#like seriously you think that they wouldn't use it in good-faith

[tofixtheshadows]

You guys really need to stop and consider the ways you're talking about Kabru I am dead fucking serious. Like I know that flattening characters is just what fandom does to a certain extent, but Kabru's actual personality is getting lost to the fandom hivemind insisting that he's aggressive/cruel/sociopathic/hateful, and these are particularly concerning takes to see leveled at the only brown character in the main cast day after day. "My poor sweet golden child Laios needs to be protected from this scary brown man" is not a good look! Like, it's very telling that the bulk of the hate and bad faith readings are reserved for Toshiro and Kabru. Everyone else's flaws get to be discussed and validated and forgiven (or erased), meanwhile people are straight making up things to be mad about with Toshiro and Kabru but patting themselves on the back for being smart.

The worst part is how undeserved it all is. I'm trying to lay off anime-onlys because we're still kind of in the red herring stage of getting to know Kabru, but I would still like to gently suggest that even if you think Kabru is up to something, you don't gave to get in the tags of every fan creator's post and bring up how you hate him or You Can Tell he's totally evil. Sometimes I think Kabru's blue eyes give people license to say things about his appearance that they know would sound completely racist otherwise, but referring to his blue eyes acts as a get-out-of-racism free card. The jokes about the dog with brown contacts are getting old, by the way.

For people who have read the manga, it's disappointing. Kabru is one of the most complex and important characters in the story, and if you base your interpretation of him and all your fandom interactions on shallow first impressions you are completely missing out.

I know part of this is because Dungeon Meshi is a comedy, but the story also wants to be taken seriously. For example, it's admittedly really funny when Chilchuck calls Laios "sick in the head", but that doesn't change the fact that the way Chilchuck casually belittles Laios caused him to hide the fact that he was "hallucinating" from his friends for weeks. Those feelings matter.

Like, this

is funny.

But this?

Is not. This is just a very clear example of a brown boy with PTSD. As someone else with PTSD, just looking at this fucking sucks, man.

The only reason why Kabru thinks about killing Laios is because he is in the middle of a flashback. He's struggling through a panic attack. If he truly wanted to kill Laios because he's violent or because he finds Laios inherently annoying, he wouldn't otherwise talk with Laios normally. Notice how he doesn't act this way at any other point in the story- it's just because he's triggered by monsters. Even when he's thinking about his plans to "deal with" Laios later, he's reluctant to actually kill him and only considers it to prevent another tragedy. Despite his deadly skills, Kabru relies far more on "soft" power- insight, persuasion, diplomacy. He's a rare example of a character who absolutely is, or at least can be, manipulative, but seems to use his abilities for good. He's not a pathological liar, he isn't looking down on everyone behind a smile. He's someone who is extremely emotionally intelligent, and he's willing to put aside all his own basic wants and needs to stop the cycle of dungeons devouring humans.

I'm going to cut a potential thesis on his character short and just give some examples of things that fandom should consider about his personality more:

Racism in fandom isn't just about whitewashing in fan art, or using racial slurs. The insidiousness of bad faith readings, reductions to racist tropes, lack of fan content for characters of color, and dismissal of a character's complexity are far more common. You can believe yourself to be completely neutral or even positive about a character and still churn out low-grade bile about them into fandom's collective unconscious. Fandom reflects real life.

And I have been around fandom long enough to see how these behaviors (mostly from my fellow white fans) affect fans of color, how it makes a fandom feel hostile and unwelcome to them. It's fun to make jokes and memes, I'm absolutely not saying that everything needs to be a deeply nuanced take, but we need to be careful that it doesn't veer into toxicity. Please think about how our contributions to fandom come across, and what sort of vibes they cultivate in this communal space.

[were--ralph]

why exactly do you dislike generative art so much? i know its been misused by some folks, but like, why blame a tool because it gets used by shitty people? Why not just... blame the people who are shitty? I mean this in genuinely good faith, you seem like a pretty nice guy normally, but i guess it just makes me confused how... severe? your reactions are sometimes to it. There's a lot of nuance to conversation about it, and by folks a lot smarter than I (I suggest checking out the Are We Art Yet or "AWAY" group! They've got a lot on their page about the ethical use of Image generation software by individuals, and it really helped explain some things I was confused about). I know on my end, it made me think about why I personally was so reactive about Who was allowed to make art and How/Why. Again, all this in good faith, and I'm not asking you to like, Explain yourself or anything- If you just read this and decide to delete it instead of answering, all good! I just hope maybe you'll look into *why* some people advocate for generative software as strongly as they do, and listen to what they have to say about things -🦜

if Ai genuinely generated its own content I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it, however what Ai currently does is scrape other people's art, collect it, and then build something based off of others stolen works without crediting them. It's like. stealing other peoples art, mashing it together, then saying "this is mine i can not only profit of it but i can use it to cut costs in other industries.

this is more evident by people not "making" art but instead using prompts. Its like going to McDonalds and saying "Burger. Big, Juicy, etc, etc" then instead of a worker making the burger it uses an algorithm to build a burger based off of several restaurant's recepies.

example

the left is AI art, the right is one of the artists (Lindong) who it pulled the art style from. it's literally mass producing someone's artstyle by taking their art then using an algorithm to rebuild it in any context. this is even more apparent when you see ai art also tries to recreate artists watermarks and generally blends them together making it unintelligible.

Aside from that theres a lot of other ethical problems with it including generating pretty awful content, including but not limited to cp. It also uses a lot of processing power and apparently water? I haven't caught up on the newer developements i've been depressed about it tbh

Then aside from those, studios are leaning towards Ai generation to replace having to pay people. I've seen professional voice actors complain on twitter that they haven't gotten as much work since ai voice generation started, artists are being cut down and replaced by ai art then having the remaining artists fix any errors in the ai art.

Even beyond those things are the potential for misinformation. Here's an experiment: Which of these two are ai generated?

ready?

These two are both entirely ai generated. I have no idea if they're real people, but in a few months you could ai generate a Biden sex scandal, you could generate politics in whatever situation you want, you can generate popular streamers nude, whatever. and worse yet is ai generated video is already being developed and it doesn't look bad.

I posted on this already but as of right now it only needs one clear frame of a body and it can generate motion. yeah there are issues but it's been like two years since ai development started being taken seriously and we've gotten to this point already. within another two years it'll be close to perfected. There was even tests done with tiktokers and it works. it just fucking works.

There is genuinely not one upside to ai art. at all. it's theft, it's harming peoples lives, its harming the environment, its cutting jobs back and hurting the economy, it's invading peoples privacy, its making pedophilia accessible, and more. it's a plague and there's no vaccine for it. And all because people don't want to take a year to learn anatomy.

[ryin-silverfish]

One nerd's musing about Chinese religion and "respect"

-I try to stay away from fandom discourse, but, much like how you can smell the stench from a dumpster fire without walking into said dumpster fire, I've noticed something that seemed to come up a lot in western JTTW + adjacent fandoms: "respect Chinese religion".

-Usually as a reason for why you shouldn't ship a character, because of fucking course it's shipping discourse too.

-And my first reaction is "Man, you are taking Chinese religion too darn seriously, more than people who are born and raised in China."

-My second reaction is "I mean, most of us are atheist/agnostic by default anyways, with a good number of what I'd call 'atheist/agnostics with superstitions': people who said they were not religious, yet believed in Fengshui or divinations and burnt incense at temples for good luck."

-My third reaction: "But why do I get the feeling that when you mention 'Respect', you are thinking about something completely different?"

-Then I reread an essay from Anthony C. Yu, "Religion and Literature in China: The "Obscure Way" of Journey to the West", and the metaphorical lightbulb just lit up over my head.

(Everything below applies more to Daoism + associated folk religions, but by the time most classic Chinese vernacular novels were written, the blending of the three religions had become well and truly mainstream.)

(The conception of gods differs from dynasty to dynasty. What I'm describing here is mostly based on Ming and Qing ones; if you went back to Han or pre-Qin times, most of these would not apply.)

(I am one of the "atheist/agnostic by default" people. I just have an interest in this kind of stuff. I am also just one Chinese person, and an actual Daoist/Buddhist/Religion Studies researcher would probably have a lot more valuable information and perspective to offer when it comes to contemporary practices and worship. Like any people on the internet: take my words with a grain of salt.)

-Even in the past, when society was far less secularized, Chinese gods are not omniscient, perfect beings whose worship is a solemn, humorless affair. Some's worship are Serious Business, but that has more to do with the sort of gods they are and the patronage they enjoy, not godhood in and of itself.

