#it's not that long

[moonshinemagpie]

Yep. It's fascinating to see leftists accuse the mainstream media of pro-Israel bias when that's so far from the truth.

I remember in the early 2000s, when tens of thousands of people came to protest George W. Bush outside the Republican National Convention. I was just a little kid at the time, but I knew what I saw with my own eyes (my older sister brought me along with her), and I knew it was just literal made-up garbage when the media reported that there were just about 1-2,000 of us there.

Now, everyone I follow online who went to DC on 11/14 reported seeing hundreds of thousands of people at the march—but NPR wrote the vague headline "Thousands took to the streets..." and later elaborated that it was "tens of thousands." (They made pro-Palestinian marches headline news, covering them in much more detail several weeks before, which seemed odd because those marches took place in Europe. Here was a huge, historical march happening right in DC, and they couldn't be bothered to make it headline news or show any real interest in contextualizing it for readers.)

Besides just getting the numbers wrong, there's enormous erasure, as detailed in this article by someone who went the 11/14 march:

'What is particularly appalling is how much coverage of the march has been devoted to fringe views.

Here were nearly 300,000 Jews, standing together in support of Israel’s existence, demanding the safe return of hostages, and protesting antisemitism. None of these three goals are represented by [far-left, anti-Israel] Code Pink or the Neturei Karta [who were interviewed repeatedly when other Jews were not].

What also struck me is the Jewish illiteracy displayed by the press. This rally featured multiple prayers — extremely moving when said by hundreds of thousands of people. This was a sober crowd with serious concerns and existential worries.

There was Psalm 121, “I cast my eyes unto the mountains,” said in times of trouble. ... And at the end, there was the beautiful acheinu kol beit Yisrael, sung for those in captivity, a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic, a hint of the long history of the Jewish people. None of the news accounts I saw mentioned any of it.

... What I saw in news coverage was erasure — of Jewish people, of Jewish points of view, of Jewish prayers, and Jewish language.'

[omgkalyppso]

étoile, meldiara, and farknir for character design ask game:

glance, stillness, roots, change and alternate? <3

Thank you fro the ask! (:

Glance: At first glance, what stands out most about your OC’s appearance? What’s their distinguishing feature?

Étoile: their height / bulk. If a messenger was describing them to an assassin, they'd be told, "Look for the large trans elf with the rose tattoo."

Meldiara: her red hair. If a messenger was describing them to an assassin, they'd be told, "Look for the dunmer woman with red hair and red eyes, who can't keep her hands to herself."

Farknir: he looks like he was thrice cursed to Coldharbour. If a messenger was describing them to an assassin, they'd be told, "Look for the large nord wizard with long black hair who has something unsettling about his face; and he must know it too, as he's likely to be wearing warpaint."

Stillness: How does your OC act while still? Are they fidgety? Do they have any common gestures or tics? Does their clothing affect how they hold themselves while at rest?

Étoile is extremely capable of being still without fidgeting. They were trained to do so both for the sake of prayer and paladin discipline; and enjoyed the personal challenge and calm peace of being able to do nothing. Wearing armor would mean they would not want to be seated or laying down while doing nothing if at all possible.

Meldiara cannot sit fucking still for longer than a few minutes at a time. She'll practice sleight of hand tricks and crack her thumbs during moments she should be still, and she'll be fidgety during moments most other people would be still, such as prayer. Her attire might make fidgeting worse, with a scarf to play with or pockets to check.

Farknir can sit still for longer than Meldiara, but has less patience than he'd advertise. If something was going to require his "stillness" for longer than 90 minutes he'd try to get out of it, and would be able to struggle at most another 90 more before he's groaning and slouching and raking his fingers across his face, casting absent thaumaturgy spells and talking to himself or his company. If he was wearing too much clothing he'd also start undressing.

Roots: Is your OC’s look inspired by any specific style of clothing or fashion trend? What are the roots and/or inspiration for their look?

Étoile's clothing is influenced by their paladin order, their faith, and their need to wear layers except in the most private of company. Otherwise they wear what's cheap / available until responsibility (to an event, to their employment, to the maintenance of a relationship) necessitates something of higher quality.

They don't keep an inspiration for their style, but I do. Here's their small "modern" pin/terest board.

Meldiara's clothing is influenced by stats by the people in her life; Netch armor that was talked up by Teldryn, various kinds of Thief gear to facilitate her ties to Brynjolf and the others of the guild, Nord styles as a fuck you to her father and a link to her brother, Farknir, etc. She likes rich colors and materials, especially if she stole them. She'd be more likely to steal an outfit if it was elegant or funky. Sadly (?) this means she could show up somewhere in something akin to Sheogorath's wardrobe.

Farknir's clothing is influenced by the legacy he'd still like to surpass; his house, Raven-Cloak. He doesn't mind looking like a dark wizard and is drawn to black fabrics with glass beads and bone accessories. He's meant to look like a goth or metal-head.

Change: Has your OC ever drastically changed their appearance? Significant haircuts, big tattoos, complete wardrobe swap, etc? Why? How do they feel about the change?

