#which has been doing wonders for my social enrichment

[obstinaterixatrix]

Hey man, idk how normal your life is doing rn but I hope you're having a good one!! I really enjoy your stuff and reading ur writing before an appointment helped my anxiety

aw how sweet :) glad my writing could help

[batshaped]

twitter stop fucking up for one second challenge (impossible)

well,

here’s the thing. it feels like social media is changing lately. every social media site seems to be fucking up or getting worse in its own special little way. i recently read and thought a lot about this article which coins the term “enshittification” and describes the process by which every social media platform eventually becomes so greedy as to become unusable. it makes me wonder if the social internet is due for a big shift in the near future. 

for a long time, twitter was the best place for me. for all its issues, it had the audience that i could reach the easiest, that was the most invested in my art. i got (still get) a lot of awesome replies and really great analysis of my work on twitter, which i didn’t receive on any other platform. i was able to encourage those readers by retweeting their comments and theories to show that i liked hearing their thoughts. i could use the Moments feature to organize my art and make my comic easily readable in order. and anyone could look at my twitter, account or no.

ever since the site was bought out, twitter is getting worse. i can’t use the app on mobile anymore because every reply section is drowned out by blue checks and choked with ads. the Moments feature was disabled and people couldn’t easily read my comics in order anymore. and this is without even touching on the bigger/more serious issues the buyout has brought to the app. these are just the ways it has made my personal experience of being an artist on there worse. and now, apparently, you can’t even look at my work unless you have an account.

it’s been pretty common in the past year for the new management to implement a bad feature and then undo it after backlash, and maybe this too will be reversed. but even if it is unimplemented, the platform will continue to get worse. all platforms are getting worse right now. all of them are becoming untenable to use without 7 bespoke browser extensions to block ads, hide specific unwanted content, force chronological order, and so on. on mobile i don’t even bother. apps are unusable. 

on top of that, i have the personal issue of not being the type of creator who is particularly good at staying on top of more than one or two platforms daily. twitter has been my main for years now, so i’m pretty good about updating it very regularly. instagram is trailing behind, i usually remember to post there daily (especially as i’m remaking mine right now and posting my entire backlog) but sometimes i forget. and that’s kind of my limit. every other site falls by the wayside because i just don’t want to spend my whole day or life updating platforms. i know there are tools that can do it automatically for you but i don’t want to do it that way and then i’d have to figure out a new tool and get yet another account on yet another app and install yet another extension to use it.

i just want to draw. i don’t know how we arrived at this place where we need to be 700 other things when we are just artists. i draw and write, isn’t that enough? if i wanted a presence on tiktok i’d also have to be a video editor who pays close attention to trends and makes sure to transform my artwork into something people on that app are interested in. even if i just wanted to have a strong presence on say, twitter/instagram/tumblr/tapas/webtoon i’d have to take on another (unpaid) job as my own social media manager, meticulously managing my uploads across 5+ apps and making sure everything is up to date and tailored to what “works” on each particular platform. i already have a day job—i’m a storyboard artist. the art i post online is supposed to be made and given freely for my own enrichment first and foremost, and for the joy of sharing with others as a close second.

i wonder if we’re due for a mass rejection of this increasingly draining cable-wars-style model of spreading ourselves thin across multiple platforms just to reach the exclusive audience each one provides. i’m starting to feel done with that concept, but i still want to share my art. i want to hear my readers’ thoughts. i want to create things that connect with others. i want to do it without these ever-mounting obstacles.

what i’m doing about it is creating my own website at my own domain that belongs to me. i doubt i’ll be quitting social media when it’s done. social media is still where the audience i cherish lives. but you can bet that when that website is ready to be shared, i’ll be talking about it on every social media account i own. i’ll be telling everyone there’s a place to look at my art where you don’t need an account, you don’t have to struggle through a morass of ads, and you don’t have to line the pockets of a billionaire who bought a social media app on a whim. it’ll just be you and my art. alone together.

by the way, to @whatthehelljake​ i apologize for writing a fucking SAT essay on a screenshot of your reply. any exasperated tone here is not directed at you at all. it’s directed at this sea of obstacles that disrupt the simple concept of “i made art and i want to share it with you.” your reply is how i found out today that twitter made this change. i cherish the fact that you want to connect with my art so much that you alerted me to this. i wish that wasn’t necessary. i want to make my work on my own terms—and want you to be able to experience it on YOUR own terms.

all that to say, i think the website is going to be the main answer to this issue. i don’t see myself having the energy to update tumblr that much more often than i already do, though maybe i’ll try to pick up the pace a little now. we’ll see. holy shit if you read all this go drink a glass of water or something get up and stretch. ok thank you bye <3

[transmutationisms]

do you think vaccines should be mandatory? my view has always been that public health would outweigh personal choice in this instance but i also see the bodily autonomy argument, though ultimately i think it’s flawed and weird to compare, say, abortions with vaccines. i was wondering if you had an opinion or any resources on this topic?

this is one of those questions where i think the framing conceals a lot of unspoken premises and social/political assumptions. what do we even mean by a vaccine mandate in the first place? the truth is that in many contexts, vaccines are already mandatory—the trick is that these mandates are generally designed and first enforced by employers, schools, and private business establishments, rather than coming through direct state intervention. incidentally, most censorship works similarly, despite it also being positioned discursively as a matter of direct state intervention. the truth is that you are far more likely to run into problems if you, say, have an employer who requires vaccination—which makes your paycheck (that is, your ability to continue living) dependent on a medical intervention—than you are to face some kind of right-winger fear fantasy of a shadowy government agent showing up to your doorstep with a syringe. these things happen by economic coercion far more than through direct state command.

with that in mind, to me the issue that 'vaccine mandates' point to isn't so much an idealist conflict between 'safety' and 'liberty' or however nyt is framing it these days—rather, it's the fact that employers have the structural position to impose their will on employees, who often must comply or face, literally, starvation. i am willing to say this is a bad social structure despite the fact that in the case of vaccines i obviously agree that the particular intervention in question is a good thing, and is something that anyone who is medically eligible should be getting. in order to make vaccines mandatory, you need an enforcement mechanism—the one we currently primarily rely on is economic coercion in the form of threatening loss of livelihood (again, this also applies to most censorship cases). while i, again, strenuously think that people who can get vaccinated should do so, in order to make such a thing compulsory you have to confront the issue of what power structures make the compulsion possible and actionable. prisons? relying on the political whims and economic threats of employers? too often, a 'mandatory vaccine' is presented as though it could be ethically debated in the abstract, without reference to these conditions!

anyway, i'm not going to pretend that i can solve vaccine hesitancy in the next 90 seconds in a tumblr post, but off the top of my head here are some factors i think are major contributors to this issue:

ableism (eg, andrew wakefield preying on the fact that many parents would rather risk their children catching preventable dangerous diseases than let them be supposedly exposed to a greater chance of becoming autistic)

public distrust of physicians and public health infrastructure, for reasons ranging from medical racism and eugenics to discomfiting and traumatic experiences with the inherently (in this system) power-imbalanced relationship between medical professionals and patients

the massive gap between expert and lay knowledge on medical topics, enforced by mechanisms like paywalls and benefitting the prestige and pecuniary enrichment of physicians and public health experts (this provides fertile ground for grifters and liars to prey on people's confusion and difficulty verifying information)

possibilities for lies about vaccines to lead to financial enrichment, as in the case of social media grifts, heterodox and alternative medical practitioners, or eg andrew wakefield trying to sell his own vaccine after publishing his now-retracted paper on the supposed link between autism and the mmr vaccine

these are all bad things; they are also all actionable things. i do not think that it's some kind of transhistorical condition of humanity that we must choose between either passing each other dangerous diseases or designing coercive or punitive measures to force compliance with public health recommendations. i think all of these things are in fact very directly resultant of capitalism, the way it values bodies and health (biopolitics), and its politics of knowledge and expertise.

[sillimancer]

so I've been watching Bluey and I'm on episode 37/52 in series 1 so I feel like I've seen enough of it to have genuine thoughts (I skimmed the wikipedia page too)

the reason I started watching it was because of its reputation among millennials with kids who have been swearing up and down that it's basically free therapy for our age group. I'm definitely in the market to having my brain chemistry altered but after 37 episodes, I don't know that I'm there yet. there is still a lot of show left to go though, and some of the most-circulated clips I've seen on social media have been in episodes I haven't come across yet, so that is subject to change.

what I CAN say is that Bluey is objectively a very good tv show that 100% deserves its Peabody award. it's thoughtful, fun, and honestly funnier than it has any right to be. I've laughed out loud more than once. Joe Brumm made the show with the intention of it being entertaining for both kids and parents and he absolutely nailed that balance, I think. in that way, it's not a kid show; it's a family show. and I like that (and I'm pleasantly surprised by how well it works!).

