#sorry but we really have to change the way we view addiction

[chewwytwee]

Guys you gotta be so careful, if you see yourself planning your day around playing games, or find yourself not wanting to do things so you can go play games WATCH OUT!! You might actually be addicted to video games. You can't do enjoyable things that make you happy very often or have a desire to do things because that's addiction. Which is inherently morally bad because..... it is

[rosesnbooks]

Astrology observations #1

-gemini moons talk A LOT, or at least, so many things are in their head..i feel sorry for them lol.

-3rd house placements are usually really good at something, and others praise them for this. very smart individuals. may be good with words or memorising lots of info

-libra rising know how to dress and they have their own unique style. even if they are wearing something basic, the outfit fits like a glove

-scorpio mars are either highly sexual or aspec, i feel like there is nothing in between. i'm a scorpio mars and my bestie is a scorpio rising and we are both aspec

-aquarius rising always give off this mysterious and private vibe, and when they start talking you realise there's so much more to them

-11th house stelliums may focus a lot on friendships in their lifetime, and they often leave a strong impact on them. but they need to choose them more carefully

-taurus mercury and their voices are so sweet and pretty. men's voices are deep and calming.

-taurus moon people? i love you, never change. the way these people are so welcoming and kind, so grounded yet soft and sensitive. you feel like coming home in the best way possible.

-sagittarius mars people are all over the place. even if they have introverted placements, i feel like they want a lot from life, a lot of excitement.

-aries moons want to be in charge wherever they go. if you make them feel small, they will cut you off from their lives. also, i think they focus their identity on specific things they like, such as music and films

-scorpio venus and their love can be addicting and suffocating at the same time. as if they want to become one with their partner. honestly, a lot of people can deal with this intensity, and if well-developed, this love can be rewarding

-capricorn mercury seem very mature when they speak, people always listen to them and trust them with their opinion. however, they are so stubborn sometimes and they don't even see it. it takes a lot of effort to change their opinion

-i think cancer moons worry too much about how people feel all the time, it drains them. very sensitive and moody folks, but so loving and attentive

-leo venus shine so bright, and they want a lot of fun. romance is important to them, and they seem like a kid when in love. it's really sweet. they just need to find someone who would provide them this idealistic view of love, otherwise they'd get bored and disappointed

-virgo placements are so hard on themselves, such perfectionists. some are harsh on others too, while others observe people's flaws easily but accept them momentarily.

-gemini moons, surrounding themselves with knowledgeable people makes them inspired

-capricorn venus are really loyal. they don't want to settle, their standards are high. if you seem flaky to them, they won't waste their time with you

[zeldasnotes]

Neptune Notes🧜‍♀️

Check out Moon Notes and Venus Notes

♆If you have a prominent Neptune in your chart you might notice that its hard for others to take you seriously when you are angry because you look so innocent? Thats because your power lies in that innocence. You power lies in looking helpless and getting others to rescue you and getting sympathy from others. Not saying you should use it just saying thats it. Just like ppl with prominent Mercury got their power in their sneakiness and their sharp tongue.

♆ A lot of people with Mercury/Neptune aspects grew up being ignored or left alone in their room a lot. So they had to fantasize to survive mentally which leads to them having a hard time with reality as they get older. They learned to view life from rose colored glasses to survive.

♆ People with Neptune in the 1st house probably feeling like they have never met anyone like them before. They give off this angelic otherwordly aura. Like they are more than human.

♆ People with Venus/Neptune had a mother who constantly criticized herself and was obsessed with her appearance. So they learned early that flaws are something to be covered up and fixed. Thats why they become the perfect partners and do everything they can to look their best. Their mother could also have been very submissive to their dad or blindly in love with him while their father ignored their mother.

♆ Neptune in the 2nd house can be way to generous.

♆ Neptune in the 10th house can be known for being a drug addict. You know in every town there is a group of addicts who everybody knows, they probably have Neptune conjunct Midheaven.

♆A lot of Neptune aspects especially squares can make a person very submissive with a inferiority complex.

♆ Moon aspecting Neptune can indicate a mother who suffers with some kind of addiction.

♆Im so sorry but when people with Mercury Square Neptune tells me a story I have to ask somebody else who was there if thats what really happened.

♆ Mars aspecting Neptune can others an impression of being weak or afraid. Men with this aspect probably gets ”tested” by other men a lot and might be unable to go out to pubs and nightclubs because of men wanting to start fights with them.

♆ Ive seen Mars Square Neptune to be a common placement in people who get used for sex. These people are easily taken advantage off and might believe that they are gonna get into a relationship with the people who just wants to sleep with them.

♆ Neptune rules who we overidealize:

Sun/Neptune: You overidealize your father and men. Moon/Neptune: You overidealize your mother and women. Mercury/Neptune: You overidealize siblings and younger people. Venus/Neptune: You overidealize beautiful women in general and your partners/female friends. Mars/Neptune: You overidealize men and sexual partners, and your enemies.

♆ Neptune in the 1st house can change the way their voice sound depending on who they are talking to. They can even change body language and the way they walk. The scary part is that it comes naturally for them.

♆ People with Venus Square Neptune are so cute and pretty. Like little dolls.😍

♆Neptune dominance in a chart can make someone very kind with huge ammounts of empathy and compassion.

♆People with a lot of Neptune probably get approached by beggars on the street. They look like they will give you what you need. (As a Neptunian myself I have to say ive always been weak for beggars, I cant just walk past them without giving something. When I was little my mom got mad at me because I always wanted to give them our stuff😂)

♆ Squares to Neptune in the chart reminds me of those ”once you see it you cant unsee it” pictures. When you finally figure that planet out you can use it to your benefit. Venus Square Neptune once you stop trusting everyone you will realize that you got the gift to make people trust you and see YOU as the ideal partner, instead of painting others as some kind of ideal.

♆ And once people with Neptune in the 1st house realize the power they hold its over. Kim Kardashian is a perfect example of this constantly creating scandals and extreme ammounts of money because she know how easy it is to make people think all kinds of crazy things about her.

©2022 Zeldas Notes

[knockknockknockingonhootysdoor]

biiiiig huntlow dump because i had a moment!!! i just!! think they're neat!!! that first photo is half a conversation bc i'm not very good at dialogue. the rest is just silly doodles to make up for the angst,,, of course captions are underneath!

Page 1

Willow: It was really hard to see you lie so still, I'll admit that. But your pain is what's most important here, Hunter. I want to be here for you, if you'll let me. Hunter: ... Willow: I know its not a consolation to you and I'm being so selfish right now, but I'm so glad you're alive, Hunter. I'm so so glad. Willow: I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. -Sob- Hunter: B-but I don't d-deserv- Willow: Don't. You do. You absolutely do.

Page 2

(Pointing to Hunter) Trying horned-rimmed glasses

Willow: You know, there's that Cosmic Frontier movie in theaters! You wanna go to a showing? Hunter: Yeah! Sounds great! <3

-- Cheese! -- Willow: C'mon! Let's go check it out! Hunter: It says no trespassing! Willow: A quick look won't hurt! -- (Pointing to Willow) Carrying him over puddles :)

Willow: You good? Hunter: Haha yeah! --

Willow: THANK YOU HUNTER! I missed aloe juice since we came back home! I really appreciate you going back to Camila's to get me some! Hunter: Ha ha it's no trouble! Willow: THANK YOU! (Squeaky toy noise) Hunter: Oh! Haha! Wow! Yippee!!

Page 3

(Pointing to Hunter) Addicted to sweets and treats (Pointing to Mote) Mote :) (Pointing to Willow) Holds said treats for him.

Willow: Oh! The Bonesborough Brawlers won 5 to 3! Amity: Why... why didn't she make him change... Gus: Let him live Amity. Luz: Look! Claire's is this way! Matt: I thought we were going to Hot Topic?! -- Willow: Oh! Hunter's here! Willow: (Loudly) HIIIII HUNTER!! Omg this is a library Willow

Willow Vision: Pointing to all of the hearts surrounding Willows view of Hunter; he is poked by an arrow labelled "Easily embarrassed"

Willow: (Whispering) Sorry! Hiiiii Hunter! Luz: omg You have it so bad. C'mon or we'll be late to class! Hee hee You can stare at him later!

Page 4

Oh how time flies...

Willow: Oh! Is that your fursona? Looks cool! Hunter: ... I have feelings for you. --

Very small doodles of Lumity, Gustholomule, and Huntlow

Willow: Wait for us!!

Page 5

A more canonical moment of stress

Hunter: And so Chief Engineer O'Bailey went to Captain Avery and demanded for him to beam him back to the planet to save the blah blah blah blah Wow! Sounds crazy! Hunter: Do you want to watch the episode with me after school? Willow: Sure! <3

--

Darius: You staying for dinner, Park? Willow: If that's okay! Hunter: Yeah! We can watch the latest episode after!

