#without digesting all the other garbage

[spro-o]

okay, so,,, i got back to reading 4kota, and i have so many thoughts of literally every nature

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR 4KOTA, NATURALLY!

okay so, allow me to rant a lil

bro why the actual fuck is Arthur just magical hitler now?? 😭 like hello???? it genuinely makes me really sad because he was such a sweet and likable character for most of 7ds and now he wants to create an ethnostate for humans only???? it just breaks my heart, man

SAME WITH JERICHO LIKE HELLO? QUEEN, YOURE BETTER THAN THIS. genuinely tho- nakaba try not to make all your characters pedos challenge (impossible). there are literally so many other ways in which Jericho could have ended up in a similar situation, but nakaba really just chose pedophilia? it couldve been something along the same lines just without the romantic attraction!! a family bond can be just as strong- and it couldve been something like her losing Lancelot or in some other way letting him down, and then thinking that he despises her and holds onto that grudge (which, judging his character it wouldve probably been a small spat that he got over) - but maybe Jericho didnt understand that, or wasnt ready to face him, expecting him to be livid - so she asked for an alternative reality where that didnt happen and they got along great as sister/brother or master/trainee. i wouldnt put Jericho past being so stubborn that she wouldnt believe when Lance would say that he forgave her, and then boom!! same set-up, just without the nasty pedophilia!!

ON THE NOTE OF WHICH- (theres so much of that garbage in nakaba's writing, fucks sake) - i genuinely hate the whole thing happening with Guinevere. the whole non-consensual kiss from a 12 year old to a 16 year old (ewwwww) is one thing, but then when Lance is reflecting on that interaction and he SMILES????

you have no idea how much this panel killed me to see. Lancelot youre better than this,,,, 4 years is not a big age difference when youre in your 30's, but when youre 16???? please,,,, cmon now,,,

speaking of whommmmm~~ ,,, I ADORE LANCELOT!! SO MUCH!! this is to be expected considering i love Ban, bUT- hes genuinely just such a cool and wonderful character that has some sense in him. i especially loved those panels where he was like jumping around to get himself hyped up cuz like!! Ban does that!!!! i love,,,,

elizabeth (looking gorge btw, i love that for her) is unfortunately reduced to an object of fondling yet again 😔 literally like the second panel that shes in and shes getting grabbed and groped by Meliodas?? it just feels mad disrespectful to her really deep character that she has such a minor role when you ignore her being sexualised by Mel (in reality nakaba, but i digest)

i love that panel where Anne tells Isolde about what chastity actually is hbghjnhbjh

I FEEL SO BAD FOR NASIENS WHEN PERCY IS ALL UP IN ANNES BOOBS. genuinely- the dropped bag, and all of he blushing that happened before it during their interactions,,,, that shit broke my heart, man

nakaba try not to draw teenagers naked challenge (impossible) (chapter 86 cover)

this is literally like the cutest fucking thing ever????? i want more calm, slice of life stuff for our skrunglies. they deserve a break

someone, please, stop all this shit going on with Guinevere (writing this while reading chp 87) – I really despise the fact that nakaba has to make like literally all of the relationships either look like they have a massive age gap (Ban and Elaine), or actually have a fucking criminal age gap (Mel and Ellie). it really is not that difficult to just write a relationship where there is a <2 year age gap, did you know that, nakaba?? crazy, I know (deadass, while I don’t ship them, it would at least be bearable if she was also like 15-16, just not 12 TT)

chion is such a fucking pain in the ass oh mah gahhhhhh

I love Gawain’s lesbian antics <3

At this point, though I love seeing the characters interact in more casua circumstances, id rather have more fight scenes than god awful, shoe-horned romances between any two characters of the opposite gender (exceptions being Nasiens and Gawain, my sillies <3)

okay,,, thats it for now, but do expect more at some point or another huiyuvghbijhb

[co-mixed]

Fantastic Four by John Byrne 

This run is considered to be one of the must-reads, so well, I read it. And the whole thing left a weird aftertaste. Very similar to the one you have after learning more about its creator. Yes, one could be a good artist and a decent writer without being a good human. 

But we’re here to focus on content, not the creator, and that’s what I’m going to do. 

What it feels like

I jumped into this run right after Lee/Kirby, skipping most of the stuff in the middle. So it was a new take on the team right off the bat. Byrne focuses on the human sides of the FF a little more than the original run does. The structure of the stories also changes from a day at the Baxter Building -> a villain appears -> the villain is defeated. We start getting multiple chapters or issues in every arc, and it makes them more complex. 

In fact, complexity is certainly something that appears and grows from the 1970s to the 1980s. That’s true for most comics. 

But then there is the how it’s done and the what is done. And while one is a huge leap forward, the other is very controversial. I couldn’t find any explanations for some of the storylines aside from the idea hat (you know, when you get a hat, throw random ideas in it and start pulling.) Because of that, the stories seem disjointed. They connect to one another but it’s hard to say what exactly was the writer implying. Unfortunately, the more we know about the writer in question, the less chances we have left to misinterpret it into something more digestible. 

It’s not like that (or it shouldn’t be)

Byrne leans into the white savior trope. Every time the characters encounter racism, it feels ingenuine. Especially when blond blue-eyed Johnny jumps in to save Wyatt. This same feeling I got from Roy Thomas’s apartheid issue (FF #119) and it doesn’t get better. Yeah, we can argue that this is the 80’s but that trope is in no hurry to disappear. 

When it comes to political takes, Byrne’s are controversial, to say the least. I wrote a whole longread, complaining about the bizarre Latverian arc, in which the FF organized two coups in a row first bringing democracy to the people of the country, and then, handing it back to Doom. It’s all disguised into a lesser of two evils issue but it won’t sit well with anyone who’s familiar with autocratic regimes. 

