#taxing problems

[inkskinned]

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

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

[aethersea]

another thing fantasy writers should keep track of is how much of their worldbuilding is aesthetic-based. it's not unlike the sci-fi hardness scale, which measures how closely a story holds to known, real principles of science. The Martian is extremely hard sci-fi, with nearly every detail being grounded in realistic fact as we know it; Star Trek is extremely soft sci-fi, with a vaguely plausible "space travel and no resource scarcity" premise used as a foundation for the wildest ideas the writers' room could come up with. and much as Star Trek fuckin rules, there's nothing wrong with aesthetic-based fantasy worldbuilding!

(sidenote we're not calling this 'soft fantasy' bc there's already a hard/soft divide in fantasy: hard magic follows consistent rules, like "earthbenders can always and only bend earth", and soft magic follows vague rules that often just ~feel right~, like the Force. this frankly kinda maps, but I'm not talking about just the magic, I'm talking about the worldbuilding as a whole.

actually for the purposes of this post we're calling it grounded vs airy fantasy, bc that's succinct and sounds cool.)

a great example of grounded fantasy is Dungeon Meshi: the dungeon ecosystem is meticulously thought out, the plot is driven by the very realistic need to eat well while adventuring, the story touches on both social and psychological effects of the whole 'no one dies forever down here' situation, the list goes on. the worldbuilding wants to be engaged with on a mechanical level and it rewards that engagement.

deliberately airy fantasy is less common, because in a funny way it's much harder to do. people tend to like explanations. it takes skill to pull off "the world is this way because I said so." Narnia manages: these kids fall into a magic world through the back of a wardrobe, befriend talking beavers who drink tea, get weapons from Santa Claus, dance with Bacchus and his maenads, and sail to the edge of the world, without ever breaking suspension of disbelief. it works because every new thing that happens fits the vibes. it's all just vibes! engaging with the worldbuilding on a mechanical level wouldn't just be futile, it'd be missing the point entirely.

the reason I started off calling this aesthetic-based is that an airy story will usually lean hard on an existing aesthetic, ideally one that's widely known by the target audience. Lewis was drawing on fables, fairy tales, myths, children's stories, and the vague idea of ~medieval europe~ that is to this day our most generic fantasy setting. when a prince falls in love with a fallen star, when there are giants who welcome lost children warmly and fatten them up for the feast, it all fits because these are things we'd expect to find in this story. none of this jars against what we've already seen.

and the point of it is to be wondrous and whimsical, to set the tone for the story Lewis wants to tell. and it does a great job! the airy worldbuilding serves the purposes of the story, and it's no less elegant than Ryōko Kui's elaborately grounded dungeon. neither kind of worldbuilding is better than the other.

however.

you do have to know which one you're doing.

the whole reason I'm writing this is that I saw yet another long, entertaining post dragging GRRM for absolute filth. asoiaf is a fun one because on some axes it's pretty grounded (political fuck-around-and-find-out, rumors spread farther than fact, fastest way to lose a war is to let your people starve, etc), but on others it's entirely airy (some people have magic Just Cause, the various peoples are each based on an aesthetic/stereotype/cliché with no real thought to how they influence each other as neighbors, the super-long seasons have no effect on ecology, etc).

and again! none of this is actually bad! (well ok some of those stereotypes are quite bigoted. but other than that this isn't bad.) there's nothing wrong with the season thing being there to highlight how the nobles are focused on short-sighted wars for power instead of storing up resources for the extremely dangerous and inevitable winter, that's a nice allegory, and the looming threat of many harsh years set the narrative tone. and you can always mix and match airy and grounded worldbuilding – everyone does it, frankly it's a necessity, because sooner or later the answer to every worldbuilding question is "because the author wanted it to be that way." the only completely grounded writing is nonfiction.

the problem is when you pretend that your entirely airy worldbuilding is actually super duper grounded. like, for instance, claiming that your vibes-based depiction of Medieval Europe (Gritty Edition) is completely historical, and then never even showing anyone spinning. or sniffing dismissively at Tolkien for not detailing Aragorn's tax policy, and then never addressing how a pre-industrial grain-based agricultural society is going years without harvesting any crops. (stored grain goes bad! you can't even mouse-proof your silos, how are you going to deal with mold?) and the list goes on.

the man went up on national television and invited us to engage with his worldbuilding mechanically, and then if you actually do that, it shatters like spun sugar under the pressure. doesn't he realize that's not the part of the story that's load-bearing! he should've directed our focus to the political machinations and extensive trope deconstruction, not the handwavey bit.

point is, as a fantasy writer there will always be some amount of your worldbuilding that boils down to 'because I said so,' and there's nothing wrong with that. nor is there anything wrong with making that your whole thing – airy worldbuilding can be beautiful and inspiring. but you have to be aware of what you're doing, because if you ask your readers to engage with the worldbuilding in gritty mechanical detail, you had better have some actual mechanics to show them.