Willow: Thanks for having me! Hunter: ♡ O-Oh! No problem! ♡

SIIIIIIGH ♡♡♡

Darius: Time to do your homework, Romeo. You'll see her tomorrow.

[outsidereveries]

jungwon's personality

what he was like in his childhood: very hardworking and oveeeeremotional (with good intentions). jungwon could be also very intuitive but also passive/calm child. basically the best of the 2 worlds i'd say.

which qualities has changed during puberty: he got more distracted and lacked discipline more than when he was a kid. basically he explored himself in one way or another, so it's no suprise jungwon was more forgetful at that time. possibly his time in school and not only (he also was a trainee around his teenage days, right?) is the main reason why because nonetheless, jungwon was happy and thankful for these times.

what he's faking: jungwon might not be that risky in real life (compared to his public persona). i am unaware where jungwon is adventurous in the engene's eyes (and not only) but in reality, jungwon is more thoughtful and thinks before acting. if you felt he's impulsive, he's not.

what's also fake but tries not to be: actually, to be realistic. sometimes jungwoon seems to be over the moon for certain things or even delusional. that's happening because of his "overemotional" side. it seems that with the years coming by, jungwon balanced the way he's feeling his emotions which is great however he's just really, really naive. this seems to be about everyday things (even personal ones) and as i really try to not go further, jungwon's just trying to not overthink everything.

what we don't see: jungwon has more individual offers than we see. he refuses them for some reason (i personally don't see belift) because everything won't work when he tries. he would like to try again and again but at this point, jungwon gave up. belift is just other breed (i mean, a (curse word).

political views: as their elections are coming, jungwon is feeling conflicted and doesn't believe in anyone. he lost hope for who to vote and hopes for an alternative party/person who will be worth it in the end. therefore, jungwon might not vote in the near future's elections but not because he's not interested. he actually cares. he lost hope. jungwon might be one of the only people around his age who is interested in politics and all that stuff around korea and possibly outside of it. if he watches other countries (specifically europe and to be more exact, germany, poland, bulgaria..), that's reasonable why he feels hopeless.

what's mixing between his morals and the fame: his intentions. jungwon overthinks how he'll influence engenes and the world and he wants to be actually useful for that purpose. he doesn't want to be just a k-pop idol, but he feels restricted as of now. not only that, he doesn't know from where to start.

would he choose the fame over his standarts: in this circumstances, no. he'll try to make the fame work in a way for him despite what the challenges will be.

religious/spiritual views: deep inside, jungwon is more spiritual than believing in a specific religion. however, this seems to be very hidden as jungwon clearly ignores his intuition.

controversial things he agrees with: to take rest if you don't feel inspired, to communicate when it's needed and to take care of yourself in the best way possible. this doesn't seem to be controversial but if there's instability, just rest. jungwon seems to have had conflicts regarding to that in the past.

addictions (either more prone to has them or might have them): being daring and risky. jungwon should be careful around people since like sunoo, he can be more prone to be manipulated.

destruction traits: jungwon can be impulsive and/or overemotional if he gets angry enough, if he doesn't understand anything that's happening.

qualities he's proud to have: this might be a bad thing, but to focus on enhypen. similar to what we don't see, he received more solo gigs but refused to do them so.

intentions for the future: i am sorry but this might be alarming for his group. if enhypen is likely to disband or reform behind the scenes, jungwon will make everything he can for enhypen to stay as a group untul the end of their contract. as much as jungwon wants the same thing (for enhypen to reform), he is more aware that this might end worse, so he will try to make the rest of enhypen to do their contract as much as possible and is in his power until 2027.

[theflyindutchwoman]

Hi. I'm back for your integration). This time to an episode from the first season when Tim visits Isabel on Valentine's Day.

Why do you think Tim was the first to talk about divorce?

I remember when I first viewed it, it surprised me. He waited for her, fought for her, endured this nightmare and it seems he still loved her. Isabelle apologized, talked about the past. She tried to understand herself and explain to him why it happened. I don't think she's thought about the future yet. And then he offers to divorce. Does he no longer see a future together?

I can only explain this by the fact that Tim, having heard how Isabel felt his pressure on her, that she did not meet his expectations, decides to rid her of herself. (I wonder, by the way, if this is objective or just her feelings, interpretation or just excuses)

Sorry for the mistakes and hopefully not too confusing, English is not my native language.

This is a delicate (and complicated) subject so I hope I'm not saying anything wrong or offensive here. And as always, this is only my interpretation.

The way I see it, when Tim went to the rehab facility to see Isabel, he didn't know what to expect, what her state of mind would be. Hence why he admitted almost turning away twice. What he did know was that he wanted his wife back, that he loved her… But as he had learned the hard way, that might not be sufficient. Still, I don't think he was envisaging divorcing her. It's only once she opened up about the pressure she felt when they were married that he considered it.

At first, Isabel was simply trying to make amends, apologise for all the things she did. It's actually part of the 12-steps program, which supports recovery from substance disorders. Step 09 is about making direct amends to the people you've harmed. Now, I don't know if she was at that stage already but her wording was very similar. Here's what she says : "I don't want to talk about it, either, but it's part of my recovery. […] The whole point is to make amends with the people that I've hurt. And I hurt you most of all". She wanted to acknowledge all the hurt she inflicted… But he wasn't really listening. From what we saw, Tim had a major blindspot regarding Isabel's addiction, where he blamed everything on the drugs. That was his coping mechanism. But it skewed his perspective as well, as Lucy tried to tell him, calling him out on this several times. In his mind, Isabel didn't do the lying, the cheating… It was the drugs. He was compartmentalising. And now that she was in recovery, he thought everything would go back to normal.

Unfortunately, this isn't as black and white. She was under the influence, but she also did those things. And most importantly : she may be in recovery, but addiction can last a lifetime. This is a disease, it doesn't go away just like that. So while she might no longer be using drugs, she was still an addict. He needed to accept that if he wanted them to move forward. But instead, he was unintentionally dismissing what she was saying - something he tends to do when he gets uncomfortable. He wasn't ready to address any of that and she got frustrated, unloading on him, telling him how she used to feel this pressure to live up to his standards. So once he understood there were deeper issues in their marriage that might have contributed to her addiction, his blinders came off. He felt he was at least partially responsible for her addiction.

Now, I don't really think she was trying to blame him at first. She genuinely wanted to apologise and was not skirting responsibility, even when Tim was offering her an easy way out. This tells me that she was sincere in her approach. I also doubt she wanted to divorce him. Addicts are usually asked to refrain from making life-altering decisions like this in their first year, to avoid any major change that could trigger a relapse (and I'm glad the show didn't go there by the way). The problem was that Tim got caught off-guard. He had no idea what he was walking into and as a result, didn't have time to prepare himself. You can't force someone to talk about something so sensitive or accept your apologies. The other person has a right to know first and to choose whether they are ready to discuss this.

Like I said earlier, Isabel got frustrated when he was deflecting and she vented out. And whether that was her intent or not, she did place some of the blame for her addiction on Tim. Deserved or not. In 5.20, she implied there were things from her past she was running away from, developing unhealthy coping mechanisms in the process... So there were clearly other factors at the very least. But regardless, this whole conversation really highlighted the dissonance and the breakdown of communication in their marriage. Because he was never aware of how she felt while they were together. She never told him how she was always afraid of disappointing him. Anyhow, Tim internalised what she said and took on the blame placed on him. Hence why he decided to divorce her. If he could be a potential trigger for her, then staying married would do her more harm than good. He would always be a reminder to that low point. So he did what he thought was best for Isabel's well-being. It wasn't for him. It was for her.

(Don't you worry or apologise about your English - I'm not a native speaker either!)

[ghouljams]

You do not sound preachy pookie bear <3 I wanna hear ur writing thoughts! Give us the character creation process for you (side blog for ghoul writing rambles when…? 👀)

A side-side blog is a good idea, I forget sometimes that this is my blog and I can do whatever I want with it, and not like... y'all's library. I'm gonna writing ramble under the cut about character creation

God I love making characters, there's nothing more fun. Except maybe making pinterest boards for those characters. I'm just gonna talk about picking traits because I was recently talking to my friend about how to flesh out one of their characters, and because talking about my actual process got waaaaaay too long.

So the problem my friend had that I think a lot of people had is this: they'd created a character with no negative traits. Of course we don't want to see the bad parts of our OC babies, but they're important! The things that are wrong with us drive us, and my friend was getting really bored with their perfect good trait character.

I'm gonna talk about Goose for this, my favorite blorbo OC, because she's my favorite(sorry other darlings). And I hear you saying, "Wow Ghoul, but Goose is the perfect woman, how could you possibly come up with something wrong with her?" I hear you, I know.

Picking bad traits is really hard! That's why I always advise people to think of the bad parts of their good traits. One man's humility might sound like bragging to another after all.