Barely moving forward

Byrne also shakes up the character dynamics. But was any of it for the better? At times, he presents a more acceptable version of Reed. He is still an easily hooked, eager scientist who can neglect his family in favor of his work. But he’s not an absolutely intolerable garbage human anymore. He is also the least interesting character of the bunch because aside from science and condescending explanations, he doesn’t have much going on. He becomes more observant though, even noticing the change in Johnny when he starts dating Alicia (and I later will circle back to that absolute eww moment.)

While all that is true, Reed is also shown to be racist against Skrulls during his trial. His statements are what any racist would say. Verbatim.

It almost feels like Byrne himself is interested less in Reed and more in other members of the team. 

Women of Marvel

A lot of attention goes to Sue, Frankie Raye, and She-Hulk. And here I’d have to give Byrne some props. They are shown as competent and as strong (or potentially as strong) as their male counterparts. It’s suggested that Sue is actually the strongest member of the team, and it’s a very reasonable statement too. She stops being a quiet voice in the back and even reflects on that.

Unfortunately, I have to retract the props immediately because there is a weird violence kink that accompanies all the development. Like Alicia being badly beaten up by Annihilus, Sue being tortured by Mephisto, She-Hulk being photographed and then verbally assaulted by an editor. This is a repeated offense with Byrne's writing. 

Then, of course, there is the arc with Sue’s miscarriage and the one with Malice. Now the first one might not rub everyone the right way, but I think it’s something that made the 80s comics relatable - human issues that heroes face. And in this case, it’s one that comes not as a result of her superhero life but of her being exposed to cosmic rays. She doesn’t immediately forget it either, this arc echoes through the following issues and while I don’t know whether the portrayal is at all genuine, it’s there and that’s quite innovative. 

Go ask Malice

Malice is another Sue-centric concept, it’s her evil alter-ego that’s brought forth by a villain.

And here I have an issue because maybe instead of Psycho-Man - a hate-based villain (which was a mediocre concept all around) it could’ve been a manifestation of her grief and exhaustion with his behavior.

This could have (and should have been) an internal family matter for the FF with Sue confronting and possibly blaming Reed and Reed finally acknowledging how crappy he’s been and changing for the better. 

Sure this doesn’t have the scale of the whole NYC in a hate-fueled frenzy but it does have just the right tone for a family. While we’re at it, Byrne doesn’t have the best track record with tackling racism or bigotry issues so again, that would’ve been much better. 

Even if the concept itself was interesting, Byrne’s execution fumbled it completely. Sue’s hate is a twisted form of her love. And when it comes to Reed, Malice actually addressed all the reasonable points. He really has done every single thing she’d accused him of, and he proceeds to do them again. So really, he doesn’t learn anything from this whole ordeal. 

It’s even worse that Sue attacks him later, again, with reasonable demands of revenge on Psycho-Man, and Reed tries to dismiss her to focus on ‘more important stuff.’

I’d say the right thing to do would be to allow She-Hulk to immediately side with Sue because that’s what any woman would do no questions asked. Ideally, Johnny should have done the same – he was raised by Sue after all. On the other side, his only male role models are Reed (ew no thanks) and Ben (ew no thanks.)

When they finally face the villain, Byrne goes back to his favorite tools - torturing Sue. The torture isn’t physical but Sue keeps seeing an exaggerated version of Reed who blames her for everything and treats her like garbage. Shockingly, he’s not that different from the real Reed. 

I don’t have to be too negative here because, in the end, Sue does defeat the villain, punish him, and save Reed. She even changes her monicker to Invisible Woman (and that’s the name we know her by now). But again, some very odd decisions preceded that positive outcome. 

This arc is pretty sad to read because psychological manipulation and violation of a person’s psyche is a big deal. This could have been a groundbreaking arc. But instead, it gets cringey at times and doesn’t do the characters justice.

...And others

Like I said, Sue isn’t the only lady who gets to stand in the spotlight. I quite liked the character of Frankie (before she fell in love with Galactus for like 3 panels). She has quite a story, having a power she couldn’t access and a phobia connected to said power. With a little more development (I’m talking modern-day standards) she could’ve been a way more compelling character. But ultimately everything worked out pretty well, especially after her over-eagerness to resolve everything with brute force paid off when she became the herald of Galactus. 

She-Hulk is always a joy to encounter, and she takes over the Thing’s spot on the team for a while after the Secret Wars. She has a cute romance with Wyatt and that’s probably one of the most adorable things in this run. Because, you know, all the other romances are getting a hit. 

But not everything is as well as it may seem. As soon as Byrne’s done torturing Sue, he proceeds to torture She-Hulk.

What about love? 

Byrne delivers us one of the most unnecessary romance stories ever, and I’m saying this as someone who’s seen Scott fall in love with Jean’s clone, Gambit making out with Storm every chance he gets (I still ship it), Wanda and Cap, even Batman and Batgirl (and that was a new low).

So Johnny and Alicia. What was that about?

I could see that happening if she hadn’t been Ben’s very serious girlfriend: there are very reasonable elements in this story that reflect the schism in their relationship. They are both growing out of it and it makes perfect sense since Alicia is younger than Ben. In fact, she’d described as just a couple of years older than Johnny who in the beginning was in high school so… best not to think about it at all. Why are old comics like that (heavy sigh). 

Either way, before they break up, Ben stays on another planet and contemplates his relationship with Alicia, deciding that they should break up. Alicia comes to the same conclusion and bonds with Johnny over tragedies and danger. 

