#obv it's going to be a dodgy system

[worstloki]

friends to enemies is fine but friend group to enemies holds so much more potential for comedy. everyone is chill and still gets along fine. except for Todd who defected and is now our arch nemesis. yeah like he totally just went off on his own and founded a cult. barely changed his aesthetic too and now all he talks about is the corruption in the system and how we're free to join him when we've had enough of it ourselves.

[khaleesirin]

(1/3) Previous anon here, I feel like I need to clarify: I didn’t know about Nard being ableist & I just said it to fit in the character limit anyway. « Big tiddy gf » is obv not how I see Hinata nor how I define women which is my point : I feel that he did, when it comes to Hinata at least (though his portrayal of girls in general is very reductive). It seems she was meant to be Naruto’s wife first & the rest of her came as an afterthought to his « I want my hero to have ideal gf » plan

(2/4)which is why I feel uncomfortable with his portrayal of her. I’m fine with characters like Hinata, the themes of abuse and recovery and defining relationships make for interesting character arcs, but I also don’t feel Kishi has the subtlety or even the desire to handle these themes when it comes to her. For example Killua in HxH has similar themes but is handled way better and less creepily imo. It feels like her growth, as positive as it is, was really a trope to glorify Naruto even more.

(¾)You said tons of metas have been written, and I read some, and it’s very cool. I just think it’s a shame that we have to rely on that and novels to be able to grasp the depth of her character which I feel is otherwise treated in a very offhanded way. Ultimately she sometimes feels like more of a tool to the plot rather than a fully fledged character which I think is sad. I do want her to be more than a trophy wife, and she is, but she also easily could be so much more.

(4/4) She’s not the only character that was done dirty and when I talk about bad portrayal I obv don’t bash her, I deplore Kishi’s dodgy writing. I was interested to see your take on that but I understand that trying to explain it in only 500 characters was a bad idea. I expressed it badly and I’m sorry if it offended you. If you still think my take is terrible and you don’t wanna interact that’s completely fine, but I wanted to clarify that at least.

–

Thank you for taking your time to write this reply. I feel like I need to also take time to reply to you to clarify myself as much as possible.

Kishimoto, as much as he frustrates me as a writer, didn’t really portray Hinata as a “cute tiddy shy gf” in the entire series. You may be conflating Hinata  in the manga and how SP milked her popularity. She was rarely illustrated as “cute” in the manga, and her character design wasn’t sexualized in the manga as much as it was in the anime. So I don’t think you should criticize Kishimoto on this, because Hinata was done respectfully, and beautifully (in terms of illustrations) in the manga. Heck, during the entire 4th shinobi war, she was wearing an androgynous looking attire, like the rest of them. 

Second, there’s nothing wrong in of itself for Kishimoto to initially assign Hinata as Naruto’s love interest. It’s a normal thing in character building. It’s the same way when a writer designs/assigns who will be the villain, who will be the side-kick to the villain, who will be the comic relief in the story. It’s on us, as readers, if our value-judgment to a role as “main hero’s love interest” is a bad thing. Hinata was created to have a specific role, yes, and that’s to be Naruto’s love interest. There’s nothing like an afterthought to how Kishimoto wants to write Hinata though, because since the beginning, we already know why Hinata feels something for Naruto. There’s nothing superficial to it, there’s nothing disrespectful about it. Hinata was created not to glorify Naruto (the character) but to romanticize the message of Naruto (the series), which she learned from him and something she taught him (and she taught us as readers). This is actually a role of a heroine, yet she was already given this role as she was introduced in the series, so I honestly don’t get why everything else written for Hinata is an afterthought. 

