#lol that’s only sort of rhetorical

[sickgraymeat]

it’s more likely than you think

[communistkenobi]

I know being like “communism is religious” is an extremely annoying thing to say but I’m reading a book called red demiurge which is about the legal history of the soviet union and honestly that title is not hyperbole

[aeide-thea]

so i went to reblog some fanart earlier and started to tag it #oh this is. incredible actually, and then paused and thought, @‍self why the 'actually.' what is that adverb conveying. and i contemplated it for a bit, and finally concluded: well, shit. it's reflexive deprecation.

the thing is, deprecation is my starting position pretty much always, and that's a problem in itself, but mostly my problem; but when you're talking abt somebody else's work, and you start backing defensively away from imagined negativity before anyone's even actually voiced any? you may think you're playing bodyguard, but in reality you're the vanguard of the assault, opening a wedge for enemy forces to strike.

i was talking a couple of weeks ago abt seeing ppl tag that kristin sue lucas name-multiplied-by-one post with tags like 'this is art To Me' vel sim., and honestly i think it's a similar sort of reflex—i think exposure to the tumblr vernacular often leads people (very much including me!) to produce turns of phrase like this, that ultimately serve to convey roughly

'i, a clever girlblogger,¹ am, yeah, engaging with this frivolous hai pollai²-coded material; but my relationship to it, unlike that of most she-ple, is Intellectual and Analytical and Examined! and to make that clear, i'll be dropping in these little verbal particles from time to time, in order to distinguish my own, elevated examination of the subject from the state of risible naivete³ i'm implicitly ascribing to the other, more ordinary audience members i'm conjuring up only to instantly put down—but like, it's fine, i'm a free-and-easy girlblogger(TM), so you can't think i'd ever deliberately propagate establishmentarian prejudices! never mind the effect my rhetoric might subconsciously be having, on me or on anyone else…'

and i think this framing is worth squinting at, and worth attempting to excise from one's speech and from one's mindset, because when you get right down to it? it's just yet another insidious manifestation of respectability politics, that's gotten people to adopt it via the cuckoo-chick strategy of positioning itself as cutesy tumblr idiolect.

and like, circling back around to that fanart i mentioned at the outset: yeah, the tag did feel weirdly prosodically truncated to me without that 'actually'! but this way, if the artist ends up seeing my discussion of their work in their notes, they won't be getting slapped in the face with a wet dead fish first, so like. what's more important, you know?

⸻ ¹ ""(gender neutral)"" ² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoi_polloi in the feminine, if i haven't totally fumbled my declensions… ³ phrasing nicked from a comment of @‍proudheron's.

[wileys-russo]

I know the beds in the village are supposed to be “anti sex” without technically being anti sex lol. I feel like jenni or misa (your choice who to write for) on the high of the Olympics would absolutely make it their mission to prove they’re not sex proof beds only to actually break them. Would love a little blurb about that if you have time 💞💞

cardboard beds II j.hermoso (18+)

"did you know-" you sighed as your airpod was suddenly tugged out and someone slid into the once vacant seat beside you on the bus, turning to look at the girl with a raised eyebrow.

"what happened to 'mi amor i can see you are tired, i will let you rest and go annoy someone else'." you mocked, your girlfriend gasping dramatically and holding your airpod out of reach as you tried to take it back.

"those are not my words, i do not know who has been calling you mi amor other than me...but if i find them, there will be trouble." jenni tutted with a shake of her head, allowing you to snatch your airpod back from where it was clasped between her slender tattooed fingers with a roll of your eyes.

"de todas formas. back to what i was saying-" your girlfriend made herself comfortable beside you, feet kicking up onto the headrest of the chair in front of you as patri turned around and pushed them off with a glare.

maturely jenni stuck her tongue out at the younger girl, one arm slipping over the back of your chair as she shuffled even closer to you. ”angry eyebrows.” your girlfriend teased, licking her thumb and smoothing them out as you made a noise of disgust and slapped her hand away.

no longer alone you gave up on any chance of a power nap after training, still struggling slightly to adjust to the routine of the tournament a couple of days in. you snapped your airpods into their case and zipped them back into your bag, flicking your girlfriends ear as she chattered away to ona in the row across from you

"you were saying?" you sighed cocking an eyebrow at the taller girl who grinned, sloppily kissing your cheek as you pulled a face and pushed her away, unsure how she never seemed to tire or have an off switch despite training hard in the french sun for the last three hours.

"sí as i was saying, oh wait actually-" she sat up a little straighter, eyes roaming the bus clearly looking for someone as the tiny sliver of patience you had left for her games started to dwindle even further.

"jenni! oh dios mio the point, find it." you groaned, elbowing her as she grunted but settled back into her seat. "vale. so our beds, cardboard sí?" your girlfriend asked rhetorically as you hummed tiredly.

"if that is all you suddenly realized after two days-" you started with a shake of your head as she dismissed you with a wave. "no no, let me finish." the girl shushed you as you sighed but nodded for her to go on.

"well-you know you look so pretty today cari, being an olympian looks good on you." jenni grinned interrupting herself, pointer finger poking your nose as you stared back unimpressed.

but knowing her well enough you could see she was clearly trying to bait you into some sort of reaction for her own amusement by testing your patience, a reaction which you wouldn't be giving her.

"vale the cardboard beds. so laia was speaking to one of the staff members who overheard someone from the argentina team speaking to one of the chefs say that they were supposed to be anti sex. introduced in the last games because everyone was found to be having sex in the village!" your girlfriend beamed, clearly proud of her little discovery as again you only hummed.

"aparentemente they will break and collapse if there is more than one person on them." jenni added on, wiggling her eyebrows as her face nearly split in two from the cheshire like grin which enveloped it.

"muy bonito. is that it?" you questioned, shifting slightly in your seat and closing your eyes hearing your girlfriend scoff beside you. "qué? you do not find that interesting?" jenni asked in disbelief as you shrugged, not particularly as moved by her discovery as she was.

"no realmente. a bed is a bed, a rumor is a rumor, rules are rules." you shrugged yet again, hissing as your girlfriends fingers darted beneath the fabric of your training top to pinch your sides, eyes flying open.

though before you could open your mouth to tell her off her lips pressed quickly but sweetly against your own, words dying out as she smiled charmingly and pushed a loose strand of hair behind your ear. “te quiero.” she grinned, bright green eyes locked with yours.

"váyase." you shoved her in response, scooting as close to the window as you could get and hearing the midfielder chuckle beside you. "vamos princesa, do you not feel curious about this? not even un poquito?" the girl asked with a pout shuffling closer to you again, squishing her thumb and forefinger together to leave the tiniest of gaps.

"no bebé, en absoluto." you smiled truthfully, hand slapping gently against her cheek. "so you will not eh...test this, with me?" jenni's chin rested on your shoulder and you pushed her head away as her lips grazed beneath your ear.

"will i test if the cardboard beds break by having sex with you, before the tournament even begins?" you asked quietly as you leaned in closer to her, well aware this was anything but a private space for this sort of conversation as your girlfriend nodded gleefully.

"mm....no." you breathed out against her lips, pulling right back and leaning your body against the wall of the bus, eyes closing again. "amor!" jenni scoffed, clearly not impressed with your answer as the corners of your mouth tugged into a smile and you shooed at her with your hands.

"váyase hermoso."

though jenni forever a persistent woman you weren't surprised when this wasn't the last you heard about her little cardboard bed theory, exiting the bathroom after a shower and sighing seeing the small group gathered in your bedroom.

"qué estáis haciendo?" you asked sceptically, flicking your head forward and scraping your damp hair into a loose bun, not bothered to dry it before dinner.

"science!" misa announced happily with a grin, her laia and jenni all sat bouncing up and down on laia's bed across from yours. "you know amiga if you let them break your bed, you have to go talk to the staff about a new one, not them." you warned laia, the younger girl faltering for a moment, pausing to think on your words.

"ignore her codi, ella es una party pooper." your girlfriend teased as you rolled your eyes and took a seat on your own bed, watching the three of them goof around clearly trying to see if the rumours about the beds breaking were true.

"see amor! very strong cardboard." jenni laughed as her, misa and codi stood and jumped around on the bed now which somehow didn't crumple beneath their weight, misa swearing as laia tackled her and she hit the mattress with a thump and a groan. "didn't break!" your girlfriend cheered, letting out a war cry and diving on top of the other two.

"idiotas." you mumbled, slipping into your shoes ready to head down to dinner. then it went suspiciously quiet and you looked up, jolting at the three sets of eyes that stared back at you, with a look you knew too well.

"no no no-" you started, trying to get up and make a break for it but you weren't fast enough. "consíguela!" your girlfriend yelled, all three of them launching at you as you groaned beneath them the weight of them jumping on top of you.