Here’s the thing though (for this, imagine me with a cup of tea and my glasses on). Johnny has known Ben his whole life and he has to have more decency than to start a relationship with someone who hasn’t yet broken up with Ben. The same can be said about Alicia but I hardly can hold this against her, since she is friends with them all but she still isn’t (at that time) tied to them that strongly. So yeah, I can see her do that and feel justified. 

But in general, what is this whole thing about? It’s a story that doesn’t do anything but portray both characters in the worst light. And it would’ve made sense had it been the endgame. But it wasn’t, we all know that. So I’m going to take it as a temporary insanity thing and push into that ‘We don’t talk about…’ drawer where things like Connor (Angel’s son), Xavier’s crush on Jean, and the whole Avengers 200 thing go to die. 

Another thing that goes into the same drawer is the origin of Sue and Reed’s relationship (I’m guessing pre-retcon). I’m not going to comment on that because I hate Reed enough as it is. There’s just nowhere for the hate to grow.  

Moving on

There’s also Franklin and he is growing, he’s 5 now and he… becomes an adult, puts blocks on his powers, goes back to being a kid, defeats Mephisto, and sees prophetic dreams about impending Doom. Not necessarily of the doctor variety. 

I have nothing to say about Franklin just yet, except that he looks like a very short adult rather than a 5 y/o. And that’s the creepy trend that plagues the comics of the 80's. 

Same old story

I feel like Byrne simultaneously tried to bring something new to the story and burn (or Byrne!) everything just to watch the flames.

And yet so many conflicts remained the same! Johnny goes through a weird love triangle just to end up with Alicia. The Thing is stuck in the same I-wanna-be-human-I-don’t-wanna-be-human vicious circle and I’m starting to wonder if they’re even planning on giving that up. We covered Reed already, and Sue is the only one who has some new stuff going on. But she is enough to make the run interesting.

As the run nears its end, there is an issue that reminded me more of Nocenti’s style (which I don’t know who started in the comics but she definitely perfected it), that focuses on Johnny dealing with his own impact on humans. It started out interesting with the boy burning himself to be like Human Torch, but then Beyonder showed up and instead of a psychological journey (as Nocenti probably would’ve done) we get a Deus ex-Machina solution.

Was it worth it? 

I write the following with a clear understanding that I was ready to give up at least thrice during this read-through. 

I would say that there are several arcs that deserve attention: the rewritten origin of Doom (that still doesn’t explain how we’re supposed to view him as a necessary evil rather than a terrible dictator), Galactus stories, Negative Zone travels, Sue telling off Reed, and so on. So if you’re thinking of reading the run, I’d say do. 

Keep in mind that there are trigger warnings, such as racism, violence against women, and miscarriage. Byrne's run is… a lot. If you feel too disgusted, better skip it. 

At the end of the day, we're really talking about this whole thing from today’s perspective. That means we all know the red flags in writing just as well as we do which tropes are harmful and why. 

We also realize that there are more ways to look at an issue than through the eyes of a stereotypical protagonist of the era. In the 80s comics were still becoming the art form we know and love today, and narrative mistakes were made. It’s easier to follow the story if you note them but don’t focus on them. Without that, they’ll be just a bunch of outdated narratives and harmful stereotypes.

[bomberqueen17]

like nightshade, but for writing?

I have resigned myself that the millions of words I've had posted on AO3 over the last decade or so have long since been scraped and used to train AI models without my consent. What can I do about it, give up the thing that brings my life meaning? And the open crawler had digested my works long before chatbots became a thing.

But now that Google is helpfully (rolling back the curtain on) using all of my decades of emails and hundreds of thousands of words in WIPS on Docs to train AIs, I was wondering if there's anything I can do about it.

Say, for instance, if I just preface every one of my WIPs with several paragraphs of poisoned garbage.

I can go back to composing in Scrivener now that I'm not constantly bouncing among different computers, sure, but I've come to rely on beta-readers, and the best, best way to do that is to work in the cloud, in a doc that I share live with them.

I'm not really able to give that up, and now I've lost what few coping mechanisms I did have about keeping drafts of things straight. I need to keep using Google Docs to share WIPs, I just don't have any other feasible alternative.

But is there any program I can use to fight back? Every other doc I create and share can just be this poisoned garbage, and every WIP i'm working on will have a chapter 0 of nonsense. But what would be most effective to use? I don't understand how AIs work well enough to guess.

I want Google to fucking regret scraping my shit, is what I want. I hate this.

[herebecritters]

Are the characters without an x on them going to have significant role in any of the stories ?

YEAH!

Well Bullet (the red guy in the bottom left corner) isn’t so much actively in Be Brave but he’s still technically canon to it. He’s a big part of the Flippy backstory that @ickyguts has written and im pretty much in love with it so it’s canon to me ^w^

Kyle the Mononykus and Splash (the lil mint colored Dino and the purple plesiosaur) are part of the overall Be Brave story but they are only alive during the Dino-Sore Days timeline. I mean…mass extinctions are pretty rough. But they were very close pals to Cro during those days and have had their own run ins with the trio before the meteor hit. You may see them in the main timeline but they will be fossils hehe

Nergal has a particular dislike for Kyle since he’s the one who gave Nergal his lip scar. ;)

Abigail, Lydia, and Aaron (the lil kid rat at the top, the blue girl rat and the yellow goat at the bottom right) are also significant to the story but they are only really around for the 300 year Colony. They did not survive past it. Lydia is John’s sister and Abigail’s mother. Aaron is Abigail’s father and Lydia’s husband. They were all important and active parts of John’s family.

