#initial access

[jstor]

April is Second Chance Month, a month dedicated to celebrating fresh starts and the breaking of barriers for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals.

All month long, JSTOR Access in Prison has been sharing a compelling series of essays, reflections, and creative work from incarcerated writers, educators, and advocates. The series explores how access to knowledge nurtures growth and community—even in the most restrictive environments.

Read the full series on the JSTOR Blog.

Image: "The Truth Is Prisons Are..." 2016. Courtesy of the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery.

[sunlight-shunlight]

pondering that falon'din is associated with an owl, and those are also messengers of andruil. and he's referred to as "winged death" which is also mentioned to be something that elgar'nan deploys against enemies. and both falon'din and andruil are referred to as venturing into dark places, where no one else can survive/wanted to go.

and ghilan'nain was not initially an evanuris, but was antagonistic towards them and making a bunch of weird creatures. she was given the offer to join them in return for getting rid of the creatures, and accepted. but with "pride stopping her hand" from destroying a few. and when asked about trusting people to share power, solas says "I know that mistake well enough to carve the angles of her face from memory."

solas also has nothing good at all to say about falon'din, mostly calling him a bloodthirsty tyrant who went so far in encroaching onto other evanuris territory that mythal had to besiege his temple and beat him up to stop him.

but he says nothing about dirthamen at all.

dirthamen is described as having gone missing unexpectedly, scaring all his followers, because they were now unprotected. and caught between their own high priest wanting to lock them into the temple forever like a cask of amontillado, and other forces outside that wanted to take their secrets by force. there is one note that a dirthamen follower defied the evanuris and took on a forbidden (probably a dragon) type of form, and was judged by elgar'nan harshly. he apparently also invented the varterral to protect his town from a high dragon? wack, but also could indicate that he had worked with ghilan'nain on making it, since she's the only one who's otherwise mentioned to be bioengineering stuff.

dirthamen has very very few surviving statues or depictions, and is more associated with falon'din than as his own independent figure in the dalish myths. even his own temple includes mosaics of falon'din. there's a few statues that are probably dirthamen, but the most striking is in mythal's section of the fade behind the eluvian, which is a statue of a hooded figure, doubled over with a giant sword sticking out of his back.

[thrreliefish]

Tama I drew shortly after finishing Aini. What a woman.

[ryuuna]

The new update is soooo beautiful! Like I've only played 40mins of it but I'm looooove!!

Also your recent Hades art has been some of my favourite stuff everrrr

It's SO unbelievably gorgeous, like wow they've really been working their asses off updating all the background art, UI, adding/updating character sprite's and VFX, lvl designs, gameplay, etc-- im foaming at the mouth it's soooOOOO good

final update's gonna leave me in the ground

also ty!!! always a joy drawing hades things, glad ppl have been enjoying my tomfoolery for it over the years :')

[devils-yui]

Rewatching TFA, for the hundredth time in a row, and I've got to say. I used to think Sari was, kind of annoying, during my first initial watch and sometimes. The things she does makes me go wide-eyed and gripping at the screen going, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

But then now, as I'm rewatching it hundreds of times over. I have to physically remind myself that she is a child.

And not only that, but she was a child that was BARELY raised properly. She didn't have other children to socialize around, she had a robot teacher, a robot dog companion, and her occasionally in her life father who was busy manufacturing robots, entertaining the ideas of tours and etcetera.

So maybe, yes. I can definitely understand why she does rash things, and act the way she does. I understand why she's seen as a social outcast amongst other groups of kids (like in the show, ON HER BIRTHDAY).

And I'm not as mad as her, as anybody should be for a child who was raised/taught the wrong things or having not been taught at all.

However...

THIS GUY.

IS A WHOLE 'NOTHER CASE.

I JUST WANNA-

[haleswallows]

Hello, I'm wondering if you know that the collection you have on ao3 is hiding the works you are collecting there? I know some dont know that and just wonder if you could please turn that feature off? Because you're making it so no one else can see/read them and I know at least a couple are bookmarks of mine that I like to reread and I'd really hate for the authors to not get the views and such.

Yes, I am aware they are hidden. That was the purpose of making the collection.

I'm making it so no one else can see/read them. You don't have a right to my fics or my works or to me. The things I made were shared with fandom out of my good will and that good will was abused, so I took my fic back.

I would urge you to reconsider the way you interact with creators in fandom spaces. Perhaps if you had been polite or showed an ounce of empathy for me, I would have gladly downloaded copies of the fic for you.

For additional clarity: the collection is mine and the only fic included in the collection are my own. I am hiding only my own works and no one else's. No one is hiding my work.