Like I’ve mentioned elsewhere, for Hinata, Naruto is her ubermensch, in that tru his insistence to get acknowledge, Hinata also finally realized for herself a reason why someone like her has the right to exist, and that  she, too, deserves to exist. She doesn’t provide lip service for Naruto (the character) though, because she’s the one to tell him off during the war. As I’ve mentioned earlier, Kishimoto uses Hinata to tell to the audience what the message of Naruto (the series) is, and it has to be about Naruto because he is the titular character. It means Naruto must have done something to make us understand why he is the hero of the story. It’s not a glorification of Naruto as if he is a god that we need to worship,  but a romanticization of his brand of heroism, which is one thing that I love about this series. Often, when we talk about heroes, it’s always about how they are “above” or “superior,” but for Hinata, and for Kishimoto, heroes are those imperfect people who continue to fight, who continue to stand up, despite failures after failures after failures. Hinata, because she is influenced by Naruto, is an embodiment of that. But she embodied it not FOR NARUTO himself, but for other characters as well, and more importantly, for herself. To make her satisfy with her own existence. 

Hinata’s character has so much depth in the manga itself. I don’t need the novels or the anime or other materials to know who she is. Because on the get go, we understand where she is coming from. Her insecurity is not used as a “moe” character trait to make her endearing, but a fundamental part of her struggle and her growth. Her character growth was not used as a lip service for Naruto, because it was a way to make her stand out as a character, it was a way to define who she is. Of course, she is used as a plot device. Every character is a plot device. How else do you move a story? 

Like I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I wish Kishimoto could have done more for Hinata, I wished she was given a fight against Kanon, I wished she was given a plot just with her and Team 8. Kishimoto is a limited writer, and it shows when he writes his female characters. But, in no way or form, was Hinata reduced to just a trophy wife. If you honestly think she has no personality, that’s on you. If you are set to believe this, no amount of metas or discourse would change your mind. Like you, I criticize Kishimoto’s writing of female characters, but I don’t specifically criticize Hinata for her supposed “character flaw.” 

It’s fine though. Again, thanks for clarifying your position. If you want to read more about my thoughts regarding Hinata and Kishimoto, I implore you to take time to peruse my blog (IDK if I have a good tagging system or what) since I actually had a discussion with other anons regarding Kishimoto’s writing and Hinata’s character structure and why despite my frustration regarding his writing, I find Hinata a complex character. 

[moralityblurred]

ok first & foremost i just had a margarita & it’s very hot in my house bcuz my a/c isn’t working so if this comes out kinda long & rambly & ridden with typos....  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

anywho, i’m kinda exploring a verse with salem where dalton’s powers started manifesting when he was younger and so as a result, he’s more settled into his abilities instead of all /jack voice/ what’s this? it also means some of the potential powers i indicated when posting about his magic previously have started to develop and he’s getting better control over specific aspects of his magic.

so. setting. rather than being just a tech support agent, he works at a small-time computer shop, locally owned, but it’s lowkey a hub for tech magic ( like, they’ll code sigils/incantations into the operating system & software and even etch sigils into components of the hardware. ) they also serve as just a general hub of witchy knowledge, almost a wikipedia for witches. obv it’s a small location so they couldn’t house a physical library, but they can link you to plenty of online databases or ‘yellowpages’ for where to go for certain info.

he’s actually a little younger in this verse, more 22-23 rather than being 25 as in his main verse. i just feel like it fit him better. he first began dreamwalking when he was 14 and puberty hit. one of the key differences here too is that his dad actually left him a journal, a grimoire of sorts in fact, and when his mom realized what might be going on, she gave it to him. so rather than ignoring his remarkably vivid dreams & just thinking being tired all the damn time is normal/easily solved with copious amounts of energy drinks, he actually got to research dreamwalking and learn how direct himself. his dad’s journal is how he got in touch with the people at the computer shop, too, the owner being a tech mage himself. he still does not talk to his dad’s side of the family, though. they’ve pretty much disowned his branch of the tree a long time ago, so even though dalton could use their knowledge & expertise, it’s not available for him.