There are other ocs too that are a part of this universe. We are always fleshing out the entire world and history and it’s constantly growing and taking shape, I’ll have to do an update on it soon. It’s become a HUGE thing and writing it in dms with your friends is one thing but making easily digestible content to present publicly is a whole ‘nother beast entirely. Slowly but surely <3

The interest and interactions that y’all show up here really does help give me that gas I need to work on it more so thank you! Even if I’m kinda garbage at responding in a timely manner…But it really does mean the world to me.

I’ll rethrow these up here for good measure!

Of course new characters and stories have been written and added since these were made but they still hold up.

[sapphire-weapon]

Hey, I have a lot of new people here, so let me just say, for the record:

I don't engage in ship wars. Do not ask me about ship wars. I don't care what other ship fans are saying. I literally don't care. Do not send it to me and ask me what I think. I think I don't give a shit. I think you should block them. I think you have better things to do with your time. I know I certainly do.

I'm also not here to win your arguments for you or give you ammunition to continue your stupid ship war on your own. Do not send me asks trying to mine me for arguments. I won't answer.

In fact, don't ask me about Ada or aeon at all. Just don't. I won't answer you. I think Ada is a boring nothing of a character, and I don't like aeon as a ship. I have talked about her and the ship at great length already (check my ada wong tag), and I'm tired of talking about things I don't like.

I do my best to theorycraft on this blog, and I'm frequently wrong. Do not take what I say as unchangeable, inevitable canon law. I have maybe an 80% success rate -- which is high, but it's not 100%. I was wrong with several of my predictions for RE4make and Separate Ways. I am probably wrong with some of my RE5make predictions, too. Being wrong is part of theorycrafting. It's part of meta analysis. And so, in that vein, I will also never fall on my sword and apologize for being wrong. Because it's just part of the process.

My favorite form of humor is absurdism and hyperbole. Do not take everything I say seriously.

This is a personal blog. I do this for fun, not to cultivate an audience and be some kind of... idk digestible source of information for the general public. If you find that you're not having fun while you're here, you should leave.

"But the devs said --" I don't care. I literally don't care. So many of those interviews are translated like garbage, and this fandom cherry picks information all the time. It's impossible to know what the devs actually said without seeing the original Japanese of their actual words. Not only that, but there is no central figure within Capcom overseeing RE's lore. Please understand that. No one is steering the ship. RE is not a lone artist's passion project. Each RE title is worked on by hundreds of devs, and creative leads change from title to title. There's no unified creative vision -- no sole person's interpretation that's valid and true for every title in the series -- with the exception of RE2make to RE4make.

If it's not in the games or the CGI movies, it's not canon. When these games are being made, because there's no central lore figure and no encyclopedia of RE lore just hanging around Capcom offices, the only frame of reference that these individual teams have to create their story is the games and movies that came before it.

No one on the dev team for the current project is searching through obscure promotional items and re-reading novels and digging through old interviews to see what the other teams' intentions were for every single individual title. That's not how game development works. The dev teams are replaying the old games. That's what they're doing. Because Resident Evil is a game first and a story second.

I don't care what the devs said. I don't care that xyz is an officially licensed Capcom product. I don't care.

If it's not in the games or the CGI movies, it's not canon.

It's not canon.

It's not.

Don't raise that argument to me. It's not canon.

[comphetkoncass]

i think the biggest divide in fanon enjoyers and canon enjoyers is that there's a lot of hearsay and exaggeration on the fanon side, and it's frequently used to put down characters that canon enjoyers like.

certain headcanons and hurt/comfort bait are fan-favorites in fanon because they're tropey and easily digestible without thinking about it. they take popular character tropes from media at large (the hacker guy, the sensitive one, the sexy one) and reshape canon characters to fit into that trope more easily. but when canon enjoyers see these hcs pop up in our favorite character's tag, we're sort of left scratching our heads, because... well, that's not them. it's especially baffling when they take canon-adjacent scenes (sometimes even extremely compelling ones!) and reshape them to suit these fanon tropes. these often either didn't happen at all, or it didn't happen like that. all the context that makes the compelling scenes interesting to people that read it has been taken away and stripped of meaning, to repackage it as meaningful to people who haven't read it.

some of this also happens in the comics themselves, though. characters can be written as wildly ooc depending on the writer. sometimes they're made spicier and create needless drama, and other times they're made extremely bland and brand-friendly, taking away most of what made them compelling.

there's definitely some nuance here considering fanon and canon writers frequently do the same thing. and i'd hate to be more mad at fans who engage with this content for free, than the people who get paid to write some of the newer garbage.

at the same time though, fandom is clearly influencing canon. and for those of us who like certain characters who have gotten more and more bland and fandom-y... it kind of feels like the end of the road for us. because we can point to older, more consistent, more compelling characterization from older eras, 2 reboots ago. we can talk about how impactful and cool and moving our favorites were, back then. but they aren't like that anymore -- not in canon, and not in fan content. and myths get spread about them, or they're used as bland accessories that are a faint echo of relationships that used to matter but haven't in over a decade due to reboot shenanigans.

and that sucks.

and we frequently get painted as nags and killjoys for pointing out this stuff in fandom. when we say, "hey, that never happened. she literally never did that" or "hey, you might not know this, but due to weird canon shenanigans, that wasn't really them who did that awful thing, it was this other person pretending to be them" or "hey, X shouldn't be mad at Y for not being there, because Y was literally dead during this time" or "hey, if he's his love interest here, why doesn't he know anything about him?" it's seen as policing fandom.

we're really not trying to be killjoys. but it's pretty frustrating having these myths and misinformation and major mischaracterization spread when it's not true. especially when some of the myths and misinformation that get spread frequently overlap with sexist, racist, and ableist tropes.

even attempts at fixing dc's genuine issues with xenophobia tend to fall flat. and that's because because they frequently do this by giving more credence to the fanon interpretation of the character than how they were actually written.

gonna end this essay here, because i think i've said all i really feel about the issue.

but i truly don't hate all of fanon. i can enjoy a nice batfam hurt/comfort romp here and there. i know that every au is legitimately its own alternate universe and that's totally cool. it just gets to be pretty off-putting when these aus include characters that just... wouldn't do that shit. and people start believing that that's actually how these characters act.