I haven't been a kid for a long time so it's hard for me to put myself in the shoes of a child, especially in a world that is so drastically different from mine. I think this is the first kid show I've seen that prominently features things like smartphones. I know those shows exist--the new Blue's Clues is a good example of how things have been updated to suit modern audiences--but it's something that caught my eye as an Old Fart (in internet years). Not as a bad or good thing, just as a "wow I'm getting older and it's getting harder to relate to or even understand childhood" kind of way. Maybe that's why people want to be parents so badly. To reconnect with that. I can sympathize with that feeling.

the show focuses a lot on Bluey and her sister and friends navigating the world through imaginative play, which I love and has a solid backing in child developmental psychology. I actually just started learning a little bit about play therapy (I follow a play therapist on tiktok who kinda got me into it, I love her), so I feel like I've been getting a little bonus bit of enrichment out of the show for that. it's like when you're watching a movie that's partly in another language and you don't speak the language but you recognize it and can maybe pick out a couple words? it's like that.

I think Brumm really captured lightning in a bottle with this project. you can feel the love it's made with. the storylines are grounded with just the right touch of an almost magical or fantastical quality that really makes you feel childlike wonder even as a cynical and deeply depressed 30-something. There's conflict and mess, sure, but built on a foundation of safety and community, and I think that's probably what's resonating with (american) millennials. we inherited so much instability and pain from our previous generations that it's hard to believe a world or even a family unit like Bluey's could exist. parents who love each other? who are active in their children's lives? who apologize when they do something wrong? COULDN'T BE US!

all this to say I'm enjoying the show, it's heartwarming, it's charming, it's delightful, and I hope Joe Brumm lives forever. but it's also very much designed for children so like. I worry the millennial parents crying over this show on tiktok may be overselling it.

[sylwanin-was-right]

Kina nsfw topic but im genuinely wondering how the Na'vi reproduce and how various cultures handle sexuality and relationships.

We already have introductions of how the Omatikaya handles sexuality and romance on public and private terms in various levels of intimacy:

We see that they value monogamy:

When tsaheylu ("bond") is made with a lover in an erotic situation (at least), it is a determiner for having mated w them "for life". We do not know for certain if tsaheylu can determine a permanent mating in a more public way or ceremony, say courtship rituals or marriage cerimonies

Neytiri explicitly tells Jake she "is with him" and they are "mated for life" after their tsaheylu under the Tree of Voices

Tsu'tey expresses anger at Neytiri and Jake for revealing at kelutral (Hometree) that they mated. He and Neytiri were arranged to be olo'eyktan and tsahìk—possibly as a mated couple, too (he openly asked Jake if he "mated with this woman [Neytiri]").

The tsahìk and olo'eyktan (spiritual and military leaders and authorities) are usually, tho not always, mated couples, according to the Avatar wiki. Mo'at and Eytukan were mated, and she is the tsahìk and he was the olo'eyktan.

We see they value courtship rituals:

The term "mated" seems to have implications of courtship and commitment as well as cultural status. Being betrothed to someone does not necessitate being mated to them, which we know by the olo'eyktan and tsahìk being dual roles that do not necessitate mating. This fact signifies how Tsu'tey asking Jake openly if he mated w Neytiri and his negative reaction toward Neytiri confirming made his motivations to protect his clan and pursue Neytiri as a love interest seperate; Neytiri's explicit embrace of having mated with Jake implies theres cultural status to having mated w someone in the sense of social capital, roles, and expectations.

Theres implication that the Omatikaya value courtship when Neytiri tells Jake he is an official clan member, and, as such, has earned the privilege of choosing a mate (among other privileges). This was probably a flirtatious setup by Neytiri since they already shared an intimate moment learning the sacred significance of Tree of Voices and she felt close to him. Though, nonetheless, their moment together implicated that intimacy has to be earned by mutual actions of trust:

We see they engage in sexual activity recreationally

While tsaheylu is a sacred bond to signify mating between a couple, its also a practical and enriching connection for sharing a myriad of sensations, including erotic ones, according to the Survival Guide. Seeking out erotic experiences for social, spiritual and emotional purposes, but not necessarily sexual or reproductive ones, indicates Na'vi engage in sexual activity for fun (tho id caution on assuming their sexual functioning works exactly as humans do. We dont know if Neytiri and Jake had sexual intercourse just because we saw them connect queues, make love, and spoon. Whatever "sexual intercourse" looks like for Na'vi is not clear).

While flirting isnt inherently erotic, it does have erotic undertones and is a specifi type of tease than one directed at peers. Neytiri and Jake teased each other midflight riding their banshees and it was clearly flirtatious

These are introductions about their specific cultural expressions and taboos about sex and intimacy. But theres already so much we dont know and can only imagine before official confirmation in the upcoming canon lore in the sequels, comics and other Avatar media, including confirmation about Na'vi sexual anatomy and physiology.

Because we can speculate (and many already do about this very topic lol), I have been very curious about accurate Na'vi cultural expressions of sexuality and intimacy, and their sexual morphology since there are already many implications of it being explored in AWOW's theme surrounding maturation, family and love (including Na'vi pregnancy and puberty).

My main 3 curiosities particularly involve their "similar mechanics" of reproduction (compared to humans) and their social perceptions around expressing sexuality:

The specifics about the "similar mechanics" of Na'vi reproductive behaviors mentioned in the Survival Guide could be about physiology or anatomy or both. Im thinking both, and particularly thinking male Na'vi use their genitals to penetrate female genitals "similarly" to humans, and erotic sensation for them comes from stimulation of erogenous zones, including the genitals. Maybe theres something different and more creative abt their anatomy, like male gonads being entirely internal. Im curious about this point because of its implications on speculative biology and its explaintions on why Avatar clones have fully formed functional reproductive organs, let alone fecundity to reproduce with natives.

Na'vi reproductive anatomy is unclear and external portions are hidden behind opaque loincloths throughout the film. However, it is confirmed that Na'vi give live birth, yet are not placental mammals, and that already implies the reproductive anatomy of female Na'vi is similar to human females, with exception of the function of breasts. The morphology of Na'vi reproductive anatomy has relationship with their other body systems too, especially the digestive, urinary, and endocrine systems (assuming they have all of these lol). These relationships would explain cultural ideas about certain body functions, like where it is "acceptable" to relieve onesself and what functions are considered "embarassing" or neutral, which could be similar to humans as well. Such similarities could add relevant story elements to the teenage experiences of characters like Neteyam Lo'ak, Neteyam, and Tsireya (as well as parental experiences of Neytiri and Jake) as we see them mature emotionally thru trials and physically thru puberty (and their parents make descisions influenced by being parents and aging) that make any teenage and preteen movie goer (and parent) relate to the characters.

Na'vi slim and lean figures are rather homogenous, and what humans find attractive doesnt seem to translate well to their bodies, like the broadness and cleavage of breasts and buttocks, and various fat distibutions. But the Na'vi are similar to humans in that they are sexually dimorphic with similarly dimophic traits, where males have greater muscle mass, height, and broader shoulders, and females have a larger hip to waist ratio and more subtle features. So what does the deliberate design choice of Na'vi bodies say about what their cultures could communicate about sex and relationships? What parts of the body are "attractive" to Omaticaya biologically and culturally, and how is this expressed through clothing or music since the Omaticaya are known for their textile and music crafts?

I know its weird to discuss Na'vi sexual behavior lol. But theres already a precident of exploring this topic from the love scene between protagonists, and a love triangle between Jake, Neytiri, and Tsu'tey (and there may be more since even the casual watcher may wonder how alien sex works LMFAO). The complex world-building that Avatar established would sure not overlook the speculative biology of Na'vi reproductive mechanics, especially since the sequel film largely implicates the use of those reproductive mechanics to introduce new characters and possibly revist suggestive themes💀.

Anyway, what do you all think? Do you think AWOW will explain more about Na'vi biology, particularly their reproductive biology? Would it be relevant or interesting to the world-building? How do you think the physiology of the "similar mechanics" of reproduction of Homo Pandorus (Na'vi) compare and contrast to homo sapiens (humans)? Do you think AWOW will introduce lore about rituals involving courtship, mating, marriage, and relationships? Would knowing the "mechanics" of Na'vi reproduction explain the fecundity of Avatar clones, including RECOM clones, or are Jake and Neytiri's biological children being possible something youd have to suspend disbelief of to accept for the sake of the story (lmao)?

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Mike Ramsay

Published: Mar 7, 2024

Late last month, the public learned that the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) through its Equity, Anti-Racism & Anti-Oppression Department issued a teaching guide claiming the Canadian education system is “colonialist” and designed to uphold the dominant white culture. The document, entitled “Facilitating Critical Conversations,” specifies that “education is a colonial structure that centres whiteness and Eurocentricity and therefore it must be actively decolonized,” and “schooling in North America is inherently designed for the benefit of the dominant culture (i.e., white, middle-upper class, male, Christian, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, neurotypical, etc.)”. It adds that, “race matters—it is a visible and dominant identity factor determining people’s social, political, economic, and cultural experiences.”

While the school board has since temporarily removed the guide pending review after the Ontario Ministry of Education called it divisive, it is important that this thinking which has captured our school systems not be ignored. 