"pendejos! get off of me." you grunted, managing to get an arm free and shoving laia who was teetering on top of the pile, sending her tumbling to the ground with a yelp.

misa unable to control her laughter rolled off next, landing on top of laia who groaned through her giggles, your girlfriend still on top of you with a grin.

"you are a twelve year old boy in a grown womans body jennifer!" you shoved her next as the midfielder rolled off the bed and onto the others, all three of them collapsing into a fit of giggles as you rolled your eyes and shot to your feet.

"mi amor venga it was a joke!" the taller girl laughed from the ground as you shot her a dirty look, the other two oohing at the site as jenni wrangled misa into a headlock and laia cheered them on and you left them to it, headed down for dinner.

~

as much as her immaturity could be infuriating at times, you'd been in love with jenni for long enough not to let her jokes or attempts to push your buttons really get to you.

so a few hours later that night everything was fine again, your girlfriend apologizing and sticking to your side being sweet all throughout dinner which meant you couldn't stay annoyed with her for long, ignoring the teasings from your friends about how whipped you were for one another.

"campeóna!" the tattooed midfielder hollered loudly as cata swore and thumped the table tennis paddle down onto the table and storming off, jenni undefeated so far the entire evening.

"alexia?" jenni offered it up with a grin, the blonde next to you chuckling but shaking her head firmly. “ni hablar” 

"oh vamos! no one will challenge the campeóna?" jenni announced, looking around the rec room as a few girls rolled their eyes, most already bested by the older girl at the game she was frighteningly good at.

"cari?" her attention turned to you next, eyebrows wiggling as a few of the younger girls cheered your name, alexia nudging you with an encouraging nod as your girlfriend did a little dance making you smile.

"no, you remain campeóna. but why don't you let someone else have a turn amor." you hinted, jenni pausing for a moment before giving in, leaving both paddles on the table as some of the younger girls all scrambled for them.

"movie?" jenni asked, taking alexia's space beside you as your captain headed off on a phone call, though you saw the slight smile in your girlfriends face and chuckled knowing what she really meant.

"sí claro, a movie."

~

"jenni, cariño we can't." you laughed, knocking away your girlfriends hands where they toyed with the waistband of your shorts, your shirt already removed and tossed over her shoulder at least twenty minutes ago.

you'd returned to the room she shared with misa when you left, a movie the last thing on either of your minds as jenni wasted no time pulling you down onto her bed, soft admissions of adoration shared among tender kisses.

"but princesa we can!" jenni argued with a grin, pointer finger trailing shapes around your hips, snapping the waistband of your shorts with a wink.

"no we can't! did you forget we are not sharing a room?" you smiled in amusement, pushing her hands away again and intertwining your fingers, your foreheads pressed together as you lay side by side on the bed.

"you do not need to worry about misa mi amor, prometo." jenni assured with a sly smile as you gave her a curious look and then it clicked.

"did you tell her not to come in because you want to have sex? jenni!" you gasped in realization, shooting up and narrowing your eyes at her as she merely smiled, folding her arms behind her head.

"qué? you do not want to?" your girlfriend questioned, eyes drinking in your half naked form with a smirk as you scoffed. though before you could speak, she continued on.

"mi vida we have had sex as liga f winners, champions league winners, world cup champions-" she sat up and pushed you back down, hovering over you with a wicked smile.

"-now how about as olympians?"

~

"jesucristo." you panted, head thumping against the pillow as you squeezed your eyes shut and tried to catch your breath, your girlfriends lips kissing softly at your shoulder letting you know she was still there.

"see cari? very strong cardboard." jenni teased, bright green eyes baring down on you with a cheeky grin as you halfheartedly smacked her chest, leaning up to kiss her properly.

"do you want to stop?" jenni asked pulling away, serious for a moment as her hands wrapped around your bare back and her brow creased.

"should we see how strong these beds really are amor? since you are so confident it will not break." you smiled suggestively, gently pulling her hands off and standing, making your way to her suitcase.

your girlfriend watched you curiously though seeing which pocket you unzipped her rosy pink lips curved into a grin of delight, sitting up and catching the bag as you tossed it to her, flipping your hair to one side of your head with a grin that matched hers perfectly.

"no." your hands fell to her shoulders, pushing her back slightly as you returned to the bed and she stood, stepping into the harness as you made yourself comfortable.

"dios mío." your girlfriend groaned as you got on all fours and she moved behind you, flinching slightly as her calloused hands found home in the dip of your back, fingers tracing the tattoos which littered down your spine.

you knew this was her favorite position, your back was one of the only places you had tattoos and your girlfriend made no move to hide how it made her feel to watch the taunt muscles clench and writh as she pounded into you.

which was exactly her plan now and you knew it.

you'd felt her holding back just a little before, as much as she could give it to you fast and rough jenni was also the most attentive lover and never did anything without your conventional say so.

so by putting yourself in this position, you were giving her all the green light she needed and jenni was going to go for gold.

“you look so pretty like this cari, arched out and ready.” jenni purred, her bare chest pressed against your back as her lips trailed open mouthed kissers across your shoulder blades.

your breath caught as you felt the cold silicone knock the back of your thigh, your girlfriends breath hot against your skin as she chuckled and shuffled back up to be behind you on her knees.

you smiled yourself feeling her hand grab the back of your neck, pushing you down even further, hearing her let out a grunt at the way you arched further, ass up in the air.

“mi niña buena.” jenni praised, a slap echoing around the empty room as her hand collected the flesh of your ass, tattooed fingers grabbing your hips and adjusting you a little.

“listo?” her tone shifted for a second, lining up the strap against you as you shivered ever so slightly, nodding in confirmation. “palabras por favor nena.” jenni ordered more firmly, one hand letting go of your hips to smack against your ass again.

“sí, lista.” you confirmed, a low moan leaving your lips as the head of the strap slid in, your forehead pressing into the pillow before you turned your head to the side.

having already made you come twice it didn’t take much for the strap to slide properly inside you, jenni grunting as she bottomed out and you moaned her name.

“faster!” your eyes rolled back as your girlfriend pushed the strap in and out of you at a tortuously slow pace, chuckling at your demand but speeding up her thrusts none the less.

“dios mío jenni!” you moaned arching even further as one of her hands grabbed a handful of your hair, fingers digging into the flesh of your hips as she pounded into you, the slap of her bare skin against yours filling the room.

you let out an animalistic groan as tattooed fingers threaded through your hair and tugged, your chin to the sky as your breasts pressed into the slightly firm mattress beneath you.

“now caríno just imagine we do this again-“ jenni grunted, slowing down her pace for a moment as you whined and she pulled sharply at your hair in a silent warning.

“-only this time you can hear my hips hitting yours, the pretty little noises you make as you squirm and arch that perfect ass up for me princesa-“ you gasped as without warning she sped up again, letting out a moan of her own at the way you clenched yourself around the thick cock, your back muscles rippling beneath the tattoos wound down your spine.

“-and this time you can hear the gold medals we’ll be wearing mi amor, clinking and slapping against our skin. olympic campeónas!” you could hear the grin in her voice as you neared the edge, knuckles white as you gripped the sheets beneath you.

jenni let go of your hair and instead moved both hands now to grip your shoulders, her front pressed to your back as she bottomed herself out over and over into you.

your head melted at the firm grunts which left her lips each time she thrusted, nails creating crescent moon dents into the tanned skin of your shoulders as her teeth nipped at your neck sending you into overdrive.

“mierda jenni, close!” you choked out, so caught up in your pleasure and the feeling of your impending orgasm just starting to peak, you failed to hear a crack which didn’t belong to either of you.

“good girl.” the midfielder grunted, accent thick with the english leaving her lips as she pounded into you even faster and you could have sworn you saw god as white overtook your vision, slipping and sliding and teetering before you fell off the edge and all but screamed her name.

but then right as the wave of white hot pleasure hit you and the coil in your stomach snapped, jenni pushed herself to have one foot planted on the bed, intending to ride you right through this orgasm and into another as fast as she could.

but it would seem the universe had other plans as suddenly the bed cracked and both of you let out a series of new noises, the strap sliding out of you as both you and your girlfriend collapsed on top of one another.

“jesus christ jenni did we just-“ you panted, still trying to recover as your girlfriend awkwardly shifted, the strap pressed into your back as the bed had concaved beneath you both.

“sí…we broke it.” she made no move to try and hide the disbelief in her tone, a few more seconds of awkward shuffling before you’d both managed to roll off and onto the floor, jenni sat up as you laid down still catching your breath.

“don’t! don’t you say anything right now.” you sharply warned as the midfielders lips curved into a smirk and she glanced down at you, no doubt some sort of cocky fratboy esque remark on the tip of her tongue.

collecting your thoughts you quickly slipped your shirt over your head, jenni standing and shimmying herself out of the harness as the strap hit the floor with a gentle thump and you winced at the feeling of pulling your underwear back on without a shower first.