-And even the ones that you are supposed to "treat seriously" are still very human. To use an analogy I've used plenty of times before: you respect and fear them in the same way you'd respect and fear an emperor's official, or the emperor himself, because if you don't, you are not gonna like the consequences.

-However, unlike Jesus, the emperor & his officials were capable of being temperamental, flawed, or an outright asshole, divine or not. Ideally, they wouldn't be, and if you were one of the "serious" believers——people who actually got an official permit, became ordained clergy, and went to live in a temple, you were unlikely to think of your gods in that manner.

-But it wasn't a complete, utter impossibility. The lower you go in the pantheon, the closer you get to popular religion, the less "serious" the gods and their worship become. By that, I mean general attitude, not sincerity of faith. You still shouldn't be rude to them, but, well, they are more likely to take a joke in stride, or participate in the "vulgar" pleasures of commoners because they weren't as bound to Confucian moral standards or religious disciplines.

-To stretch the same analogy further: you should still respect your village head, they could still give your ass a good spanking for being a disrespectful brat, but you were not obligated to get on your knees and kowtow to them like you would do in front of a provincial magistrate, the emperor's minister, or the emperor himself, nor did they have the power to chop your head off just because you were rude.

-On the other hand, the emperor would never visit a random peasant just to help them fix their broken plow or treat them to a nice meal, but your village head could, and your relationship would probably be warmer and a lot more personal as a result.

-Your respect for them was more likely to stem from the things they actually did for you and the village as a whole, instead of something owed to this distant, powerful authority you might never get to see in your lifetime, but could change its course with a single stroke of a brush.

-Now exchange "village head" for your run-of-the-mill Tudis and Chenghuangs and friendly neighborhood spirits (because yes, people worshipped yaoguais for the exact same reasons), emperor + his officials for the Celestial Bureaucracy, and you'd have a basic idea of how Chinese religions worked on the ground level.

-This is far from absolute: maybe your village head was a spiteful old bastard who loved bullying his juniors, maybe your regional magistrate was an honest, upright man who could enjoy a good drink and a good laugh, maybe the emperor was a lenient one and wouldn't chop your head off for petty offenses. But their general degree of power over you and the closeness of your relationships still apply.

-Complicating the matter further, some folk gods (like Wutong) were worshipped not because they brought blessings, but because they were the divine equivalent of gangsters running a protection racket: you basically bribed them with offerings so they'd leave you alone and not wreck your shit. Famous people who died violently and were posthumously deified often fell into this category——shockingly enough, Guan Yu used to be one such god!

-Yeah, kinda like how your average guy could become an official through the imperial examinations, so could humans become gods through posthumous worship, or cultivate themselves into immortals and Enlightened beings.

-Some immortals aren't qualified for, or interested in a position in the Celestial Bureaucracy——they are the equivalent of your hermits, your cloistered Daoist priests, your common literati who kept trying and failing the exams. But some do get a job offer and gladly take it.

-Anyways, back to my original point: that's why it's so absurd when people pull the "Respect Chinese Religion1!!1!" card and immediately follow up with "Would you do X to Jesus?"

-Um, there are a lot of things you can do with Chinese gods that I'm pretty sure you can't do with Jesus. Like worshipping him side by side with Buddha and Confucius (Lao Tzu). Or inviting him to possess you and drink copious amount of alcohol (Tang-ki mediums in SEA). Or genderbend him into a woman over the course of several centuries because folks just like that version of Jesus better (Guan Yin/Avalokitesvara).

-But most importantly, Chinese religions are kinda a "free market" where you could pick and choose between gods, based on their vicinity to you and how efficient they were at answering prayers. You respect them because they'll help you out, you aren't an asshole and know your manners, and pissing them off is a bad idea in general, not because they are some omnipotent, perfect beings who demand exclusive and total reverence.

-A lot of the worship was also, well, very "practical" and almost transactional in nature: leave offerings to Great Immortal Hu, and he doesn't steal your imperial seal while you aren't looking. Perform the rites right and meditate on a Thunder General's visage, and you can temporarily channel said deity's power. Get this talisman for your kids at Bixia Yuanjun's temple, and they'll be protected from smallpox.

-"Faith alone" or "Scripture alone" is seldom the reason people worship popular deities. Even the obsession with afterlife wasn't about the eternal destination of your soul, and more about reducing the potential duration of the prison sentence for you and your loved ones so you can move on faster and reincarnate into a better life.

-Also, there isn't a single "canon" of scriptures. Many popular gods don't show up in Daoist literature until much later. Daoist scriptures often came up with their own gigantic pantheons, full of gods no one had heard of prior to said book, or enjoyed no worship in temples whatsoever.

-In the same way famous dead people could become gods via worship, famous fictional characters could, too, become gods of folk religion——FSYY's pantheon was very influential on popular worship, but that doesn't mean you should take the novels as actual scriptures.

-Like, God-Demon novels are to orthodox Daoism/Buddhism what the Divine Comedy is to medieval Christian doctrines, except no priests had actually built a Church of Saint Beatrice, while Daoists did put FSYY characters into their temples. By their very nature, the worship that stemmed from these books is not on the same level of "seriousness" as, say, the Tiantai school of Buddhism and their veneration of the Lotus Sutra.

-At the risk of being guilty of the same insertion of Christianity where it doesn't belong: You don't cite Dante's Inferno in a theological debate, nor would any self-respecting pastor preach it to churchgoers on a Sunday.

-Similarly, you don't use JTTW or FSYY as your sole evidence for why something is "disrespectful to Chinese religion/tradition" when many practitioners of said religions won't treat them as anything more than fantasy novels.

-In fact, let's use Tripitaka as an example. The historical Xuanzang was an extraordinarily talented, faithful, and determined monk. In JTTW, he was a caricature of a Confucian scholar in a Buddhist kasaya and served the same narrative function as Princess Peach in a Mario game.

-Does the presence of satire alone make JTTW anti-Buddhist, or its religious allegories less poignant? I'd say no. Should you take it as seriously as actual Buddhist sutras, when the book didn't even take itself 100% seriously? Also no.

-To expand further on the idea of "seriousness": even outside of vernacular novels, practitioners are not beholden to a universal set of strict religious laws and taboos.

-Both Daoism and Buddhism had what we called "cloistered" and "non-cloistered" adherents; only the former needed to follow their religious laws and (usually) took a vow of celibacy.

-Certain paths of Daoist cultivation allow for alcohol and sexual activities (thanks @ruibaozha for the info), and some immortals, like Lv Dongbin, had a well-established "playboy" reputation in folklore.

-Though it was rarer for Buddhism and very misunderstood, esoteric variants of it did utilize sexual imageries and sex. And, again, most of the above would not apply if you weren't among the cloistered and ordained clergy.

-Furthermore, not even the worship of gods is mandatory! You could just be a Daoist who was really into internal alchemy, cultivating your body and mind in order to prolong your lifespan and, ideally, attain immortality.

-This idea of "respect" as…for a lack of better words, No Fun & R18 Stuff Allowed, you must treat all divinity with fearful reverence and put yourself completely at their mercy, is NOT the norm in Chinese religious traditions.

-There are different degrees and types of respect, and not every god is supposed to be treated like the Supreme Heavenly Emperor himself during an imperial ceremony; the gods are capable of cracking a joke, and so are we!

TL;DR: Religions are complicated, and you aren't respecting Chinese religions by acting like a stereotypical Puritan over popular Chinese deities and their fictional portrayals.

[etz-ashashiyot]

You know how sometimes arguing a point is losing?

Like if you engage the argument at all you are inherently putting up for debate things that should never be up for debate and the argument itself is degrading?

You see this with interpersonal gaslighting:

A gaslighter doesn’t simply need to be right. They also need for you to believe that they are right. In stage one, you know that they’re being ridiculous, but you argue anyways. You argue for hours, without resolution. You argue over things that shouldn’t be up for debate  – your feelings, your opinions, your experience of the world. You argue because you need to be right, you need to be understood, or you need to get their approval. In stage one, you still believe yourself, but you also unwittingly put that belief up for debate. In stage two, you consider your gaslighter’s point of view first and try desperately to get them to see your point of view as well. You continue to engage because you’re afraid of what their perspective of you says about you. Winning the argument now has one objective :  proving that you’re still good, kind, and worthwhile. In stage three, when you’re hurt, you first ask, “What’s wrong with me?” You consider their point of view as normal. You start to lose your ability to make your own judgements. You become consumed with understanding them and seeing their perspective. You live with and obsess over every criticism, trying to solve it.

