#tomatos are a metaphor

[seventhcallisto]

You, who has landed in my garden.

Dear, hyunjin.

What it feels like to fall from grace as an angel with wings that spand taller than creatures who can't seem to hold the weight of a person.

These angels know these feelings. As their wings grow and a new feather appears from all the hurt in your soul. One more for the broken heart and the way you cry to yourself at night, wishing knowing you'll be loved. When your arms drape across a pillow as if it's a body coddling you so softly in the dark. When he hears your voice, the sorrowful shadow of your life flashes in his mind. Even as you prepare your day. Go about everything the same. A routine that adds another feather. The heaviest of them all. Days turn to weeks, and more angels appear as your gaurdians unbeknownst to you.

You have conjured a rare phenomenon, where love finds its way through shells on the beach, and your smile finally comes back only for a week. And then it's gone as soon as it comes, then you've got another guardian angel. Weeping over the clouds above your head. You realize rain pours more often when you're sad.

You are so very loved. But you don't know that. You don't feel that. And one of your angels is tired of it. He leaves. He who has fallen from grace like a raindrop through the sky.

He who ends up in your garden, smushing your healthy tomato plant as he lands.

Your window is cracked open ever so quickly as you peer out your balcony at him. His eyes twinkle like stars as he realizes it's really you. Pajamas that are childish and yellow themed. Your face is clear of tears and makeup as it most often isn't. You... who is suddenly cry-whining about your tomato plants.

"Hi," he says so breathlessly as you step up to him. Never once has he moved. Nor has he blinked back the dazed look in his unnaturally sparkling eyes. "You broke my tiny tomato garden." You sob once, sniffling and wiping as fat tears begin to cascade down your cheeks. It has him standing up as quickly - and as gentle as he can. Twisting one of your tomato branch limbs as he goes. He grimaces. Tomato smeer all over his clothing, that.. he didn't know appeared on him when he fell. You continue to sob up at the sky.

"Why does this always happen to me!?" And he's realizing your day must of be so crappy if you're crying like this in front of a stranger.

"Please don't cry I can pay- i, well- I don't have money and.. but.. i can help you replant?" He scales his pockets for anything to cheer you up. Only to find he has a measly leather wallet, with an ID in it. His face, magically there.

You sob harder at the thought. Do you not like the idea at all? His hands shoot out to wave the air around you down. He's panicking! Being a gaurdian angel isn't as easy as having real experience. "It'll take forever!" You fall to your knees. He finds this childish. But.. yet. He thinks if you hear him say that. You might end up crying worse. The dirt is cold, yet you dont care.

Pajamas soaking up the wet grass and dirt when you lay on the ground. Tears streaking down your face as you try to let the ground eat you. Try. You will. Even as hyunjin bends down to your level and tries to quiet your hiccups.

"Let's start over!" He abruptly says. "I'm hyunjin. I'm so sorry about your plant. And i- I like your dog." You sniffle. And stop. "I don't have a dog" you shake your head.

"Yes, you do. Her name is magdelo." he laughs. Blonde hair cascading around him like a halo. You do, in fact, have a dog. And that is, in fact, her name.

"Are you a stalker or something?" You sit up, looking him up and down. He pulls back so quickly that he's falling on his butt. "No-I just know your dogs name"

No one knows your dogs name. Not even your only acquaintances. "Who are you?" You hiccup a final time, smearing snot on your long sleeved shirt. Hyunjins lips pull into a grimace.

"Im.. hyunjin?"

"have we met?"

"Possibly"

"What do you mean by that?"

"In a past life. Possibly."

"You're weird"

"I know, but so are you. You're the one crying on the ground."

"I'm not crying. I'm just.. laying down.. letting the ground take care of me."

"And that's what makes you weird."

"So are you"

"Yes, I guess so. We're both weird."

Why does this feel so human? So raw. So alive. So true, compared to how you interact with real people. Why are you so comfortable? Why does he feel like he lived in your bones and is a figment of your imagination?

"Are you real? I'm not dreaming am i?"

"I think I'm real. Pinch me?"

"Ow! Yes. I am. I'm real. You pinched too hard.."

This is so very real. You are so very real, and hyunjin is so very real. "Why my garden?" You ask. "Because it only has tomatos." He answers. his hair captures hues off the post light outside your home. He looks angelic. He is angelic.

Hyunjin, who is your gaurdian angel. Who fell into your garden. And killed your tomato plant.