“que? dónde vas?” your girlfriend questioned, looking away from where she stood grinning down at the broken bed hearing you move behind her, slipping on your shoes.

“for a shower.” you patted her chest, kissing her and pulling away much faster than she’d like as she caught your wrist. “i have one of those mi amor, good water pressure too.” jenni smirked, a chuckle leaving you in response.

“i don’t know how long you told your roomie to stay away caríno but i’m not getting caught with this and this.” you pointed first to the broken squished bed and than to your girlfriend whose eyebrows furrowed.

“i get picked on enough.” you winked, pecking her lips again and turning to leave as jenni scrambled to slip her training top over her head. “sí by me! and i’m not going to tease you for this. mi vida i am very proud of this!” jenni grinned wolfishly making you roll your eyes.

“oh estoy seguro de que.” you chuckled, unlocking her bedroom door. “i will come with you tonight, codi will not mind.” jenni moved to grab her shoes as you let out a laugh.

“oh amor, you are so cute.” you pouted, poking her nose as she frowned and you pulled open her door, grinning at her and stepping out into the adjoined living room with a sigh.

“since you love to tell and share everything you do with your best friend, you can fill her in all about this and maybe the two of you can cuddle tonight while they find you a new bed.” you winked, jenni’s jaw dropping as you strode off and left her stood in her doorway, spinning around and blowing her a kiss.

“buenas noches bebé! have a nice night.”

[myfandomrealitea]

okay, so- this is coming from someone who really hasn't engaged in fandom discourse, especially regarding shipping and such. I dearly hope this doesn't come across as bait or troll, I'm genuinely curious and want to learn. apologies for the possibly-dumb question, but I really just need to ask-

what is proshipping? and what are 'antis'?

you know how it is, when you ask around you always get a biased answer one way or another. "proshippers are pedos" "proshippers all condone incest" "proship Bad and if you interact You Are Bad" (i think these are 'anti' points of view? am i using that term right? that's the rhetoric ive mainly heard). but despite all of that, i don't know if ive ever actually gotten a straight answer as to just.. what it factually is. because it doesn't feel like the sort of thing that you can boil down to insults or accusations or whatnot. it's all just very confusing to me, especially because i come from a place that essentially just told me to avoid like the plague and never look back. sorry, this became a bit of a ramble, lol. thank you so much in advance, i hope i'm not being a bother or insulting with this ^^;

The modern term; 'proship' (s.a; 'proshipping' and 'profiction') is an evolution of an earlier fandom acronym known as: 'SALS.'

Ship And Let Ship

SALS was one of the earliest fandom adoptions and interpretations of the concept of not bullying others for what they shipped or their fandom interests, and not trying to control or dictate what was "allowed" to be shipped or enjoyed. The most notable origin of SALS was during the early years of accessible fandom via Star Trek, and the present homophobia and misogyny in a largely male-dominated community.

As woman became more involved in fandom spaces, the presence of 'other' ships and pairings began to increase. M/M, F/F that wasn't purely for sexual gratification, and M/O and F/O (where 'O' is Other) pairings were popular amongst women, much as they still are today.

Not only did the presence of women in a "male space" receive a not insignificantly negative reaction, so too did them filling the fandom space with their shipping content. Now; sexism and misogyny and homophobia were not entirely to blame. Again as is still very much present today, people simply Did Not Like Certain Ships or Characters. And as they still do today, they'd spread hate about them and to the people who did enjoy them.

Thus: the birth of SALS.

(In other words: I like what I like and it has fuck all to do with you. Shut up and move on.)

Back then, SALS was mostly contained to just that. Ships and characters. Since back in that era 'taboo topics' and 'sexual content' were still pretty covert, people weren't exactly arguing the merits of incest in public forums and at conventions.

However, as all things do, the internet evolved. Society evolved. Media evolved. And so too did 'SALS' evolve in keeping with the new culture and subjects present in fandom spaces.

Suddenly it wasn't just ships and characters to be advocated for. It was themes. Subjects. Kinks. Plots. The more things people found to enjoy, so too did the more things people found to hate.

'Proship' is actually grammatically pro-ship. As in; in support of shipping. This is why I always state that the modern conceptions of proshipping would more accurately be coined profiction. It is no longer just about ships, but fiction as a whole.

However; the core value and sole inherent point of being proship, SALS, profiction and so forth remains exactly the same:

[I/We] believe you have no right to harm others over the [ship/content] they create or consume and [I/we] do not have the right to dictate what is or is not allowed in fandom spaces.

That's it. Don't harass people for what they enjoy fictionally. Don't try to force them into not enjoying or being able to enjoy it.

Of course, the modern adaption varies wildly in terms of 'additional values' thanks to the evolution of the term and what it can encompass. However, there is certainly no obligation to:

Create or consume content you are uncomfortable with.

Create or consume content regarded as 'taboo' or 'triggering.' Such as incest.

Be involved with any aforementioned content beyond turning a blind eye if its not your thing.

Inherently, anyone who says they're 'neutral' on the matter but firmly believes in minding their own business is just a proshipper refusing to use the label if you're taking the term solely at its core value.

In terms of 'antis' they're just the antithesis of the above. Antis are people who generally believe that fiction is irrevocably tied in with who you are, what you believe/condone, and that real-life limitations and values should also apply to fiction.

Although, its is heavy debated and it wildly varies per individual to the degree this is taken.

(E.g: some 'antis' believe you should only write rape fic if you are a victim using it as catharsis or education. Other 'antis' believe there's absolutely no excuse or reason to write rape fic at all.)

Antis typically believe that enjoyment or being invested in content which is regarded as harmful or illegal in real life is morally unsound and reflects that you're a bad or morally unsound person.

Although I disagree, I can honestly say in some aspects I do understand this reasoning. I don't agree, but I do understand why people may come to that conclusion.

As with proshippers, antis vary from people who simply ignore and block content they don't agree with to radicals.

'Anti' is again a prefix. Although modern adoption of the term uses it as a singular signifier, it would grammatically be anti-[fandom], anti-[character], ect. As was commonly used in the past.

The rhetoric that all proshippers are pedophiles or support incest is common-spread and effective 'anti' propaganda. Similar to how so many people believe 'proship' inherently signifies that you must create and/or consume taboo or darker content.

It doesn't.

¹ Proship may also be accurately termed as simply: 'anti-harassment.' ² Its important to note the 'definition' of these terms may vary wildly depending on the individual. However, detailed above is the most historical use and evolution of the terms and their definitions.

[katyspersonal]

How many frenzied flame lords do you think existed before the Main game and DLC, and would you become one if you had the chance?

( @izunias-meme-hole )

Okay first of all, do not even bother asking me the latter question, at this point it is rhetorical 😔😔😔 *gets bonked by Melina* OW!!!

As for the former,

fdsjhfdsgh sorry for obscure Kirbу meme, I needed to use it somewhere No, but literally:

This description perplexes me a LOT because it might, after all, mean that Nanaya's Torch is not that of their son after all, but something they've found in their search, as the idea of Lord of Frenzied Flame once was their hope to overcome the cruelty and injustice.. until it wasn't, lol. "Distant land, age long past" could mean that their land, now Abyssal Forest, is distant and forgotten in the context of the game's world, or it could refer to areas like Ancient Ruins of Rauh! ....in fact, regardless of what you think her torch is, Rauh civilisation could have came in contact with something similar!

The Fingers predate basically everything, it seems.. Elden Ring originally belonged to the Ancient Dragons and dated back to the original big tree prior to Erdtree! (from Remembrance of the Dragonlord, "The Dragonlord whose seat lies at the heart of the storm beyond time is said to have been Elden Lord in the age before the Erdtree. Once his god was fled, the lord continued to await its return.", sorry I often forget to copy screenshots fhdhsf) Elden Ring itself was a shooting star, so a thing that appeared after Metyr, so, after Fingers! And before Fallingstar Beasts, and before the stars that started research of Astrologers, all that!

It is hard to compile a normal reference sorry but what I am trying to say is, the Lands Between have the same ruins as Rauh all over them, and moreover, it is possible that Rauh civilisation were the ones who built the Divine Towers! @val-of-the-north also pointed out that the Divine Tower of Stormveil predated Stormveil, although it is hard to see since in the game the exact same angle as on the painting can't be accessed:

(Also no Erdtree in the painting!!!) So, rather that the new Erdtree's Gods family building them, either 1) they simply made sure to build residences of the Demigods to be connected with them because lesser Two Fingers were already living in them or 2) same thing, but the towers were good spots for lesser Two Fingers to settle and reside in! This is also important because Rauh civilisation is so ancient that even civilisations in the setting call it ancient fsjhdfhs

I am not sure whether Three Fingers are some sort of mutant/rebel child of Metyr or, if Frenzied Flame is an 'antagonist' of the Greater Will, they were at least created at the same time as Metyr's fingers! It would be paradoxial if life could be brought by Frenzied Flame, so I am leaning more towards the former! Metyr and her spawn received the signals from the Greater Will until they didn't, and so, Three Fingers received the signal from Frenzied Flame. "Punk child that listened to the uncle no one likes", yeah.