[Source]

But you also see this on a broader societal level, with people asking unfathomably awful questions about minority groups, such as:

[Source]

It should go without saying, but no group of people should be forced to explain that yes, they really are real people, dickheads. The question doesn't deserve an answer; it deserves at best a disgusted eyeroll + "Are you a Nazi?" and at worst a punch to the face.

There is also the related phenomenon of the "when did you stop beating your wife?" type questions. The question is framed as a yes or no question, but the real answer for the innocent is: "I've never beaten my wife and never would." But even that answer still dignifies the question with a real response and puts the idea in the mind of the listener that hey maybe that's a real possibility and this guy is lying because of course he wouldn't just admit that. Now I don't know what to believe, but I'm skeptical.

Even if he answers, doubt has been cast on his character and many people (maybe even most people) neither have the attention span to listen to his full counter argument and supporting evidence nor are invested enough in strangers' lives to take the time to dig for facts on their own. Critically, it comes from a good impulse that shouldn't be repressed or taken too far in the opposite direction; namely, that we want to believe survivors and make it socially acceptable to speak out about abuse.

This leaves us with the uncomfortable reality that balancing believing survivors and whistle-blowers against not automatically believing allegations that very well may be false and/or in bad faith is a very tricky balancing act indeed. Because of this, people tend to struggle with taking survivors seriously and with presuming innocence until guilt has actually been proven, both. And as for the latter, this is at least partially due to the same psychological factors underlying the Don't Think of an Elephant problem.

Why am I discussing this?

See the thing is that these types of discourse have all been used, heavily, against the Jewish community, especially since Oct 7th, but really going back hundreds of years.

If you want to be our ally, you need to be on guard for how people use this rhetoric to accuse Jews of absolutely batshit cookoo bananas allegations (like being lizard people or having horns, or secretly running the world, or killing Christian babies to use their blood in our matzah, etc. etc.) and get away with it. Now obviously if so many people weren't already racist towards Jews as a people and had a vested interest in maintaining their supercessionist cultural worldview from Christianity and Islam, it would be a lot harder for this to work. Alas, the past 2000 years has created a bit of a snowballing effect.

This culminates in the effect described so well by Sartre:

Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

— Jean-Paul Sartre

Right now, Jews are facing extreme levels of these types of rhetorical abuse, and are receiving very little help in the way of pushback.

We have to stop trying to explain ourselves and start just naming these tactics instead.

[fairuzfan]

Sorry one more thing I wasn't going to talk about but if you had asked me about the binational state/land thing maybe... in 2016, I might have given a somewhat positive answer but I think that since then, Israeli society has become exponentially more racist and anti-Palestinian. Since then we had the Abraham Accords, Sheikh Jarrah, Massafir Yatta, the highest child martyr count in years, and now finally a full blown genocide. Many Palestinians who previously advocated for equality in a single state look at all this, especially in recent months and think "how can I live side by side with these people?"

The vast majority of Israeli society is not against war for the sake of the Palestinians, they're against war for their own safety. They say as much. Hell, look at standing together. The founder guy says "our security is tied in with the Palestinians'". So if it wasn't tied with the Palestinians', you wouldn't care? And I get sometimes you need to introduce people to ideas gently, but their entire organization language emphasizes "shared pain" when there is an oppressor/oppressed dynamic they aren't even hinting at. How can anyone achieve safety if you won't even admit you have power over your Palestinian org members?

Even Brothers in Arms claims to want to "strengthen democracy" but they completely ignore Palestinians have never experienced democracy in "Israel". So what's the point strengthening your own standing when the most disadvantaged still are at rock bottom?? Plus your whole group represents the IOF reservists/members, you have no intention of helping Palestinians when you are the primary oppressors. And this is not an insignificant group in israel!

Not many Israelis are willing to put themselves on the line to protect or even advocate for Palestinians. I mean 7+ months into a genocide and what did israeli society do other than protest *netanyahu*? Hold up flour bags during the flour massacre??? The people serving in the idf are your friends and family and community. Tel Aviv is an hour away from Gaza. Surely you can do *something* physical!! They had people at their Gaza borders starving Palestinians on purpose and people just... watched it happen. Not to mention the IOF, which many Israelis are a part of, participates in the genocide and has been lauded for their "heroism". I look at that and I think "how can I expect you to seriously consider my rights as a person? How do I know you won't miss your old status and reclaim it?"

We've seen Israelis *celebrate* and *ridicule* our martyrs and people. So like where us the good faith in all this? Where can we work with some of these people and think "Yeah I believe they'll respect my inherent dignity as a person"?

Which binationalism relies on this. You need to have good faith between communities for this to actually happen. But when one community won't even acknowledge it's status as an oppressor at the height of oppression? Then what?

Israel as a country has never faced any retribution for its actions for 75 years. No one is holding them accountable. The country teaches propaganda in its schools about the Nakba. There is not serious consideration for Palestinian rights in Israeli society. Why would they suddenly decide to participate in a project that puts Palestinians as equal to Israelis when they learned all their lives that Palestinians are ruthless, unreasonable people who can't be reasoned with, and Israelis are logical, poor victims who are actually the ones who need protection from the Palestinians!

It just is mind boggling because I see people constantly complain about the way they hear things from Palestinians these days like "all Israelis need to leave". And they go on to say "why would you be so hateful/why would you say that" and don't think for a minute they're experiencing a televised genocide of their people (which they could have ended up in their shoes! People forget that Gaza has multiple refugee camps! Any one of us could have lived there!) And conversely are looking to Israeli society for them to do anything and they see nothing. At least think for a moment why they would say these things given the context of the situation. There's a genocide going on! And you're worried about what the people who are experiencing their people's genocide are saying because you're worried for the society conducting said genocide?? Let's deal with the matter at hand first!!!!!!

[ixiot-ghostrebel]

Click Me For Part 1!

𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬…

Warning! This Series Includes: Spoilers to Genshin Impact Lore & The Characters Might be OOC!

So. You had no idea where the heck you are (technically speaking), and you're talking to the Traveler and Venti. And Paimon. You've barely spent a day here, and things were already looking like they were becoming more and more like a source of lore material.

Which, you suppose, you kinda are. You just got a bombed dropped in your face about being Istaroth not even thirty minutes ago. And, the more you think about it, the more you wonder if your friends (you only have 3 others in your friend group—it was a reasonable assumption) are the rest of the Shining Shades of the Primordial One. You all probably were, if sagau fanfics taught you anything.

"Uh...Venti, who is this?" Paimon asks, her little floating-self hovering in mid-air. She had the classical hand to her chin as she thought, her head pushed forward as if to get a better look at you. "I don't think we ever met her before."

"Ah, allow me to introduce you to an old friend of mine!" Venti cheers, plastering on a smile. Damn, ain't this bard good at hiding his emotions. You wish you had that ability. "This is my friend, Y/N. They recently just arrived to Mondstadt, and they got curious about the Tree of Vanessa, so this humble bard just had to show the newcomer the legendary tree of where the fallen Lionfang Knight hero rests!"

The Traveler tilts their head at Venti, before looking over at you. You gulp, trying not to show how unnerved you were. You knew that the Traveler was pretty keen (in some things), so they no doubt picked up Venti's definition of "old friend."

How funny, because you probably know little to nothing about the bard next to you, smiling as bright as the sun as if the world needed extra brightness (like discord bright mode, honestly. It's giving you an eyesore staring at it).

"Oh, alright!" Paimon cheers, not even thinking about anything the bard just said. "So—where does your friend originate from?" She peers curiously at you, and you finally realize that Paimon must've caught on a similar definition to the Traveler. Except, you assume, the Traveler suspected you to be a god of some sort, while Paimon thinks you were a archon that was just visiting Mondstadt.

And it's only now you realized that you had no mora. And it's not like you tried to summon your Paimon Menu—Venti's fiasco of making you feel like an abnormal T-Rex got caught in the way before you could try it.

"I...uh..." You stutter out, coughing into your fist. God dang it, since when was it this hard to talk all of a sudden? You were doing so well before! "I originate...from Mondstadt, but I moved to Inazuma."

It was basically true. Enkanomiya was technically found in Inazuma near Watatsumi Island. And, according to Venti, if Istaroth was to be worshipped by the people of Mondstadt, you basically just moved nations so that you wouldn't go into slumber from the lack of such.