Goose's core positive traits are that she's: confident, observant, empathetic, competent, loyal, friendly, and steadfast.

Now the bad sides:

She's highly observant to people's emotional states, which is often really annoying when you're trying to keep something to yourself. And especially annoying when Ghost is trying to keep being Ghost and not being Simon.

She's self confident, which can often come off as vain or arrogant in women. She knows what she wants and she's going to get it/do it even if she's not supposed to. (Like fucking Ghost)

She's got a steadfast view of the world, which often makes her blind to other people's intentions. This also makes her stubborn, and unlikely to change her mind when it's made up.

She's really fucking friendly, which can sometimes come off as fake to people that don't know her.

She's loyal almost to a fault. If one of her friends started a fight, she's sure they had a reason for it and they're probably right. Oh you cheated on one of her friends? Good luck with that broken nose and slashed tires. Birdie's in jail? Goose is probably in there with her because nobody fucks with the people she loves.

She's highly competent at her job, and isn't going to listen to other people's advice on how she does that job. This is again where Goose being one of the best can come off as braggy, or bitchy. She doesn't tolerate poorly done jobs, and would rather do it herself than have it done wrong.

Now it's also important to mix in neutral traits that people can go one way or the other on. Theses are the quirks that really make a character fun. Example: Goose is used to training animals and sometimes forget she isn't supposed to train people. Other character quirks could be things like: Love's love of horror and taxidermy, Witch's penchant for Irish goodbyes in the middle of conversations, or Birdie's love of fighting. Not necessarily good or bad things, but definitely quirks of the character.

OR if you're like me and love bad traits in a character you can do the opposite. Find the good in the bad.

Threat: is a flighty sex addict -> is free spirited, charismatic, and good at improvising(exits)

It's not always easy, but it makes it easier to figure out how other characters are going to interact with them. Plus it's a lot of fun thinking about the way different traits are perceived by different people. Anyway I hope this wasn't wildly confusing, I tried to keep it short.

Love you, thanks for letting me ramble <3

[lucysarah-c]

Now I wanna know Levi's love life in the Underground, how it all started, the women he went out with and his first time-

Hello love! How are you?

Are you coming from Holy ground ch. 18? haha Levi's life in the underground is something that I adore to discuss about but I do understand that my point of view from it isn't particularly popular.

With that being said, I add this warning of "underage sex, underage alcohol or drug use, dubious consent and prostitution" ALSO, this is a hella long reply. Sorry

In Holy Ground, Levi mentions that he had 2 fuck buddies in the laps of more on less 4 years before joining the scouts as exclusive partners to keep the "clap" to a minimum (STIs). And, before that, he used to have more casual sex or random hookups. Apparently, from what is mentioned some of them was an MP girl around his age that offered for patrollings. Levi own words " I’m not apologising for shit that I did when I was eighteen, nineteen probably high, drunk, both or trying to space out from the shitty life I had to carry on."

I based this headcanons on personal experience I've either heard from my time helping adults from marginal environments that couldn't go to school as kids, their parents were either drug addicts, in jail and they were basically raised on the streets. You can be old enough to protect yourself but for the sake of surviving usually belonging to groups is the only way. With that being said and thinking that Kenny probably abandoned Levi at the age of 11-13. Levi probably formed part of other's thug's gangs until he was old enough to fully stand on his own. Those environments are never healthy and usually expose extremely toxic masculinity ideas, plus I do also think that Kenny fit or had those thoughts on his own. Therefore, I think that Levi probably lost his virginity at a really young age to prove he was "a man" and not "a boy". Probably with a prostitute. Somewhere the age of 15. This was an insane practice not until long ago, to take guys to "debut" as if this wasn't an abuse. Because men always want to have sex right? I'm being sarcastic here haha just in case.

I do not think Levi thinks deeply of this, he's the consequence of the society he was raised in (period of time etc). Therefore, when he started to slowly build his reputation as someone strong and powerful, he started to receive way more attention if you know what I mean haha. Teens are curious, even Levi and (as he mentioned) he was probably consuming either alcohol or drugs because 1) his environment would tell him it's the cool thing to do and you don't want to look like a "pussy" 2) probably under some circumstances it's cheaper than food 3) life down there must be a hell for a teen and needed to space out. So during this period, that would say between 18-20 years old Levi, I think that if a girl was interested in him and he was interested too, he was like "Why not? I may die tomorrow"

Then I think he had a severe mind change when he found Isabel (in the manga of ACWNR. Isabel is found by Levi as a little kid and practically raised by him). To this rate, Levi wasn't only powerful enough to be completely on his own, not depending on other gangs, but also taking care of a kid made him extremely responsible for the things he did and the people he surrounded himself with. Someone, Isabel, depended on him. He grew extremely picky and probably decided to get clean for real. "be the man he wished he had while growing up,". This is the time of his life that I call "fuck buddies", I think Levi was old enough to understand the consequences of keeping sexual relationships with people that may not be clean and also the willying to do more of his life than plain surviving. So this is when these two women come into the picture. Of one I've not imagined much and the other yes. Both women Levi trusted that wouldn't use him to get info or hurt Isabel and that he probably enjoyed the company enough to be like "We could fuck, no feelings, just two adults enjoying adulting,". The first one, I think her name was Emma and was at least 5 years older than him. She worked at a bar and started to do business with him and they got along really well. Until one day (as it said in Holy Ground) after almost 2 years of being sex partners she said "I'm getting married and moving up, so this is the end,". I think Levi was probably really shocked because he enjoyed her company very much and didn't even know she was getting to know someone "romantically,". Not gonna lie, even if he didn't love her, he felt a bit hurt of "Oh... ok," But we know Levi, he probably just accepted and moved on.

The second girl, I don't have much planned for her. Only that she was probably around Levi's age, maybe one or two years younger and part of his own gang. They lasted for a solid year and half, once again not real romantic feelings but "sexual interest and keeping it exclusive to avoid STIs,". He cut it without much information when he was finally sure they were going to move to the surface with the scouts. She "implied" that she had an idea of what was going on, that she wanted to go with him and that she "really liked him,". Something that not only shocked Levi but also he wasn't really happy with that. He wasn't romantically interested in that way and they did have this sort of "no feelings" thing so her impling that was like "so you had been in this shit all this time WAITING for me to catch feelings??? Oh no... what a fucking mess"

So, that's it! At least in Holy Ground, YN is Levi's first romantic interest... not the first girl tho haha. My only headcanon for the second girl (if you follow holy ground ) is that she ends up hearing about Levi dating OFFICIALLY a Sheena's wall rich girl and she gets offended because well it's like "oh so a posh surface girl is worthy of your love but not me?" haha

[zenthejackal]

Book 6 Prediction Worry-Rant

...Oh boy. If someone told me the teaser would've caused me THIS MUCH anxiety, I would've just waited until the full trailer (or even worse, the full-on premiere)! I've been freaking out so hard since Thursday's reveal and only now have I gotten myself relatively under control. It also gave me some time to look at others' speculations and theories, so that always makes me feel better too. But now, I've got some questions about what will happen with this next book, and what it will really mean to be "emotionally wrecked".

Slight disclaimer: I heavily reference the info from the post made here by xadian-daydreams. I'm basing my ideas off of this, but all credit on retrieving this info goes solely to him (assuming him, sorry if I got it wrong!). I'll also have some references about Dark Magic from the Dragon Prince Wiki.

First off, I need to understand more about the real toll of Dark Magic. What we already knew was that using Dark Magic requires some form of sacrifice of a magical being, it leaves some form of corruption on the user (with physical changes depending on the severity), and that corruption can be used by Aaravos as a means of linking them together. The first use is a sort of 'jolt' to the body and results in nightmarish fever dreams but is remediable. Apparently, it amplifies the values/feelings of the user when casting it (according to latest Q&A). It has been constantly been referred to as a shortcut, or 'too easy to use', but isn't technically addicting; if you want to stop, there's no strong resistance to make you keep doing it. However, each time you use Dark Magic, it's harder to come back from it. Personally, I imagine this to your teacher's cheat-sheet for a test: at first you only use it to answer a really hard question, but then you keep using it because it's so much easier than relying on your own knowledge.

I need someone to explain to me: what exactly is the "corruption" of Dark Magic? Does it darken the soul to make it more evil, make you prone to the emotions you felt at the time of casting, or a very subtle way of "changing you from the inside out" without you realizing it?

The reason I'd like to know this first is because now we're looking at our 3 main protagonists: Callum, Rayla, and Ezran. First up is Callum, my personal favorite (yeah, that's right, I'm not ashamed to admit my bias). Going into the next book, the main questions that came up for me were:

How will Callum handle Dark Magic from now on, especially now that Aaravos is closer to him (magically and literally)?

Will it be easier for him to give into Dark Magic's temptation now that he's given into it a second time now?