Maybe it happened because the signals from GW stopped, since on larger scale, FF represents the wish to merge back into One Great! Would not it make sense if at least one child felt like being thrown into existence to figure it out yourself was too complicated, hard, unfair and over all not worth it? All Two Fingers want is strong guidance in place of GW that abandoned them, if not Marika then Demigods, if not Demigods then Tarnisheds! Three Fingers want endless existential loneliness, reliance on the "gods" who are no better than men (thanks Godmask lol), births and eras changing in vicious cycles to stop.

The first Lord of Frenzied Flame, successful or failed, also should be a later event than existence of the Three Fingers, since we can conclude that one only becomes such by being directly grasped by them:

I still don't know why they've ended up not using this item, cowards

Likes I said, I think that Three Fingers became a thing after Greater Will abandoned Metyr and her brethen! There are two massive Finger Ruins in the Land of Shadow, incomparable with the place where Metyr resides, and in both we find the tailsmans alluding to the birth of the Erdtree:

My super ultra huge brain extra interesting giga hot take is that the massive two Ruins were the grasp of the OG Two Fingers, much bigger than all 'descendants', preparing the Earth for the Erdtree! After GW abandoned them, Metyr kept waiting for the signals in desperation, and Two Fingers said "well fuck you anyway, I'll make my own God then with gold and tits!" and turned to Marika for it! Three Fingers, however, received a different signal, or summoned it in their despair!

As for human(oids), Frenzied Flame alludes to a couple of things. There is "Lord of Frenzied Flame will take their torment, despair. Their affliction. Every sin, every curse. And melt it all away." like said in Hyetta's dialogue and Midra's Flame of Frenzy, and there is "Destroy all that divides and distinguishes" like said by Shabriri, a ghost that yearned for Lord of Frenzied Flame after Vyke failed to become one and Merchant Kale in the unfinished questline! I think the former is the original brand of despair, more universal, whereas the latter is something that developed under Marika's reign! Not to mention that Shabriri, the guy who ensured people can get sick with FF even without Three Fingers if they lose all hope, was a rando noble at Leyendell.. Makes me wonder whether the Curse of Despair V 2.0 is his words, and not Three Fingers' 🤔 You know, how in every other religion, the initial message gets paraphrased or adapted to fit the current events more?

There is a very long chain of events after or shortly prior to the Erdtree, going through War with the Fire Giants, Erdtree era deifying Crucibles and their knights (!), War with the Ancient Dragons, the "betrayal" of Marika and the Erdtree mentioned by Hornsent Grandam and the guy we interact with (!!!). So, I think it was been enough time prior to the Crusade for not only Midra, but 'many before him' to keep falling into this pit! They were not targeting the Erdtree as the reason of their woes, what I believe 'destroy all that divides' patch entails, but they had their own woes. Midra and his servants descended into this path because the Hornsent Inquisitors kept hunting him and his servants like heretics, for example:

There were other conflicts, other reasons for revenge and despair, other unfairness between other people too I imagine. Just... variety of things that made Three Fingers approach to help with the revenge! Marika, who had her own impulse for revenge, again, was approached by Two Fingers with the intent to give it to her so new Order is built and new leader is found in GW's place. She was not an option, but she was exceptional! Every other person possessed with the despair, revenge and other forms of strong pain, was approached by Three Fingers instead with the hope to also give them the """justice""" and peace they desired. Only, this time, the "peace" meant killing oneself and everyone else XD

So, again, that were "many of them". How many people were driven to despair in the span of centuries? I think most of them failed, because none was driven to the point of ignoring what Frenzied Flame really was! They'd understand the horror of this power being after all of the existence, even spirits, and chicken out. Like, the "not even my enemies deserve this" level. That leaves a number of people who'd agree to potentially throw the world into a fire deep down, YOU be the judge how many people realistically would be either tortured or insane enough for that x) + Midra in the moment he breaks also becomes the Lord of Frenzied Flame, albeit just for one cool boss battle!

And then those who became Lords failed in another way, because either their bodies would expire their use after they've reached their goal of revenge/justice/liberation, or they were caught and stopped before they could burn the world! I love the former idea better because it has the connotation with the concept of giving your soul to the Satan in order to accomplish your goal. Alas, no one can accomplish Satan's goal in this case, so it is trying and trying, with them small-thinking humans, who can't carry on the purpose of burning everything and their fire fades when what driven them to despair to begin with is accomplished.... Lord of Frenzied Flame is a very assimilative thing, yet something still lives in the 'body' part that carries its blazing microcosm head, and THAT is the one last issue with the concept (for everyone's luck)...

This is why setting the "goal" of "deal" with the Three Fingers to burn the Erdtree was SO effective, since it came to represent all life in the Lands Between! Shabriri struck a really good (?) cord here. And of course Marika ensured that Thee Fingers were sealed under Leyendell, so it would be much easier to guard them from intruders!

________________________

So, to conclude; it is impossible to give you the exact number of Lords of Frenzied Flame! Simply imagine the concept of desperate and mad seeking to deal with the devil and place it from the time GW abandoned Metyr and her spawn to the moment Marika sealed the Three Fingers away. And then after some time skip, there were Vyke (failed) and Tarnished (successful), so 'undefined but probably big number + 2'! ....and this ended up a way more elaborate topic than I expected, I think I've just learned a few things myself

[transmutationisms]

actually toying with the idea that kendall's ideological vacuousness functions sort of analogously to contemporary american neoliberalism in the sense that kendall will attack his father from any rhetorical position he perceives as temporarily useful to him, along the lines of the way that capitalism can absorb virtually any criticism of itself simply by commodifying it and turning it into another ceiling tile in the vampire castle etc. the metaphor also works bc this is an ideological wing that's centre-right but uses the language of pseudo-left social justice to deflect from that fact, something that kendall also does. and you could probably even say that kendall is metaphorically appetitive in that his only real drive is to kill and eat his father and the company, analogously to the way capital's sole raison d'être and modus operandi are its own growth and expansion lol

[randomnameless]

Not to bring irl shit but when you consider that there are people who believe in their own moral superiority, that everything should burn to the ground, people should die for their cause and those they don't like deserve to die for justice, it makes sense why there would be Agarthan stans despite how comically evil they are in the games. Not saying it's good (it's not), but it's the same sort of edgelord doomer nihilist mentality. Or maybe I'm thinking way too hard about this and they just support them because their waifu is working with them and they can't be bad if she's "purely good" despite their actions in game saying otherwise.

Uh...

I guess everyone knows there are people who are pos around, but what became more and more annoying with the years is how some of those beliefs have been romanticed for X and Y reason (marketing purposes because earl grey sells) and if you add to that the performative era - where being a fan of a character means you have to endorse everything this character says or does, we end up with some mess.

And I think while the devoted fans we all know and love have their part of responsability in this - as you say - supporting characters no matter what to the point of swallowing their nauseabond rhetoric because waifu allies with them before backstabbing them offscreen...

I still believe content creators are sort of also to blame with this, see the earlier earl grey marketing reasons.

IIRC, in the Marvel movies the purple guy who erases half of the universe is/was/got a cup bcs sad uwus he's ready to sacrifice his daughter for the greater good?

Cry me a fucking river !

What about the rest of the world who was zapped due to his whims? Why should I care about the feefees of someone who slaughters billions and not the feelings of the ones slaughtered?

Take Kishimoto : trying too hard to make people sympathise with his anti-heroes ultimately means that their victims have no voice to any chapter, Ramen Guy will never be able to express anger (if he wasn't dead when Konoha was flattened) at Nagato turning his daughter in a pancake, or Sakura will never weep for her parents, etc etc... but we get a long FB about Nagato's sad backstory with, what can be summed up as "the world fucked me over so I'll fuck over the world and you can't stop that unless you decide to fuck me over too" without anyone telling him that his reasoning is puerile and quite frankly stupid.

Madara being very sad not being elected big boss so he takes out his salt by launching repeated attacks at the village and its inhabitants? "Who cares, he was very sad (tm) when Hashirama decided to kill him to protect the village, what a hypocrite !!!"

The less is said about AoT, the better we all are lol, but in honor of MHA ending I'll just say that... I fucking loved the panels at the end (or last chapters?) where randoms civilians are shitting on Shigaraki, even if the panel with the old lady who blames herself for not helping him back then or taking his hand was hilarious, considering that in his FB, he said he would have killed her too "oh poor him if only i died for his sake he might not have grown up as a vilain" come on that's too much earl grey i'm out of this.