"Oh, that makes sense!" Paimon says, smiling with relief that you weren't an archon. The Traveler looks at you curiously, but you can tell there is some suspicion in their eyes. Clearly, they weren't buying your alibi just yet. "So, uh—is Venti giving you a tour around the place?"

"Yes," you immediately blurt out, which you kind of regret. "He uh—he saw me cluelessly looking around and—you know—uhm, kindly provided to be my tour guide around the Region of Mondstadt."

"Ehe, indeed I did!" Venti exclaims, puffing out his chest. Damn, was this guy good at bluffing. Share me your skills, You begged. You seriously need some acting lessons. "In fact, we were just about to be on our way to the Temple of A Thousand Winds!"

"Ooh, that's cool!" Paimon says happily. "If you'd like, we can show you the way there!" Venti gasps dramatically.

"Are you saying that I'd get us lost?" He pouts. "Come on, have some faith in this travelling bard!" Paimon and the Traveler give each other a quick look, clearly a little...doubtful, to say the least. Paimon turns around to face him.

"Yes," She says, crossing her arms with a deadpan. "Tone Deaf Bard, how exactly are we sure that you aren't getting Y/N lost? Wait a second—Paimon's got a better question! Did you had any alcohol?" You snort.

"Ehe, nope!" Venti smiles. "Surprising, isn't it? I didn't even have the time before I decided to help!"

"Yeah...Paimon doesn't believe you for some reason."

And that's how you managed to get the Traveler and Paimon to help you find the Temple of A Thousand Winds! Boy, you had no idea how the heck this happened, but at least you found it and the Traveler was here! (Assuming that Venti's theory is correct, and the Traveler has to have something to do with you being Istaroth somehow—)

"Holy cow...So this is what it looks like..." you mutter to yourself. You've only ever seen it as through a gaming computer, and even then, the images were still pixels. But this? This was a whole new level.

"Ehe, yep!" Venti cheers. "This is the Temple of A Thousand Winds for you!"

"Uhm, you mind if I take a look around?" You look at the others, waiting for a confirmation. Listen, Venti piqued your interests, and now you're curious to find the a broken statue of Istaroth or something around here.

"Sure, but be careful!" Paimon warns. "If you want, the Traveler and I can accompany you!"

"I have Venti." You point at the dude beside you. "Isn't he enough?"

"With how much Paimon knows of Tone-Deaf Bard, I doubt he'll help you." Paimon crosses her arms, a deadpan on her face. The Traveler chuckles, shaking their head in a fond way.

So, naturally, you all just stuck together, trying to find the one thing you came for—which Venti was trying to hint at which directions you need to go from the very beginning of the search, and of course—you catching absolutely none of them, for several hours.

"So uh, not to pry, Y/N, but what exactly are you looking for?" Paimon questions. Oh yeah—"not to pry" your backside. You sigh—there's no point in lying.

"I'm looking for a Statue of Istaroth," you explain. "I...I heard this place worshipped them and I got curious, so I wanted to see it for myself."

"Hm...Paimon's never seen a Statue of Istaroth from all the times we've been here." She looks over at the Traveler. "But sure, let us help!" Her eyes sparkle as she gets an idea. "Ooh, maybe there's some more hidden treasure around here! Come on, Traveler, let's go find the trea—uh, the Statue of Istaroth!"

You found it during the evening, but you could care less—your legs were dead tired just running around, avoiding monsters, avoiding whatever debris that was suddenly appearing, and standing around like a fish out of water. You need a break from this nuisance—you still weren't even sure yourself if you were indeed Istaroth!

"What kind of god is that?" Paimon wonders out loud. "Paimon's never seen a Statue of Seven look like that before!"

"That," Venti starts with a smile. "Is the Statue of Istaroth, the God of Time."

His voice echoes somehow, and despite the not-so cold atmosphere, you feel shivers crawling down your spine. Were you really Istaroth?

"Huh....Hey, Traveler! Since it looks like it's similar to a Statue of Seven, maybe you can try resonating it!" Paimon gasps. "Just think—what if you get some extra cool powers from it?!" Her galactic eyes sparkle.

The Traveler complies with a smile, reaching out to touch the Statue of Istaroth. You watch with bated breath, unsure of how to react in the current situation you were practically thrown into.

A huge blast of anemo explodes, filling the entire debris around you shaking off old dust as the anemo swirls around all of you. Venti was practically the only one who was smiling, and for once, you can read him like an open book—he was reminiscing as the familiar anemo energy continues to swirl and explode.

When it finally settles, you feel something wave through your chest—as if a breeze has somehow find a tunnel in straight through your entire body, sending small shivers throughout.

"Huh...so it did nothing?" Paimon's disappointment was evident on her face, just as much as the confusion. "That's strange...Paimon's never seen a Statue of Seven act like that."

Just as Venti open his mouth to speak, a loud, booming voice, awfully similar to your own, echoes.

"𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦…𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬?"

Ghost Rebel Side Notes: IT'S DONE! I AM SO SORRY, THIS TOOK SO LONG! 😭💀 I APOLOGIZE ON BEHALF OF MY DEAD SELF.

I honestly have no idea where this series will lead to—I am practically writing this without a plot planned and that is not good :') However! Feel free to give me your ideas and/or thoughts about this series—perhaps I might even add them in 👀

Stay safe & healthy everyone!

✦ Check out The Ghost Rebel’s Blog Description & Info Page to See if Their Mailbox is Open! ✦

[utilitycaster]

(you don't need to publish this because a) it's not a question and b) I don't want that maybe you're getting attacked/vagueblogged over it) I just wanted to say, that I originally came to your blog because of your nuanced, deep and really really good Caleb meta and that Imogenfans are missing out big time. I think, if Im/odna fans wouldn't have acted the way they did and talented people hadn't stopped writing meta about them, at least I would have warmed up to the characters way more....

Hi anon,

I hope you don't mind me publishing it anyway just because it's a good opportunity to elaborate on a few rather fanwanky feelings in one brief-ish statement.

I don't really care if people vague me and I think people who don't like being vagued are valid, but people who don't like being vagued, whine about it, and then continue to vague others are, understandably, idiots making the situation worse. Most people who had issues with being vagued re: the above simply stopped writing meta, which is why there's not much of it. Also a lot of what people call vaguing is just meta that disagrees with theirs, to be honest. I mean I do vague, a lot, and I'm very good at it, but I've also written 100% good faith meta about things I was thinking about the narrative without consideration of other peoples' opinions and it was called vaguing because I used aggressive tactics like citing my sources.

I've covered the fact that Imogen was actually treated very similarly to Caleb with the key difference that people who wrote meta about Caleb were treated badly by his haters, whereas people who wrote meta about Imogen were treated badly by her then-supporters who are now mostly defending Ashton and Dorian because Imogen started saying things they don't like and don't want to address. I just want to reiterate that if someone ever says that The Male Characters Played By White Actors Never Receive Hate you should just block them and stop taking them seriously. The hate is obviously not motivated by bigotry against real people, typically (though some criticism of Veth was certainly misogynistic even though Sam is a man, for example) but they still did receive pretty intense hate. It is kind of telling, personally, re a certain lack of backbone that people will bring up the horrible things people said about Liam or Travis or Taliesin in their own defense and then turn around and willingly engage with the people making these accusations they clearly know to be false, but you know. Unsurprising.

I tried to write something longer that really dug into the outline of events but it really comes down to this: a lot of the direct harassment (not vagueing) of meta writers, especially with regards to Imogen or Laudna, occurred during episodes like...20-50 of this campaign, and I think those doing the harassment either thought this would somehow make meta writers go "oh my god you're so right about the thing that you said I should die for not agreeing with, I'm going to write meta for you now" or that this would shut them down but wouldn't make other meta writers say "oh this environment has become hostile", which obviously it would. Coupled with the fact that this is when a lot of meta writers realized the campaign pacing was fucked and the party wasn't clicking in the same way past ones had and it really turned into a case of high risk of unpleasantness for a not really worth it reward for many of the meta writers who were around in earlier campaigns, and that in TURN meant that it's harder to have a good conversation without having existing chats so it's a less pleasant place for new fans. Anyway uh. I think the lesson here is that those C2 meta writers ARE around for Midst and Candela Obscura so it's also kind of a waiting game in the event that there is a future campaign (and if not, they will still be here for Midst/Candela/Possibly Daggerheart or future EXUs); they're just not here to write about Imogen or Laudna because it's not worth the trouble.