[oldguy56-world]

Barefoot in the Park

We just got back from one of our many walks we take in local parks. It was a nice day. Despite the title I highly recommend that you do not walk barefoot in the park at any time. (learning #1). They are full of animal poop (hard to differentiate them except goose poop. Always green. learning #2). There is also a lot of broken glass (more on that later), stones, and other unpleasant things that you can step on. Wear shoes at all time. (You are still asking for trouble if you are wearing flip-flops. learning #3)

Aside from the walking hazards there are a lot of other things that you need to be aware of so while it is fresh in my mind (If I don't share it now I won't remember it tomorrow) I thought that this was a good day to share a lot so you can enjoy your walks. The fresh air is nice. (learning #4 for those of you stuck in front of your computer all day long playing video games)

There are lots of squirrels. If you feed one they somehow communicate this with the rest in the area and soon the walkway is lined with squirrels looking pitiful with their little paws out. They also remember you and from that day on they will appear every time you are out there. Feed them at your own risk. (learning #5)

Racoons will appear. Sometimes you don't have to see them to know they are around. Just look at the mess around any garbage can. If one of them starts walking towards you like they are drunk and their hair is all matted I suggest you move along rapidly. Do not pet these racoons. (learning #6)

Did you know that ducks eat shelled peanuts whole? I can't believe they can digest the shells so my theory is that they do this in case they encounter a coyote. They can turn around and fire off a couple of warning shots to keep the coyote away. Just a theory so I cannot number this a learning.

All the broken glass means that either there were a lot of teens drinking the night before or the forest critters know how to party. (again another theory only). Things are pretty lax since the liquor store strike here so it could be either.

Geese are the most vicious of the beasts you will encounter. They own wherever they are standing and if you get within 17 feet of them they hiss and charge. (learning #7) i think this stems from having a nasty act people use on each other named after them. (another theory only)

Dogs. Well actually the dogs are fine as they are just being themself. It is the owners you have to watch because they feel that they can let their 'special' dog run around without a leash on. Half learning (7.5) and half theory is that they do this so they don't see the dog taking a dump and it lets them off the hook from having to pick it up.

Children chase away the squirrels and birds so this is a good thing. They also get in the way when you are trying to take a picture of the landscape. Their parents think they are adorable. If they continue this behavior when they get older I see them getting punched in the face a lot.

Cyclists. Where do I start with them? They can't read as they bike where they are not allowed to. They don't obey road signs (could be related to the reading problem) and they do not have bells on their bikes to let you know when they are approaching from behind. I believe these are the grown up version of the children from the previous item so if we could just catch them maybe one of us can punch them in the face.

Other than these few issues it is always a pleasure walking in the park, looking at the flowers, breathing in the fresh air and cursing under your breath. Try it sometime. It is Cathartic.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: When you are going to a park the key notion is to share the space that really doesn't belong to you in the first place.

[vaelzz]

I'm curious: do you think AI art should be considered art or not? I honestly don't agree with it because it's just plain lazy, but I want to hear your opinion about it.

Been procrastinating on this ask because there is a lot to be said. I've actually written about 10k words around AI art throughout the year which I've been planning to breakdown and make digestible because I know no one wants to read a massive text wall randomly.

For the most part I'm pretty conflicted, I do think that people relying on AI to create art with no understanding of beforehand tends to lead to these repetitive and soulless pieces with no substance. From a technical perspective it's usyally pretty impressive albeit with some minor defects, it has all the bells and whistles of what you'd think would be art yet it fails to actually feel like art.

Over time this has led me to believe that AI is just a tool like all the other tools that came before it that made things easier, it's an amplified version of the same principle. However there is a distinction between art and craft. It just makes the technical side faster and more professional but without a lack of intent and personal touch you are always going to get these soulless pieces with AI models as most are trained on other people's artworks/styles. 95% of AI art I see is just complete garbage and you can tell it's AI because all the AI pieces typically have a pretty distinct style so you just end up being flooded by millions of AI art pieces in a spammy fashion by people that have nothing to say or express. It's actually pretty offensive to all the hardwork and lifetime artist's have spent learning their craft but the worst part is that it causes oversaturation so the public perception of art's value goes down. This means unless you are already well known or insanely talented no one is going to give a fuck about you or your art unless you have a close group of friends interested in art. So overall as an artist it just means spending countless hours, weeks, months, years? Alone and isolated working on things traditionally for no real return which is fine if it's for fun but it feels like you have to make such heavy sacrifices to even make art in modern society. Simply for no one to truly value or appreciate it.

I know it's going to be adapt or die to keep up so I've been experimentint painting, blending and compositing different elements generated with AI in Photoshop to make new and original things but I do also feel perpetually guilty about it so I have rarely posted any but I will mention that I'm still putting tons of hours and effort into creating. It just puts me in a weird spot because implementing AI tends to carry the connotation of the AI is doing all the work (which can be true for the soulless spammy pieces around) but the fact it's not entirely AI or entirely done from hand just puts me in an anxious loop lol. But ultimately I have this idea in my head that I'd like to get out faster but often I just end up actively handicapping myself and spending many hours extra for stuff that people aren't going to care about.