[utilitycaster]

Would LOVE that essay on combat in dnd because full agree. But not even just for people watching live play, like, combat is an essential feature of dnd as a game system and it endlessly frustrates me when i see dms be like “yeah combat is just too complicated and no fun so i dont do it in my game :)!” Like i guess thats your right, but any non-caster class is gonna be miserable in your game. I saw a video recently talking about how dnd has kind of become the default ttrpg and is marketed as the perfect system for everyone and any style of play which is just. So not true. Combat in dnd is equally as integral as roleplay is and theres really no argument otherwise. Very valid if you hate dnd combat, it sure isnt for everyone, but in that case maybe play a different ttrpg where the characters arent constructed around combat abilities, i promise you’ll have more fun.

So this is one of those things that touches on maybe 99% of my feelings on Experiencing Fiction in general and actual play in particular; I apologize in advance for the length and digressions within this response.

Here are the reasons I have seen or I surmise why people don’t like D&D combat, either in actual play or in home games:

It can get crunchy and involves a lot of rules

There are long stretches in which individuals do not necessarily act (not exclusive to combat but I think this is a factor)

It contains violence

There is a potential for character death

Now, it’s fine if you aren’t interested in D&D-style combat, for whatever reason, when you play ttrpgs. It’s just that this is a core feature of D&D. As you say, this is what the martial classes are structured around - and, frankly, no small number of casting classes/subclasses as well. By avoiding it when you play D&D, you’re avoiding the bulk of the game, and there are plenty of ttrpgs that permit open RP that aren’t combat focused that would probably fit your needs better (eg: PbtA and Savage Worlds are both generic systems that can support a heroic fantasy like D&D without the emphasis on combat skills). I happen to love and prefer D&D, but that is specifically because I love combat, and yeah, there are other games and people should seek out those games if they don’t like combat.

When it comes to D&D actual play though…skipping combat is just straight-up stupid. And to be clear I mean fully skipping it and not watching it at all; while this is piggybacking off my post about spoilers, it’s fine if you are the sort of person who needs to know how combat ends in order to enjoy it! That’s just a personal preference that I respect even if I don’t share it.

D&D combat isn’t just an inherent part of the game; it’s an inherent part of the story. The idea of D&D being split into combat and RP is a false dichotomy. There is RP and crucial story within combat scenes, and you simply do not achieve the same effects by reading an after-the-fact summary. To use examples from Critical Role, consider one of the most famous RP moments from Campaign 1, when Scanlan uses his 9th level counterspell in the Vecna fight. The weight of that moment derives from mechanics and from the fact that it is in the midst of combat and well into a climatic final battle. Or for lighter examples, there’s a ton of Beau/Yasha and Fjord/Jester mid-combat flirting running through much of Campaign 2 that informs those relationships. Molly’s death? Caleb going into a fugue state when he kills humanoids with fire? Yasha destroying Obann? Fjord dying mid-deep scion fight? Those are all moments that have deep character weight and meaning that are within the context of combat, and you cannot divorce them from that context and hope to retain the same effect.

This is what dovetails into a larger discussion of Experiencing Fiction which is a (in my opinion) worrying tendency among some people to truly believe that you can cut up media into the palatable bits and pieces and push all of what you see as icky vegetables to the side of your plate. I fucking hate this. I think it’s what drives a lot of things including a distaste for combat. This is how you get, for example, people who dislike combat because Violence And Death Bad, which, do I think that in the real world violence is most often a thing to be avoided? Do I think that in the real world death is heartbreaking? Yes, but this is fiction. There’s that great Brennan Lee Mulligan quote about how TTRPGs like D&D allow people who usually must be conflict-avoidant in real life to let out their anger and frustration in a place where it is safe and harmless, and I believe that whole-heartedly. I want stories about death because I want to know I'm not alone in how I feel about death. I want stories in which people can express their rage in ways both healthy and unhealthy, because big same. (I also think it’s absolutely not coincidental that people who believe they are ‘protecting’ people by circumscribing what is acceptable in fiction tend to be strongly associated with either bigoted, violent policies in real life, or harassment and doxxing online; maybe enjoy a fucked up movie, as John Waters once said, and you'll calm down.)

This idea that you can cut up media and only consume what you like is also what I think is behind some of the really ill-considered and overly granular timestamped content warnings I’ve mentioned previously. It is fine if there are things you don’t want to watch or which will be upsetting or even triggering to watch! It’s fine if you as an individual don’t like violence! But I think there’s a problem when people believe they are entitled to be able to watch whatever they want and have it mold to their exact wants and needs (and that it’s a failing if it doesn’t), rather than taking on the responsibility of seeking out media that already fits the bill. Actual Play D&D will nearly always have violent encounters. If this will be an issue this is not for you. It is not gatekeeping to say “you can come through this gate, but the gate is in fact here for your specifically requested protection"; and yet people think that instead, gates should be placed around everything else. So (to give an example) this is why the warnings for D20’s Neverafter strike me as a symptom of this larger problem - if you have discomfort with violence towards animals and children, that’s fine, but you are watching a D&D horror series in which over half the player characters are either animals or children. This is not something where you can skip a few seconds of a flashing gif that might be a migraine or seizure trigger, or a case where an exceptionally rough scene of gaslighting can be read instead of watched; this is inherent to the show, and if this is not for you, you need to go elsewhere.