[lover-of-mine]

I'm not even trying to rude because I would like to believe that question was asked in good faith. Seriously though if you have been watching this all play out since E4, yes once they started to be able to pay LFJ for a narrative they switched up on Tim and used his original kindness against him. Then they did treat him like LFJ, like they were puppetmasters.

And if Tommy is not back I will always believe that's why. You don't turn and insult the producer into your puppet. The only reason things didn't change earlier I think is because Tim was 2 weeks behind what Lou was doing and by the time he caught up a mud monster was already born. They still to this day use the thriving comment as cannon when it was said by a recurring paid to say it for them. And now we have the scenes that show no they aren't even "boyfriends" at that point. You don't think a show runner would take issues with that?

Honestly, I know a lot of people don't realize how bad the cameos situation was or even didn't witness Bree's craziness claiming to have insider information because she was talking to Tim, but all you have to do is look at the way their reaction to anything is "I'm gonna tell Tim and I hope they punish you for it by making Tommy the greatest character ever" and you can see that that dm is not farfetched in the slightest. The whole ship I was built on top of what Lou said in those cameos and they keep trying to find a new person to validate their hc now that they can't pay Lou to do it anymore. Hell, they were trying to get Ryan's father to say something. They were using something Ryan's father said THREE YEARS AGO as some sort of gotcha. I don't know why the cameos didn't get Lou in trouble earlier, and while I do believe he will come back because the narrative can't really handle Buck having another off-screen breakup, if he got fired because of them it wouldn't be surprising at all. He was profiting out of selling them a false narrative that actively went against what the show was telling and it created all this chaos. I don't think anyone could have predicted things going this way, but everything can be traced back to those videos, it was of poor taste to say the least, unprofessional to say a bit more. Like, come on.

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

Haruka and Michiru as Aylin and Isobel. Y/N? I've never actually played BG3 but I'd love to know your thoughts.

I loved getting this ask right after seeing fanart of that very concept (but the other way around). And I love pondering stuff like this!

Certainly I've rolled this around in my brain as soon as people started calling Aylin and Isobel "the moon lesbians". I absolutely see the vision if it's a kind of more surface-level "cast the BG3 characters as senshi/the senshi as BG3 characters" or writing an AU/crossover in which case that's absolutely and without question the roles they'd get. But I think that going much deeper it starts to break down.

There's neat parallels, absolutely. That iconic romance! That all-consuming devotion! Beyond even death! And the whole dying-and-resurrecting thing, too! And a literal magical girl transformation that will forever be the best scene in the game. We sadly never get to see Aylin and Isobel in combat together the way we do Haruka and Michiru, but they'd make a really neat battle couple, I'm sure. Though their "I fight better when I know my beloved is safe" stuff might get in the way - a fun thing to explore.

And yes, one of them is loud and boisterous and tall and strong and sword-y and loves putting up a front and brushing her own feelings off as irrelevant even when she is suffering horribly. Also has the whole extreme dedication to duty thing going on, good ol' Being A Sword, while being brash and reckless and having a concerning disregard for personal safety. (You can't tell me Haruka wouldn't jump into 500 godawful fights a day, just plain facetanking everything, if she knew she couldn't die.) The other, meanwhile, is a way more subtle fancy princess lady type who seems to be calling a lot of the shots in the relationship.

My darling Isobel says we will stay allied at your side. I am pleased to hear it.

(Never fails to get me - Aylin, you already swore your sword and fealty to me 5 minutes ago, were you just going to dip if Isobel said so?)

She is also very insightful, is "the mage" and is capable of some excellent and on-point snark and verbal cuts, though I can't really see Isobel as being very ~ara (she's also a laughably horrible liar). Selûne actually has a lot of divination-related stuff in her portfolio and Isobel (who already uses mirrors in her iconic ritual we see in the game, and I love love love the setup she has there) doing some augury, scrying, and future-sensing via mirror-gazing would be super on brand.

(The moon, the tides, the sea... I could go places with this. But of course, now I've thought of Umberlee Cleric Michiru and The Seas Are Stormy, and that is a true delight.)

But the one place where it really breaks down for me is probably my very favourite thing to chew on with regards to Michiru, and that is that one iconic line, no matter how seriously you decide to take her words:

A world without Haruka isn't worth saving.

I cannot see Isobel saying anything like this, even as a joke, even as a taunt aimed at a defeated enemy.

Because we see Isobel go through exactly this: she wakes up in a world without Aylin. Against all odds, she is in the exact opposite of the situation they two with their mortal/immortal disparity have discussed and prepared for. She is told her unkillable demigod beloved is somehow dead and she believes this lie fully - we have no indication she ever doubted this. And what does Isobel do?

She makes a stand against the shadows, makes herself a beacon and protector, adamantly refuses to abandon any bit of her faith and her lifelong service to her goddess (even while expressing her dissatisfaction with Selûne's apparent laissez-faire approach there, if pressed), gives her all to set up a shelter and support the people mounting a resistance against her own father. "At any cost," she says, and it all clearly does cost her quite a bit - she is so very visibly exhausted and at the end of her tether when we meet her, but also chooses to be patient and to stay back and support and heal and all that. I feel like Michiru, in this situation, would rather march up to Moonrise and take on the entire army herself in a doomed last stand. Unless, I don't know, maybe a Jaheira-Setsuna situation could help?

All this actually makes me think Isobel has a lot of Hotaru vibes! The goth girl whose antagonist dad is part of leading an entire elaborate evil operation (she's the only thing he has left, she is an obsession, he will keep resurrecting her no matter the cost), being brought back from the dead by him in a weird way and suffering the various consequences of this. She even has an Ominous Cough going on, and her most prominent magical power is shielding and healing. Then, a tadpoled Isobel as a parallel to Mistress 9? You could go places with that.

Looking at the other halves of the couples, Haruka, when she thinks Michiru is dead:

You’re so unfair, Michiru, to leave for a world of your own. Don’t leave me here.

Aylin, in turn, seems to have dealt with Isobel's first death fairly... healthily. I mean, it's hard to say, when the one point of coping comparison we have is Ketheric. Certainly her grief is immense and when she says "I have mourned her these hundred years" it is the most believable thing. If Isobel dies again before they get reunited, we see a more subdued version of Aylin who is extremely duty-focused and determined to soldier on (her epilogue letter guts me) and who gives me that very I Will Never Love Again impression of kind of cutting herself off from the more mortal/human parts of her that Isobel seems very much a tether to (and you could go neat places with this being a parallel to the senshi dealing with having human identities, i.e. Haruka vs Uranus). But we do get some truly chilling stuff from Aylin if Isobel dies after their reunion (as well as a serving of some absolutely heartbreaking "I don't care what happens to me as long as Isobel is safe" right before that).

When I am free, I will destroy you! I will murder you, and your children, and their children beside! I will rip this world apart, plank and beam, until every iota of your being is scalded by my light.

So she is going to make very sure that a world without Isobel is also a world without you, traitor. And after that most thorough vengeance is done? I can't think of anything that bodes well, I'm afraid. But the senshi I could most easily see going down this particular dark route is, well, Michiru, and not Haruka.

Continuing this extremely self-indulgent thought exercise, it reminds me a bit of "every yuri couple is Utena and Anthy if you try hard and believe in yourself" and I'd say let's go for a twist: while they are absolutely nothing alike, Aylin sure makes an interesting Anthy because she's magically imprisoned for an unimaginably long time, has a thousand swords stuck in her over and over again, and she suffers because men objectify her and covet her for her power and what she represents and want to use her, and it seems to be a cycle she is doomed to repeat forever purely because of who she is. Meanwhile, Isobel is, uh, a car? I don't know how far I can stretch this, hahah.

In any case, thank you for this excuse to blather on! Always appreciated. Again, this is peak self-indulgence, and I love it.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Let's say you have complete creative control.

How would you write a Marinette (non-Akuma/Amok) corruption arc?

If I had complete creative control, I wouldn't do a corruption arc for Marinette, I'd do one for Gabriel. But I'm assuming you want me to pretend I would do one for Marinette, so I will because why not? How I'd do it would depend heavily on when the writing team gave up and shoved the story into my hands. For the purposes of this hypothetical, I'm going to have to lean into the bad writing, so read on at your own risk.