How does Dark Magic affect the trust/friendship he's created over time?

Up until Book 5, I always assumed that Callum would never use Dark Magic again once he got Primal Magic; his one-time use was out of sheer desperation. Now that he's done it again (and after learning a bit more about his true character and motives), my main concern is that continued usage will continue to change him more and more until he's a very different person, someone Rayla no longer recognizes, let alone loves.

Moving onto Rayla, there was no real "progress" in the latest Q&A concerning her and the coins (writers refused to answer the REALLY juicy stuff), but there's still some things I still want to know:

If she's given a choice between her new and old family, who would she choose?

She has always been the one to be willing to sacrifice everything of herself for the good of others; how far will she go, or is there a line she will no longer cross?

How does she view sacrifice in relation to others, i.e. Callum? Is killing him when possessed his sacrifice or hers? Would she be willing to kill those she loves (not exclusive to Callum on this last part)?

Who does she ultimately choose above the other: Callum and Ezran or the world?

I realize that most of these questions center around Rayllum, but this is just what concerns me the most right now. I definitely want her to grow as an individual too, but this relationship between the two is something very special to me, mostly because of how much stronger they are when they're together! I really miss their chemistry!!

...Ahem, finally, we have Ezran. While he is still a great part of the main team, he is also now king. But we haven't really seen him act as one in the show as of yet; he's only really been ruling on-screen for about 2 episodes, gave into the bargain with Viren to try and prevent mass bloodshed, have a brief meeting with his council after the timeskip, and have some strong speeches concerning Xadia and addressing the dragons/archdragons. ...Okay, so that seems like a lot, but keep in mind, that 1) while there are powerful moments, they are still brief, and 2) all of this takes place over the course of 3 seasons so far, when he has begun his rule. I would personally like to see him act/struggle more as a king, mostly because I still see some naivety in his approach. He still acts a bit childish in his views, kind of like: "this is the right choice, so we'll do it" from a logical side. This view oversimplifies the world, and while he does address this in his powerful speech in Book 4, we haven't seen him really struggle with this notion. Your words aren't as strong if you haven't been hurt as bad, and I know that Ezran has a lot of hurt that he's been hiding. I want to see how he handles it. (No questions regarding Ezran, just speculation this time.)

The final cherry on top: can someone please tell me what "emotionally wrecked" could possibly mean for this upcoming book?!! Every time the writers bring it up, I get nothing but depression with a side of gloom and misery sprinkled on top! The only saving grace we do have from all this... negativity... is that it's coming in the second-to-last book, not the last. This also likely means that whatever horrible tragedies we'll face this book have the chance to be resolved/redeemed in the next one. Additionally, any character arcs/growth we go through will likely either continue over to the final book or will be resolved in time for another one. That being said, PLEASE TELL ME, WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH BY DOING THIS TO US?!! THIS SUSPENCE IS EATING ME FROM THE INSIDE OUT, AND I'VE HAVEN'T EVEN DONE DARK MAGIC YET!!!

...Whew, got that all out of my system. Please reply if you've got any answers or comments, especially with the last part (better to rip the band-aid off now). I love a good dialogue! Just please keep it friendly and civilized. Thanks for listening to my rant, and here's hoping for Dragon Prince's continued success!!!

[just-antithings]

sorry, i need to vent about the porn addiction thing a bit.

while i’m by no means anti-porn, i do think we need to encourage healthy engagement with it (which is honestly skewed towards a heavily anti-porn bias in american society, which is not healthy. you aren’t bad for looking at porn or finding it interesting/entertaining/arousing! and let me tell ya it hurts seeing people with perfectly normal porn habits thinking they’re porn addicts and thus horrible and going to hurt someone inevitably. the current views on porn and sexual content in america at least is unhealthy as all hell, and we have gotta change that.)

but i dated someone who definitely had a porn dependency, if we can use that term. he would bombard me with hentai and other assorted lewd stuff constantly, and got to the point that he wasn’t attracted to me anymore and lied about it or dodged the question. it really sucked. there were many other issues, but he was almost constantly looking at porn, to the point of neglecting everything else in his life, and refused to talk about his problems and called me crazy whenever i tried to express concern (i. e. are you depressed, anxious, do you need to talk, etc). there were a lot more issues than just the excess use of porn, but honestly it’s the easiest one to convey (it’s very difficult to sum up half a decade of abuse the same way as “he didn’t even want me to touch him because of it, and called me crazy when i asked if he was okay”). him making fun of me for all of this and publicly saying i was clearly hypersexual for wanting to be intimate with him is still a sore spot, honestly, and getting mad when i told him we needed to discuss the problem before it got worse still was a matter of huge frustration as well. no matter how i tried to express a concern, he’d deflect pretty hard. we were talking about maybe getting married before i broke things off, and i was ready to drop all of my dreams and wants for the future because he’d convinced me that was the best i could get.

again, i have zero issues with porn itself. so long as it’s all made by consenting adults, cool! hell, i make adult content myself— it’s something i enjoy, and people are willing to pay well for it too. but i feel we need a good term for when it becomes a replacement for other things in life resulting in neglect of those other things. while i agree addiction is the wrong term and has anti-porn roots (and i would also prefer to have a term that doesn’t blame the porn— or blames no one, ideally, as i said we have a highly unhealthy relationship with sex in america) i’m not sure what other terms would be. is dependency too close to addiction and/or still gives an anti-porn vibe?

like anything that brings pleasure to people healthy engagement is important, and that’s different for everyone. i just happened to be with a selfish person who used porn to the point of it detracting from his life and to the point of it killing my self-confidence.

if there’s a simple term for this already that would be rad. but whenever i see these arguments start i can’t help but think of myself and all the others who have had relationships wrecked by their partners preferring porn and masturbation over them. it’s kinda hard not to feel hurt in that scenario. is there a specific term for porn as a vehicle for abuse, maybe? or as a way to avoid being genuine with a partner? i suppose just selfishness, immaturity, and such are all terms to use, but in this scenario specifically i just want a term that isn’t anti-porn that can sum it up.

tl;dr, i’m in favor of porn and lewd content, i just wish there was a better term for people who use it to the point of distress and pain for partners and neglect of their own health, relationships, and spaces than one coined by anti-porn and evangelical groups.

i would love to be wrong on this and have some kind of thing pointed out that it was not in fact an addiction or dependency, it was xyz or abc or what have you. i don’t want to hang onto something like that when it’s not really what went on. it’s entirely possible i missed a ton of cues (god knows i still don’t know all of what he said that was lies and what was truthful) and he just didn’t want to admit to being asexual or something in that vein (if he thought it was a bad thing or something?? hell if i know, toxic masculinity is weird as fuck), but i don’t know anymore what to think. what are your thoughts? you can delete this if you don’t want to discuss it, and i don’t want to start a purity debate or anti-porn debate in your inboxes, either. i’m just… hoping that there’s a way to find nuance, because these kinds of things definitely happen. sorry for dumping all this in here. i just want to understand a bit better if anyone has knowledge i lack.

honestly it took me a long time to decide if i should send this or not, since i don’t want to cause a bunch of bullshit or to be disrespectful to anyone in this discussion. but i figure, too, people who are also in favor of nsfw stuff and against censorship would be best to ask do i don’t get a ton of bullshit about it? again, i apologize if this is all me overreacting or not seeing something obvious. i would love to be able to pinpoint something specific or have a simple way to sum up that aspect of the abuse. if i’m wrong i do politely ask for further reading or information so i can educate myself and learn. thank you for your time and again sorry for the lengthy message!

Porn addiction (as it's used nowadays) is actually a subset of sex addiction, and you have a sex addiction when it... starts causing the problems any addiction in your life causes. It is not the amount you consume - its how consuming it at all affects your life. Like even your ex, it wasn't that he was engaging in porn and liked porn, it's that it caused what sounds like numerous interpersonal problems, which is why it wasn't a healthy engagement.

Because healthy engagement is very subjective? Like I read. A lot of porn. I look at an insane amount of drawn porn because I'm Hella hypersexual and it's Soothing to consume the porn. But the amount of porn I consume isn't negatively impacting my life or relationships. I'm only not in my slut era and having random hookups because of covid and pregnancy risk (don't suggest I just fuck people without dicks that doesn't solve the covid issue yall, also i like dick) but I have like. Real Actual Problems from being hypersexual that looking at porn helps me with.

A lot of people equate porn addiction with the amount consumed. Its not. It's about how it impacts you and your life so tbh? I'd call it CSB (compulsive sexual behavior) and start... looking into resources about helping addicts use safely. Those primarily deal with drug use, but I'm p sure you can find non-ableist resources about how to help the addicts in your life in general. I included the links I looked at while answering this as a starting point. Wikipedia is sourced and the places those pages pulled from might also be helpful.