also his cat, chernobog? definitely a familiar. rather than being adopted from a shelter, the cat found him on the street walking to work one day and refused to leave. he ended up following dalton home and that’s the rest of the story. eventually, once dalton was comfortable with him, he introduced himself and revealed what he truly was. his true name is nigel.

his powers! originally listed here. as far as his dreamwalking goes, he is capable of communicating with others in their dreams, warning them of things happening in other places. he cannot see into the future, so his knowledge is limited to current or past events. useful if someone isn’t close by and is in a rural area with dodgy electricity/cell service. the dream world is a little distorted so physical distance isn’t always a limitation to entering their dreams, but he does have to be able to find them. if someone’s magically spelled or even on heavy medications that result in a dreamless sleep, he can’t communicate with them.

however, unless someone is specifically warded against dreams, he can sometimes make a person dream. THAT, however, requires physical proximity, and still quite a bit of concentration. they have to already be asleep, too. dalton is just beginning to show enough strength & focus to induce sleep in others, but he can’t do it reliably enough to count that as a skill yet. he has not so much explored dream replication or negation yet, which is why he’s skipped ahead a little in that list of progression.

regarding his electricity magic, he’s definitely aware of the fact that urban environments with a lot of power lines ‘charge’ his magic. he can literally use it as a charging cable and so he becomes a human battery. he’s capable of discharging that electricity at a target, but it depletes his magic, sometimes devastatingly so if he’s not careful, and leaves him a little woozy and sometimes with a horrible headache.

he’s also realized he can communicate directly with technology. like, he doesn’t so much have to have intimate coding knowledge, he can more or less tell the computer what his desired end result is and the computer will sort of write the code itself. i don’t know exactly how to describe it, but he doesn’t have to think about procedures, he just has an instinctive knowledge about how things work and can navigate various aspects of computers & tech with ease. recently he’s been able to tap into that at a further level to be able to send commands and send/messages without directly accessing his devices. ( almost like he has alexa hardwired into his brain. ) so as long as there is some way for the signal to reach him ( i.e. cell service or wifi ) his phone could be completely dead and he could still get his notifications. it’s still something he has to check into deliberately, it’s not just a constant feed running in the back of his head, thankfully.

so he’s young, but he’s also pretty powerful, and if he continues to study his dad’s notes & stick with the other witches at the computer shop, he’s going to get even more powerful.

also worth noting that due to dalton’s nature as a witch, and just in general being an empathetic person means he’s really sensitive to other people’s auras. @wrathrisen in particular, with cam having such an OVERWHELMING affect can come on so strong that dalton can get a bad migraine or even feel nauseous if he’s around him for too long. mostly, it’s his anger & sadness that does it, when cam’s aura is more joyful, he’s easier to be around. another reason why after cam is subjected to horrible torture & becomes more closed off and bitter, it’s harder for dalton to be around him as much as he wants to support cam & provide some kind of stability/trust for him. 

[fleabite531]

JVP Netanyahu demo and Official New Friend

Wednesday. Chilled day with Y. He was working from home. I was lazing about and got snuggles during his breaks. Then I headed into SF for Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) demo protesting Trump’s meeting that day with Netanyahu and their shared values of racism, wall-building and hate-mongering. Was cool to be with other Jewish progressives, though a little disappointed there was only about 40-50 there. It was a 2 hour demo and I was only there for last bit so there might have been more attending in total as folks were coming and going. I liked the connection between zionism and to USA rhetoric and policies on migration and borders, which was expressed in chants and handmade placards.

After the demo a couple of Bay Area friends I had originally connected with from Gaza (from my trip in 2003) met me and I really enjoyed how easy and grounded in affection these relationships are. Partly I think it might be that usa (partic west coast?) culture is more emotionally demonstrative anyway, so i might just be experiencing that and feeling it as “ooo these people like me, its safe for me to open up to them too”. But regardless I’m starting to really value these other reasons for being in bay area besides Y, and this works well as both Y and I like spending time with other people too when we’re together.