[the-gnomish-bastard]

You’re wanted for tax fraud. I’m wanted for flying a dragon into an archwizard’s tower during his 900th birthday, killing 47. We are not the same.

[fruitfloats]

i feel like we dont talk enough about how jason went from being a child to being treated like a full grown adult when he came back

like??? the inherent trauma in dying at 15 and coming back to gotham at like 18-19 and everyone is acting like you are a full adult when he hasnt even had the chance to really experience being a teen??

theres truly not enough emphasis on how young of a character he is sometimes

i mean even going through normal teenage years its still weird when people act like you are all grown up when youre 20 so i just imagine that like 10x worse for jason

[stiffyck]

Desert duo but they are married just for the benefits.

(No one tell them there are no benefits to being married in minecraft.)

[egberts]

people shouldn't be allowed to sell houses that have known problems with things like the plumbing. like we are currently dealing with the ramifications of the people before us leaving the house in shitty condition, but what could we do? we couldn't afford anything that wasn't a fixer-upper and our apartment was falling apart under our feet. we were forced into a home buying decision and now live in a shoddy flip like millions of other young home buyers in America, meanwhile the people who caused the problems are running off with the profit and a smile on their face

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

TIL that once the Northern lords find out that Jon is Rhaegar’s son, they will detest him to the point of immediately slitting their wrists instead of accepting him as a fair and worthy leader…

….nevermind that 1) the Northern lords have thus far shown NO hostility towards Rhaegar, 2) Jon is also LYANNA STARK’s son who has thus far been romanticized to some degree, 3) Jon was raised and directly acknowledged as NED STARK’s son, the very same Ned who the mountain clans are willing to die in a raging winter for, the very same Ned whose fathering of Jon compells Alys Karstark and other minor lords to go to the Wall in search for the Lord Commander….

…none of that will ever matter. Because our headcannons dictate that Rhaegar sucks so Jon sucks ass as well, cannon be damned 🙂

[gentil-minou]

"This is more about your ego and pride than Palestine" No its about putting pressure on a party that is supporting genocide

It's about logic

Biden and the DNC would rather cause dissent and dissatisfaction within their own party rather than call for a ceasefire

They know they can get away with it because they're a better option than Trump, because they know they could murder babies in front of you and you'll still vote for them.

So why would they call for a ceasefire when they don't need to?

That's why putting the pressure on them, saying they won't get our vote or saying we are looking for other options is so important.

Because that's the only way they will change.

By saying "Vote Blue No Matter Who", you give him and the DNC permission to permit genocide despite the vast majority of public opinion. You say they can do whatever they want because you will vote for them anyways.

You tell them they don't need to do anything else. That in fact they can do whatever they want. You've shown them you are so terrified of your own government that you would rather lie down and let it walk all over you than put any pressure on them at all

They have a year to make a change. Biden could end this all tomorrow, but why would he when he has you doing his dirty work?

[bmpmp3]

finding out ur coworker is way older than you thought and having to very quickly reorient how you talk to them

[benjaminallhope-fulltimemind]

this is voter suppression plain and simple, innocent people and organizations are being harassed and targeted for the crime of supporting democracy and the Democrats. Of course Republicans will make outrageous and uncertified claims that voter fraud is widespread or that there's some grand conspiracy at play which isn't true. It's just a ploy and excuse to erode democracy as conservative policy doesn't have widespread support necessitating the subversion of popular willpower through the targeted harassment of those that do not support them. It's disturbing how they can use the police and legal system to their advantage, democracy doesn't matter as long as it fits the Republican's agenda. Never forget that Christian Nationalists and Neo-Nazis do not havy any respect for America nor it's democracy, they would gladly burn the constitution in order to preserve the 'white race' and 'Christian values' which is as clear as day. So vote blue even just to reduce harm and prevent Trump from winning and enacting Project 2025.

[penguicorns-are-cool]

Sleep Tax

so I've been thinking about something and I'm gonna call it sleep tax

basically, because of my ADHD I need a bit of extra time to get ready in the morning, but also the earlier I wake up the more time I need cause I'm also dealing with sleep deprivation.

So like, if I need to leave home at 8:30 I need to fully wake up by 7:30 so my first alarm has to be at 7:00 so I have time for a few snoozes and an hour to get ready. If I have to leave by 8:00 though I need to wake up fully by 7:00 to even have a chance of getting ready in time and my first alarm has to be around 6:20.