What happened to you was super fucked up, but tbh based on my knowledge of addiction and even just a little research into CBS makes it sound like he had a real problem he was struggling with and handling badly. But what his issue was goes beyond just. The amount of porn he was looking at. It was how it seemed to have invaded other aspects of his life and had very negative impact.

(one, two, three)

[public-trans-it]

you mentioned your wol is cis(ish), what does that mean? (/gen)

(In relation to my WoL post) Sorry this took too long to respond to, distracted by stuff

Short answer:

Long answer under the cut, but probably not as interesting as you might be hoping. But also deeply personal. Mostly a recap of the stuff in that thread, with a bit more context from my personal life and my evolving feelings of gender involved.

But if you don't wanna read all that, its basically "She is a in-universe fantasia addict and has no real attachment to her physical body, and that includes her genitals."

Read More

Language is going to be a get tricky in this one, given we are talking about a setting that may not have the same views of gender as we do.

She is Cis(ish) simply because she is an afab woman who treats gender like just another part of her dresser. Were she educated on the topic, she would probably consider herself either genderfluid or agender. She is always a girl, but rarely 'just' a girl.

T'sraetn is my main. All of my characters are some reflection of myself, but as my main, T'sraetn is more myself than anyone. As such, many of her changes throughout the years are based on my own changes.

She started 1.x as just an afab miqo'te, because at the time, I was a trans woman and T'sraetn represented who I wanted to be, and remained that way through ARR. By the time Heavensward had launched, I had grown more comfortable with being trans, and fantasia'd T'sraetn into a trans Au Ra girl.

I know "Are fantasias canon?" is a very contested question in the fandom, but luckily I don't give a fuck about other people's opinions, so I don't have to care about that. And the fun thing about treating magic gender/race change juice as canon, is it vastly increases the number of options for gender presentation.

T'sraetn became an Au Ra cause she thought horns and scales were cool and wanted some. She stayed a girl cause she viewed herself as a girl and wanted to remain that way. She got a penis cause she wanted one. It was really that simple.

Just before Stormblood I... changed her back to Miqo'te. I didn't really do it cause I wanted to, I did it because I was in a really shitty relationship and the person I was with at the time wanted me to. Shortly after Stormblood launched, I stopped playing her as that person turned into a stalker, and started playing a new character, T'alia.

T'alia was kind of built on the loathing I had for T'sraetn at the time. How I felt she wasn't mine anymore, so I made a bastardized version of her that I justified as being her mom. I joined another FC, and got to start roleplaying as this character and fleshing her out more. I filled in the role they needed of a central antagonist, which fit in with the loathing I had built the character on. I built a few other characters to play as when we didn't need a central antagonist that week. But as Shadowbringers drew closer, I noticed a problem. In order to do any RP's in Shadowbringers areas, I'd have to do the expansion a second time in order to get there. I'd have to unlock flying, and do all that other bullshit.

I didn't want to, so I introduced a new character: T'alia. Or more accurately, a clone of her, which the FC affectionately named 'Tali' to tell the two apart. This new version of her rejected T'alias goals for her, and wanted to be her own person. Someone fighting along the FC. However, she had cybernetic enhancements that allowed T'alia to control her body and keep her from fighting back. Now I had an excuse to be on either side of a fight, without it being a question of "Why do you go missing every time we fight this one specific bad guy"

I made a central part of Tali's personality her crisis of identity. She didn't want to be the person everyone told her she was. I uh... I was not that subtle about it being a metaphor for my saltiness over that ex who's FC I was in. She was constantly modifying herself, trying to replace her cybernetics or alter the organics of her body. I only *actually* fantasia'd her twice, first time into a Viera, but I imagined she was changing up her body pretty regularly, trying to find the one that actually felt like "her".

Eventually, I got kinda fed up with the limitations of Viera in the game, specifically after one of the holiday events where Viera couldn't even wear the reward from it. So I decided I was going to fantasia her again when I had the chance, and worked it into the RP. I had worked a lot of frustrations about my own mother into the character of T'alia, and so I had known for a little bit before hand that Tali was actually T'sraetn, and had dropped a few hints in RP about it (mostly referencing past stuff with other FC members who came with when leaving that old FC). Stuff the players would go "We sure did that together, yep." while being subtle about the fact that my character absolutely should not remember that.

Eventually, I did the big reveal in RP, changed my characters name back to my old main, and reclaimed my old character. The ACTUAL old character became Gaelicat. That... is not canon to T'sraetn's story (unless... hm...) I decided to leave in the love for changing up her body she had acquired as Tali. She still had the cybernetics at this point, and it was a recurring joke in RP that her arms would fall off in every fight and she would have to find someone to fix them. Even once she had her cybernetics removed, she still retained the same attitude of having no attachment to her body. It could be changed and altered, maybe not easily, but it was certainly possible.

So she has no real attachment to her current form anymore. She looks that way just cause that's how she wants to look. She might see a pretty hrothgal and decide to be one of those for a bit. She might want to go for a (slightly. very slightly) bit more of a masculine look for a bit and become a male viera.

Ultimately it boils down to... it doesn't matter what configuration the parts of her body take, its just a fucking body, and it can and will be changed on a whim with this handy blue drink.

[facepalming-since-chernobyl]

A summary of why CW Supergirl sucks, born from a year of a growing frustration.

A summary of why CW Supergirl sucks, born from a year of growing frustration.

1.Inabilty to take a risk.

The only one they took was making Alex lesbian and Nia the first trans hero story. Then – fucking nothing. Good characters going dark? Not even Kara’s clone aka RedDaughter. Lobotomizer, who you know, murdered Adam, Lex and wanted to lobotomize entire humanity and hurt Kara “every way imaginable”, all of it was portrayed as “not her fault, blinded by feelings, dark place blah blah”, basically it was all Lex and Kara’s fault, no consequences for her character or arc.

There was nothing controversial, or when it was something like that (aka Lena murdering and lobotomizing people) it showed as something not that important, normal stuff, solved in one ep, no biggie, she was sad, ok???

I was also not even ONCE afraid for the main bunch of the characters. I was fucking SURE no one was going to die and yes, only addictions, villains, one ep randoms or secondary characters I didn’t give a shit about, died. That means there was basically no feelings, even during emotional scenes, what made this show super bland and in the end, forgettable.

-Plus, they knew they got the final season, they knew they could have done anything they wanted. And what they did was making Kara taking her glasses off. If this doesn’t fully describe what kind of shit this show was, then I’m Santa.

Basically WASTED POTENTIAL.

2.Degenaration of the main character.

Yep, sorry not sorry, as much as I love Kara and Melissa, who was born to play Supergirl and did everything even with the crappiest of lines, her character, looking at it from the perspective of 6 seasons, SUCKS for a few reasons:

-What made her unique in the comics, was ignored and forgotten in the show. She was made a female clone of Superman, that was treated badly by the writers. She got similar job, attitude, love interests, his villains.

What she didn’t get was satisfying conclusion (sarcasm).

In comics she was the outsider, the person torn between two places, an immigrant remembering her old life and forced to assimilate in a society of some C class planet, a girl with anger issues, bias, the guilt of being a lone survivor, a traumatized young alien. Something she couldn’t share even with her last living relative aka Clark. It all made her fleshed and complex.

But show ignored it, and made her a happy go lucky, fully assimilated perfect usamerican girl in love with humanity, uwu. What is disappointing, even if this Kara still has charm, innocence and potential - it all makes her boring in the end.

-There is no real character development for her after s1 and 2. She started as fresh hero who tried to manage her superhero, private and work life, while working on her biases. And then, dunno, we got Kara dealing with an every ep villain/issue and some other big season bad. How Kara’s as a character changed? She got more confident in her professional life as a reporter (still, a shitty one) and that’s it. All the traumas, bad shit that happened, deaths, problems, issues, lost love etc. I don’t really feel it all has changed her. I don’t even feel she is more mature in s6 than she was at the end of s2. I don’t feel anything that has happened during the whole series, changed her views, opinions, way of life. When her past experiences helped her later? She stays almost the same for the whole fucking SIX YEARS.

-It happened, because there is no real character arcs for her after s2.

In s3 there was the whole Reign aka her nemesis storyline and finding Argo and her mom, but what was the POINT of it? Beside that Kara realized she didn’t want to be krypotnian and didn’t really give a fuck about her mother, friends and people anymore…? And I still didn’t really grasp it, because the show made a shit way to explain why she didn’t feel at Argo as at in home anymore (because Earth was in danger and needed help? Because she couldn’t be Supergirl at Argo? Because…? Uhm?).

The same goes for s4, 5 and 6. What was the reason of Lobotomizer torturing and hurting Kara every way imaginable and Kara calling her a villain, if a few eps later Kara ended on the same place aka being Lena’s bestie without hard feelings, any consequences or fucking anything? What kind of impact Kara being in Phantom Zone made on her?  Fucking one ep, where she can cry in Alex’s arms and then, once again, NOTHING.