That this handbook was actually produced and distributed by the TDSB did not come as a shock to me, because, in my view, it is representative of what is taking place at other school boards right across Ontario. A reasonable question to ask is how all of this came about.

Having served as a trustee for 24 years, I would suggest it emerged because of the work of frontline activists who truly believe in their cause and that the system is stacked against racialized students. However, many others in leadership positions, who have other motives, simply see this as an opportunity to enrich themselves. They did this by pretending to address the activists’ perception of the issues.

As a Black trustee and past chair of a large school board (WRDSB), I often wondered what good could come from paying DEI consultants upwards of $500.00 an hour to teach kids that if they are white, the successes they experience are not due to personal effort. Meanwhile, racialized students are being taught that despite personal effort, their chances of success are diminished because society is racist and therefore biased against them.

The fact is that we have both white and racialized kids who are doing well academically. Conversely, we have white and racialized kids who are not doing so well. What I have found as a member of my board’s discipline committee is that the kids (from all backgrounds) who are not doing well usually have other issues that are at play, including, but not limited to significant behavioural issues that are impacting their ability to learn. However, you can’t tell this to the proponents of DEI, who have been busy organizing events to celebrate and take credit for the academic success of racialized students who I believe were, for the most part, never in danger of failing school in the first place. The credit should go to the parents and caregivers who worked and continue to work hard to encourage and support their children.

Thankfully, with the passing of each day, more and more people are beginning to question the need for school initiatives that are fixated on identity politics. They are coming to realize that certain aspects of DEI instruction can actually lead to greater prejudice and even harm, as highlighted in a recent study released by the Aristotle Foundation and authored by Professor David Haskell. 

Haskell’s report shows that DEI related to “anti-racism” education and its promotion of “white privilege” doesn’t make participants more sympathetic to disadvantaged Black people as DEI trainers claim, and can in fact make them more hostile toward poor white people.  

As he elaborates, “Teaching students about white privilege, a core component of the DEI curriculum, does not make them feel more compassion toward poor people of colour but can reduce sympathy [and] increase blame…for White people struggling with poverty.”

In light of Haskell’s overwhelming evidence, I feel school boards should be required to justify the expense and existence of DEI in their organizations. Moreover, if it is doing harm as his research shows, do we not have an obligation to use legislation to stop the practice immediately in our classrooms?

I would say we do. And that is why I agree wholeheartedly with parent Liz Galvin who recently told the Halton District School Board: “Trustees, when your equity and inclusion policies are used to generate administrative procedures by un-elected DEI proponents that contradict the aims and prescribed goals of said policy, then you have an obligation to insist that they be scrutinized, amended and or removed.” 

It seems straightforward, but the practice will not stop if it is left solely to the discretion of the Ontario NDP supporting majority which dominates most school boards.

This is where the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford comes in. Even though his government has made it clear through their 2023 Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act (Bill 98) that they want boards to be dead focused on tangible measurable learning achievement, rather than on faddish so-called “social justice” experiments, boards continue to double down on these DEI initiatives. I don’t know if the government is tiptoeing around the issue out of fear that the far-Left radicals entrenched in our education system will attack them. More and more parents and education workers from all backgrounds across our province are paying closer and closer attention to the damage being done. It is time for the Ford government to respond firmly and issue clear directives to boards to end these divisive practices.

==

You can tell it's a cult because they don't care about evidence.

The way to combat this is the same as combatting religion. You say, prove it. You're asking us to sink a tub of taxpayer money into your program. So, let's see your statistics. Let's see your before and after metrics. Let's see how you measured the success of your training program and the results. Let's see what we can expect for ourselves based on your success elsewhere.

They can't and won't. They'll instead morally brow-beat you with words like "white supremacy" and "danger" and "harm." Despite them making truth claims - that is, statements that are supposed to be taken as factually true - part of the scam is that they'll even claim that asking for this sort of evidence is itself part of the problem. This is the same tactic as a priest threatening you with hell to sell you salvation, or a salesman frightening you with murder and rape to sell you an alarm system.

At that point you say, so, no statistics, no metrics, no results, huh? And you invite them to leave.

[miyakuli]

Roadwarden

I'm a poor, lonesome roadwarden

I'm a long way from home. My footsteps have led me to this mysterious and dangerous peninsula. I've been asked to explore it to find out more about the locals, so that I could guarantee a commercial exchange with my customers. I only have a few days, and my future meetings and decisions will be decisive.

❤ The history of this region is truly rich. Each village has its own history, customs and beliefs, and even its own dialect. So each visit will therefore be enriching as the locals place their trust in me. Each of them has more or less stormy relations with their neighbors, and I'll do my best to manage any conflicts. But these lands also abound in places that are difficult to penetrate or hidden, so I'll need to be patient to reach them, and who knows, they may reveal new knowledge that will help me in my quests. So many things to discover! ❤ My past is my heritage and I decide my future plans for myself. My skills are my own. As for my social relationships, I'll decide in due course whether or not I'll adapt to the person in front of me. I'll make my own choices according to my own morality and circumstances, but I doubt that everyone will come out a winner in the end… even me. Who's to judge anyway? ❤ The landscape around me is minimalist but striking, and I enjoy observing the different architectures and admiring and fearing the nature that surrounds me. Certain things don't always appear in my field of vision, but I can easily imagine their outlines because they've been sufficiently described to me. ❤ Sometimes I close my eyes to appreciate the sounds around me; I can hear the wind blowing, the rivers flowing, my faithful steed grazing beside me, the cries of creatures in the distance keeping me alert…and sometimes silence, which is never a very good sign. I wonder if there isn't a traveling bard, because I often hear soft music above my head, often melancholy but very pleasant. I'm hoping to ease the tension in this place, so maybe next time I'll hear more festive music…

+/- I feel the weight of time passing, I have so little of it given all the tasks entrusted to me, and I have to evaluate for myself the shortest and most advantageous routes to achieve my ends. I've almost become a tactician. However, I regret my arrival in this region, where my physical condition and lack of wealth and adequate equipment, as well as my unfamiliarity with the area, made me waste precious time. It was very brutal and almost punishing. Of course, I could always come back some distant day and be ready to deal with it, but my first visit will always be the most memorable, and I'm sad to leave when I had one of the peninsula's biggest mysteries right at my fingertips. How frustrating. +/- I feel very free in my actions, which are not always dictated by intrusive thoughts. I can ask locals about places and people on my own, just by mentioning their names or sometimes even a simple description…but it seems that sometimes, my field of possibility is too wide to act, especially for people like me who don't master the local language. I don't necessarily have any clues, and my words and gestures will often have to be extremely precise, as any other alternative won't be accepted.

✖ My encounters were certainly significant, but I don't think I'll keep very fond memories of all these people. The atmosphere was always very austere, which I can understand given the tense situation in this region, but I didn't manage to get attached to many people. And even the friendships I made at the time seemed cold and distant. Only Eudocia managed to touch my heart, despite my solid armor, and she'll always have a place in my memories. I hope she's doing well. ✖ I've never been able to maintain a decent level of hygiene throughout my entire journey. As much for my hunger, my clothes and my magic, I always managed to find a good balance. But finding a place to bathe and sufficiently remove the grime from my body was a priori my nemesis. The locals often stared at me with disdain and I too often struggled to gain their trust because of my filthy appearance. I vowed never to set off on an adventure again without first buying a bar of soap! ✖ Even when I was very well armed and equipped, some monsters resisted me because a single choice could be fatal. Losing a big chunk of my armor just because I thought of dodging a monster rather than jumping on it, sometimes undermined my morale, and I admit to having used my "save" spell at times, which allowed me to relive my confrontation. And I don't like to go through all this for a single error of judgement. What's the point if not to strengthen my physical condition and my weaponry…

In the end, my short excursion didn't reveal all the peninsula's mysteries, and I left intrigued, wanting to see more, to learn more. At least my visit brought a little something positive, but unfortunately not for everyone. I'll certainly be back to revisit this faraway land, Over mountains and over prairies, From dawn 'til day is done, My horse and me keep riding, Into this settin' sun.

➡ My Steam page

[pessimisticgh0st]

HELLO AGAIN

i am once again bored and plaguing you with my awful existence to ask you dumb questions:

if you were to get into a war on twitter what would it be about? (the more specific and detailed of an answer you give the better)

very sorry that i do this and annoy you - aware that i mildly suck lol :)

ENJOY YOUR DAY GO OUT THERE AND BOTHER PEOPLE YOU DESERVE TO TAKE UP SPACE AS MY FUCKING AWESOME TUMBLR MUTUAL AND FRIEND :)

Hello again to you too

STOP BELITTLING YOURSELF. You will never plague me and your existence is the complete opposite of awful. I love talking to you and answering /asking you questions (I honestly need to start plaguing your inbox more, I'm truly sorry I haven't done it as often as I should).

That's a tough one... I think maybe something to do with the lack of sapphic rep in media? I don't know how much of a war it would be though, I just have a lot I could say about it.