And it gets worse if it's cold cause now there's the extra step of forcing myself into the cold and the cold makes everything else harder to do. So now I have to wake up like 15 minutes earlier to give myself time for that but really my first alarm is way before that so I can have proper snoozing time. Like, Now to leave at 8:30 I have to fully wake up around 7:15 or earlier and my first alarm will be at 6:30.

Now, if waking up this early makes me sleep deprived for whatever reason. Like maybe I had a lot of work the night before, or I had a bad day and ended up staying up late on Tumblr trying to decompress to the point that I could get to sleep, or I just couldn't sleep. Then it'll start a cycle of not so great energy-sapping days where it's hard to sleep and I consistently get to bed closer to 1-2am. Now I'm getting like 6 or less hours of sleep a night and am getting very sleep-deprived so getting ready is even slower. Now I have to wake up even earlier to compensate for that. My first alarm now is at 6:20 (or earlier) so I can wake up at 7:00

And if I have to wake up earlier when I'm already waking up at 7:00 and have to leave around 8:00 instead of 8:30, well I just kind of die cause now I'm waking up at 6:45 with my first alarm at 6:00 or 5:55 all while getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night

So now I'm in this horrible cycle of getting more and more sleep deprived because the sleep deprivation and other stuff makes it harder and harder to get ready so I have to wake up earlier and earlier which makes my days more and more energy-sapping which means I stay up later and I get more sleep-deprived and I'm even slower getting ready and have to wake up earlier and on and on and on

[thedaughterofdionysus]

One of the worst thing about executive dysfunction and chronic depression is wasting food even tho you dont want to. I feel so guilty for wasting money, wasting food and wasting my time. I am writing this as I am tossing my oversoaked beans that is covered with black spots all over.

I hate this.

I feel guilty.

[mollysunder]

Where did the idea that Shimmer would make Jinx's mental state worse next season come from? I know she had a big break down around the end, but that seemed more situational, i.e. she has reason to believe the two people she cares about most will betray her, I'm pretty sure she hasn't slept in over a day, and she just went through traumatic invasive surgery awake without any anesthetic.

So far, we've only see shimmer amplify aggression, not hallucinations. Some might argue that during Jinx's shimmer infusion surgery the shimmer caused her paranoid hallucinations of Vi and Caitlyn, but I argue those were caused by the fact that she was dying. Vi experienced similar hallucinations after she was stabbed by Sevika and again when Sevika had nearly beaten her to submission. Vi had a full conversation with her hallucinations with Vander, no shimmer necessary.

The only person that suffered from an increase in dissociative hallucinations after exposure to foreign material was Viktor with the hexcore. And Viktor was already being affected by hexcore before he even infused it with shimmer.

[adobe-outdesign]

so back primarily during Season 1 of the Muppet Show there were these two characters called Wayne and Wanda. their whole schtick was that they were a Sam the Eagle-approved singing duo who would show up on stage and immediately get their shit wrecked in an appropriately ironic fashion

anyway they went AWOL after the 80s after having been fired by Kermit, only to finally reappear in The Muppets (2011) in their first on-screen appearance in well over twenty years. and what is the first thing they do?

aggressively make out because the lights in the theater went down for five (5) minutes. honestly kind of iconic

[cocogum]

An enutrof’s longevity reflects their god’s dragonic form.

I completely believe that the ONLY ACTUAL reason why enutrofs look so freaking old all the time is because since their god has the appearance of a dragon, they get the privilege of having heir lives extended for a few more centuries lol

Enutrof is a literal representation of a dragon guarding his treasures in his cave so they would obviously try to hunt as much money as they can by taking advantage of the longevity that they inherited from him.

You can’t tell me that their intro page showcases them already old and NOT explain to me why that is the case if you don’t think the same way!

The older an enutrof is, the more experienced he or she is at treasure hunting.

I feel like this is what enutrofs love to think about amongst themselves which is why they’re the only race known to present themselves looking already so old compared to the other classes. For an enutrof, being old is the trend and is a way to show how long you pursued money. So the older you are as an enutrof, the more people will automatically assume you have more riches than them.

They’re also the only ones who we get to see live as long as Joris. JORIS who is someone who keeps a DRAGON within him at all times (since birth actually).

Examples like this are Ruel, Arpagone, Alibert, and even Ruel’s freaking GRANDMA.

In short, if you wanna live like a dragon, enutrofs are a good pick besides eliatropes lol

[bitchesgetriches]

Wow. I feel seen in the worst way.