As for FE Fodlan, given how earl grey was used to sell and advertise the game, I guess you can't talk to Garcias or Nathalies and ask what they're thinking about the war that is razing their homes because someone wants to unify the world and is willing to sacrifice them to do so, or hell, we can't even listen to Merlinus voice his thoughts about the strange plague in Remire and how horrible it is, to Amy wonder why the fuck her parents transformed in demonic beasts and tried to kill her.

So when even content creators believe that their vilains have to get a pass regardless of the amount of shit they pulled off - I can't exclusively blame devoted fans for going very very far with their takes to support the bae.

Special mention to Miura (rip) who never lost an occasion to portray Griffith as manipulative and conniving, and yet some people really believed (and some still do?) he did nothing wrong...

[djddni]

Could I ask about your medic fang au 👀✨?

absolutely.... i made it a while back, inspired by that one vampire ratchet au that was floating around for a while basically, the idea is transformer medics have these teeth that function as syringes! the inner pair inject, the outer pair extract. theyre named accordingly lol ^-^ those that are "forged to be medics" (like ratchet) are . forged with them ! while cold constructed medics obviously are built with them. you can also get them added post forging/building as a sort of body mod, but it can be looked down upon because people might assume youre a medic both of these sets of teeth can fold in and out, and its actually "proper etiquette" to have at least one set (usually extractors due to how they morph the mouth unnervingly) folded in, for the comfort of your non medic peers though, having the teeth folded like that can be painful for the medic themself, as it forces the teeth in a position they arent supposed to be for an extensive amount of time </3 medics that wear faceplates have to fold both sets in, which is uncomfortable the fangs each connect to 2 small sacs in the medics throat, which are connected to each other through a pinched connection the medic can open and close, like a valve (a literal one. dont be weird lol) ALSO their spit is numbing! which can make kissing even more awkward for them. and if 2 medics kiss without folding their fangs back then theyre liable to getting stuck lol heres an old art diagram of sorts

due to these teeth, biting the wrist to extract energon for testing is a p normal part of a check up... which can add to a fear of doctors lol. they can also bite the neck if needed ive also thought about how theyd word socially.. (mostly thinking abt idw, ik i drew tfp ratchet up there lol) these can feed into anti cold constructed rhetoric, as built fangs tend to be larger and "less durable" than forged fangs, despite the fact theyre just as good. theres also stereotypes that cc medics are more likely to have leaks, but the statistic is just from the fact theres more cold constructs than forged bots nowadays forged medics are commonly specifically requested just for this. with specific fang hcs for medic characters, i only have pharma and ratchet done </3

for ratchet, his are near "perfect fangs". they are thin, forged, and all 4 are around the same length. he has a crooked extractor from folding them in for a prolonged period of time, though. it gives him toothaches :(

pharma's are bigger as his are actually bot made! he wasnt forged with fangs, as he is a jet. (theyre linked to alt mode). bot made implanted teeth are usually perfectly aligned, but its rare for a forged medic's fangs to be perfect. so, pharma has since altered his fangs in an attempt to conceal the fact he had them put in. he wants to create the illusion that he was forged with them. large crooked ones create a sort of permasmile, which is what pharma has as he doesnt fold his teeth in after delphi. predelphi, he folded the extractors in the same way ratchet does :3 medic beauty standards are also fairly centered around the fangs. again, ratchets are near perfect ty for the ask!! i think youre my first real one <3

[covenofthearticulate]

Have you decided what your fav characters’ favorite plays are?

NO I'M TOO OVERWHELMED LMAO HELP!! Okay but here are some thoughts about what sort of theatre I think they enjoy:

Lestat: Obviously since he got his start doing commedia dell'arte I think he'll always have a soft spot in his heart for those old comedies. (Honestly, I think Lestat is one of the only vampires who enjoys "lowbrow" comedy and I love that for him.) The style of traveling street theatre Lestat would've been performing during his time as Lelio was largely improvisational, and though it moved into a more scripted form over time, I think Lestat is an improv queen. I also get all giddy and happy thinking about his reaction to the fact that commedia dell'arte is still performed today! Like, I did a production of Servant of Two Masters in college lmfao it's still viewed as one of the foundational tenants of theatre to this day and I think that would really tickle him.

He's also a Shakespeare fan but historically speaking we know Lestat would've had to have read French translations which of course weren't impossible to come by, but given all of Lestat's circumstances in his early life (poor, uneducated, etc) it's definitely worth noting that he would've had to have worked hard to get at Shakespeare. I think it's so funny that his favorite play in canon is Macbeth and that he sees himself as Macbeth, whereas Louis and Claudia totally saw him as Lady Macbeth (which is why I wrote a lil ficlet about it LOL)

Okay LASTLY I also just want to say I think Lestat loves loves LOOOOVE restoration comedy and the comedy of manners that was a little before his time but just really focused on like. Outrageous comedy and satire. Lestat likes to laugh, okay!! He loves Moliere just as much as he loves Shakespeare! Tartuffe and She Stoops to Conquer are definitely plays he can quote by heart.

Armand: Shakespeare, yes, but very specifically: Jacobean Revenge Tragedies. These were a lot darker, a lot more hardcore and angsty (as the title suggests!). One day I'll have to get Armandblr's input for some meta and psychological background as to why Armand would be obsessed with plays where the protagonist is wronged so egregiously that they go down a path of murder and (gruesome, often cannibalistic) bloodshed and rage-induced hysteria that ultimately ends in their own demise. But for now I'll just say that I feel it in my bones. I think he staged The Spanish Tragedy at least a few times at the Theatre des Vampires.

Also I think he'd definitely be into theatre of the absurd, especially in his Devil's Minion era! He goes through phases where he really leans into the existentialism and finds it amusing and thought-provoking, but sometimes it also majorly fucks him up (similar to Lestat)

Louis: He's a Romantic at heart, and certainly he loves the classics, but we've already been over Shakespeare so I'll say that I also think Louis has a soft spot for the American canon. Think Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, etc. He's a modernist girlie, and I think those plays would be a good guiding light into understanding modern America for Louis. I think Louis often sees middle class America as a fascinating subject to study (rather than, like, a reality that real people live), and I think modernist plays are really good at toe-ing the line of like, being deeply humanizing and beautiful and tragic if done right, and also still being somewhat performative and maybe even a bit artificial and contained behind a fourth wall. I think that dichotomy would be fascinating to Louis. His favorites would be A View from the Bridge and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Marius: Unfortunately there are like 0 Roman tragedies that survived in writing, but we know that they existed and were actually slightly different than Greek tragedies in that the characters actually voiced more of their internal psychological conflict, and also apparently the playwrights were influenced by the development of new rhetorical theory, so a lot of the writing incorporated like public persuasion. So I do think Marius would've been into those but listen I also happen to know for a fact that Marius' favorite play is Shakespeare's Coriolanus. He told me himself. I just read over the wiki synopsis to refresh my memory and I'm losing my mind over this line: "The two tribunes condemn Coriolanus as a traitor for his words and order him to be banished. Coriolanus retorts that it is he who banishes Rome from his presence." like PLEASE that's so petty I love it. Real talk though Marius loves a good political drama and look I know I've brought up Shakespeare a lot in this post already but no one is doing it like him, especially with the Romans!!

Daniel: he's a theatre of the absurd queen <3

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

December 19th, 73 days since October 7th

TLDR- I am sick of seeing Hamas propaganda here. People here are posting literal blood libels and mistranslated quotes.

After taking a break from social media for the rest of Chanuka, your favorite Zionist is back. Don't worry though, once again, people who never had any interest in this tiny piece of land, continue to tell me, a Jewish Israeli, that I have got my history and facts wrong, while they know better than I do. To that, I have 2 answers: 1. I am just a student who wants to live in peace. I am not a "zionist demon" or a "genocidal killer".

When I call myself a Zionist, all it means is that I'm a Jewish woman who would like to live peacefully in her homeland. I don't inherently support war or death from any side because I am a Zionist. 2. I actually live here, born and raised, and so were my grandparents. How delusional and condescending can you be to suggest that you, a Western person who only found out about this conflict a while ago on Tiktok, know better than an Israeli??? More on double standards Sometimes I wonder why most of you didn’t have such a strong reaction to any other war & civil war going on right now: in Ukraine/ Yemen/Congo and Syria**, etc. Considering the amount of antisemitic hate anons I've received I have a feeling why...

**Which directly affected the lives of most Palestinians.

As I've said in previous posts- It’s easy to throw around big words you don’t understand. There is no apartheid as all Israeli citizens have the same rights. - Gaza is not occupied by Israel- it’s been returned multiple times in history ( just to name a few: 1956,1987,2006...).

*Even when it was under Israel’s control, all it meant was that there were approximately 10 Jewish settlements in Gaza*. The Israeli military presence was to protect those people& prevent terror attacks.