I had this waffle/diner food craving, and as this was my last opportunity for it for a while, we headed to Mel’s. Mel’s is both fun, and cliched/OTT, but I’m a tourist and I kinda enjoy the OTT so I love sitting in a Happy Days set! We even used the booth side jukebox! Excitingly someone joined us who I’ve only before met with when I’ve been also meeting her partner who is an old friend of mine. We both agreed that meeting without him made us now Official Friends. She was also excited to be in SF itself, as she does the common Easy Bay resident thing of hardly ever coming over into the city.

#gallery-0-10 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-10 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Waffley goodness. And hell yes did I add the extra butter as well as the warmed maple syrup!

Official Friends! And both excited by our food!

Y joined us, and then a bit later New Official Friend, Y and I decided to go for Mexican food in the Mission – hey its my last night! I’m totes allowed 2 suppers! Then we went for a wander and ended up at the top of Dolores Park enjoying the view over the city before grabbing Indian deserts on our way to the last BART back to the East Bay. For I still needed to pack and then get up at 6am for my flight home!

Bus ticket drama

At SFO I was probably over excited by the TSA dog – so cute, though it looked pretty skinny. Luckily the excitement was not reciprocated so I got through security uneventfully, though the same was not true about getting from Edinburgh airport back to Glasgow…

So I’d managed to lose my purse containing my return bus ticket and debit card at Reykjavik airport on the way out. Pop quiz: a) I did the responsible thing and phoned lost property about it as soon as i realised, or b) I procrastinated making the scary phone call and then decided I’d just see them when I transited on my way back home only to find out that the lost property office was only open at 8:30am, was after my 4am-7am transit time? Ooops! Of course I had a chain of backup plans in case my purse wasn’t even in the airport:

1) pick up return bus ticket with bank card in iceland. 2) use debit card stored in chrome to buy bus ticket online and choose sms ticket option 3) use Y’s credit card to buy bus ticket online 4) convert $20 at edin airport (and take on chin the double commission whammy of both converting a small amount and an airport booth – I just need £11:60 for the bus ticket…) 5) once am in uk and time is more respectable (i landed 9am) start calling round friends to either buy me a bus ticket online / rescue me from airport 6) hitchhike – lots of Glasgow folks use Edinburgh airport and I was due to land at peak time (9am)

Ok, fine, so I couldn’t get my bus ticket or debit card… i just drop to option 2. After all I’ve used my card online so often I never even have to look at the CVC anymore. It turns out that my memory of that 3 digits is perfect unless its 5am and I’m on dodgy airport wifi with no way to just look at the back of the goddamned card! Fine, I’ll use Y’s credit card – he’d given me one that was about to expire anyway in case options 1 or 2 fell through. Except it turns out the citylink website doesn’t accept non uk billing addresses. Argh! More time passes and I’m like, bugger this, I need coffee[0] and then realised i could get citylink tickets on megabus website too. So off I go but now I’m struggling with the verified by visa password and Y is busy.

However the coffee was def working – some more googling and it turns out you can buy bus tickets at edinburgh airport’s tourist information booth! They’re bound to accept card payments, and Y’s given me his pin so i’m sorted! There are buses at 9:30 and 10:00 and I’m desperate to just get to my own bed by this time.

[09:00] Luckily our flight lands a bit early and I race through immigration and to the booth (in post coffee alertness at Reykjavik I’d pre-memorised the route from the online airport map)

[09:15] Possibly over sharing I tell the v friendly “welcome to scotland” person that i’ve just arrived back from travel abroad and so don’t have cash yet and so want to buy the bus ticket using my credit card and am hoping to make the 09:30 bus. She says she’s going to make sure she can give me the ticket before taking my money and then has to boot the computer an go through the complex online system. “I don’t think we have to waste time filling in your phone number and email address. I’ll just tick that you refused to give them to me”

[09:18] The printer is jammed and after several minutes she gives up trying to fix the feed and goes to another machine which thank the universe spits out the ticket.