-The lack of satisfying conclusion (sarcasm again) for Kara. At the end, I have no idea what did she want, what did she dream on, what was her goal, why she couldn’t have it all, while she wanted it years ago and ALL OTHER CHARACTERS GOT IT. Basically, I don’t know why I should be happy for her, why should I root for her, in the end, I feel like I don’t even know her after six years. What is… fucking sad.

3.Heart and soul of the show. My ASS.

There is no Supergirl without Kara. It can survive without any other character, but NOT without her. And because, as I said, her character development/arc SUCK, we have a sucking show. And sorry not sorry if I upset people, but it happened because the show focused too much on other SuperFriends and other characters. Yes, Alex included. Because no, Kara and Alex are not the heart and soul of the show. Kara should have been. And I don’t get the blind, sometimes fanatical love for this relationship. It’s quite obvious it’s one of the most important relationships in the show. Still, a shocker, show would survive without it. Plus, it’s quite funny, how some people ignore the fact (confirmed by canon TWO TIMES) that for Alex more important than Kara was ALWAYS Jeremiah. Even when he was already dead. Fucking hilarious.

Anyway, my point is that even J’onn and his father got more compelling and emotional arc than Kara ever got and friendly reminder SHE GOT HER FUCKING PARENTS BACK. The same goes for Alex and Esme and Kelly. Damned Agent Liberty had a better written arc than Kara. Damn, Nxy had more compelling story arc and character development than Kara in s6. And it’s tragic.

Remind yourself when was the last time you were really invested in Kara’s story?

4.Fuck you, comic books.

I have no idea how people who actually read Supergirl’s comic books and others issues felt while watching. Kara being dumbed down (plus all the shit I have talked about). J’onn depowered. Brainiac being DUMBED DOWN and parody of himself. Mon-El depowered and in s3 cured from his allergy, zombied, bearded and forced into marriage with fucking Imra. Imra with weird powers. Garth who??? Death of Nura Nal (off screen), murdered by Brainiac. Manchester United and Agent Liberty wasted and turned into well, not anything too complex. Maggie – what? Lex – no comments, especially after how he ended.

And unfortunately, I feel that all of the original comic book characters suffered for the additions created by the show, aka Alex, Lena, Nia, Kelly. Like, you can feel they were the producers and writers “babies” and they did everything to made them cool and interesting (what ended with some weird stuff like Lobotomizer being a magical unicorn and Nia got some… weird powers. Whatever).

5.Creators hated this show, you can’t change my mind.

The fact Jessica Gossip Girl and Robert had NO FUCKING idea what to do with Kara or this show after s3 and the AK drama, is obvious. The sad fact is that the writers didn’t know what to do either. I feel like after AK, no one wanted to be associated with this show, the old writers left the show and we got bunch of new-in-the-business-folks who didn’t even care to watch past seasons.

In the end, it was quite obvious that all people involved were done with this show and just wanted out, cast included. And remembering what also the supercorp shippers have done, I can’t really blame them. Still, there was no love for this show in the creators room and it’s sad when you compare it to the shows that was leaded by producers/writers/actors who were fans themselves.

6.The show is already outdated. Focusing on so called modern problems made it forgettable and bland, when you compare it to other shows.

Yes, I talk about the Trump presidential plot in s4. Also, the whole immigration plot were so heavily, cheesy and dumbly handled, made no sense and was something we saw hundreds of times in other fiction (and it was handled 100 times better). Andrea’s alternative reality device that sucked people in it? Any Black Mirror ep about stuff like that was better and more memorable. I already don’t even remember why the device was so deadly. Technology bad? Oh, boy.

Also, I KNOW comic books were always connected to the political stuff, but you can handle it in a good and bad way. Supergirl made it usually cringy.

See how stereotypically they portrayed the president in s4. It was not even bad enough to become funny. The whole Kaznia part was nothing more than a xenophobic, stereotypical approach to Eastern Europe. Remember when J’onn said he keeps his black man appearance because he wanted to be… minority or something? Guess what? He became a black man because HANK HANSHAW WAS A BLACK MAN. There was nothing DEEP in it for fuck’s sake! M’gann? So, a white Martian who… pretends to be a green one and then keeps that, because… you know… there are better and worse Martians. Or something. You know, greens good, white bad and ugly.

Then, they did a good job with Nia’s trans-superhero story. And then, with Kelly, I see what they wanted to show, but it was a bad timing and well, all what she wanted to express was overshadowed by that one, line about Kara not getting what trauma is. The list goes on.

7. Luthors.

Cancer of the show. Sue me.

8.It’s so fucking dumb.

We all know that this show is about an alien who because of fucking sun became superpowered, can fly, wears idiotic suit and can’t be recognized because of glasses. We all get the conception. We get it. We know it’s for kids…

But there is a difference between following the worldbuilding and making shit so fucking dumb you roll your eyes so hard that you see the insides of your skull. The show treats the viewers like IDIOTS who don’t remember a shit that happened previous ep.

The… jewels or whatever it was called, that they tried to gather in s6. Not getting the idea of time travel. J’onn erasing the knowledge of Kara being Supergirl from Alex and like 10 max DEO agents, while all fucking DEO knew that, because Kara was constantly walking around as Kara Danvers in s2 and 3. And J’onn suddenly, out of nowhere refusing to read people’s minds, but being ok with changing people’s minds, but not informing that oopsie doopsie, he can’t change them back? And what was the fucking reason in the end? Writers want to tell me, that’s it more logical to change memories of Alex and TEN other people, than brainwashing ONE colonel??? Like? And the scene when Alex finally remembers, while Kara is dying after the fight with RedDaughter and her way to save her is… putting grass on her? I’m sorry? It was supposed to be emotional but I died from laughter? It was so fucking dumb that it erased cells from my brain??

And  don’t even let me start about Kara absorbing WHOLE SUN in 10 minutes because Jesus Fucking Christ people actually died watching this scene. Like, yeah, erasing sun, what bad could happen to Earth without it even for a few days. Like yeah, Kara, a living being ABSORBING FUCKING SUN. In like a few minutes. Do you know how fast the sun rays come from Sun to Earth? Probably you do, SG writers don’t. And then, she just what, farted?  And all what she absorbed came back to sun in a second? Uhmmmmmmmmmmmm…

And let’s ignore, like we ignored so many other shit, how many times Kara and other super beings totally forgot they had, ya know, superpowers, because plot needed it.

It’s all so goddamned dumb that is not even funny. And what’s worse, the show is not funny, the jokes are pathetic, it’s like watching your drunken uncle on a family gathering.

9.Contradictions, hypocrisy, blah blah blah

Do you remember how everybody was moaning how Kara is the strongest, the best, the strongest, the most unique, the strongest, the most amazing unicorn in Earth’s history? You could create a drinking game in s2 finale aka taking a shot when you heard something like that, hangover guaranteed.

It’s the whole show’s problem. Exposition and explaining instead of actually showing it in the show. They talk. All the time. Explaining everything. And then you get something contradicting.

Like how Danvers sisters are the best sisters, buddies, blah blah blah. And then we get aggressive Alex pouring her life frustrations on Kara (job, Jeremiah, Esme). And what is funny, we never really did them sitting down and really discussing it, and it’s a show about talking. I mean, of course, they would die for each other without a second of hesitation, but all people talk about are the couch scenes sniff! Sniff!, while happily ignoring the co-dependency problem.

10.Fucking fandom

Let me just say that I have a theory that says if the show is shitty and there is nothing beside the ships you can be excited about, the fandom turns into an utter ocean of crap. And maybe it would have  been not that bad, if the fandom hadn’t changed my perspective on some actress and basically made my SG experience a living hell.

If you have anything to add – be my guest ==’

[grlstupid]

different but the same

Jesse Armstrong said it was a tragedy, but in a way it felt like the Roy siblings were finally free with the sale of Waystar. Somehow when they were confronted with the reality that they would never get what they wanted it felt like they would finally have a chance to become human again, to heal from the trauma their father passed on to them. Connor would never have to beg for approval, Kendall would never be CEO, Roman would never be beaten again, and Shiv for a moment had all the power in the world. 

People seem to compare Succession to Arrested Development, and in a superficial way, they are similar. 4 siblings, vying for power in their family company, even though said company is, from the audience’s point of view, doomed to fail. Emotionally distant parents, crimes committed by executives being covered up by the company, weird sexual tension between cousins (though at least Tom and Greg are only related through marriage). In some ways, the shows mirror each other. But the audience doesn’t root for members of the Bluth family. We don’t feel sorry for them, because we see their trauma depicted within a comedic setting. When Buster loses his hand, it’s played off with a recurring bit from the doctor who uses common phrases incorrectly, which changes the meaning of his words. With the Roy siblings, we see the symptoms of their childhood trauma, Roman excusing his father’s physical abuse by blaming himself, saying that it was his fault because he “was fucking annoying.” 