I think intent matters massively in all of this and I'm still debating and questioning myself. I think on this account though I'll continue to post any non-AI work and post mixed Art implementing AI on my new account idiovoidi

I've been posting to Tumblr since 2013 on/off so I'd hate to discredit all the work I've done over the years.

[lowlyroach]

1248) Roach loves mess

Tacos and Pookies

Earl hates the side switch

The Panthers are green and losing

I'm an incel without a bed frame

You put your hair in a clip

I decide not to flinch

The heart starts to slip

Feet firm, don't give an inch

Teach you how to pump a tire

Head up north without a spare

You're cold, and I've got a jacket

Is it different, or did it just begin?

Not sure, still countin' on that

Think of home when

I hand them my cash

This conversation is

A bloody pad and a big stick

The wind in this spot is

A novel I read

Not like the one you're talking about

I neglect my speech

Although it tugs on the tongue

Spitball sentences, instead

You're dodging the straw-shot

Pinch of blue

Colors the bench

I prostrate my respects

To the roaches

Buster's black and white

Slow blink and give a wide berth

Another flightless bird on our walk

Why is this happening twice?

Catch it, she says

Nothing is easier than to listen

Scooped so easy,

she speaks my name like a warning

Do you think my hands were unsafe?

Rest gentle in the palm

Let it play the cradle

Are they so monstrous?

Can I view them as gentle?

Out of the road

The parents are watching

They chirp to each other

Is your child going to make it?

I hope your baby touches the sky.

There are felines on the prowl, you see?

Buster might be hungry.

I can only set you somewhere I hope is safe

Lock in on the garbage

It's a green and black bag to the brim

Food stamps card with an illegible name

I could jump higher, I'm sure

You want to keep walking

I want to scale the walls

I'm clumsy, keep my footing

Don't fall for her.

It's the unaffected listener

Nonchalant on the drama

The hypeman and the sideshow

Just a passerby observer

October sure is frightening

How could anybody leave you in the background?

You were born for center-stage

But that's not for me to say.

The thread is all in different directions

Ariadne offers insight

Who is this string for?

Am I Theseus or the Minotaur?

I check your hair for horns

I check my feet for hooves

Friends in different senses

I can't be a boulder

It's too romantic

I can't be a shoulder

I don't have a hand to shake with

Listen out for litter

I'm digesting a dictionary you're spewing

I take an extra lap

I can't help but smile

How'd I fall for this mess?

Gambler's fallacy

Eyes west

Eventually, I'll see a sunrise

Butterflies are playin' hooky

I refuse to treat it seriously

Am I halfway up the stairs or

Holding onto that door?

Is it scary - I'm not sure anymore?

It's a type of starvation

You bet on the river

I don't look at my cards

10,000 steps in and we've

One more hand to play with

Belly empty and the house grins

You push the chips forward

I won't go all-in

Is it a two-seven off-suit?

The clouds are untouched

The maze is endless

[davidstortebeker]

Urban Composting using Red Worms

Composting is the Alpha and the Omega of food. Compost replenishes the nutrients lost from the soil during food production, at the same time it deals with the bucketloads of organic kitchen waste that accumulates during food preparation. The compost beautifully connects the garden with the kitchen, and vice versa.

No farm? No garden? No Problem! 

What about those of us who don't farm? Those who don't even have small yard? Not that uncommon in cities, even though people still tend to have a kitchen there. For all those who think that this situation makes composting unfeasible, I'd like to share my experience in urban composting using Eisenia foetida, or California Red Worms, first in a Budapest apartment without even a balcony, then on my rooftop in Mexico City.

We are all producers anyway, so let's make the most of it. 

Before getting immersed in the details of urban vermiculture, let's stop and think about all the stuff we add to this world on a regular basis: many household garbage bags contain all kinds of lovely-nasty things, from eggshells to tea-bags, from banana peels to coffee grounds, from toenail clippings to that cucumber that grew moldy from being ignored for too long. Not very nice gifts to the world, at least from our perspective. So it's not surprising that they are generally seen as a 'problem'. Also, our trash can would be so much cleaner without all this smelly and gooey organic garbage.

Now let's imagine getting a regular supply of liquid fertilizer (maybe 4 liters / 1 gallon every week), as well as solid humus (around 40 liters / 10 gallons every 6 months). That is a lot, especially for someone who doesn't have a garden! But in their converted forms these former problem items become highly desired goods by those who do, so they can be sold, traded, or gifted. In the end, the little effort put into it pays of quite handsomely.

How does vermicomposting work?

The principle is pretty straight forward: Decomposers, such as fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms break down our kitchen wastes and make their nutrients available for plants. There are thousands, even millions of these useful little critters, so how can we collect them all to form an ecosystem in our little bin? Fortunately, there is something like a packaged deal:

Many microbes that are happy to eat our food scraps live in a close symbiosis with another important decomposer, the composting worm (aka California Red Wiggler or Eisenia foetida) and they can be found in the same dirt the worms live in. Together they can turn our kitchen waste into nutritious humus, given the proper conditions. It’s important to mention, that it’s not the worms who bite into the apple-core, but all the microbes digest it down to a juice they all slurp and exude. Yum! This is also the reason why it’s always best to get the worms with a good amount of soil as inoculant.

Setting up the Wormery

For the bin I usually use a 40 liter / 10 gallon storage box, ideally the stackable kind, which will come in handy once the first bin is full. Drilling lots of small holes on the bottom will make sure that it drains well, and prevent the foul smell that accompanies anaerobic decomposition. The drained liquid, by the way, is the fertilizer mentioned above, sometimes referred to as 'compost juice' or 'worm tea'. I use the lid of the box as a saucer to catch it. From there I let the compost juice drain through a strategically placed hole into a bucket. It’s important to make sure the entire system is sufficiently inclined, so the water can drain in its proper direction.