Current state: as of the end of season five, Marinette seemingly knows that Adrien is a sentimonster. Marinette also has anxiety issues and there's a new butterfly villain on the loose whose knowledge regarding Adrien and connection to Gabriel are unknown. We also have Felix's previous less-than-heroic actions and Nathalie's status as Gabriel's former right hand lady. With all these less-than-awesome people out there, fully aware of Adrien's vulnerability, we have a pretty fantastic setup for an arc where Marinette gets ever more paranoid and controlling in the name of keeping Adrien safe from this new villain. Basically have her spiral into Gabriel 2.0 where her love for Adrien is used to justify terrible things. Not a setup I'd want to watch, but it does fit the show's treatment of The Power of Love so, you know, do with that what you will.

Season three up to near the end of season five: Something to do with Lila making Marinette lose all faith in her friends because, if you're going to write them as terrible friends, you may as well own it. Have Marinette feel like she's sacrificing everything for people who treat her like a villain or a child in spite of all she does, so she decides why bother to be the good guy? Why make all these sacrifices when it never works out for her? I'd probably have her stop showing up to fights like Chat Noir did in Kuro Neko, only if Ladybug did that it would be a much bigger deal. You could even have her full out quit and give Chat Noir her miraculous and the miracle box as a bit of a "fine, you do it and see if you can do it better" thing. Basically anything that lets her go fully selfish due to pressure and poor treatment since it's really not fair that Adrien's the only one who's allowed to miss battles and give up his miraculous when he doesn't feel appreciated.

A variation on this could be quitting because of something like her friends are putting too much pressure on her re:Adrien combined with the show's love of never letting her make the right call when it really matters, so she snaps from all this pressure on every side.

Pre season three: I don't think there's really a great lead up to a corruption in the earlier seasons. Things were pretty great back then. Idk, maybe have her snap from frustration with Chat Noir never taking things seriously, so she starts mimicking him, leading to people getting hurt? (Reminder, I think this is a writing issue when it comes to Chat Noir, but it's there and I said we were going to lean into canon's bad writing for this so here we are.)

And there you go! My takes on evil!Marinette. As I said at the start, I'm not interested in writing any of these. While I do think canon has the setup for them, they rely too heavily on things canon should never have done. Things that don't fit my image of Marinette's core character.

I'm also not big on corruption arcs for heroes. For me, they fall under the same category as the broken partnership/team trope: interesting concept, but one that's rarely executed in a satisfying way. They also tend to be too depressing and/or tragic for my tastes.

My two major hobbies are writing/reading fiction and studying world history/cultures. World history isn't all doom and gloom, but there's a lot of harsh, tragic, and sad things to be found in the past. As such, I've never really enjoyed fictional stories with a hopeless feeling to them. I turn to fictional worlds to escape reality. To go to places full of satisfying endings that are, at worst, bittersweet. If I'm reading a tragedy, I want something that's all or mostly historical fact. Not a matter of judgment, just one of personal preference.

[madhatterbri]

Lips Of An Angel | M.J.

Summary: Reader and Matthew have a late night conversation.

Author's Note: Thanks to @supakixbabe for the GIF. This popped into my head since man seems like he is always brooding. Do not take this seriously.

@plentyoffandoms

Pure fiction

Matthew sat up in the living room couch channel surfing through the television. It was just another boring night at home. The kids were asleep. His wife lay in their bed watching whatever program caught her interest. His mind started to drift away as he thought about you. To his shock, you must have been thinking about him too.

His phone lit up with your picture and name. You were calling him. Panic set in as he wondered if something happened to you. He looked at the clock. Midnight. Something definitely had to have happened for the late-night phone call. He grabbed his phone and peered down the hallway. His wife was still in bed. In a split-minute decision, he answered the phone and went into the backyard. His family could never hear the conversation he was about to have.

"Y/N? It is midnight," he pointed out as if you didn't own a watch or clock. He was answered by the sounds of you crying. He recognized this cry from before. You were thinking about the life you could have had with him before everything fell apart. Matthew asked anyway. "Are you ok? Why are you crying?"

"Just thinking about what my life could have been like with you," you admitted between breathy sobs. "Why are you whispering?"

"I am outside. She is awake in the bedroom and I don't want her to hear us," he answered. Matthew looked down and shifted his feet. "I was just thinking about you, you know? Sometimes I wish she was you,"

Those affirmations seemed to calm you down a bit. You were now still breathing heavily on the phone, but at least you were calmer. Matt hated saying those words out loud but they were true. He didn't only have these thoughts in the bad times, but in the good ones as well. No matter what his wife did he always wondered how you would have done things.

"Matthew," you whispered just getting your bearings back. His legs faltered at the mention of his name. The way it rolled off your tongue each time no matter the circumstance. You were his angel on Earth. The two of you could never be apart from each other.

"Did you remember what today was then?" He inquired and looked at his watch to see the date. Today was the anniversary of the day he met you at one of the Dynamite tapings. He was walking around the arena and spotted you in the first row. His feet felt like they were planted in the ground. His brother had to drag him away before it started to raise suspicions. Matthew suddenly got a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Does he know you're talking to me right now?" He asked. The same douchebag that sat next to you in the arena. It was obvious he was out of his domain. The guy had a scowl on his face the entire time. The man looked miserable even though he had some amazing seats. At least you were there to make things better.

"He is at work. It would just start a fight if he knew I was talking to you," you sighed. Plenty of times you opened up about your marriage to this guy. The fear of the unknown kept you with him. He was your high school sweetheart. What if you couldn't find someone else to love you?

"You and I would certainly be in the same boat," he spoke and let his mind start to reminisce about you. The way you brought your head back to laugh at all his jokes. All the times you cheered him and his brother on despite the odds.

"Matthew, I wish things could be different," you confessed.

"I love it when you say my name," he reminded her. His heart skipped a beat when you confessed the same feelings he had. He sighed and rubbed his face. You made it so hard to be faithful. A thought popped into his head. Maybe just one night wouldn't be so bad.

"I saw on the calendar we are going to be a few hours from you. Maybe we both stay at the same hotel?" he asked.

Your giggle and excitement was all he needed to hear.

[streaminn]

My brain is bored and my mind is thinking

Say, we all know that Wednesday is lowkey spoilt right? She always expected things to go her way, you can see it in the way she barges into Weems office or how lil care she has whenever she shoves orders at the sheriff's face

So imagine what happens when someone ghosts her

It'd strike her pride because well, Wednesday is the best and she knows this. There would be no reason for why someone wouldn't listen to her nor would there be a reason for someone to... Ignore her like this either

Now that we got that, lemme set the scene

They're adults, no supernatural, just a completely modern au

Enid is an accountant. It's boring, not at all what she expects from when she was younger but all she has to do is calculate money and it's monotonous enough that she can go through days absolutely no thoughts head empty

It's not the future she wants but it's the future she got

Yoko, her lovely coworker notices how not so firey her seatmate is and offers a new chat app because nothing is as fun as deciding to troll random people

Enid squints at the name. "are you seriously telling me to E date right now?"

"pshhhh, ofcourse not!" yoko says unconvincingly. "just get on and play around with some people, maybe talking to someone other than boss and me could liven you up :D"

Enid stares, wondering how tf did yoko do that before sighing and downloading the app. "if I get doxxed, you're helping me move to a new house."

Yoko waves a hand before twirling back to her cubicle. "thank me if you find a sugar daddy!"

Enid flushes. "you know I don't swing that way!"

Yoko laughs.

The blond grumbles before tapping at the recently downloaded app. It's literally like tinder and Enid knows that this is a dating app trying to hide as something else

So in payback, Enid starting basing her profile of yoko. She wasn't petty enough to snap a Pic of her best friend so she went to Google and kind of try harded in making her profile look like an emo girl's aesthetic board

Huh, maybe yoko has a point, this is pretty fun

Oh for the days where Enid could make things, maybe she should pick up crocheting again. Tempting, she'll do that when she gets home

As soon as she was done, Enid began randomly swiping right with absolutely no care at all.

Enid still places her name as enid because.. Why not. By the time she finished her bio, she got too lazy to create a new name so actual name it is!

It takes a bit because apparently no one in this app likes edgy girls who enjoy dark walks, cadaver dogs and wine so dark red it looks like blood. Enid only liked one thing in that list and she wonders how did she become friends with someone with such concerning interests.

Honestly, now that Enid is think about it, her profile kind of sounds like a serial killer's. If they were dumb and was way too open about their interest, so it was no wonder no one was swiping on her

But as she was about to put the phone down and have some faith in people's taste in women, a match was made

Okay, concerning

Time to have some fun.