Like I'm truly happy that mlm people have so much representation, but why must wlw people have to watch as decent sapphic shows get cancelled after one season? I'm not saying it should happen to mlm media, I just wish it was more equal. Why aren't there more sapphic books getting adapted into film and TV? Why are sapphic characters always getting overlooked in media or ignored? Why are there very little sapphic coming of age films? Why can't we see our experiences on screen too? Why is it that often in mainstream media sapphic characters are used just to check a box instead of actually developing the characters?

I feel the same for all identities to be honest - not just queer ones - because there is a severe lack of decent representation in the media, and it's fucking tiring at this point. Like it's 2024 for fuck sake but whenever there is representation for a minority group, it's just for the sake of representation rather than the people actually spending the time to enrich the characters and give them actual personality traits and it pisses me off intensely. But hey, instead they just continue to keep making remakes of things no one asked for, and repeating the same story lines that have been told a million times before when there are so many wonderful stories that haven't been told yet. (I'm aware each take on a plot will always be ultimately different, but realistically they all just copy off each other and blur into one because of repeatedly flat characters and dead dialogue).

To me it seems like most of the TV industry seem to be so scared of their show getting canned that they end up rushing character development and scenes so they end up ruining the plot entirely in the end which saddens me greatly.

Sorry for the rant, I don't know if it has the level of detail you were asking for but it was something, I guess.

And please don't apologise! You do not annoy me at all and you definitely don't suck. Thank you for asking me this :) but what about your answer @justquietcorners?

You're too kind, but thank you (though I didn't really do that much — I'm as social as a bloody rock). But please do the same, my fucking amazing tumblr mutual and friend :)

[gorgugplushie]

(paceplace) / honestly ttcc writing is very messy i agree. i love the game to bits and dissecting it but the flaws in it are as enriching to pick apart as it is frustrating to discover. it really, truly does break my heart that toons aren't as appreciated as the cogs and i wish there were toon characters you could focus on in the same way the mgrs are. the NPCs you meet along the taskline are charming and i adore every single one of them but as much as i personally like them i don't think its enough to capture people's attention in the broad sense.

irt my qualms w/ how ttcc handles its game i think one of the many main issues boils down to the fact that they're disorganized. their issue w/ how lore has been distributed has been addressed twice by the team itself iirc (once in th same tweet where they confirmed fire\\setter as canon and once in their writers backstage post from around a yr ago). their writers backstage post helped give a little more perspective on why the lore was scattered around Like That.

as all over the place as the lore is, i do feel it's important to mention that they said in their backstage writers post they plan on eventually migrating all of their social media comics to the website so things like the rain\\diver comic is very likely to still be canon they just haven't added it in yet. idk why they don't add it around the same time its posted on social media my guess is maybe they're still trying to organize all the lore or redo some of it since its so all over the place (a couple of the comics we have rn on their website that are considered canon has info that was technically retconned) but yeah. i have hope that the way they handle their lore and (hopefully!) their taskline when they get around to rewriting it will improve in the later updates. i try very hard to stay on top w/ clash's lore esp since i have ppl come to me w/ questions regarding clash's story, characters, etc. but sometimes it is Very headache-inducing so i sympathize w/ how confusing/frustrating it is to a casual player. or just any lore-enjoyer tbf. i swear on my life i almost went crazy trying to make a timeline with btl

anyways you don't have to answer this if you don't want (i gen. apologize for the wall of text i really tried to get straight to the point w/ what i'm saying. and even then there's still a lot i wanted to say) but i'm really glad to see discussions on it. oftentimes criticism gets mistaken for hate and it shuts the entire convo which Peeves me. even if w/e's being criticized turns out to fall flat its better to address or talk about it than it is to not, imo.

Yes, exactly! I agree with all the points you've made here.

It's so strange to me that ttcc doesn't really lean into more how the cogs affect the toons, or toon society for all that matter, its a wonder people are so baised with cogs because we really dont get anything about toons. Their less part of the game and more set peices for this war, which sucks!

Theres obviously alot more room to write about toon lore and it would be easier to implement it in game, yet it gets brushed aside to further characterize the cogs and thats sad bc alot of the toons are cute and unique! Ttcc has great toon designs!

I also have to agree with the way the lore is handled, id even go as far to say big updates themsleves are handled in a frankly. Unprofessional manner. I mean, compare the update live streams done in jokey powerpoint slides to ttrs panles where they talk about progress on the updates. We really get little to no inside information until it's already ready to drop. Sure the game updates more regularly but all these updates are starting to feel like filler and padding. I at least can hope that hammerspace and mix and match at least come with some toon lore?

Its a shame that alot of what drew me into this game ends up weighing it down : (

Also yeah lol i didnt main tag this for a reason i do want to keep the discussion open! But all great points!

[penofdamocles]

How have you really been doing lately?

I was going to ask why I get questions like this like I'm actively covering up a negative state of being but I /have/ done that dozens of times in the past haven't I. Well, good news, this time I'm doing great for real, I have a lot of hobbies right now, some recent creations I'm very proud of, new and colorful places to spend time, a loving family, 2 wonderful boyfriends, and all the love, support, and enrichment they offer daily that I'm so grateful for. Cookie has really helped me grow over the past few months, it's a lot easier to tolerate myself and stay active when he's excited for everything I am and pulls me from thing to thing all through the day, he's actually helped me fully break my habit of turning off, which is a huge step toward better coping mechanisms and stuff. I'm deeply in love, feel deeply loved, and he kissed me /first/ which is a huge self-esteem boost on its own. I know I've been a bit isolated but it hasn't been like it usually is, I have company every day and a world around me to contribute to again so I've been pretty distracted from Tumblr for good reasons. But I've missed people here! And my therapist says I need to reach out to my social circles more. So all in all I might be in the best place I've ever been? The empty place in my soul is so full. I just need to fill in the last few gaps I've left untouched and maybe I'll even be a stable, functional person soon.

[creative-anchorage]

As a digital migrant rather than a native, I remember how amazing it felt to stumble my way around the internet in the 90s and early 00s, uncovering its unexpected nooks and crannies with astonishment and delight; it was an exciting and genuinely joyful time. Now I watch other people shout at each other, assailed by news of catastrophes and bombarded with adverts for horrible trousers and cryptocurrency for the further enrichment of billionaires. I scroll, jaded, trying to recapture that sense of wonder I used to feel. Thankfully, there are still off-the-beaten-path pockets of astonishment out there and I thought it might be nice to gather some of them together. So, here is a selection of online things I love, and that other people I asked love – old and new stuff that is fascinating, beautiful, edifying and, above all, fun. Maybe one or two of them might give you a bit of internet joy back, too.

Dogs in Elk

Do me a favour: Google “dogs in elk”. Perhaps one day this post on a long-defunct forum will vanish into the ether, or perhaps it’s sufficiently beloved to survive, but either way you need this hilarious shaggy (bloody) dog story in your life. It was written by Anne, whose dogs discovered an elk carcass, got inside it and refused to leave. Anne and I once exchanged emails, so I can assure you that she exists and that this really happened.

The Fish Doorbell

There is a dam in the Netherlands where migrating fish get stuck, since it rarely opens in spring. The solution: an underwater camera linked to a website where viewers can press a button when they spot fish. That notifies the lock operator, who can open it up and let the fish go on their way. Ooh, I have just seen two! Press the button!

@crescentshay

Shay Rose is an effervescent and endlessly inventive costume-maker who shares her projects on Instagram. Nothing is too bonkers for her: a “social distancing” dress that enveloped her in a 3.7 metre (12ft) circle of pink tulle, anime cosplay or a fancy-dress costume that turned her into a perfect lifesize version of one of those stocking-filler wiggly worms on a string.

Strange Flowers

In his Wordpress cabinet of human curiosities, the Australian academic James Conway writes potted biographies of daring, transgressive, dangerous-to-know eccentrics of the past 200 years. Choose at random and you are unlikely to be disappointed, but how about Violette Murat, the fin de siècle lesbian who kept a decommissioned submarine in which to smoke opium, or Marchesa Casati, who, naked beneath her fur coat, wore a necklace of live snakes and paraded a cheetah on a lead?

Radiooooo

Pick a country from the world map, pick a decade and Radiooooo plays you music from that time and place (refined to slow, fast or “weird”, if you want to be more specific). I am writing this to a soundtrack of 1960s Morocco and feeling more cosmopolitan than I have any right to: “Oh, you’re not familiar with Abdelwahab Agoumi? You should check him out.” More seriously, Radiooooo gives you that expansive feeling that the world is vast, various and infinitely creative. That’s nice.

Crime Pays, But Botany Doesn’t

This YouTube channel describes itself as “a low-brow, crass approach to plant ecology & evolution as muttered by a misanthropic Chicago Italian”. A gruff botanist called Tony tells you about esoteric plants, and it is exceptionally soothing.

Kottke

Sifting through the internet to provide a miscellany of interesting stuff is a real talent; Jason Kottke’s magpie eye has been reliably curating interesting stuff – short, long, funny, serious, totally out-there – since 1998. Recent highlights include the best visual illusions of the year competition, Japan’s decorated manhole covers and stunning photos of the Milky Way.