Hales, blink twice if you are being held against your will.

Hales:

[amethystsoda]

the US animation community is banding together to provide resources, information, and fight for proper pay, limiting ai, and against random cancellation!

Here’s their linktree with the social media and other resources:

[atomicpirateperson]

so I realized that around this time of the year is already past my 1 year anniversary of being hyperfixated on Rob?? time flies

this is the timeline of how it happened according to some vague memories:

1. i happen to see some random video of The Rerun on like, YouTube I think

2. me: hmm i think that one eyed guy is giving some real gender envy– wait. oh no. its happening. he's the new Chosen One, isn't he

3. im not hyperfixated im not hyperfixated im not–

4. I AM SO FUCKING HYPERFIXATED I LOVE ROB FROM TAWOG HE MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME!!!!!!

5. rob is a major part of my life and my headspace now. i couldn't stop if I tried, because some part of my brain views him as an actual close friend, and therefore abandoning this hyperfixation would feel extremely cruel. i would never do that to him and therefore he will be my imaginary bestie/adoptive son forever. i will never grow out of it. i am perfectly okay with that

[ame-wa-ame-2]

okay you know what fuck it

im going on a huge rant about the pjsk movie (a /pos one i loved it) so ⚠️⚠️ spoilers!! ⚠️⚠️

i wasnt exaggerating when i said that this is one of the best movies ive ever seen, and i hate movies. there have been three movies i can remember actively loving to see in theater, and two of them are the spiderverse movies. the third is amwcs. abd the pjsk movie is the only one to really significantly affect me emotionally!!!

literally the free four star in game is like just an extra bonus, seeing it in theaters is literally worth every penny imo

okay after this point there will be some ACTUAL SPOILERS so this is your last warnig

.

.

.

okay are we good

okay

so the fucking motif. the fucking "kitto..." that song. that motif. hey what if i cried. i swear to fuck

its really a genius use of the song, and i dont doubt for a second that deco*27 had a part in making that decision. after all, he seems to be the head for the music in this film

now. i think hello SEKAI itself is literally a culmination of What Pjsk Is, what it means to people. hello SEKAI references the movie unit songs, and it references a few past pjsk songs deco worked on, and it overwhelmingly conveys the tone of pjsk clear as can be. not just the tone actually, the theme of pjsk.

i dont want to get into a whole lyrical analysis rn but overall, if you read the lyrics, you can see how the miku is truly wanting to reach out to everyone, and you can see how the pjsk characters play a role in that.

the pjsk cast are helping "miku" (a representation of vocaloid as a genre and community) reach the people who made the windows SEKAI (the audience, the people pjsk tends to call out to. that is, people who are lost and about to give up, whatever that means for them) so that the "virtual singers" (again, the vocaloid community and even just music as a whole) can help them find out their true feelings (which are, more often than not, "i dont want to give up" or "i dont want to disappear" or "i dont want to let them leave me" or something along those lines)

in other words, have you ever wanted a SEKAI? i know i have, for personal reasons. well,

the windows SEKAI is the SEKAI for people who have lost hope, us.

this movie was made to reach you. this movie, this GAME, was made to reach you and help.

idk if anyone who cried watching it feels ashamed, but you shouldnt. genuinely, the project SEKAI movie is one thats made to cry to, one thats made for you to find safe. i think you should let it

theres a lot more but ill make a separate post for that (the separate post will not include a proper review, ive only watched it once after all) but ill end this post with this:

im glad that the movie was made for people who love project sekai, i would have been upset if it had dumbed itself down to appeal to a wider audience. it was made for you, not the ratings or box office sales

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Amee Vanderpool at SHERO:

The issue of abortion protections will be on Missouri’s statewide ballot in November, thanks to a successful initiative petition, put forth by the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom coalition, that was finalized on Tuesday, just before the 5pm deadline. In order to be successful, the amendment proposal must receive more than 50% of votes in approval, which would then protect abortion procedures up until the point of fetal viability, generally around 24 weeks. A successful amendment like this would return the State of Missouri back to the standard used after the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, but before the Dobbs Decision, which overruled the guaranteed rights from Roe. The language of this new amendment also includes exceptions after viability “to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.” The new law would also protect the patients receiving medical care as well as anyone performing or assisting in the abortion procedure.