Because of the absurdity of Arrested Development, it’s hard, if not impossible, to relate to the characters. But with Succession, we can see ourselves in these emotionally stunted adult children. Siobhan, sabotaging her relationship because she feels she’s undeserving of Tom’s love, simultaneously pushing him away and giving him everything he wants. She consistently shows him her worst qualities instead of her best, manipulates him and is unable to show any vulnerability. She goes to him in her weakest moments, and yet in those moments she can only bring herself to act cruelly towards him. In a way, she’s the reason he became her father.

Tom was able to become Logan because Kendall never could be. Logan was addicted to power because he didn’t grow up with it, while Kendall never had to struggle the same way. Of course he still has hardships, he has an inferiority complex, was clearly neglected as a child, and goes through major depressive episodes. We never see him attempt suicide, but we see him in moments where it’s implied he’s considering it, as if he doesn’t know how to feel better about his situation, so he reacts in the most extreme way. In some ways Kendall is still a toddler, he throws tantrums when things don’t go his way, and seems to function better when someone else is enforcing a routine on him. Because he wasn’t raised by his parents, he never grew up in the ways that matter; in the first episode his ex-wife jokes about him using cocaine in front of his children. Nobody taught him to make good choices because nobody cared enough to do so, or they didn’t know how because they never learned themselves (looking at you, Connor). 

Connor may be the most interesting of the Roy children. In some ways, he seems to be the most well-adjusted, but we see him crack under pressure, which explains his lack of employment. It makes sense when you consider how his childhood was different from his siblings; his mother had a mental health crisis, and though we never really learn all the details, the only reason people are forcibly institutionalized is when they physically harm themselves or others, and we know that he lived with his mother when she was sent to the facility where she presumably still lived, if she was alive during the events of the show. Children of sick parents rarely grow up to be healthy adults, and Connor is not an exception to the rule. He parents his younger siblings to give them something he never had, he take Willa away from society so he can have all her attention, instead of fighting for scraps of love like the rest of his siblings. His bid for the presidency is delusional, but he’s so far removed from reality that he genuinely believes he can win and when he loses, he still manages to see his failure as a success. 

Connor also gives Roman his only happy childhood memory. It’s not clear whether Roman was the only one physically abused as a child, or if he just the most common target of Logan’s anger. He’s often compared to a dog, and feels like he isn’t worthy of love. He clearly still has some affection for Logan, which can sometimes confuse the audience, but then we see brief moments of Logan with Roman. Caroline says at one point that Logan “never saw anything he loved that he didn't wanna kick”. This seems to be the core of Roman’s relationship with his father; he keeps going back to Logan because he associates love with pain. We see it again in Roman’s final moment alone in the show with Kendall. Ken hugs Roman, and the hug turns painful and somewhat violent, but Roman doesn’t fight it. He leans in, because he can’t go to his father, but in that moment Kendall proves to be a good enough substitute in that moment.

[lucreziaq2001]

•TV show: "Criminal minds".

•Content warnings: Mentions of murder, bullying (with one of the two victims fighting back), the way people viewed unmarried girls who got pregnant in the 1960s (with them having to pretend to be married while they are out of the place they live in), a fight between two friends, with one of them threatening the other, one girl thinking her boyfriend will marry her and friend contraddicting her, the fact that three of the girls in the institute's boyfriends are fighting in the Vietnam war, mentions of the fact that all those girls are going to have to give their babies up for adoption once they'll be born, one of the girls being a pretty big troublemaker and her being taken to solitary confiment because of what she did in this chapter.

•Sorry if Emily seems out of character here too, but as I already said once, we don't know much about what she was like as a teenager.

•I've slightly changed the age of the two boys bullying Emily and JJ because I thought it worked better.

•While sometimes the girls could get out of the institute in "The goodbye room" too, but I don't know how much, so I made up the fact that they could go out three times a month.

•Tags: @lex13cm, @golden1u5t, @rynwritesreid, @reidmeister, @justalesbianwithsomegayshit, @thatonewritersstuff, @marril96, @c-m-stuff, @criminal-addict.

Between their two hearts

Chapter 11: Fake rings and a threat

On May 30, 1968, Jennifer had her first outing with the other girls from Saint Bridget's.

Three times a month, the young women who lived there could go to the nearest town and do almost anything they wanted, but before they could leave the institute, they had to prepare for that.

A few minutes before opening the gates to let them out, in addition to giving them some warnings on how to behave, Sister Margaret handed a fake wedding ring to each of the girls.

"Here, put these wedding rings on your left ring fingers" she then explained "People don't need to know about the...situation...you are in".

"Thank you, Sister Margaret" Rachel, the girl standing next to Emily, replied, also being the only one to speak in that situation.

"Thank you, Sister Margaret" Emily mocked her "Why do you always have to be the bootlicker of the group?".

Then, just like she did every day by that time, she walked away from the other girls to go talk to Jennifer.

"I'll have a real wedding ring soon and I can't wait" the girl told her, looking like she was daydreaming.

"Really, Jennifer?" Emily asked in disbelief "You still think your boyfriend will marry you?".

"He hasn't been able to tell his parents yet, but I'm sure that as soon as he'll our Sunshine, he-" Jennifer responded, but her friend interrupted her.

Sunshine was the nickname the girl had given to her unborn baby, and although a part of her considered it sweet, Emily also believed her friend shouldn't have given a name to a child that would have been taken from her just a few days after birth.

"You are living in a dream world! Wake up!" she then scolded her "Since you have been brought here, he has never tried to contact you. He is not going to marry you".

"He's busy with his finals now, Emily" Jennifer retorted, but her friend didn't believe her.

"These are all lies" she told her coldly "Your growing belly made him run away, just like my boyfriend and those of all the girls who are here now did".

"That's not true, not all of them ran away" Jennifer replied "Violet, Nancy and Joanne's boyfriends are in Vietnam, but when they'll return, they will marry them. And Derek will do it with me too. I'm sure of it. He promised me".

As a response, Emily shook her head and started to say something, but before she could open her mouth, two boys who seemed to be 14 or 15 years old came running and started throwing eggs at them.

"Everyone knows that you are not married!" one of them shouted "That's why you've been brought here!".

"Good girls stay at home, they don't go around doing what you did!" the other added, and while Jennifer didn't react in any way, Emily decided not to leave that act unpunished.

"I'll sort you out now, you stupid brats!" she yelled at them, bending down with some difficulty to pick up a few stones from the ground.

"Come on, Jennifer, throw this at them!" she then told her friend, throwing her one of the stones she was holding "Let's teach him a lesson!".

"What are you waiting for?!?" she exclaimed as she threw stones at the two kids, seeing that Jennifer wasn't doing the same thing "You literally can't do anything at all!".

"Go away and never show up here again!" she then shouted at the two kids, who were already running away.

Emily hadn't managed to hit them with any rocks, but they had been able to throw a couple of eggs at her, so she was all dirty by that time.

"Who is responsible for all this?" Sister Margaret asked, almost screaming, when she saw Emily in that state.

"Those two bastards were insulting us!" the girl tried to justify herself, but no one listened to her.

"I don't care!" the nun replied "Who responded to their provocation?".

Instinctively, Jennifer looked at Emily, who didn't deny what her friend was non-verbally implying.

"I thought so" Sister Margaret sighed, since she was well aware of Emily's personality and knew how many times that girl had already gotten into trouble "You are going to solitary confinement!".

"You are going to pay for this!" the girl shouted at Jennifer as two nuns dragged her away.

She was just angry, she didn't mean what she had just said, and when she saw Jennifer again two days later, she apologized for the way she had spoken to her.

Since her friend had forgiven her almost immediately, Emily thought the fight would have simply been forgotten.

At that moment, she couldn't even have imagined that several years later, it would have made her a suspect in a murder case.

[hey-sherry]

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened Demo Thinky Thoughts

A bit late, but I wanted to share my first reaction to the Awakened demo! This is essentially an expanded version of what I wrote on the FW discord, with screenshots edited to look nicer for tumblr. I will do a separate post on the extra stuff that is normally inaccessible without Ansel. [Extra stuff post here]

So: spoilers ahead + keep in mind that the game is darker and moodier, I edited some of the screenshots so that they are clearer on tumblr/mobile view.

Sweet sweet concept art, gorgeous intro music, yay! The main theme is atmospheric and dark, giving me very slight vibes of the Sarif HQ track from DX:HR... I mean this in a good way, not in a “they copied it” way. It’s that sort of nostalgic ambience, but deeper and darker. One day I’ll stop drawing parallels to Deus Ex, but today is not that day.

The intro cinematic is pre-rendered and really good; I liked Sherlock's narration and the implication it's all in Watson's/players' hands now... He sounds more authoritative and distant than in CO.

I really liked the visual with the fly caught in the cobweb.