To give one last example, I was looking for fanart for Worlds Beyond Number, and came across a picture of Suvi with a caption of “Suvi but without the imperialism” and like…Aabria has said in interviews that this engagement with the empire is extremely deliberate; that Suvi is intended to be tied into the political structures of this world as an intentional contrast with Eursulon’s status as an outsider and Ame’s role at the smaller, community level. Suvi without imperialism is not identifiable as the same character and it throws the entire story off-kilter; she is of this empire and that is the fucking point. Any story worth telling is not just items thrown haphazardly into a bowl; they are combined and mixed. Someone is giving you a plate of brownies and you are acting like it’s physically possible to take out the cocoa powder without fucking the end result, and buddy, it’s not.

(Truly, I was not joking when I said this is like, the load-bearing pillar of most of my complaints about fiction consumption patterns in general. This is about how people will deny the flaws in characters even though any reasonably intelligent ten-year-old, and I know because I fucking was one once, understands that person vs. themself is one of the core conflicts and overcoming one’s flaws is in many cases the entire story and if you start out perfect there is nothing to be said. Like…I think a lot of people genuinely just want to watch a nonstop Monterey Bay Otter Cam of their sufficiently sanitized, focus-group-tested blorbos baking cookies together, and are affronted when people with the tiniest sliver of empathy and/or curiosity want a story with plot and character growth, which in turn require conflict.)

Anyway. I think the takeaways here are that there’s this awful entitlement people have in which they think that they can simply consume anything and it is the failure of that media if it doesn’t cater specifically to them, rather than a failure of them to seek out that which they would enjoy (and I could go on this rant indefinitely; it is truly the most constant theme among Takes I Think Are Dumb); and also I really want to bake something right now, given my choices of metaphor. Combat is part of D&D as a game and as a storytelling medium, and it is incumbent upon people who do not like combat to find something that doesn’t have D&D combat, rather than try to pull out the vital organs of the story.

[dkettchen]

[scribefindegil]

Can't believe I have to put plot-relevant tomatoes in this fic. Terrible.

[murderballadeer]

goodreads is a cursed place somehow every book that i think sucks ass has a 4.5 average rating and then every book that's like a culturally relevant classic that made important contributions to its genre has like a 2.5 and a million one star reviews calling it pretentious, overrated and stupid. genuinely who are you people

[shallowseeker]

It amuses me that in seasons 13-14, Cas is making a new effort to practice his "metaphors and sayings."

It's adorable, but it also speaks to a sense of renewed cultural adaptation, that unlike it seasons past, he's making a more conscious effort to live here, with his human family and adopt their current lingo. Like, you know, commitment.

The way he and Dean squabble over "That's the saying," /// "I don't think that's the saying," it's clear that practicing figurative language is something that they've been doing in their down time.

[starry-teacup]

I'm waiting for the big corporations to pss pss pss me like the cat I am with little patience. my local target has yet to try to exploit me with rainbow throw pillows this June. you're behind schedule, capitalists

[davros42]

See you in Season 2 🍅🍅🍅🍅

[lueddegen]

As a person with very vivid dreams and often using those as inspiration for the stories I write it’s quite funny to retrace where the original ideas for some of my characters came from.

Because it’s usually either “I dreamed of this story in almost this exact way, the character just sprung to my mind fully formed and ready to act” or “I dreamed of a petri dish containing genetically modified tomato cells and somehow that became a person in a medieval fantasy setting”.

[rel312]

So queer people are fruits, right? Well I think aspec people are tomatos. Like they are a fruit but everyone forgets that and still lumps them in with the vegetables.

[babbybones]

sorry one last thing. i think spamton has been holding his own surprisingly well against reigen considering

it's a specific subset of Deltarune fans against (presumably) everybody else following the polls, who are determined to see reigen face sans again

there is ALSO a subset of UTDR fans who deeply hate spamton and want him dead

& he looks like That

[lemonbrows]

signs of healthy soil 🌱

[hairenya]

I HATE discourse about makeup and plastic surgery. Like yes you all have very real feminist concerns and whatever but it’s my face, not yours, and if I want permanent eyeliner I will get it.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

theres something im still dissatisfied with with this one and i dont think it's the background colour

[awynter]

me/anne/pen using any chance we can to insult basil grimston: an essay

[stormvanari]

HIE and LOW bingos:

chart made by @/monzinee on this here app

(rambling/notes in the tags)