The current law in Missouri currently holds that doctors who perform abortions can be charged with a class B felony and face up to 15 years in prison. As a consequence of providing medical care, a doctor’s medical license can now also be suspended or revoked for performing abortions in the state. This latest win of providing a ballot initiative for abortion comes after a grueling battle with Republicans in the Missouri House of Representatives, that sought to keep any type of abortion protection measure off the ballot. Missouri is currently among 18 states with an abortion ban, and one of more than a half-dozen states which will allow the voters to decide on the issue of abortion protections on the 2024 ballot. This week, officials in Arizona also announced that local abortion-rights supporters had amassed enough signatures to put a proposed amendment on the November ballot that would formalize abortion rights in the Arizona State Constitution as well.

Amee Vanderpool writes in her SHERO Substack that Missouri’s abortion rights referendum is a very big deal for the state of abortion access post-Roe. Missouri currently has a near-total abortion ban as a result of the Dobbs ruling.

See Also:

Jess Piper: Abortion is on the Ballot in Missouri

[nono-uwu]

How do people form and maintain friendships online. Geniune question

[serpentface]

i'd love to hear more about the akoshos! i'm sure they'v been brought up more than twice, but tumblr's search function is the enemy of knowledge :')

Yeah so the akoshos gender role is a long standing practice in the Wardi cultural sphere that has ancient roots, existing in both Wardi and Wogan spheres (I'll mostly be talking about the modern Wardi context here). Its ancient precedents were varied and often broader in description, often encompassing people designated male who present and live as women and/or engage in sexual/romantic relationships with men (and usually involving additional cultural roles beyond just being an Identity).

In the modern context, it is a gendered space where someone designated male at birth performs expected presentation and social roles of women. In terms of Wardi convention, this usually involves braiding the hair, wearing veils while outdoors, longer robes or skirts, wearing non-unisex jewelry, and behaving under the myriad of feminine social conventions. Most akoshos experience strong social pressure to shave any facial hair (and will often be seen as 'overmasculinized' if not).

Akoshos will be referred to with the ‘she’ pronoun and other feminine gendered language articles and titles (with the exception of being called an 'akoshos-husband' if married to a woman).

Being akoshos is regarded as being dual-gendered- having a 'male’ body capable of penetrative roles while otherwise socially performing ‘female’ roles. This is ultimately conceptualized as being physically male and spiritually female (quite literally in the sense of having a female soul incarnate into a 'male' body). They are considered a polar opposite to eunuchs, who are regarded as de-gendered and neither male nor female. Their role is not regarded as a personal choice but to be an aspect of their nature.

This role has some religious connotations, being seen as an imperfect human approximation of God's dual-sexed nature, and a few specific rites and minor priesthoods are exclusive to akoshos. (In deep theology they are imagined as metaphors of the living body of God before the initiation of the death-rebirth cycle, lifting the foundation of the world and inseminating the seas to create humans, while eunuchs can represent the dead body of God in sacrifice and the initiation of the death-rebirth cycle, being severed and divided to grant the world life and form) (This is not going to be a common line of thought for the everyday person though).

The actual word ‘akoshos’ stems from a role in traditional all-male Wardi theater, for actors who specialize in female roles (with no connotations on their gender/presentation in daily life). The occupying forces of the 2nd Burri empire took this performance-specific word and used it as a catchall for dual-gendered members of Wardi and Wogan peoples, with this (in addition to separate Wardi tribes gradually assimilating/being assimilated into an indistinguished nationality) eventually resulting in the linguistic loss or obsolescence of most pre-existing titles in favor of 'akoshos'.

While they are accepted as a specific gendered space (seen as a normal part of the cultural framework, rather than ‘failed’ men or otherwise deviant), they are subject to stigma and disempowerment as a non-male gender in a patriarchal sphere. They are grouped with women in terms of class status and are similarly denied certain legal rights (sole property ownership, self-representation in court, subordinate statuses to husbands in inheritance, legal independence from a familial patriarch, etc).

It is, like most other gender roles here, a fairly rigid gendered space that one can ‘fail’ at or shamefully deviate from. The fact that akoshos are so accepted as part of society is part of what makes this role equally rigid to manhood or womanhood. An akoshos is expected to perform female roles and presentation consistently and as culturally required, and strong deviation from female gender roles (with exceptions for some sexual roles) is treated with much the same disdain as for men and women 'failing' at their own gender.

People generally do not Want their perceived sons to turn out as akoshos, and will often find it an unfortunate lot that a female soul has incarnated into their child's male body. The framework of society heavily revolves around the fundamental importance of the family, preserving and propagating one's family and honoring their name. Children are, in many ways, functionally assets, with their marriage securing a family's future and further descendants, and the success and stability of one's adult child (typically only attainable in marriage) allows for parents to be cared for in old age and to receive necessary and proper rites. Akoshos, in many ways, cannot fully support this framework. They cannot perform expected patriarchal roles of sons as primary heirs, inheritors, and and carriers of the family name and legacy, nor can they function as daughters to be given in marriage, being incapable of pregnancy.