[09:23] I put Y’s credit card into their card reader, but instead of asking for the pin, it says “payment accepted. signature required” and directs me to remove the card. So she prints the receipt and asks me to sign it. I squiggle “Praveen Kumar”[1] and hand it back.

[09:24] She flicks over the card (d’oh! of course she was going to do that! i’d forgotten that was even a thing. when was last time you signed for a card payment???) and the signature panel is blank… “Do you have any other ID with you?” Me, feigning calmness but running lateness “Oh no, I don’t have an other ID with me!”

Lets recap : 1) I’ve told her I’ve just landed off an international flight. 2) As far as she’s concerned she’s addressing a white female with an English accent. 3) The card is for an American bank with an Indian male name.

“Well I think you’ve been kept waiting long enough trying to get it printed. Turn right and then right again to get to the bus stop”

I LOVE BEING BACK IN SCOTLAND!!!! And I am very appreciative that I have bucketloads of white privilege which I am benefitting from – doubt this would have been so easy had Praveen Kumar been trying to use a card with a white chick’s name on :(

Friday – Spontaneous outing to The Lost Boys at amusement park

I arrived home at about 11am. Obviously first thing I did was put the kettle on. Ah tea, now things seem more reasonable. Ok, so I’ve had maybe 6 hours sleep since Wednesday, and I should probably change my clothes, but all I need to do today is stay awake til 8ish, go to the bank to get cash out across the counter, and get a few groceries in for the weekend. Then I’ll sleep like a baby and wake up some time tomorrow, go to the LGBTQ boxing club, and my timezone should be all fixed ready for 12 hour shift on Sunday. By 4:30pm I’ve done bank and shop chores and have cash and am planning a quiet evening and then sleeeeeeeep.

And then, this being Glasgow, a friend invites me to a Glasgow Film Festival screening of The Lost Boys in a secret location, buses leaving from the GFT in 90 mins. So much for the early night plan! Accompanied by motorbikes revelling as they rev their engines to full blast we are transported to M&Ds amusement park. We bump into another friend and play on the rides opened up specially for the occasion, the park packed with excited adults in vampire/hunter dress-up squirting holy-water-pistols at each other on the big wheel and maximal audience participation through a favourite teenage movie. Much glee!

Walking home from the bus, much sleep deprived but very content with how lucky I am to come back to Glasgow, where being “cool” means showing your exuberance, participating to the max. Not sneering, but rather thrilling at and cheering on others’ dorkiness and throwing themselves into the spirit of whatever hijinks is going on.

    eg from http://www.medizeninc.com/index.php/menu/

[0] food and drink seems to feature a lot in today’s blog… To add more, as wow air doesn’t give any food on the flight I’d packed another really good picnic; hard boiled eggs, oranges, humus and veg wrap (didn’t taste good on the flight though – i know taste buds are supposed to be different on flights), smoked tofu and jerky. This time didn’t have the conveniently under 100mls water-tight containers i had last time, and the liquor store seemed confused about why i’d want a *small* bottle of alcohol (merkans and their super-sizing!) so decided to buy booze in duty-free as obvs you can carry that onto the plane. Except then I realised once aboard that i wasn’t sure if i’d be allowed to carry it onto my second flight if i took it out of the heat sealed duty free bag and opened it. so i relied on snoozing and copious pre downloaded star trek to get me through instead. I’d turned down a pal’s offer of a “medicated” jelly bean which given the TSA doggie (such cute eyes!) was lucky!

[1] Name changed to another Indian male name for privacy reasons.

Homecoming – Last day in SF bay area (JVP netanyahu demo, and /official/ new friend). Bus ticket drama. Glasgow returning – spontaneous outing to The Lost Boys at amusement park. JVP Netanyahu demo and Official New Friend Wednesday. Chilled day with Y. He was working from home.