Immediately, Enid knew this must be some satire account because really? Wednesday A? Very interesting because she too didn't have pictures of herself, instead it was pretty good shots of a Gothic looking house, a lion?? A graveyard and a typewriter

Clearly they were trying to be all Dracula up in this place.

In the bio, it simply said

> author

Enid nods, she can respect sticking to the bit. She lowkey expected a historian but vampires being authors felt fitting aswell

Well, no time like the present! Why not do some classic rp for the shits and giggles

So they start talking

Wednesday types like she doesn't know how to use simply words and well, Enid would've loved to reciprocate because damn the amount of immersion is impressive but after the fifth typo, Enid gave up

And oh, she's a woman

Enid kind of expected a dude to be trolling but when she went "hello good sir, what are you doing this fine day?"

She kind of chokes on her water when Wednesday replies with a "Its ma'am and the day is going quite horridly, the weather where I am at has the temper and I can not wait to experience it first hand."

Who in the nine hells says horridly??

But hey, Wednesday is rping a vampire, Enid can't be all pissy when she's good at it

So they text and they text for days. Maybe it's been a month and Wednesday is just as weird as always, no breaking of character at all and Enid can respect the dedication. Call it escapism but enid has fun acting like she totally would not grimace at the sight of a dead body when Wednesday talked in detail about her novel. From what she's sees, Wednesday sounds like she probably didn't have much friends due to her interests and Enid gets that, so there's no harm in indulging

Until one day, she gets invited out to hang with yoko for the weekend and since she was in such a hurry, she kind of left her phone in her house

Wednesday, old money and living in seclusion, Addams isn't taking that so well. Finally after decades, someone takes her being wholly herself and doesn't seem disgusted. Normally she didn't care, she joined this app simply because her parents insisted for some sort of social interaction outside of family

But enid was different, she didn't try to change the subject, instead she oohs and aaahs at any info Wednesday gives. It's.. Intoxicating when Enid points out how smart she must be to know these type of things. Actually! She wondered more about her family history and didn't sound at all surprised when Wednesday mentions their odd background.

"it's fitting," Enid types. "that you would come from such a strong family, I'm sure they're proud to have someone like you."

It makes a part of Wednesday soar so mayhaps she was going through something when Enid doesn't reply one day.

It goes like this

- Enid - Enid answer me, I know you never go about without your phone - Enid did someone kidnap you? I've gone through channels and none of them match your description - Have I done something wrong? Perhaps a slight that I did not know was a thing? -

"pugsley," Wednesday says, pushing open be door to his room. Her hand is tight on her phone before she slides it over with a tense jaw. "I need you to do find the location of this woman."

Pugsley peers at the screen, raising a brow at the rather nondescript pfp. In bold letters is the username: Enid

the brother agrees and just like that, Enid fate was sealed. The blond was absolutely unaware of what she just got herself into, far too busy spending time with yoko

[howlingday]

Do you think Salem has hobbies if she does what kind of hobbies would she have? What would her inner circles hobbies be?

Let's see... Going for jokes and whatnot, let's see what kind of hobbies Salem and her inner circle probably has.

Salem is literally making Grimm all the time in her black pool. That said, I could see her also being really into cooking and might even watch cooking shows and cooking along with them. She then has her Grimm dispose of what's left of the meals when the inner circle is done eating.

Up next, we have Cinder, who is constantly plotting and scheming of way to become more powerful. It's kinda hard for me to say what she likes to do since most of what she does is all in the interest of serving the purpose of a later goal. That said, I'm having trouble thinking of anything since most of it would be more what she considers a waste of time... except gardening. She has her own personal garden that she plants seeds for and waters until they grow into beautiful flowers or food-stuffs for Salem to cook with. It may also better solidify her ties with Salem.

Tyrian is Salem's oldest and most faithful servant, serving as her tracker and hunter for the Maidens and the relics. Since murder isn't considering a viable hobby, part of me wants to say hunting, though I can't really see Tyrian as a hunting guy. Not with long range methods, anyways. Now fishing is a different story. I could see him dipping his tail into the water, using it was a hook until he yanks up the hapless fish. He also provides Salem with her cooking supplies. Am I just making up a Salem cooking AU? Who know.

Watts is Salem's tech guy, and he is very good at hacking and other computer-based things. Aside from that, I could also see him into other intellectually-driven pursuits. Not chess because chess is too important to the story of RWBY. No, I'm thinking more like crossword puzzles and sudokus. His morning paper is all he needs to have a good time. And if he screws up, he can just erase it because he's not an idiot who fills out the crossword in pen! YOU HAVE PENCILS! USE THEM! ...Wait, what were we talking about?

Hazel. Oh, Hazel, how sad it was to see you go after coming so far. Judging by his size, you'd think he'd be big into weight-lifting and some kind of martial-arts routine, but I think he instead picks up where his sister probably left off with her hobby. I'm thinking things like books or movies or maybe even like tiny horse figurines. Stuff you wouldn't normally associate with an eight-foot-tall brickhouse with an immunity to pain and an unquenchable desire for hate.

Let's see, who else is in Salem's Inner Circle? Looking at the Wiki, it's... Oh no. Ohoho my god... Evernight Castle? No, that's not what it's called, is it? Oh, it is! Oh my god, and it's located in "The Land of Darkness". Yeah, no, Hazel is definitely an MLP fan and he joined the villains to avenge his dead sister. Just... Oh my god... This cannot be real! Ugh... Anyway, who else is there?

Wait, who the hell is Vermillion Raddock? Oh, RWBY: Grimm Campaign. Yeah, one of these days I'll actually see it or hopefully play it, but good golly, will it be a while. Did they ever sell Grimm Campaign merchandise, or was it just a podcast that we had to be members of RT to watch? Oh well, questions for later.

Let's see... Tock... Unnamed female warrior... Oh, Mercury! I guess Emerald isn't a member, either, huh? Or even a member at all? Anyway...

Mercury is probably the easiest to figure out for me. Judging by how he's into sniffing boots and recording genocide, I'm gonna guess he's a blogger of some kind as a hobby. He's not in it for the money, just for the reactions he can get out of people. But then again, I may have a bias against the guy who recorded people being murdered with a smile on his face. Seriously, fuck this guy!

But I could be wrong on all accounts for these characters. What do you guys think?

[gritsandbrits]

My late night thoughts on TF ONE

‼️HEAVY SPOILERS BELOW ‼️

- Elita didnt die HELL YEAH i am so glad we are moving away from ignoring and fridging her

- Bee is actually bearable here, and knows when to take things seriously

- wow i think even animated sentinel would be disgusted with his counterpart cuz even he wouldn't resort to murder & stealing t-cogs

- megatrons turn felt a little rushed but he was still pretty cool

- i think optimus could use a lesson on how his brashness effects others

- JAZZ LIVES

- the joke over starscream's damaged vocals sounding 'ridiculous' is ableist

- the few times we see the quintessons are scary as hell! They're like a juiced up alien version of a drug cartel

- SENTINEL and Airachnid dynamic is basically adam and lute but good

- soundwave voice threw me off im so used to it sounding melodic

- i think optimus and megatron should've spent time with sentinel like they go to his "luxury" hospital or smthn, & they start seeing cracks in the facade, it makes them learning aboht his true nature a total gut punch

- Badassitron

- the music and visuals 5000/10 Will See again

- like they get pre Great War cybertron down PERFECTLY and the shifting landscape is *chefs kiss* MAGNIFICO

- like sentinel really is whay Magnifico could be as a competent villain and Airachnid is Evil!Amaya but she's the grunt and he's the macbeth (usually its the evil woman who is the thinker while the man is the violent one). She doesn't even betray him - i really expected her to be secretly plotting against him because this is AIRACHNID we're talking about but no she 100% sticks by him the whole time and she's not annoying bitch Pick me like discount Amity.

- basically its the same plot of WISH but with MUCH better writing, i know i said i gotten sick of seeing wish dragged through the dirt but even i can't deny TF ONE did a better job

- speaking of Megatron actually faces consequences for betrayal instead of that jackass Simon who was too easily forgiven

- the faces grew on me

- finally a transformers movie with a compelling plot without annoying white people im so happy

- also they put PEPPA PIG of all characters in the Hasbro logo and not MLP... the hell? This makes me confused on the state of MLP as a whole like does hasbro just not care for the brand anymore?

- the visuals the VISUALS i dont want a 2d animation fanbrat to come at this movie ILM blew it out of the park once again!

- somewhere a guro lover has died and went to heaven

- because oh my god they did not cut away at sentinel being torn in half at megs' hands.