Answered here for Étoile.

Meldiara's fashion would have significantly changed when she moved to Skyrim no longer surviving on fear as she was as a peasant in Brume, but thriving for the promise of survival. With more resources and less caution, she grew healthier and gained resources to dress as she liked. Of course she loves it.

Farknir's gone through at least two big appearance overhauls. The first when he was fifteen and trying to distance himself from his family and especially his father. He cut his hair and wore anything that didn't reveal his associations to them. And then a few years before his father passed, when he was caring for him in his failing health, and Farknir realized that both their hair had grown out by virtue of neither of them prioritizing cutting it, and then realizing many other ways in which they were similar in appearance, and capability — and the many ways he would be able to surpass his father, and the rest of his family. He leaned into his gifts and his heritage, and his comfort, not dressing or conducting himself differently for the sake of a hatred that was worth less than his ambition. He still has mixed feelings sometimes.

Alternate: What would your OC’s alternate universe look be? If they’re a fantasy character, what’s their modern look? If they’re sci-fi, what’s their fantasy look? What AU would you want to see your OC in, and how would they dress themself? Bonus: Prompt an AU!

I wish you had prompted an AU to take this decision out of my hands. fgdhdfghdfg

Mass Effect. Sure.

Étoile is a Sentinel. Wow, that means they're stuck in Light Armor. fgjhdfghdfg They have a high quality blue and white armour with renegade red vein lines kintsugi-ing it together (just appearances). Their L2 side-effect is occasional short-term memory loss, motivating them to meditate on memories they want to keep. They favour turtlenecks in downtime to cover their tattoo.

Meldiara is trained as an Infiltrator but hates sniper rifles for combat over stealth missions. She can approach enemies as a Soldier, where she hopes her speed and stamina make up for middling strength. She wears purple armour that easily reflects the stars for space walks. She favours open-collared dress shirts, military jackets with too many pockets, and combat boots in her down time.

Farknir is an Adept. Who thinks going off like a bomb is artistry, and not only chaos. He is either a Cerberus experiment who didn't realize he was an experiment, or maybe he's his father's pet project who knows exactly what was done to him. His armour is not regulation and has a stealth function that isn't as efficient as Kasumi or Kai Leng's but works like Shepard et al hid from the geth in ME2, hiding him from readings, if not the naked eye. His armour is black and painted with many symbols: an hour glass, a corvid, skulls, swords. Meldiara calls him lame to keep him humble. I want this design to extend into the shape of his helmet to be vaguely General-Grievous-like. His biotic-implant side-effects (is it even an L2?) include fever, spinal pain and occasional hallucinations. He wears a Blasto bath robe, blue boxes, a white tank top and flip flops in this down time. He has no idea who Blasto is. In stark contrast to this, he will wear a casual mustard yellow blazer, white shirt and blue high-waisted pants if taken out in public.

[humblemooncat]

Hoo boy do I have one hell of a post lined up for when the B side tourney polls go up. Took me all week to write out, but it might just be the biggest lore dump I've done for Ki'to.

Bring snacks, man.

[yousaytomato]

I just have to get through the next four hours

[heyitsdirk]

just finished act 4 in my 10th read of homestuck, i love being me

[parttimepunner]

Pour one out for a real one.

[willinghands]

i think r/BenignExistence is my favorite subreddit 🥲 i love these pleasant little glimpses into strangers' lives

[whiteshipnightjar]

Zoozve, my beloved

[lakanakana]

war never changes

[clairenatural]

there's a cherry blossom tree in DC that keeps blooming every year even though it shouldn't and the park service keeps thinking it's dead and then it keeps blooming! well they're removing a lot of trees to rehabilitate the area and they've said it's finally time for stumpy to go and they're going to mulch it and use the mulch to enrich all the other trees so it can help everything else keep going. and they're also going to plant spliced little pieces of it all over so that stumpy can live forever and this is genuinely sending me into a spiral

[kochei0]

I turn to Ares.

Thanks to Tyler Miles Lockett who allowed me to draw inspiration from his ARES piece for page 2! Look at his etsy page it's SICK

⚔️ If you want to read some queer retelling of arturian legends have a look at my webtoon

[recuperationdisliker]

eagle: so what do you think about stigmata

prometheus: you know we're in a pre-christian myth, right? like that word doesn't exist yet. your dumb joke is anachronistic.

eagle: stigma talons in your flesh

[cassassinated]

I miss the days when, no matter how slow your internet was, if you paused any video and let it buffer long enough, you could watch it uninterrupted

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[bookwyrminspiration]

god I would be UNSTOPPABLE if I was capable of consistently initiating tasks. just you wait. you'll be waiting a while but just you wait

[prettyboykatsuki]

touch-starvation needs to be written with emphasis on the starving part. you are hungry to be touched. so hungry that even the very taste of it makes you nauseous. it has been long since anything has ever touched you, ever fed you - that your body has grown more used to that gnawing emptiness more than anything else. it's better for you to be held, to eat but it makes you sick to try. you know