Weird Medieval Guys

Check out the titles of some of these Substack posts by the historian Olivia Swarthout and tell me you don’t want to read more: “What does a biblically accurate angel look like?”; “No, the king doesn’t own all the swans in Britain”; “Do you have less free time than a medieval peasant?” Clickbait, but medieval (and highly informative).

Mimi Smartypants

The consistently hilarious Chicago-based medical publisher Mimi Smartypants has been blogging since the internet was just fields of billowing unspoilt html and her riffs on whatever amuses or outrages her – public transport encounters and the general absurdity of life – are endlessly delightful. Her newest entry describing the deficiencies of linen sheets made me laugh out loud (“Would you like to take a nap on Nan Pierce?”).

Sandwiches of History

An American man called Barry delves into old recipe books and then taste-tests the sandwiches he finds in them on YouTube. They are usually an affront to God and man (ironed bread and mushroom soup, condensed milk, flour, egg and vinegar) but Barry gives each one a fair go and a generous assessment. We should all be more Barry.

Closer to Van Eyck

This incredible site is dedicated to Jan van Eyck’s much-stolen Ghent Altarpiece, featuring the 15th-century Flemish master’s deeply weird Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. Zoom in on every brushstroke and piece of craquelure, check out the X-ray and infrared imaging, delve deep into the strange history and iconography and pretend you are one of the posh experts on Fake or Fortune … hours of fun.

My80stv

Whatever year you are nostalgic for, scratch the itch here with a compendium of TV clips that you can channel-hop through as if you were watching telly in, say, 1989. It is very US-centric, but it gives me the time-travel feeling I crave. Other decade versions are also available.

David Rumsey’s Map Collection

Cartography enthusiast David Rumsey has put his entire collection of more than 150,000 maps online, from 16th to 21st century, terrestrial, maritime and celestial. It is the perfect place to get lost (sorry).

Found in a Library Book

The Oakland public library uploads the things people leave behind in library books (usually as bookmarks) to its website: it is a gripping, often touching collection of photos, drawings, sugar packets, letters, shopping lists and more.

Marine Traffic

There are a mind-boggling number of ships in the world and on this site you can watch them going about their business. They are colour-coded by type (cargo vessels, tankers, fishing boats) and you can find out where they have come from and where they are going.

Laura Ramoso

There is a lot of so-so observational comedy on the internet but Laura Ramoso’s Instagram and TikTok imitations of her German mother and Italian father have the ring of extremely funny truth.

The National Grid Live

Hear me out: this site lets you see how much power is being generated from different sources – watch as solar rises on a sunny day – and how much Great Britain is importing and exporting. It is weirdly compelling.

Tradle

Guess a place based on its exports: you get six chances, narrowing it down, thanks to information on how far off each wrong guess was. Warning: they are not all countries despite the game description: 77.3% “processed crustaceans” and 0.4% compasses is Saint Pierre et Miquelon, one of France’s semi-autonomous “overseas collectivities”. Nerdy but entertaining.

Forvo

A guide to pronouncing anything, including proper nouns and names in any language, Forvo has the power to save you significant embarrassment.

Lightning Maps

Follow storms erupting in real time. Yellow dots represent lightning strikes, and a white expanding circle shows the thunder sound movement. This is good for impressing kids, says a friend, because, like an omniscient weather god, you can “predict” when thunder is about to erupt.

Useless Farm

Karen the murderous emu, Brad, a furious fluffball cockerel, and several dopey alpacas live on this Canadian smallholding absolutely failing to earn their keep, other than on TikTok and Instagram. This kind of stuff can swiftly become annoying or samey, but useless animal wrangler Amanda has funny bones, and pretty much everything she posts is entertaining.

Messy Nessy Chic

I have no idea how Vanessa Grall comes up with the cabinet of art, design, fashion and historical wonders that have filled her website for the past 12 years; I just know she has better taste than I ever will. Dip in for the likes of a guide to Swedish islands, intimate Victorian portraiture by a viscountess or 1920s matchboxes.

Ridella

For Wordle addicts hungry for more once-daily stimulation, this site offers a riddle – the kind of thing a troll would make you solve to cross a bridge – one line at a time.

@dusttodigital

This Instagram music account is a celebration of the human desire to make sound in all its lovely diversity, from virtuoso to amateur and everything in between. I especially love the posts that showcase videos people send in of music they have encountered across the world, in the streets, in classrooms, rehearsal halls, fields …

Global Wind and Wave Patterns

You don’t have to have a clue what is going on to enjoy this site that lets you watch mesmerising animations of wind, wave and current patterns wherever you like on the globe.

The Worst Cat

This is a single-joke site – the joke being criticising baby hippos for being moist, ugly, frequently straw-covered cats – and has not been updated for years, but returning to it, I still laughed, again and again. It might work for you, too.

My Noise

My Noise feels like a gift to a fractious world: your choice of hundreds of customisable soundscapes, based on your needs (focus, sleep, stress, “pet comfort” and many more). There is an incredible variety – everything from “calm office”, to “European primeval forest” – and you can play around and mix your own blend based on whatever elements work best for you. My husband has found “rice field” with extra cicadas provides real relief from his tinnitus.

The Marginalian

The site formerly known as Brainpickings is a compendium of philosophy, poetry, visual arts, literature and other mediations on the business of being alive, collated by the author Maria Popova. Recently, I enjoyed 19th-century naturalist Jean-Baptiste Vérany’s chromographs of octopuses and Magritte’s exhortation to celebrate “joy for the eyes and the mind”.

One Zoom

Pick an animal, plant, or other living organism and, via this site, explore visually how it fits into the tree of life. Mesmerising.

Listen to the Clouds

On this dreamily weird site you can listen to live air traffic control chatter from a variety of airports across the world, against a background of ambient sound.

Library of Congress

The US Library of Congress has digitised big chunks of its collection – incredible photographs and early daguerrotypes, baseball cards, cartoons, maps and historical documents. It is overwhelming, but brilliant for a lunchtime browse.

How Many People Are in Space Right Now?

This site does exactly what it says on the tin (with details of who they are and a link to their Wikipedia page).

GeoGuessr

This quiz gives you a picture of somewhere and you have to put it on a map accurately. For an additional layer of complexity, try TimeGuessr, which asks you to identify the correct year as well as place for a photograph. I have just narrowed down a pic of an Edinburgh festival street performer to within 163 metres, but my guess of 2013 was four years out. Curses! Play again.

Martin Critchlow

The TikTok adventures of a scaffolder from King’s Lynn and his tiny mouse, Mr Jingles (the successor to Mrs Jingles, sadly deceased of natural causes). Mr Jingles really likes prawn crackers; Mr Critchlow really likes tiny harvest mice, I guess. Wholesome.

Explore webcams

There are an overwhelming number of wonderful wildlife cams out there but, for a sure bet, head to the “featured” camera on the Explore homepage. I just got bald eagles feeding their chicks, which proved very unhelpful for finishing this article.

The Lucyverse

I am torn about including writer Lucy Sweet’s brilliant newsletter because I’m sure she will end up getting my job, but I can’t in all conscience leave it out. Sweet reviews stuff: herbal teas, B&Q, Soreen mini loaves, Christmas decorations she finds in Home Bargains. The magic is in her forensically accurate skewerings. A taster: “Ugh, the Toast catalogue … Like a Guardian article on the dangers of foraging.” If you sign up, the newsletter arrives every Monday morning precisely when you most need a laugh.

If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel

Space is terrifying – my tiny medieval peasant mind can’t begin to comprehend its vastness. This site, which describes itself as “a tediously accurate scale model of the solar system” is such a good way to understand the vastness, through scrolling – something I am very good at – with manageable little nuggets of info along the way.

Mondo Mascots

Japan’s mascot culture is a repository of intense oddness, and the British writer and illustrator Chris Carlier gives an enthusiastic account of them on his site (in more detail than on his laconic and equally unmissable Twitter account @mondomascots). Discover, among others, an extinct river otter with a bowl of noodles as a hat that represents Susaki City, an “armless, dancing character based an ancient roof tile” or “Colon-chan, an intestine-haired lady who encourages colon cancer screenings”.

Post Secret

Post Secret predated Fesshole, the popular Twitter feed where people confess their sins anonymously and receive internet absolution or condemnation (more likely both). It is a combination of confessional and art project, since contributors send in their contributions on a postcard, sometimes elaborately decorated. “The day I leave this city I’m asking Tim for a kiss”; “Somebody else’s 23andMe DNA test destroyed my life”: each one is a baby-shoes-length short story.

Wikiloc

Wherever you are in the world, find a user-tested walk or cycle route. You can filter for distance, difficulty and for circular walks only. It has taken me to some spectacular spots (and trudging along a few A-roads, too, but that is mainly my incompetence).

Kingdom of Loathing

I don’t really understand what is going on in this long-running gentle, funny game full of stick people yet, but on my first try, I apparently gained “the patience of a tortoise” and a “liver popsicle”. Tell me more.