Blood Libels

In addition to the lies and the poor mistranslations from Hebrew, I have also received \ seen an alarming amount of Nazi Propaganda. -you say that you’re anti-Zionist and not anti-Semitic, yet you use antisemitic rhetoric…

Comparisons between Israelis and Nazis -Comparing Israelis to Nazis is wrong on so many levels.

In case you aren't aware, the holocaust was a premeditated and carefully planned genocide, that lasted 6 years. 6 MILLION Jews were killed and all of their possessions were stolen. It followed hundreds of years of persecution, violence, and discriminatory laws. They were also starved and enslaved in different sorts of manual labor, in addition to being experimented on. They were held in Ghettos and concentration camps. In the aftermath of the war, Jews were completely driven out of their land and face prosecution across the world to this day. The existence of Israel allows Jews to live free of that. The Israel-Hamas war following October 7th is a war against a terrorist organization that invaded Israel and massacred its civilians. Unfortunately, due to Hamas' tactics, there are a lot of Palestinian civilian casualties. While they are wrong- the treatment of Palestinians and the bombing of Gaza are nothing like what the Nazis did.

Debunking some misconceptions I've seen on Viral posts here: -No, we Jews do not control the media and global banks. At least invent something new, this is giving Medivel blood libels used by the church lol. -We do not go around killing innocent Palestinian babies for fun. We have laws and a moral compass (Shocking I know). We do not go and kidnap people or rape women for fun either. Do you know who does that? Hamas, the terrorist organization. -We're not all white, this conflict does not revolve around race: There are many Jewish Israelis from the same countries that Palestinians originated from (i.e: Egyptian & Jordanian Jews ). -Israelis perceive Palestinians as lesser human'- This claim is usually supported by mistranslation of Hewbew and out-of-context Interviews. The phrase חיות אדם (Chayot Adam, savages, acting like animals) was obviously often used to describe Hamas terrorists who took part in the October 7th masssacre. We do not call or treat Palestinians as "animals" or savages. All of the referenced instances were about those Hamas terrorists.

-There isn't a 'Gaza Ministry of Health', it's all Hamas. The number of Palestinian casualties and other claims they make are not to be trusted. Most of the casualties are terrorists.

So what is my point?

It is important to note that am not ignoring any of the Palestinian deaths. I’m not saying they should die either. Please stop assuming I do!!

All I’m saying is that Israeli victims matter as well. For some reason, some people cannot comprehend that Israeli civilians do not deserve to die just because of where they live.

You wouldn’t call for the death of all Americans/ Europeans/ South Africans etc… while they committed actual genocide & apartheid.

[creature-wizard]

Even as a believer in loa(I've practiced it for a while now). I appreciate your post so much. I was shocked at first because it's such a niche topic that only followers really know about? So I was shocked to see your post expecting it to be sarcastic in the beginning. I personally think Law of Assumption Tumblr is a whole different breed? I mean I didn't know of the void at all until I came on here. Most traditional believers of neville don't even know what the void is? It's like entering different worlds when encountering loa believers anywhere else like youtube/reddit. Versus tumblr. I sort of feel like tumblr is a different beast though? Cause they seem to mostly focus on the void, which I'm not even sure if this is something Neville talked about? I've only heard traditional followers mention SATS. Like I said the void seems to be a tumblr thing? I was shocked that people on here were claiming they've manifested billions of dollars, looking like ariana grande, living in a totally different home(???), someone's brother has wings(???). I really don't know? If these are neville's teachings or not. But I think one of the main reasons your post blew up so much is because the attitude in this community specifically. I've never met such righteous people in my life. I'm guessing a lot of those people who like me really questioned these people because they never showed proof but for some reason you're dumb or lazy? I've probably seen more posts of people criticizing everyone who weren't able to wake up in their mansion as if they're dumb or annoying them? Instead of helping them. Like "OMG SIS IT'S SO EASY TO ENTER THE VOID!? STOP BEING DUMMMMMB IT'S LITERALLY THE EASIEST THING EVERRRRR." Why am I dumb because I find it hard to believe something that seems impossible? Why are you leaving the community or calling it toxic because people are questioning things that seem impossible? I got really caught up in trying to get into the void. And I'm not even sure if loa tumblr is following neville's teaching's cause if anything it seems to fall more into shifting? Anytime I look up loa tumblr it's 85% about shifting or the void? Also I'm pretty sure most of these people are children so you're better off not even trying to argue with them. Lmfao.

I think another reason it might have blown up is because somebody (it wasn't me) blazed it, lol.

I agree that most of these people are probably teenagers, which is kinda why I post so much - not to argue with the ones who won't budge on it, but to reach the ones who are still on the fence, or questioning, and save them from a bunch of trauma from the types of people you described.

I don't think Goddard used the term "void state," but he did describe a practice that sounds similar to it. But yeah, the posts you're talking about are absolutely ridiculous and that kind of rhetoric is going to be horrible for a lot of people, because if we're defining "void state" as a really deep state where you experience full detachment from your body and full ego death, that's just not a state that everyone can reach for some reason. (I know this because I'm one of them! And I know for absolute fact that my problem was not some kind of blockage, self-doubt, or trying too hard!)

As to what Goddard said you could or couldn't do, he never explicitly said that you could manifest fantastical results like wings, but he did say that you could manifest anything, and nothing was impossible. I'm pretty sure Goddard was at that point talking to the kind of people who just wouldn't think very far outside of the box. But you give that kind of rhetoric to a bunch of people exposed to a lot of fiction and to modern celebrity culture, and of course you're going to get a lot of people who want something a little more... exciting, shall we say.

And yeah, the whole self-righteous know-it-all attitude so prevalent in this community is a thing that really stood out to me. The way these people talk down and insult people is just yikes. Like, I know from experience that if I tried to take people who act like this seriously, it would be an absolute disaster for my mental health. (This kinda shit does not play well with scrupulosity OCD.) Angry anons will be like, "you're just angry because you failed!" but like, mmmmm no, I just recognize a potential scrupulosity OCD trigger when I see one, lol.

For anyone reading this: If you are leaving or questioning the Law of Assumption and need help, please see this post.

[sequencer987]

As a Yank I can’t help but notice that whenever British Monarchists defend the institution of the royal family, they always talk about how it brings in tourism and is respected by people all around the world. Without fail, they’ll always bring up the fact that the monarchy “is” very popular in the United States. They’ll cite that as an example of the monarch’s respect abroad and like…

I genuinely hate to break it to you guys, but we here across the pond view the royals the same way we view mascot characters at Disneyland. Like, there is absolutely zero actual respect. Whenever children in the U.S. learn that the monarchy is still a thing, they are usually confused. Adults then explain the monarchy as “a silly little thing that the Brits do for fun.”

When I was a kid learning about the revolution, I just assumed sight unseen that the British must have had their own revolution at some point and got rid of the king.

When my dad told me that the royal family was an extant institution, I thought it was a joke at first. He liked to kid around, and it just seemed more likely that he was fucking with me. I could not wrap my head around why you would have a queen in the 21st century.

When I first learned how much the UK government gives royal family I was honestly kind of shocked. I had figured that the royal title was so ceremonial as to be completely meaningless in a governmental context. I thought it was like being made a colonel in the state of Kentucky; that being basically just owning a fancy medal that says you are.

And FURTHERMORE, we Yanks (we in a rhetorical sense. Not me lol) were only really crazy about Queen Elizabeth. The moment she died people over here pretty much stopped paying attention to the royal family outside of scandals.

I think people in both countries tend to overestimate the cultural similarities between the United States and the United Kingdom due to our sharing a language. We absolutely do not see the monarchy in the same way its hardline supporters in the U.K. do.

Also while I’m at it, I saw one guy speculating that we loved the Queen because of “Pride at their English heritage” and I also feel I need to clarify that English is pretty much the only heritage in the United States that people are kind of ashamed of. If you only have English heritage here that’s seen as a bad thing. Like, we associate that with like inbred Old Money weirdos and Mormons. Even the Boston Brahmin don’t wanna be seen as having ‘English Heritage.’ I don’t personally feel that way, but that’s sort of the attitude here.