I did not expect this! It's a really fun title sequence and wow, we’re being thrown straight into chapter 3. I too thought it would be London but this is great 😄

WATSON!!! At this point I’m thinking, “Oooh we're gonna play as Watson, they probably don’t want to show Sherlock just yet, I know someone who's gonna be very happy about this o,o” (ahem hem, @lucere-aeresta​) I like long dialogues/cinematics so this intro was a treat. I'll have to replay of course but it felt very satisfying to see a chunk of the story here and be introduced to the new characters. There’s a lot going on!

The receptionist

Dr. Gygax!

You can walk around a little and talk to a couple of NPCs. There’s this easter egg - it’s a Lovecraft easter egg (thanks for figuring that one out, Lucere!) The paper itself is straight from Cordona. :D

You cannot pick this letter up, but the message is very clear. May be a clue in the final game.

Who’s there...? BTW this is the exact face Sherlock gives Jon when he plays the guitar too loudly in the CO seance scene :D

OH NO. LMAO! This had me in stitches, and of course I lied. Nice American accent, you dork. The subsequent journal entry essentially saying "Watson tried to act, I guess" gave me a chuckle. I tried!  So hard! And in the en-- moving on...

Here’s how the journal looks like now. The clues have updated icons and you can toggle to sort them by type (document, conversation, item, etc.) or the order in which you found them.

So yeah, Sherlock shows up in disguise and a terrible American accent, says the iconic “Guten day,” and then he gets sedated because Watson cannot lie to save his life.

Of course. OF COURSE. Now I know someone who's going to be a bit disappointed we don’t spend much time as Watson, but that's not me. 😂 My first thought -> they heard us cry and wail about the stubble and said "We're gonna make you beg to have the stubble back" Ok, ok, you win. I'm sorry. 😭

(insert half an hour of zooming around with Ansel instead of playing the damn game) This is how the game levels look when you go out of bounds!

Found some of you in the back! And in the cells! :3 (There’s a wall with photographs of the Kickstarter backers, and a row of cells with names and custom faces - although you cannot see the characters very well at this point.)

Right, I should play. The lockpicking puzzles were fun, but I'll admit I found both of them extremely easy. But I am a seasoned adventure game fan and it's a nice little thing to do for that feeling of escaping the cells. The “Mycroft” (custom) difficulty setting does let you change the puzzle difficulty, so we are probably going to face a bigger challenge in the finished game. The settings don’t make a difference in the demo, though.

SHERLOCK. NO. PUT IT DOWN.

PUT THOSE DOWN OH MY GOD

So yeah, I think it’s safe to say he’s a full blown addict by now. Vogel, what have you done?

Ran into the guard three times, got a game over 😎 Confirmation that yeah Sherlock is still afraid of water! I bet he's gonna love the trip to America and boating around the swamps. What could go wrong.

FYI, there's a guard that you need to figure out how to get past. It's not a sneaking sequence, but you need some items. If he notices you 3 times he rings the alarm, and the game reloads

At this point I'm having fun just investigating stuff and admiring the new journal etc., it's all very nicely designed. It's awesome that we can sort evidence by type now! The mind palace facelift is so good and feels more involved than before.

Back to the game... I SQUEALED!!! 😄 duhhh

And again! Two back to back CO references, yay ♥

Well I am a smart detective and deal with the guard with my brain and not my fists. Time to yoink all of his clothes. Where did his body go? We don't ask such questions around here...

HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLL YEAAAAAAAH

ANSEL PHYSICS RESET MY BELOVED ♥♥ never fix this please never ever

(cue another photoshoot) 

The biggest tease in all of the demo: THAT EXCLAMATION MARK. Let... me... see... outfits! 😂 Lovingggg the updated outfit screen, so happy there's some gorgeous lighting in there. It looked kinda bad in CO.

Okay, back to playing the game! I LIED, more photoshoots as the inmates scream, cry, and wail all around me. Sucks to be them, I guess.

Okay, Gerda! I LOVE her new design, and her voice actress too! She was so great.

Gerda is the second inmate that we meet. She wants her friend Heidi back and until then she will not talk. The first inmate that we meet is Mauricio Napoleon, it is just a short but entertaining conversation/cinematic. We don’t talk to him any more in the demo.

He does that lil smile as she spits the worst threats at him, it's glorious

Something something Silent Hill 3 (Gorgeous!)

I try to play the mountain goat in every game and the absence of the jump button will not stop me

So I didn't take screenshots of the quite meaty gameplay surrounding getting Heidi back and figuring out what's going on, so here's some thoughts: - The updated crime scene investigation looks fantastic! The smokey green aesthetics are fitting and everything is much clearer than it was in CO. I like that we can see how many variations there are for each 'node'. The only thing I'm not sure about is the first person perspective - Sherlock's close focus mode - because I had trouble seeing what's different in the variations, and sometimes the models would push me back a little bit when they loaded. I'd move away from the node just by trying to see things and had trouble re-positioning... not a great deal of trouble, of course, but it is a downgrade from SHCO. I think the 3rd person mode like with Jon in CO works much better. This is my biggest criticism of the demo. - There was a tad too much running back and forth just to seemingly fetch a few items... this may be polished further, I don't know. It gave me old adventure game vibes where you kinda run back and forth for a few small things lol. - I wished we could use the items more directly and/or assemble things, not just have them as text in the inventory... but I understand that making a new puzzle feature may be too much work at this point - The "three clues" dialogue confused me for a moment, but so it did in CO as well so this may be a ‘me’ problem 😂 I keep forgetting that there are 3 different questions to answer, not that I need to present 3 accurate clues... hahah. - The darker overtones are soooo up my alley! When I figured out what had happened to one of the people in the casket... ooof anyway, time to find and assemble Heidi!

Him <3

Awww, isn't it cute?

BUT IT'S WRONG

Oh so wrong 😂 I did NOTTTT expect this ahahahahhhh Hands down the best part of the demo The mental health aspect of the remake was what had me a little worried, but you know what, I think it's gonna be fine 😂 Heidi is one bad bench, and Sherlock just ACCEPTING he's now talking to a demonic doll and making the most of it is just chef's kiss Love, love, love. We're all mad here.

I unlocked a reward, and what a sweet one it is! Sadly, you cannot change your clothes in the demo. The updated physics make his chain and bag go bouncing like crazy, haha.

And thank

you

for reading! Feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions.

[auspicious-poppy]

Well I just finished the romantic killer anime and as promised here are some thoughts:

1) The over dramatic screaming got annoying as it does in any anime but Anzu’s facial expressions are unparalleled 2) I don’t like the sparkly filter slapped on the guys in the early episodes, that wasn’t in the manga 3) I really hope romantic scenarios being crushed by the power of friendship become a new trend 4) Hijiri should’ve moved in too, that would’ve made everything way more chaotic if he was always commenting on how the commoners live 5) if anyone can complete this series without thinking Anzu isn’t at least somewhere on the aspec really need to get their eyes checked 6) even though I knew it was coming the dark turn toward the end still hit weird with such a change of tone and 7) /hj as an aroace who has been a lifelong chocolate addict and only loves her cat I’m so happy to finally have representation 🥹 overall a pretty fun watch, there needs to be more fiction mocking amatonormativity & I stand by my comment of it being viewed as a satire of the aromantic experience

Hope you’re having a good day/night 👋

Hey! So sorry for the VERY late response, life got very busy. :') Glad to hear from you though!!! 1. Perhaps we're both getting too old for dramatic anime screams aha. Used to watch so many slice-of-life and romance animes back then sooo.... 2. Interesting... what else was different from the manga? :0 Were they just presented normally in their manga panels? I wonder if the sparkly filters is supposed to exaggerate the romance part or represent Anzu feeling attraction (which is what those shoujo filters are used for usually yeah? I forgot lmao.) 3. BIG AGREE WITH YOU THERE!! WE NEED MORE OF THIS. THE POWER OF PLATONIC RELOS!! 4. BIG YES TO THIS TOO! Can totally imagine Hijiri dying internally over a million times seeing how commoners - especially Anzu - live their lives. Though I wonder what situation would Riri cook up to force Hijiri to live with Anzu though, might need to take more than just flooding a room. 5. In defense of the allos - aromanticism still is relatively unknown. But yes, Anzu's experiences resonated with me somewhat as an aro. Hopefully other aros feel comfort as well. 6. I personally love it when stories take a fucking turn haha. It did reveal Kazuki's past, pushed Riri to do something selfless and most importantly, cemented the power of friendship!! 7. Don't really know much fiction mocking amatonormativity - we certainly need more of those. :( And if anyone has recs, pls send them through!! Buttt, I can recommend an anime that parodies anime in general and bonus bonus, the protagonist is aroace (while the word is never explicitly stated, he literally says that he doesn't experience romantic attraction!!). Watch The Disastrous Life of Saiki. K!!!