The Deep Sea

Scroll down, down, down this metre-by metre graphic of the sea and discover all the weird stuff that lives at various levels, with cool facts along the way. It is a good site for a “tag yourself” game with the creatures you encounter: I think I’m a headless chicken fish.

The Met’s Artist Project

Take a couple of minutes to watch a contemporary artist react to pieces in the Metropolitan Museum’s incredibly eclectic collection. Edmund de Waal reflects on why a 500-year-old Chinese jug was left white and Kehinde Wiley discusses class in John Singer Sargent’s portraiture. There are 120 entries in total.

@museumoflostmemories

There’s something really poignant about this Instagram account, which seeks to reunite photos found in junk shops and flea markets with their subjects (or subjects’ descendants): so many forgotten smiles and poses. The hit rate is low, but if you click “Returned!” you can enjoy some really satisfying success stories.

Antipodes Map

A simple site to answer that perennial question: where would you end up if you tunnelled right through the Earth and came out the other side?

Kids Favourite Jams By Their Dads’ Favourite Bands

On TikTok, songwriter Kevin Scott Rhoads spins a wheel to choose a band (Mumford & Sons, Bon Iver, The National) and a nursery rhyme and then produces pitch-perfect parodies. I particularly enjoyed Baby Shark in the style of Radiohead.

xkcd

I don’t understand all of Randall Munroe’s often science and tech-themed stick-figure web comic (Munroe is a physicist who worked for Nasa), but the bits I do get tend to be clever and very funny.

Things Magazine

This densely packed, very plainly formatted compendium of links to interesting things was created by a group of writers and historians with an interest in objects and what they tell us about the world. That doesn’t exactly narrow their remit and it can feel overwhelming, but there is so much delight and interest packed into every post. The newest one has links to a playlist of classic tracks from 1994, royal doppelgangers and a Museum of Failure. Just let your eye wander and alight on whatever link catches your attention, you won’t be disappointed.

Surprised Eel Historian

You may never have thought “I’d like to know more about the history of eels”, but that was a mistake, as this Twitter account full of fascinating eel facts demonstrates.

Owl in a Box

I had to include this, the OG of internet angry birds. There is not much to it: six photographs of a great horned owl found by the side of the road, absolutely furious to be rescued. The photos, in which only one giant yellow eye is visible, glaring balefully through the flap of a cardboard box, make all the years I have wasted on the internet worthwhile. Sort of.

[itchyeye]

aaaaaa yes all good thoughts! see a lot of my thoughts re: the stranger had more to do with how it seemed too material and reliant on physical stuff. the spiral had a literal endless maze, but also had people's lives falling to delusion. the web had literal spiders, but also had the concept of control and all that. so even if you aren't scared of the more obvious manifestations, you still have the chance to be disturbed by the more abstract ideas.

but the stranger (as delightful as its monsters are, i love nikola and breekon and hope etc etc, they just don't feel as clever) relies so heavily on the idea that the listener MUST be scared of dolls or taxidermy or automatons, meanwhile i love all those things! and ive had plenty of nightmares involving the uncanny valley or identity, and concepts like the mandela catalogue scare the shit out of me. but tma never seemed to get to the core of why that stuff is freaky, just "hey wouldn't be fucked up if this happened?"

and like you said, they didn't seem to put much care into why a person would worship the stranger, which is strange (ha) to me because the options feel so obvious? i've met plenty of people who are so concerned with maintaining appearances (not in the Flesh way, in the social way) that they construct false identities and roles to play for themselves, and that seems fitting. idk! something !!

and they could've played with what identity Means more - in a story where so many characters are struggling with the line between humans and monsters, it would've been interesting to have manifestations of the stranger where you're left wondering if the spooky entity is actually a person or not (whether that be through not trusting the statement giver to be a reliable narrator, or through the question of What Is A Person? itself)

idk im sort of rambling jfc i didnt mean for this ask to be so long sorry but yes woo there r my thoughts i do not have many tma friends so i am deprived of enrichment

but tma never seemed to get to the core of why that stuff is freaky, just "hey wouldn't be fucked up if this happened?"

YES!! i think a great example of how this falls flat is the desolation, actually! because all of the follower's of the people's church of the divine host are made of wax

they are no longer human, their physical being is made of boiling, moldable wax

that seems like it should be a stranger thing, right? they're literally wax works, the unknowing took place in a waxwork museum and the dancers were all waxworks

but the difference is exactly what you've just said. the desolation's followers actually aren't scary because they're made of wax. them being made of wax is so far down the list of why they're scary i literally forget that it's true most of the time. whereas:

the waxworks at the museum are just scary... because they're waxworks. weird ones tho.

(as delightful as its monsters are, i love nikola and breekon and hope etc etc, they just don't feel as clever)

this is really really it!! the stranger's monsters just don't feel as clever

i really like your idea about someone worshiping the stranger because they're so image obsessed!! i would love to hear more about that. i think that would make a very interesting acolyte.

also i was thinking about this last night and i think part of what makes the stranger feel so vast (ha) and disorganized is that fear of the unknown is a fundamental building block of every single one of the fears

the whole point of all the entities is that they take things that are pretty innocuous (wasp nests, ant infestations, garden spiders, tall buildings, stairwells, hallways, security cameras) and turn them into something vile

the characteristic of "the unkown" or "the unfamiliar" is impossible to localize under one entity

also, understandably it took a while to establish all the mechanics of like what a ritual is, how it can be stopped, why people would want it to happen, etc

but it took the gang two full seasons and several major character deaths to stop the unknowing, while the black sun was solved off screen between episodes

and like yes of course like gertrude would be better at finding and stopping rituals because she has 50 years of experience! and yes it gets easier to find and stop rituals as you keep going. but the balance of the story pacing just feels weird, y'know?

this isn't the only time that i feel like tma does a massive amount of build up for a whole lot of nothing but it's up there

[paperstorm]

I really appreciate all of the links and information in that post you reblogged about the Israeli prison/detainment policies/abuses (not sure the best wording for all of that horror tbh)… but the OP post of that talking about the condition of hostages vs prisoners released doesn’t make sense to me at all. Are they saying the hostages released are supposed to be some kind of reflection of being treated well during captivity? cause I’ve read about a hostage who was shot multiple times and needed surgery, another on the brink of death because of lack of medication, a 12 year old boy who said he was beat by residents, another child being forced to watch footage, etc. I don’t understand why we can’t acknowledge the absolute horrors Israel is committing while also not trying to turn Hamas into angelic freedom fighters with the purest of morals. Things like this make it really hard for me to reblog or share stuff on social media cause I can agree with 95% of the information but then I’ll realize “oh that link hidden in this post actually goes to an alt right neo nazi website” or “oh snuck in the middle of this really great article is the most glaring of antisemitic rhetoric”… anyway, I’m sorry for the rant here I’m just… exhausted. By the world and also sometimes by my fellow pro Palestinian advocates.

I am also exhausted by it sometimes, and not immune to getting swept up in the emotions of all of this as much as I'm trying to stay reasonable. I agree the way OP worded the original post was not ideal, if it had been just that without the longer and well-sourced reply I don't think I would have reblogged it. Because you're right, criticism of Israel can't devolve into acting like Hamas by default is an amazing upstanding moral organization. That's kindergarten nonsense, this need to have a well defined Good Guy and Bad Guy in every situation. Adults should be capable of more nuance than that, and it's really frustrating to see that so many aren't.

I think for me - because I don't know the intentions of that other person and can't speak for them - posts like that are not about saying 'wow look how wonderful Hamas is'. They are about the more zoomed-out task of challenging the Western/Imperial narrative that Israel isn't doing anything wrong. The 'right to defend itself' narrative, that is just blatant nonsense under international law. The narrative that when Hamas does something it's terrorism but when the state of Israel does the same thing (or, usually, a far worse version of the same thing), it's not. The narrative that Israel is the moral authority who is following international law to the best of their ability, is trying to minimize civilian casualties, is only going after Hamas, has no choice but to bomb hospitals because there is no other way to protect their own citizens. It's not for me about saying that just because Israel is bad, Hamas is automatically good. It's about acknowledging that for literal decades, the broadcasters of the Western narrative (governments in America/Canada/UK, corporate owned media companies like CNN and MSNBC, etc) have been just blatantly lying, propagandizing, and selectively presenting partial or twisted information, all in service of empire and money and colonization and the enrichment of defense contractors. Joe Biden said, years ago, (paraphrasing because I can't remember the exact quote) "If Israel didn't exist, America would have to invent an Israel to protect it's interests in the region."

I don't know if that makes sense, I hope it does. For me it's about .. yes, push back against people who are trying to make this a binary situation in which Israel is Bad therefore Hamas is Good. But also seeing more value in a more zoomed out perspective that is meant to challenge extremely pervasive and genocidal Western narratives that have gone largely unchallenged for the entire history of the region. Sometimes you do get there by drawing equivalencies. By asking "wait a second, why does Israel have thousands of Palestinian hostages in the first place and why does no one in power seem to think that's a problem?"