As such, many akoshos lose direct support from their families and on average tend to occupy disenfranchised societal roles. (This is NOT universal though, you’ll find plenty of families that continue to fully support their akoshos children throughout life). Akoshos living in cities often develop microcommunities with themselves and other notably disenfranchised women (often sex workers) as means of self-support.

Akoshos can take on certain jobs ostensibly exclusive (or predominant to) women, including some esteemed fields. Many find work as midwives, and are allowed into certain all-female priesthoods (particularly as physician-priestesses), though they are not accepted as Odonii. A couple of Usoma-Hittibe (the unmarried eldest sister to a king or emperor, outranking a queen or empress) known in history have been akoshos.

While akoshos are not '''useful''' assets in marriage (which is usually arranged, and in many ways a political or financial agreement), they are unique in that they Can legally and officially be wed to both men and women (and will be referred to as an akoshos-wife or akoshos-husband, depending on the gender assignment of their partner). Marriage is otherwise exclusively between men and women, the concept of it existing in other capacities is regarded as an absurdity, given its predominantly reproductive role.

An akoshos taking on a 'husband' role to a woman is not ideal in a practical arranged marriage (especially as, in having a woman's denial of many legal rights, they may find it difficult to perform a husband's role of supporting a family), but these arrangements are biologically capable of producing children, which is of some benefit. Akoshos-wives are less common, as these unions cannot produce a pregnancy and thus cannot fulfill the reproductive role that marriage largely exists to facilitate. But unlike an akoshos-husband, an akoshos-wife is fully capable of performing all Other roles expected of a wife. Men will sometimes remarry akoshos after they have already acquired children through a previous marriage, at which point the akoshos-wife can fully inhabit the expected non-reproductive roles of a wife and mother.

Akoshos also have a significantly larger degree of sexual freedom in comparison to those designated women and ESPECIALLY to men. They are still subjects to strict standards of 'appropriate' libido, but are socially permitted to take on any sexual role with partners of any gender. (An akoshos receiving penetrative sex is not 'shamed' like a man is, as they are in part women and that is their lot (including the spiritual pollution seen as inevitable for women via penetration). An akoshos performing penetrative sex is also acceptable (though any receiving male partner is 'shamed'), as they are ''''physically men'''' and this is also their lot). A woman who is 'disproportionately' interested in sex with women may be regarded as overmasculinized or having an excessive libido, but an akoshos exclusively interested in women will not usually draw scrutiny (again owing to their conception as being both male and female).

Not ALL akoshos would be trans women or otherwise transfeminine in the contemporary LGBT+ context (though a probable majority are). This role is also the only one that allows for people designated male to have open and mutualistic romantic/sexual relationships with men (eunuchs can as well, but this is not the most attractive route for obvious reasons), and the only role where one can marry a man, so it may appeal to some who would be considered cis gay/bi men. The role could attract a variety of people for a variety of reasons (a minority could even be cis and het), and conversely not all trans women or nonbinary transfeminine people would be comfortable or self-actualized in the akoshos role. It's culturally specific, just one representation of the myriad ways people conceptualize, reject, or transcend sexuality and gender.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

winston my quant of billions

[amethystsoda]

classic disney animation VHS shelf complete!

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

[thedawningofthehour]

In retrospect, I'm really sleeping on the morbid hilarity of Draxum's people leaving the Faroes for New York. Considering they left due to humans fucking up their shit and trying to drive them off their land, and considering the time and place these humans were likely a mixture of Norse settlers and people from the British Isles. So they travel across the fucking ocean to settle in a new land where the local humans are more accepting, more willing to work with them, and maybe they aren't all best friends but they leave each other alone and are willing to work/trade with each other if necessity demands it. For a few centuries, everything was relatively chill.

And then who fucking shows up?

[noodlescrashoutspace]

why are they like. deadass one of those roblox gacha online edaters. GENUINELY AS A VETERAN OF THEE EYSUADHPEIJS THE THING THE GAME THE GACHA ONLINE AS A CHILD WITH UNRESTRICTED INTERENT ACCESS WITH NO OTHER OUTLET FOR FAGGOTRY IT IS ONE TO ONE EXACTLY THE SAME like the lack of maturity lying about age and shit AND COPYING OCS AND JUST USING THEM AS YOURSELF!! i remember that so vividly and like its somehow exactly that???? uhhh what else oh yeahhh also not having any relationship last over a month and getting a new gf within like a week of losing one