[punctuation-completionist]

okay! percontation point/rhetorical question mark investigation has been done! i am putting this under a read-more because it's super long but if this causes accessibility issues please tell me lol (i don't remember if it does but i am trying to make my original posts more accessible so...)

tl;dr for anyone who doesn't read the whole thing, i basically just looked through some really old scans to prove the origins of the percontation point (and that sounds really boring but maybe it's interesting? it would be more interesting if progressive punctuation would email me back lol)

. ? ! , : ; ' " – — - · ... [ ] { } ( ) / < >

22/22

bonus:

⁂ * † ‡ ⁓ ~ & ⸺ ❦ ⸮ ‽

11/20

so basically, this is related to this post* i reblogged a bit ago because something about the graphic on it was bothering me... here's the graphic in question btw

[image id: a picture with nine punctuation marks in three rows of three. the first row has (from left to right) the acclamation point which looks like an exclamation mark with two stems pointing in sort of a v shape from the dot, an exclamation comma which looks like an exclamation mark with a comma instead of a dot, and an interrobang which is a question mark with an exclamation mark laid over it. the second row has the love point which looks like a question mark with two of the top parts put together to form a heart, a friendly period which looks like a period with a curved line underneath it, and an authority point which looks like an exclamation mark with a curved line perched atop it. the third line contains a rhetorical question mark which is a backwards inverted question mark, a doubt point which looks like a question mark with the top part shaped more like a cursive z, and a question comma which is a question mark with the dot replaced with a comma. end id.]

so, i've done a lot of research on irony punctuation throughout my days—whether it be to argue with a reddit comment or just for punctuation day reasons—and i would say i know a lot about irony punctuation (of which rhetorical questions fall under i guess? according to wikipedia at least)

so, that post was bothering me because the rhetorical punctuation mark i know is the percontation point (⸮) invented by henry denham in the 1580s & the mark used on the post was an inverted form of this

now, here was the easy investigation on who made this graphic. i already said so in the tags of the post, it was by progressive punctuation; they even have a specific page on their website with this information. now when i saw the rhetorical question mark they used, my first thought was, "maybe they're talking about a different rhetorical question mark" but then...

[image id: a screenshot from the progressive punctuation webpage on the rhetorical question mark. it says that the inventor is henry denham, it was invented in the 1580s, and it was invented in london. end id.]

see, so here's the real problem. they're citing it from henry denham when his mark doesn't look like that. so then i did the logical thing and tried to find where henry denham even printed this thing in the first place. and that's where the fun(?) part begins.

❦

so, i have a range in the time periods i'm looking for (⁓1580–1589) and i have a name (henry denham). first question: who's henry denham?

the answer isn't that interesting but it's contextually helpful. henry denham was, suprise suprise, a printer from england. allegedly he's iconic but the most i can find about him is that he's a printer and he invented the percontation point. one website (link) claims the use of the point to be from around 1575–1625 which is kinda not 1580s but. i don't know what the deal with that is. (if i figure it out, i'll explain it) and attributes it to either henry denham OR the translator anthonie gilbie (and denham was apparently his printer?? idk man this is a whole web of shit)

so, who's anthonie gilbie? firstly, the only things i could find were for anthony gilby and not some guy with a weird -ie but that's not really relevant because the guy is also a translator from 16th century england so like. i don't think that's likely they were two separate people. so, anthony gilby is a radical puritan who translated the geneva bible into english. the geneva bible is one of the oldest english language bibles, predating the king james bible by around 51 years so i guess that makes anthony gilby pretty important. shakespeare used it, cromwell used it, milton used it, it's a big deal. gilby only translated the old testament, another guy called william whittingham translated the new testament so that does narrow down the thing slightly

but also, i'm not reading the fucking bible again especially not in old english so. i want to narrow it down more.

and that means we're going back to henry denham ! yay! since the source i was using was the only one that provided anything at all on the origins of the percontation point, i went back to it to see what else it had to say. and what it had to say was that there were two examples, one was the psalms of david† (in roman font) and the other was a book called tragicall tales (in blackletter font). so with those being our only two leads, we have to follow them.

⁂

so i search up "psalms of david 1581" to see if i can find a scan. and the first thing i find is a 1581 enchiridion on the psalms of david (1st edition) that's 795$. yikes. luckily i don't think that's the one but that certainly did freak me out since it was from the same year and shit. anyways. the online geneva bible has 150 chapters of psalms so we'll just talk about tragicall tales first

now what the absolute f⸺ is tragicall tales? and to that i say. well. i don't really know.

except, jk i do apparently know now! tragicall tales was a novel written by a man called george tuberville‡ and published in 1587, and while i can't find any direct statements that it was denham that invented it, it is in blackletter font and printed the same year as the article said so... i think it's a safe assumption to make that this was denham's work. the next thing to do would be to find tragicall tales which i wasn't too excited for given the last time i tried to find a book for this it was almost $800 dollars.

but i struck gold. not only did i find a copy on archive.org (link), i also found a typed out version (link) but the punctuation there is badly transcribed in my opinion so. take what you will from it but. idk man i think i found the right stuff. so without further ado:

and while this is probably the oldest crustiest scan ever and also 400 pages long, i did find something! yay!

[image id: five screenshots from the internet archive scan of tragicall tales, each containing a backwards question mark aka a percontation point. end id.]

now, i know looking at this, it's kinda hard to tell what's going on due to the quality of the scan, typeface, and other stuff, but i'll break it down real quick. the percontation points here are after the words wife, fame/same (it's probably a long s but it looks more like fame if that helps), about, will, and wife again. i tried to get a few that have normal question marks in them to prove what i'm talking about (they're in the second, fourth, and fifth screenshots) you see em? cool, because my eyes might fall out of my face with how long i had to look for these. good lird.

but what about the inverted one? now, i did scour this as hard as i could and the closest one i could find was this

[image id: a screenshot from tragicall tales reading "la mia donna bella è buona". end id.]

but at the same time, the typed version has that as an è and not punctuation of any kind and while i don't agree with the typed version 100% i do think that makes more sense. so there. that's all we got out of tragicall tales. back to psalms!

❦

i was very excited to read this.~ (that's a snark mark btw. i was not) i already had to read the bible once recently for ... reasons? (i'm not super religious) and that was the new american bible not a fucking bible in middle english. so. this is somehow worse. and yet. i ended up trying my best to find it

now seemingly it slipped my mind that unless there was a scanned copy of an original it would likely not have the mark i was looking for because i looked for ages. it was a fucking nightmare. psalms sucks especially geneva psalms. but, archive.org came to my rescue yet again. and let me tell you. it still didn't help

firstly, the geneva bible looks like this.

[image id: a screenshot of a scan of the geneva bible. it has two columns of text along with notes off to the side and footnotes. it is written in middle english. end id.]

if you're lucky (?) the geneva bible looks like this

[image id: another screenshot of a different scan of the geneva bible with a similar layout but it is more yellowed and fancier. end id.]

yes, i looked at two different scans of the same book sue me. or don't preferably. but this did give me one clarifying idea of what i was doing wrong. the article i had referenced said that the question mark was in roman font. the main text of the geneva bible seems to be in blackletter. so i had to look in the side columns. and look in the side columns i did. and yet, that didn't seem to help any either (if anyone wants to look the first one is linked here and the second is linked here; i don't think they're in there though in hindsight)

and yet, there was one last place to search. the psalms of david truly opened and explained by theodore beza. a completely different text by anthony gilby (and his name has the -ies in it in the scans i can find of this so that's also a good omen) and it's still david psalms so i hunted it down. and great news

[image id: a picture of the first page of the psalms of david truly opened and explained by theodore beza. it has the translator listed as anthonie gilbie and printers listed as richard yardley and peter short. it is extremely brown and looks very old. end id.]

it's an even older looking book! (though to be fair, the geneva bible was older they probably just reprinted it more often) (i found it here if that's anything)

quick intro to people: theodore beza was a french calvinist who lived in geneva. he's not really important to this story. peter short and richard yardley were printers who worked for the stationers' company (aka the worshippers company of stationers aka the worshipful company of stationers and newspaper makers) and i will get back to that.

so now we're getting... somewhere? i mean, this book does have cool wood cuttings right?

[image id: a picture of a wood cutting of a man kneeling in front of a book, with light and a fancy frame. end id.]

but does it have percontation points?