[icarusalatus]

Zhongxiao fic idea scribble

(furiously written in one burst when the idea took over my mind some time ago - sorry that it is not necessarily coherent, especially the second half. also i'm pretty sure (certain) that the idea of small bird/finch!Xiao in my brain was planted there by @stormy-seasons' fic, of which i highly recommend all. i do apologize for lifting that and running with it. i desperately love your work)

context:

xiao goes missing-highly-presumed-dead at some point between genshin timeline and "modern" time. like its not even missing really his fate is so clearly ended.

this idea starts in modern times; zhongli is still alive still among the people but the time of gods has given way to technology and the history of old teyvat is now regarded only as legend by most, so its pretty heavily just modern au with the caveat that zhongli is still rex lapis and still remembers.

zhongli pov

zhongli has a good, well-paying job, dresses nicely in his formal fashion that's now seen as eccentric at best and antiquated at worst, seems by all accounts very put together and proper but the truth is that he still has a soft heart.

and one day he finds an injured little finch right outside of his apartment.

humans who know him now might think he wouldnt care, or dont know him well enough to realize how soft he is inside, but he picks up this little finch, and decides to nurse it back to health himself.

a big contributing factor to this being that when he first saw the finch on his doorstep, he was absolutely stricken because it reminded him so heavily of xiao, this little bird. it looked almost exactly like xiao's bird form. Xiao's been dead for at least a century at this point so its a bittersweet likeness, but it still tugs zhongli's heartstrings into tender action.

so zhongli takes this bird in and takes care of it. it has some difficult injury, like a broken leg or broken wing, and zhongli wonders if it would be kinder to put the bird out of its misery instead of tending to it and encouraging it to live like this. needless to say, the parallel is SO STRONG.

all the while zhongli is thinking about xiao, maybe telling the little bird stories about xiao and gently rubbing its head or feathered chest and saying you look just like him, you know?

the bird is part of his routine at this point, like after he took it to get checked out by a wildlife expert and it got a teeny little gauze wrap around the broken appendage, he takes it to work with him (maybe he works in a museum) to keep an eye on it, since it cant fly away and he doesnt want to leave it at home alone, and then when it starts being able to fly a little more he leaves it at home in a spare room that he decks out with enrichment so it's safe but not caged.

one day someone at work asks, "How's your little bird?" and he's ripped back several millennia to when Azhdaha asked him that same exact question, in reference to Xiao, and it hurts.

zhongli has made peace with xiao's death, but it will never not ache.

zhongli doesnt have many friends left, to be quite honest. xiao isn't the only adeptus to have left the world since the events of The Traveler, and of course, human mortals are defined by their mortality.

he has tried to keep afloat, to find more connections in the sea of ever-increasing population in teyvat, but the people are less social now, or social in ways that zhongli just isn't. he has acquaintances, but no one really knows him anymore. even the other gods have slipped into obscurity in time, and though some nations remain more religious than others, it's not easy to find another god masquerading as human in a world of billions of humans. the largest needle in a haystack. if theyre even still alive at all.

so this little finch may just be the only real connection he has. even when it seems fully healed, he's reluctant to admit to himself that maybe it's time for the little bird to go, and he finds any excuse to keep it for just a little while longer, just one more week for observation, just a few more weeks to quarantine.

in his defense, the little bird seems to love him, it will come sit close to him even when he's doing nothing, it will chirp back at him when he talks to it, it will sing in its room even when he's not there, it rushes to be near him when he comes home from work. it doesnt seem distressed to be kept in his apartment at all, but.. maybe it is, and he just can't read its little mind.

eventually, he has to let it go. he has to.

he can't bear the idea of abandoning it in the park or anything, so he just. he starts leaving the windows open. opens the door for the finch if it goes near.

it seems interested in the change - it will stare at the door when zhongli opens it… but then it will hop back around and go to the kitchen or the living room and settle there instead. In fact, it happens so much that zhongli starts to think it just doesn't care for the outside world at all. he stops opening the door for it when it starts just staring at him until he closes it, and begins coming around to the idea of keeping it, properly, as... not as a pet, but as a little house companion. he still leaves the windows open in case he's wrong, but some of the heartache settles away.

until one day he wakes up, and the little bird is gone.

zhongli has this pit of dread in his stomach as he searches the house, in denial even as every room comes up emptier than the last, and its a horrible fucking parallel to those exhausting months turned lingering years when he overturned every fucking rock and cave in liyue looking for xiao all those centuries ago, and coming up with nothing, not even an elemental trace of him. and this is only an apartment. he doesn't even have time to come to terms with it while he's doing it this time.

when he's done looking, he just sits on the floor with one of the bird's toys in his hands and cries. mourns all at once. his only true connection in the world, the joy he felt every time the bird wiggled around in his hands to be petted, and, if he's honest with himself, xiao. he was still rex lapis when xiao passed away, he had his duties to attend, even after he retired, a whole nation to keep an eye on, paired with the denial of what actually happened to xiao, years of searching and not admitting... eventually he let himself acknowledge the absence left in xiao's wake, but told himself that it was inevitable, and at least xiao wasn't suffering anymore. he never let himself grieve the memories, not like he was doing for the bird now, and all of his pain, accumulated over thousands of years, never allowed to take a moment to come out like this, pours out all at once. he cries for days. until he feels hollow, like he's cried out everything inside of him.

eventually, zhongli pulls himself back together again. or at least, enough to get up off the floor and make himself some tea. he doesnt physically age, but he's sure that seven thousand years of tears' worth of dehydration did not help.

he sits at his dining room table and drinks his tea (painful in its own way, but at least no one makes osmanthus wine anymore). when he finishes the pot, he makes another, and returns the emails from the museum asking where he is, apologizing for the absence without warning, and telling them, not untruthfully, that he has been through a few chronically life-altering losses. he doesnt tell them that those have been spread out over the last seven thousand years. it is simply not their business.

one of his coworkers, who was CC'd on the email, emails him separately to offer her condolences and ask if she can bring him any food he likes, or anything else he needs. he's almost taken aback by the kindness, and his husk of a heart warms infinitesimally. maybe new connections in this age aren't so unattainable for him, after all

he asks, with watery eyes that he wont keep from spilling over if they so desire, not this time, if she knows how to make almond tofu.

she says to give her his address and she'll have it over for him as fast as her hands can make it, and zhongli does. his heart doesn't have the healing powers that his body does, but this is a start. the first step.

he holds the finch's toy as he waits, tries not to look at it because that wound is still so fresh, but is comforted by it.

the doorbell shakes him out of his thoughts. it comes sooner than he would have expected, but he must have been more wrapped up in his thoughts than he realized. he goes to the door, pulls it open-

and it's xiao.

it takes zhongli a moment to react. xiao is wearing black clothes that don't fit him, so in contrast to the only outfit zhongli ever saw him wear that zhongli considers that his brain might be broken. it might not be xiao, he just spent so much time with a finch that looked exactly like him, clearly it wasn't impossible for xiao to have a human doppelganger too.

except, he just spent so much time. so much time, thinking about xiao, talking about him to the bird, his posture, his mannerisms, what he looked like.

He worries that he might be hallucinating, then. there's a first time for everything. but he doesn't think he would have hallucinated xiao in clothes he'd never seen him wear. he doesn't even have shoes on. it's. it must be…

and then xiao reaches out, touches his shoulder. and it's real. it's real.

zhongli falls to his knees

xiao's pov

when xiao went missing, the truth was that he never actually left. that's why no one could find him, and no one ever found his body.

he was out doing his usual patrols, trying to stay out of the way of humans, when his karmic debt flared in a way it had never done before. scorched him from the inside out. whether it was an evil in the soil underneath him rising up and reacting with his soul like toxic fumes, or one step too many for fate to allow. one second he was fine. and then he was on the ground, gasping.

he was no stranger to pain, physical or karmic, but this was something entirely... entire. like a wick accustomed to the burning of a teardrop of flame finding out that the fire of a candle is nothing compared to a razing, unpredictable forest fire.

he knew what happened to the others, and now, what was happening to him. his only thought was that he didn't want to hurt anybody, when he lost control. so, with his dying breath, he reached out to find the power in his debt. if it were powerless, it couldn't hurt him. so he reached out, and leeched its energy castoffs, and brought them inside. manifested his wish: to become, in his entirety, small. breakable. in case he lived and lost himself to madness after this. let him be easy to kill. even for the humans. his own bird form drifts in the back of his mind's eye. and then even that goes dark

thoughts as a bird come often but are not easily kept. they escape quickly, most thoughts, like wind past wings. it's years before the bird even realizes it has thoughts at all. that it has memories. bird didn't used to be bird. wings once, then not for a long time. many memories as not-bird, but unfamiliar. and then dark, long time. then light. not-bird when first dark, bird before light.

slowly, over the years, the thoughts become longer. they mix thought and memory. more people now. people-place bigger. less not-people creatures. people look different. birds look different too. bird changes to look like other birds. new animals. metal animals. make dark. dark like before, comes from metal animals. burns. don't fly through dark. metal animals always change. metal animals colorful now. now, not before. people-place loud. scary. scary.

for years and years, the people-places get bigger and bigger. it never stops. it wants to stay away, to be safe, but bird has no home. bird has no nest. never had home, even when not-bird.

eventually, when the people-place is less dark all over, the bird goes there. it senses something there, deep inside. something... closer to home. it wants home.

it doesnt want to fly anymore.

and then, suddenly, it can’t.

wing hurt. ow. ow. hurt. hurt. find home. find safe. in its pain, it can only follow instinct. it senses warm, here, in people-place. senses something familiar. it tries to fly, and when it can't bear it anymore, it hops. closer and closer to where its instincts pull and assure warmth and safety. it knows things, it remembers things. windows are like air but hard. not safe. don't fly. doors open and lead to rooms. it is overwhelmed by not-quite-memories. and then warm is close. warm is so close so so close warm warm safe where is safe-warm?

and then the door opens, and it is a people. safe-warm is a people, bird remembers! this people!

the people observes it as it falls over trying to hop closer, tries to right itself with one wing. the people gently picks it up with- arms! bird used to have those. it shakes out its feathers and looks up when the people lifts it closer to its face, and the bird nearly falls out of the people's hands when it sees because that people! it remembers that people from its not-bird memories ! that face is the best thing that ever happened to it!