Making it nice and comfy inside 

Once their home is completed it needs to be furnished before our decomposing friends can move in. Fill the bin half way with some organic material, preferably high in carbon, such as dry leaves, straw, hay, woodchips, or if these things are hard to find, ripped-up pieces of cardboard, and paper. Ideally I’d use a good mix of whatever I can find. I usually also include a handful of forest soil, in order to inoculate the system with wild microbes, as well as a good number of thin sticks and twigs, to guarantee aeration when the compost starts to compact. To really make the new tenants happy, it’s also a good idea to prepare some partially composted food, as it is the juice seeping out of the decomposing food the worms live on.

The needs of this community of decomposers, as anyone who has composted before will know, are a good ratio of carbon and nitrogen, good aeration, and sufficient moisture. As for the worms, they are also not too fond of light, so it’s good to keep the inside of the wormery in constant darkness. The bin should be set up in a shady spot, and protected from the rain. Worms need moisture, but they can’t swim! When temperatures approach freezing they will curl up and go dormant, only to become active again in the spring. So don’t assume they froze to death, they’re just sleeping.

Adding the worms 

Once the bin is ready the worms can arrive. The old adage ‘the more the merrier’ certainly applies to them, as long as they are of the right kind of worms. Using regular earthworms, or night-crawlers, will most likely kill them, dooming the entire composting system to fail. For my first worm-bin I was given a kilo of red worms by a friend. In my latest one, however, I had to make do with only about 200 individual wigglers, which I bought for an arm and a leg from a stingy worm farmer. They immediately disappeared into the box, making me wonder if they were still alive for the next couple of months. But these Red Wigglers are amazing at multiplying: if they are happy, they can double their population in only 90 days.

The feeding routine 

Running the system is super easy, and once the routine has become established, it will almost run itself. Every time I produce organic kitchen waste, I place it into a small (1 liter / quart) bin that I keep next to the kitchen sink. This one I empty every 1-2 days, right into the worm box, on top of everything that’s already in it. Next, I use some carbon-rich material to cover it with. Since most of our food is high in nitrogen, this step is essential. Once again, I could use leaves or straw, but in an urban setting newspaper is a lot easier to come by, or bank statements, or other printed propaganda. It is important to make sure this cover material does not include any harmful substances for our microorganisms, such as lead-based ink or bleached paper. My experience in Hungary and Mexico has taught me that most newspapers can be trusted, even the colorful ones. What I still avoid, though, are glossy prints that are almost certain to include plastic.

Covering the food will not only add the necessary carbon, but will also control the smell and keep invading insects in check. To maximize efficiency I like to rip the newspaper in stripes, and once it has completely covered the little pile of food, I pour some water over it. The water makes the strips stick together, hiding the food underneath, ready to be discovered and colonized from below. Before watering it, I usually empty out the effluent bucket, so it won’t overflow. This worm-tea I collect in a bottle to use to water my plants, in a diluted form. Finally, to protect the worms from the light, and to reduce evaporation, I place a cardboard lid on top of the bin. An old piece of carpet, blanket, sweater, etc. can also do the trick, while keeping moisture from evaporating. Just make sure there are no poisons involved.

What do the worms eat? 

As for the dos and don’ts of feeding the worms, the rule of thumb is: they’re not too picky, but are generally vegetarians. Also they are not too fond of oily stuff, and they absolutely hate salt! So I mostly give them fruit and veggie pieces that accumulate while preparing any meal. They don’t object to cooked food per se (cooled down, of course), but since that usually includes oil and salt, it should probably be avoided. Otherwise they get everything from flowers to salad rests, even the dust from the floor. Quite obviously, though it can’t be stressed enough, harmful chemicals should be always avoided!   

Even the water I use on the worm bin I set out in the sun for a while to let the chlorine evaporate. Also, the smaller the chunks I give them, the faster the decomposition will go. Putting their daily food into a blender and pouring it on in liquid form would make it even more readily accessible, though I’ve never gone that far in my efforts.  

What about the flies? 

At this point many users may wonder about possible insects this indoor worm farm could attract. Sure, the better you cover the food, the less insects you have, but in my experience it was hard to avoid a small population of flies. Though they tended to be the tiny fruit flies, and not the pesky houseflies, it can still be annoying to have them around. Fortunately, their population came suddenly under control, just when it seemed like it was getting out of hand…   

The solution was a natural predator, who just showed up on its own, in form of a little lizard. I have no idea where it came from, but it quickly made itself home on my kitchen curtain, from where it hunted the flies with agile determination. First I celebrated this incident as a unique marvel of nature, but since then I have seen many lizards hanging around my worm-bin I keep on the roof here in Mexico. They seem to find delicious flies, even though I don’t! Just goes to show how effective they are.

Completing the cycle with a second bin 

Once there is no more room in the bin to accommodate more compost it's time for a second bin. After drilling its holes similarly to the first one, I just place it on top of the first one, letting it slide down all the way to the top of the compost. I even push it down a bit, to make sure it is in complete contact, so the worms can crawl through the holes into the second bin. This takes time, of course, but there is no rush.   

With a similar substrate, and regularly added fresh food, the worms will want to migrate upwards, especially once they have eaten up everything in the bottom bin. The rest of the compost will be taken care of by other microbes, so by the time the second bin is full too, the first one will be ready to be emptied and placed on top. This whole cycle takes about a year, depending on how much you produce.   

And a year later... 