- CLOSE UP. ON THE SCREEN. IN SLOW MOTION. I HAD TO COVER MY EYES BECAUSE I WAS SO FREAKED OUT!

- the trailers implied he was going to be murked by quintessons but his actual death is worse. So much worse... i wouldn't even wish it on Adam Hazbin.

- So glad they didn't make elita just the GIRLBOSS™, she was genuinely frustrated with the caste system that hindered her growth. she's what a girlboss should be, not a mindless bully. Lute could take some notes from her.

Lute: will you please stop?!

Me: hey im not the one so boy crazy i ended up getting jealous of a lesbian

Seth: ouch

Evan: Miss Lute why did you let Grits eat you up like that 🤭

- orion is essentially asha but the writers trusting him enough to carry the movie. I still like her but you can tell the crew didn't have much faith in her - which SUCKS!

- ooh starscream is a little kinky

- i didnt stay for the post credits scene because i had to leave to go to work right after, but whatever it was, i bet it was AWESOME

- i think movie 2 will focus on the great war and movie 3 would have the 2 factions united to stop the quintessons

- so happy they didnt try to shove in beast wars too, like i hope we get separate beast wars media

- alpha trion is so awesome, for the amount of screentime he ate every second of it! Kudos to Laurence Fishburne

- man... this sentinel is the logical conclusion to TFA!Sentinel if he doesn't stop being an asshole

- the celebrity VAs are good, really good they sound like their having so much fun and not phoning it in

- they gave bee his stingers love it!!

- the race scene was a feast for the eyes with plenty of laughs to go along with it!

- it's sad seeing megatronus being a genuine hero only to have his legacy tarnished now that Evil!Megs has his t-cog. No matter what side he's one he will always be known as The Fallen

- here you go Animation Twitter! you finally got your Unambiguously, Unrepentant, Enjoys Being Evil Villain! now can you PLEASE stop whining?

- the dynamic had such a genuine bond and i think megatron and elita are a flip of each other theyre both angry but elita learns to put it to good use and not let herself be blinded by it while megs is consumed by his

- orion and megs are actual friends, we see them laugh and hang out together. Whether you ship them or not this is a really good display of MegOp. Hell

- see you CAN make optimus a bookworm without turning him into a cop or librarian!

- love how playful orion is at the beginning he reminds me of animated with bits of cheetor

- the textures on the bots are so neat, you can tell sentinel never been in real combat because he's all shiny and stuff while everyone else has dents and scrapes

- the themes are handled a lot better than i expected, how optimus knew they have to fight sentinel but can't execute him either. How the wealthy would keep the disenfranchised down just to keep their place in society, the limits of idealism vs. Extremism, and blindly trusting your leaders

- also how we CAN choose who we want to be but that wont always work if you live in a system designed to fail you on purpose

- genuinely smart move to use airachnid's memories to expose sentinel's crimes

- the decepticons are genuinely fighting against sentinel but its also made clear most of them are just fighting for the sake of fighting. I hope they get more characteristics in later media

- megatron does raise good points but because of sentinel, Je thinks ALL primes are inherently evil when they were BETRAYED. HE EVEN SPOKE TO A PRIME! ALPHA TRION SHOWED HIM FOOTAGE OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, ARE U STUPID?!

- we agree this is better than anything out of bayverse right? It is also BETTER than the 86 movie because we actually get to KNOW the characters and the film strikes a healthy balance between light and darkness. Also the only deaths are the ones that matter.

- like finally another modern kids movie thats allowed to be DARK and not entirely sanitized for stockholders

- as for what i ate i had chicken strips and an icee; i combined cherry and Wild apple flavor it tasted alright. I should've snuck in a Chipotle burrito lmao

And that concludes my very messy, grammatically incorrect thoughts the greatest Transformers movie ever made! Go see it! Pay for it, theatre hop, pirate i don't care!

[just-antithings]

For a popular ship in my fandom (the closest thing to an OTP I'll ever have prob) there's a discord which has the rules, "nothing illegal here such as incest, pedophilia, or rape." The other rule was "no arguing about the rules."

They're obviously free to moderate the space however they want. They're the ones running the server. If I don't like it, I'm free to bounce, which is exactly what I promptly did lol.

However, the more I sat with this, the more it occurred to me just what a ridiculous case of bad faith anti virtue signaling this was.

With my blog for that fandom, on my mutual list alone, there are fellow fic writers from Scandanavia, Brazil, the UK, Mexico, and France. The source material is from Japan. Should people in the discord be obeying one of *those* counties' laws or the source material's?

The fact that I can assume the answer is no and that we're defaulting to U.S. law is actually outrageously ethnocentric, even moreso than it might be in other fandoms given how small it is these days. If you're in a chat with 50 people, 25 of whom aren't residents from your country, and you say "oh and of course don't be a filthy, disgusting law-breaker and bad citizen uwu" that's about half the group you've just been a pretty big asshole to 😬 "Me, me, me."

Even if we are defaulting to U.S. law, it's a ludicrous request. Take the rules literally and we shouldn't even be talking about canon because "break the law and damn the consequences" is the biggest running bit in the story lmao. Again, they're asking us to assume--this time that they're only talking about the REALLY bad stuff, sex, which is uniquely bad and evil and dirty and wrong even more than murder or torture (both of which also happen in the show) of course.

I can think of ten classic fics in this fandom which technically wouldn't/dubiously pass their rules. Wildly popular high school AUs and stuff that I suspect they wouldn't think counted, but how are the members of the discord supposed to know that? If we're all in a room, and you say "alright, I'm running this meeting! Also I'm laying my Christian Gun on the table, just to have it out for any FILTHY, HELL-BOUND PERVERTS taking refuge here, kay? What? Nuh-uh NO arguing about the gun you unruly children!" ....people with good ideas are going to leave, or not share them out of fear. Way to speed up the death of our fandom.

Finally, that example leads me to something even more fundamental that bothered me a lot about this: are they seriously under the impression that people are going to plug their filthy copefics/darkfics in a public space about a general popular ship of two characters who canonically haven't even kissed? It's inherently accusatory and condescending and noxious.

Anyways, sorry this got long. Thanks for having this inbox open so people like me can share stuff like this that's hard to talk about in small fandoms.

.

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hello again shippers & readers!

It's hard to believe that a whole month has passed since Steven Season began but due to some truly discerning votes, we landed on the flagship for our finale. And it turns out that by some chance, we landed on a fic with New Year's and the element of change and growth as its theme. That was we’ll make a brand new start of it (in old new york) by misantlery.

The book club gushed and yelled because not only does this absolutely nail the very tender trope of fake-dating, it pretty much hammers home the Steven and Andrew dynamic. The sweetness, the innocent curiosity, and the quiet attraction. It was such a good read that this mod couldn't resist combining our Creative Round with a mini discussion which resulted in one of the biggest book club exclusive meta twists this fandom has probably ever seen.

Rating: E

Summary:

“Just to be clear,” Andrew says. “You want me to pretend to be your boyfriend at a party to spite your high school bully and your high school girlfriend and possibly the entire state of Ohio?”

Steven giggles. “Spite’s such a harsh word. Shock and impress, maybe.”

“For a man of faith you’re being awfully morally flexible about this,” Andrew says.

Book Club Thoughts

No but seriously this was a perfect romcom it really read like an episode of worth it and even if you don't know the characters much then it's a solid friends to lovers romcom scenario I think Worth it afforded a lot of insight into Steven's type of giddy innocence but so rarely do I see someone write his curiosity and his ability to just go for what we wants I mentioned in the live read but i'm not sure I typed it but what I particularly think makes [the author's] Steven characterisation here so tangible is how he is so rehearsed for this. He has an agenda and of course, all his hopes, but i wouldn't call what he did manipulative. It's like setting a stage clumsily for what he wants and it rings so true for a Steven irl whose intents often go misinterpreted What also elevates the fic is an awareness of Steven as a physical being. For all his innocence and shyness, [the author] never makes him small. "All that muchness" is so much a part of the way he's received socially I gotta say Steven was well written in every fic we read this month but this was interesting to see him from Andrew's pespective and still get a full picture of him if you will ...Like both Andrew and Steven are well written and they feel like full fledged characters even if the pov is limited I love First Times but so often it hinges so much on the Virginity Concept which if that's your kink, fair, but sometimes I just want someone to go in and their mind is attuned to the experience for what it is and the fact that it isn't just mechanically two bodies performing the act but Steven is so present as a character as is Andrew that the first time

Creative Submissions

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