirit - Onyx's pronouns are actually they/it and a lot of neopronouns but I usually just use they/them bc I either forget or worry abt being judged (for absolutely no reason lmao)

a moodboard I made for them!! I need to remake it bc I figured out how to make them better but I still really like how this one looks :D

[lionews]

Yikes, hopefully it's fine for me to send this as a defense for myself, because clearly people are taking things....way out of context and out of proportion as well as making some super odd assumptions. I hardly ever stand up for myself but fuck, I feel like I need to this time.

To be clear I've purchased exactly two raffle lionesses out of "spite", both being against the same person, and it is exactly who everyone says it is. And frankly I probably would have been interested in the RLs regardless of who was going for them, people exaggerate sometimes (in this case "Oh I ONLY bought them out of spite", it wasn't solely to spite someone but that fact DID help me justify spending GB on the lions). I definitely don't try to hoard RLs from the entire community, I at the very least try to make sure a clone is kinged to keep slots alive. I DO NOT hoard markings slots. I promise you that if I've denied you a marking, it was because other active people own the slot and I know you could get it elsewhere. Most of my lions are simply not for sale but I DO try to make notes of people who have asked for slots and keep an eye on my girls passing cubs with the marking.

Regardless of WHY I purchase a RL, I absolutely adore all of mine and dote on them constantly with art and lore. They're loved and frankly that should be enough of a reason for me to do whatever I'd like with them, whether I sell heats and clones like I have with several or keep them amongst friends until I or my friends are comfortable with heat/clone sales. I absolutely do not get bored of my RLs in two weeks, that part of that conversation was relating to something ENTIRELY different, being that I tend to buy random cool lions and then get bored of owning them (that particular comment was about an Orchid based Dwarf, Dwarves are a pain in the ass and I forget that literally every time I decide I want one again).

If I wanted to "hoard" raffle lionesses, I'd be buying a lot more of them than I have. Lots of raffle lionesses are sold and I own a small portion of them (a total of 8, one of which was gifted to me, two were sold to me privately by friends, one was offered to me after I inquired about her heats, one I won in an auction, two I purchased from the winners the day they were drawn, and one I bought from the public trading center), all of which I genuinely enjoy and most of which were purchased months or even a year+ after their original draw date. I VERY RARELY actually message a winner about the raffle lioness herself, occasionally I message asking about marking slots or future heats but rarely do I attempt to purchase the lioness herself. I genuinely just enjoy raffle lionesses and BO traits, and I've been a majority BO breeder since I began playing LD. I don't really understand why it's such a big thing to just not want to sell clones/heats, the main purpose of raffle lionesses is to introduce new slots and attributes, and all of mine have done that (bar maybe my Flint, she was not very good at passing slots and did not clone). So long as the lion isn't absolutely neglected and the slots don't die I don't see the problem ^^"

My 5ksb RL was purchased off the public trading center, that's what the owner wanted for her so that's what I paid for her. I'm absolutely NOT scamming anyone out of anything, and frankly I offered more for several of them than what the winner actually decided to sell them to me for. I've definitely offered more than I should have for certain RLs, aha.

For the record, I'm not actually going for the current Soul RL and decided that literally the day after I was talking about it. I get excited abt shit and make big plans then when the excitement wears off I go "ah. huh. that's not something i actually feel like doing.", it be like that sometimes. I'm sure a lot of you do the same for things YOU enjoy.

I did not intend to "shit talk" the Temporal RL owner, I simply stated I likely wouldn't sell lots of clones/heats like they did. Everyone knows the Temp NR, it was an example. I easily could have called out one of my own RLs, the Cairn specifically. It wasn't mocking, and tone is often lost over text and I do apologize if it came off that way but that wasn't what I meant. I love the Temp NR and have owned clones of her myself, she's gorgeous. I just prefer that some lions aren't like that, if that makes sense? Like I personally don't want a few of my RLs to be "everywhere" but it isn't BAD if some are. I just don't think ALL of them should be.

"Overpricing" and "not priced to sell, priced for offers" are VERY different things. I put a higher buyout than I'm expecting to get on purpose to discourage lowballs, and it works very well! Everyone is free to offer less than buyout on my trades. I sell my Nadirs for 800 GB because that's what they've proven to sell for in auctions and offer-to-purchase trades, hence why I state now that I'm looking for 800 GB as a price. If they stop selling for that price then cool, that's how a market that's based on supply and demand works.

I have grown from my time in CLFL, I don't associate with people there any longer and I've apologized to several people I know I hurt there and am now friendly with them on their terms. I know I was an asshole but people DO change with time and become better people when they have better support systems and are around people who help them, like I've had. CLFL was not a healthy place for me to be and I removed myself from there to help myself.

This was meant to be short but unfortunately it was not, I don't know how to shut the fuck up and I apologize ^^" I likely won't be back to make another statement as frankly this blog causes me extreme amounts of stress but I've had several people come to me via Discord specifically to tell me people were talking about me here and I feel it's necessary to clear some things up, especially seeing a ton of assumptions being through around.

Also my pronouns are she/her! (And a note to that specific anon, my Nadir clone has been up for sale longer than the RL has been out, I'm very clearly not selling him for RL money. I'm just selling him for extra project funds for both of my kings, thanks!)

- Typh