[image id: a picture from the psalms of david truly opened and explained by theodore beza. it has two percontation points in it. end id.]

oh hell the fuck yes it has them. look at that! two of em right there! that solves that mystery. and i didn't even have to look at the geneva bible. but it's fineee <- didn't want to look at the geneva bible but whatever

but where's henry denham?

like first of all, the article i was using said "1581" for the psalms thing so either that's a different psalms with percontation points in it or something got screwed up because also... the printers are names on here and neither of them are denham, especially considering the book came out in 1590 and denham quit publishing in 1589 (or maybe 1591? it's unclear). they also confusingly say he was succeeded by short and yardley and while i can't find anything about yardley, i do know that denham also worked for the stationers' company so they were at least colleagues in the printing business . so this isn't denham is seems but also... he did make the percontation point in 1587 in the tragicall tales so i don't think it's a question of inventing it, that was probably still denham. there might be another psalms out there with percontation points in it but who knows? i really don't think we need more proof when we say that this -> ⸮ is the percontation point :}

⁂

so where the fuck did this other one come from‽ because if i know one thing it's that progressive punctuation has generally been right... so what's the deal with that?

of course i did the only logical thing and emailed them. i hate emails but i did it anyways. for you (if people don't reblog this just for the sheer effort i will be mildly saddened. here's a secret interpunct for you for reading all this shit. -> ·)

and of course, i didn't get an email back immediately which was disappointing. in fact, as i post this, i still haven't gotten an email from them (i waited like a week but if they do email me back i'll update you)

so anyways, then what did we learn if i never got an email back? how to do dumb research for a day and learn absolutely nothing new? i mean i actually kinda don't know how to conclude this now that i think about it. i guess we learned that henry denham probably invented the percontation point and that maybe we should start using it more often. and that you should check infographics you see online, i guess? maybe don't check them this intensely though because. that was a lot. :{

* don't you dare go harass the op i swear i will kill you if you do

† apparently these aren't by david according to most scholars but whatever

‡ unrelated as far as i am aware to tommy tuberville, a u.s. senator from arkansas. he seems to be kind of an asshole but i'm not from arkansas so i don't really have an opinion

[rewritingcanon]

Sorry, this might be a long rant but those anons and replies you were getting got me going. TERFs always say how trans women are “cosplaying” or “performing” what they think a woman is. But, and I say this as a cis woman, don’t cis women do that too? I’d argue that it’s not even performing womanhood, it’s performing femininity, and isn’t femininity a performance at the end of the day? Cis women wear makeup, jewelry, dresses, etc. usually to express their femininity, but it’s not inherent to being a woman. Being born a woman doesn’t automatically come with a gene that makes you interested in traditionally feminine things or ways of expression, it’s all socialization. People associate gender affirmation only with trans people, but cis men and woman do it too? Men will go to the gym to build muscle or get hair transplants to feel more masculine, and women will do things that make them feel more feminine. It’s all a performance that we put on for society. Cis women get cosmetic surgery to adhere to female beauty standards all the time (even JKR, allegedly) but suddenly it’s a problem when trans women do it?

It sucks because I do consider myself a radical feminist but TERFs make it hard to exist in that space. I think TERFs and I would agree that women getting plastic surgery is actually not an empowering or feminist choice and only further feeds an industry that profits off of making women (especially women of color) feel insecure. However, I don’t blame women for getting work done, because they’re essentially the victim in the scenario. Why would I blame someone who is groomed by a society that tells them certain parts of them are bad and need to be changed? It’s pointless and self righteous, and it only further puts the burden of being the “perfect victim” on women. I feel the same for trans women (and men). I don’t like that we live in a society that pressures people into undergoing sometimes very serious procedures to be more palatable. But that’s hardly their fault, is it? Can I really blame anyone for being worn down and making a decision to try and make their life in a toxic world easier? Specifically for trans women, it also involves their safety because they (specifically trans women of color) are the most at risk members of society, especially when it comes to violence. The more they ‘pass’, they are keeping themselves safe.

It’s just so crazy to me how TERFs can acknowledge that the patriarchy is toxic to women in ways that affect their daily lives and how they present themselves, but can’t seem to understand that it also affects other groups of people in those ways as well. Trans women aren’t our enemy, they’re just trying to survive, just like we are. How can I fault anyone for that?

Again, so sorry for the long rant but I got heated lmao

no dont apologise babe i completely agree LOL. its so sad because when i first came across radical feminism it was about their takes on sex work and the porn industry in general and i really agreed with a lot they had to say so i kept deep diving and THEN i came across the terfism. and to this day idk whether that is intrinsic to radfem ideology or if terfs are just saying it is. either way, its sad because i feel like radfems are sort of overshadowed by terfs in their spaces and get a bad rep to their name because of how many bigots use that space to promote their hateful rhetoric instead of promoting their good takes on patriarchy.

that original post about jkr got a lot of terfs/self proclaimed radfems in the shits too and i would scroll through their profiles and read what they had to say about the oppression of ciswomen and actually agree with them. and then they would turn around and argue the exact opposite about trans women which was absolutely mind-boggling to me. you tell me these people can discuss so many nuances about cis-womanhood but refuse to acknowledge similar nuances in transpeople? crazy. and very disappointing.

your point on plastic surgery and gender affirming surgery is interesting. ive never thought about it that way before or thought to compare the two. i agree with what you say about cis women getting plastic surgery btw, i also dont think it’s empowering women at all but i wont blame them. i think the difference between that and gender affirming surgery is that there are more grey areas like gender dysmorphia (although not everyone who gets this surgery has to have dysmorphia) and also what you said about safety in passing! im cis too so i dont pretend to know how gender dysmorphia feels like (i know dysmorphia is also not a trans-only thing either though). maybe the experience of that is because of socialisation and the knowledge that one’s physicality is preventing them from being socialised ‘correctly,’ and maybe that would disappear if strict ideas of gender (and what ‘man/woman’ “look” like) disappeared as well, but i don’t pretend to know lol. i dont want to make it out to be some big illusion of patriarchy or anything.

either way, you’re right. we are oppressed by patriarchy in similar ways, ways that are exacerbated for trans women (and more so for non-white trans women). even trans men are oppressed too, but im not so sure how they fit into terf rhetoric. i think they may just groups trans men in with cis women? although ive never seen a terf come on here and speak up for the oppression of trans men either so. lol.

sorry for taking so long to answer this i was pondering it for a long time 😭👍

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/728233881369739264/the-aroace-anon-makes-me-sad-and-shows-how-fucked?source=share

I apologize in advance but this ask ticked me off, so to vent I'm going to rant about it in your ask box (I think you get a lot of that lol)

I have no idea what post OP is responding to but from context I assume that a person of the aroace persuasion doesn't feel welcome in their own identity because how vocal sex positive aces are. That must really suck and I think they need to talk to ace people in real life because I'm willing to bet the only thing that are seeing is internet wank.

I really feel for them but the unfortunate reality is that when an ace person explains that they have had sex, or is having sex, had sex once enjoyed it or is in a relationship that has sex in it, allosexual (people who experience sexual attraction) immediately go and invalidate our identity. They go "Oh you've had sex so obviously you're not ace you're het or you're gay etc." That invalidation makes the sex positive portion of the ace spectrum mad. Because we are actively being told we don't fit in our label (Which ironically, is exactly what OP is doing by saying that the label wasn't made for us)

I like sex but I have no desire to have it. People don't rev my engine (I don't even do what the hell this means lol, can you tell I'm ace?) This means so I don't feel sexual attraction which is the exactly definition that OP is using for asexuality. My having to explain this and the frequency in which I have to explain this that means that I am louder than the asexuals who don't have to explain. And presto, by the nature of the internet, it means that I'm what you find when you go look for asexual representation on the internet.

I also take issue with the definition this OP has for sex repulsion. If enjoying sex as an ace person is one side of the spectrum. Not wanting and/or enjoying sex is the middle of the spectrum.

If your sex repulsed you are at the other end of the spectrum. Implying that sex repulsed people are traumatized and need therapy is a misrepresentation at best. It's just another micro label ace people use to get across their experiences. All that label implies is that you have a strong aversion to sex. That could be due to you finding sex objectively disgusting or due to past trauma. There could be a million other reason to identify as sex repulsed.

What sex repulsion does not imply is that there is something wrong with you for not wanting sex and you need to go to therapy to fix it.

It's like getting into a car crash and never wanting to drive again. There may be some impact on your lifestyle but it's not the end of the world. Having some sort of sexual trauma happen to you and never wanting sex again is a valid reaction and never getting over that is okay. It absolutely doesn't invalidate identifying as asexual.

Point in fact asexuality has always been an identity that people want to wish away with medical intervention. We say we don't feel any sexual attraction and they say you should see a doctor about that, you must be depressed. Of course there is something wrong with you if you don't want sex, everyone likes sex.

You're sex repulsed?? You should have therapy about that. This kind of medical rhetoric happens all the time because our society puts emphasis sex in relationships. A healthy sex life equals a healthy relationships which is absolutely not how it works. Thus you are defective if you don't want sex but especially if there is a reason you don't want sex.

Sex repulsed is a label real asexual people actually use to identify themselves. And OP should not judge other people for what labels they use because OP doesn't like "implications" of the word repulsed. I realise that OP is coming from a position of sympathy here and that aro/ace person absolutely should not have to use a label that they don't identity with but the reasons that OP states aren't valid.

I absolutely agree some people don't have any experience with sex and when they get it they will realise that they weren't ace after all. That doesn't invalidate thinking they were ace at the time. Sometimes a label doesn't work out long term. The amount of stories I've heard from people that used to be ace but figured out that they actually just don't like guys or girls. Or they like sex fine they just don't like the romantic part. Asexuality is frequently a stopping block for people until they find an identity that better suits them. That's just part of ace culture too.

So in summary get off my lawn OP you don't know what your talking about. Sympathizing isn't enough. Try looking up ace Mirco labels and see how many different ways there are to be ace in either direction.

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