That people- no, that- that isn't right. this is not a people. this is. is. world. skies and clouds and sun and nest and . and . hope. trust. everything. Everything is looking at bird with wide eyes. it must recognize bird! bird wiggles in Everything's hands, or tries to, until its wing bends bad and it wails a pained peep. Everything frowns - no! - and draws it up closer to its face - yes! - to look at its wing. Bird settles in Everything's palms. Everything will take care of it.

Bird puffs its chest when Everything strokes its feathers. attention! from Everything!

Everything chirps something, something with- with people sounds that bird knows but doesn't understand. but it's so, so familiar. someday, bird thinks, in its bird-thoughts, with bird-words, bird will understand what You look just like him means.

Xiao does understand, now. he picked apart every speaking bird-memory when he... is "woke up" the right term? He doesnt even know how he did it. one moment he was sitting in someone's backyard, lost and alone and scared, and the next he was glad that humans still hung their laundry out to dry in... what year was it? Anyway, he doesn't know if Zhongli wants to talk about it. Those words weren't meant for him, anyway. Or, they were, because the finch was still him, but not for. someone with context.

Zhongli had let him in, so at least he's not angry. That thought feels weird in Xiao's head after hearing so much about himself through Zhongli's own perspective, as the finch being told stories of himself. of course Zhongli’s not mad. but he is staring at xiao unblinkingly like he has been for the last few hours, pausing only once to answer the door when the sound of a bell played and returning with Almond Tofu in a strange flexible glass box with a purple lid. Zhongli clearly didnt know he was coming back, or who he even was, so that raises many questions.

he's been answering zhongli's questions since he got in the door, but it's still shocking to get an answer to some of his own.

"I was thinking about you," zhongli says, like it doesnt make xiao's heart tremble in his chest.

zhongli admits to xiao that he might have been a factor in xiao's return to human form, because once he came to terms with the fact that the finch was gone, he may have sent some of his power out to ensure that it would be good and safe and happy and free and he must have put enough out to dissolve the karma-binding to the finch form xiao had manifested all those centuries ago.

but that wouldnt have been possible without xiao's own intrinsic power and energy slowly leaking out and dissipating most of the karmic debt in the centuries he was just a bird, who needed less of his own power to stay alive and who wasn't constantly accruing more and more debt.

the debt that has finally been paid, it seems. there are traces of it left, but only on a surface level. not soaked into xiao’s very spirit, as it once was.

it wasnt a coincidence that the finch ended up on zhongli's doorstep, it was precisely because it was xiao that it ended up there, of all places, seeking help, shelter, warmth. even with only two bird brain cells rubbing together trying to make fire, xiao was drawn to the traces of zhongli, because he knew, instinctually, that that presence would help him and keep him safe.

and it was precisely because of the bird form, and Zhongli’s longing for xiao, wishing that he had been there to take care of xiao in his pain, that Zhongli chooses to nurse it back to health himself.

fate intertwining with itself, some might say.

the end

(zhongli gets the comfort after his hurt and they cuddle a lot and maybe admit feelings? the main throughline of this fic, the grief and rebuilding of self, could be read as platonic, if you squint. but ideally there would be some emotional intimacy by the end as they both lean into each other while dealing with their respective revelations. they dont need labels. they have everything they need returned to them already.)

[box-dwelling]

I keep seeing stuff in the AA fandom talking about how like, some takes are surface level and I do just want to say that while deep interesting analytical takes are excellent and I enjoy them greatly and love applying interesting frameworks to my silly lawyer game. I think the basic takes are also good and ok too. I think presuming every single post an from AA fan on tumblr dot com has to have an academic level of analysis because the text can absolutely facilitate that is maybe a little extreme.

Like media analysis has frameworks and lenses that you can switch out and apply to get new and interesting results and it's ok if that's something you don't always have on when posting because if you do default to one frame work always, you risk missing all the interesting stuff you can get from the other frameworks. But that means you have to be consciously applying them, so its ok if sometimes you also are not doing that. Having the ability to do that is a valuable skill that will enrich your life and media consumption but also its ok if sometimes you just want to not think that deep for a post and say something surface level. Just because you do one doesn't mean you aren't capable of doing the other. This isn't an academic setting, sometimes a post can just be a thought you have.

I want the more academic stuff, fuck I was just looking at a thing talking about hegalian dialectics in AA, a thing I've been internally screaming about the existence of but feel woefully under qualified to discuss so hadn't and I'm so glad to see someone more knowledge than me put words to it. But I think we shouldn't expect it of everyone.

Plus while complex media analysis is wonderful and I eat it up, it's not something everyone is trained in to the extent others are. I like to think I'm better at it that a lot of people I know irl and have had a decent amount of study into it but don't forget that this is something people can and do dedicate their lives to and not everyone in fandom is going to be one of those people.

Idk I just think it's unfair to expect everyone in fandom to have every post have an academic level of rigour. If someone just wants to say "Hey so those von karma siblings, pretty fucked up what happened to them huh," then I think that's OK too. It's different if they're actively misinterpreting the text by leaving shit out (eg ignoring the themes of AA4 to think Phoenix is genuinely uncaring) but I just think it's ok if a post isn't that deep. People are doing this for fun and we can't expect everyone to be functioning at max brain power for every damn post.

Stuff gets popular randomly. One of my most popular posts was a shitpost scene I wrote at like 3am because I thought it was funny. Some of my posts I put a ton of thought and effort and analysis into get no traction. It just depends on random factors like timing or which mutuals find it good enough to reblog. It's the nature of the way social media is. This isn't a meritocracy. Just because someone's brain fart gets popular doesn't mean its the only analysis they're capable of

[taptrial2]

my mom took her very playful mischievous dog out to the park today and let him doodle around off leash like she does EVERY time. and she knows he is unreliable, bad with recall, and will run off and ignore her if he sees something interesting to him like, oh i dunno, people playing fucking sports, which he has a history of being interested in interrupting. and yet my mom was like naaahhhh he'll be fine he won't interrupt the multiple sportsball games happening in the park today.

plus he had already rolled in a dirty puddle which, again, could have been prevented by something 🤔 maybe a tether of some sort 🤔 that keeps your dog from running off into the distance and getting into things you can't identify until it's too late 🤔🤔🤔. he had ALREADY done mischief that day but she was like noooo my dog whos very social, playful, and loves groups of people won't run directly into this little league diamond that he has run into and played in before. YOUR DOG IS A PUBLIC NUISANCE, THIS HAS HAPPENED REPEATEDLY, JUST HOLD THE FUCKING LEASH

she has him on an obnoxiously long training leash too. she says she lets him go off leash because "he likes it" and uses the long leash because "otherwise he pulls". and shes like awww noooo i dont wanna train him to walk heeeel🥺🥺🥺 its enriching for him to do sniffs🥺🥺🥺🥺 i love when i walk my dog on narrow sidewalks and he blocks the whole damn thing and gets tangled up in other people's legs 🥺

like if you refuse to train your fucking dog and KNOW he's not reliable with recall WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO DO THIS. AND BITCH ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES. AND GO UHHHH DAT NOT MY FAULT I THOUGHT HE WOULD BE FIIINE BLUUUUHHH!!! ITS LITERALLY YOUR FUCKING FAULT!!!! STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

he has ran up to people with dog allergies, other animals with aggression issues, people playing sports, people in the middle of training THEIR dogs on a fucking training leash that she didn't even recognize as a training leash because she uses hers as a normal walking leash, and yet shes like awww but when the park is empty hes fine thoo 🥺 are you fucking kidding me. ive tried to talk to her about this but she refuses to take accountability for her dog being a fucking nuisance in public because she refuses to hold onto him. "durr i let go of his leash and so i couldnt find the poop cuz he pooped far away" HMMM I WONDER HOW YOU COULD HAVE FUCKING PREVENTED TH