Okay, so we’ve kept our kitchen trash food-free for a year, the plants in our home have grown like crazy since we started feeding them with the worm-tea, and our house lizard is getting chubby while keeping the flies to a minimum. So one day we reach the point when the second bin is also almost overflowing with compost. What now?  

Instead of getting a third bin (and a step-ladder that would eventually be needed), it’s time to empty the first bin, and set it on the top of the second. This should give the user a sack full of good humus. Now I’ve seen people plant straight into that, and in fact, lots of time you’ll find volunteer plants growing out of it. But this fresh vermi-humus has so much potential that it would be a waste not to dilute it.

The first time I harvested a batch of 50 liters, it ended up revitalizing 500 liters (that’s more than 130 gallons, or about half a ton) of exploited, nutrient-poor soil in a nearby community garden. And yes, there will be some worms left in this humus, which is exactly what we want. After all, the organic decomposition doesn’t stop just because it was taken out of the bin. And why should it? Especially if we mix it with used soil (once again without any chemical poisons), still more organic matter, and start growing plants in it, the continuous cycle of nutrients will go on and on. The most exciting part is starting just now, and to think back that it all came out of our kitchen makes the whole endeavor worth while.

[campirebitesarchive]

more medical garbage bitching dont mind me (feel free to blacklist camyellsOW to ignore these)

im liking being able to look back on these before other appointments

im currently on hold with my insurance because my rheumatologist listened to me and he wrote me a prescription for ring splints and I called around to physical therapy offices and found one that has hand therapy and can take my and my appointment is in less than 3 weeks which for PT in my area and PT as specific as this thats AMAZING holy shit. Its actually closer to two weeks than 3 but I feel like im doxxing myself if i say specifics lmao

so im calling my insurance company to see if they can tell me ahead of time if there are a fuckload of hoops im going to have to jump through in order to get my splints

for the first time ever I feel kind of hopeful about my joint health. Were doing a lyme disease blood panel to see if thats the source of my nausea, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches. He ordered a couple more things Im going to google

I told him that I know we need to do physical therapy first but eventually id love to talk to him about a wheelchair and he said no and I started crying again and he was like I think thats a bad idea let me tell you why and I was like NO thats internalized ableism and thats a YOU problem! Wheelchairs are mobility they are FREEDOM. I cannot currently lift enough laundry at once to fill the washer without subluxing my shoulder/collarbone so I have to take multiple trips and frequently have to sit down between trips but with a wheelchair Id have the freedom and capability to just do a load of laundry. I already cook having to sit down. You can have an amazing wonderful fulfillling life in wheelchair that you cant have when youre in bed every day because everything hurts so much. You can tell me not right now or maybe in the future but just a no is the most hopeless answer you can give me. That is a YOU problem.

and he like did a little head tilt like a dog and was like. You know what? Youre right. Thats something I need to reevaluate in my own head. So, youre right I wont tell you know, but Ill tell you first we need to try physical therapy

that fucking honesty is why I love him so much. He was like "you need a therapist" and i was like dude if you tell me that one more time im going to start crying again I KNOW

and I apologized and thanked him for dealing with my anger because i just angry cried at him basically the entire appointment and he just said Its okay, I know Im not who youre mad at. I wont take it personally and holy shit that was just the biggest load off of my back and I was like no youre right im literally just mad at my body. At one point he said "you know im empathetic, I bet it does hurt that bad." Like holy shit Dr G you are a king amongst doctors. He had knee surgery recently and I used it against him and he didnt even get mad. In my angry crying I was like you just had knee surgery. Sitting in bed wallowing in pain all day. It fucking sucks doesnt it? Imagine twenty five fucking YEARS of that! and he just nodded and digested that and was like yeah, I hear you.

This man is the best doctor in the world

at the very least im on my way to my ring splints which will help my quality of life SO fucking much holy shit

I also told him about the highly unprofessional cardiologist i saw who just told me I was fat and showed me his grandsons fortnite youtube channel and he was like wow literally what? and I was like I dont know man. And then he talked shit about cardiologists and how they tend to be fuckin weirdos with egos and i was like yo go off my shady king

but on the bright side in less than a week were placing that heart monitor and it will be recording for two weeks and hopefully after that i can obtain my POTS diagnosis and hopefully thatll put me one step closer to being an ambulatory wheelchair user. Id love to still be upright and use my cane when I can but a wheelchair for bad days would be lifechanging

my oldest childhood friend is able bodied the idea of being able to just get a coffee and walk around target with her pain free makes me want to cry THAT is a hopeful future

[prof-oleander]

Hi there! I want to get an Alolan Grimer, but I am not sure exactly how to take care of them. (Don’t worry, I haven’t gotten one yet) Can you give me some tips?

Hello!

So, taking care of a Grimer - either Alolan or Kantonian - isn't an easy feat at all.

Our local Poison Gym Leader has both forms - they are now Muks - and always gave him a lot of work care-wise.

Before even starting with the care tips, I recommend getting yourself a durable raincoat, rain boots and rubber gloves (a good pair for dishwashing could work well too) because it's better to not have skin contact with the "sludge" their body is made of... but also I'm pretty sure they would like being petted and play with you from time to time.

If you want to let them out of the ball while inside your home, I suggest getting a waterproof tarp to cover the floor to avoid the chemicals inside their body to damage anything or staining. Alolan variants' chemical makeup is less aggressive than the Kantonian one, but honestly, it's always better safe than sorry. Trust me.

Alolan Grimers tend to be smaller in size than a "standard" Grimer, so I'm pretty sure that you could also arrange a simple kiddie pool for them.

Oh, and beware, their body allows them to squeeze into... kind of any opening, so it's better to cover up places where you don't want them to get in. (I still remember when the Gym's Kantonian Grimer decided to squeeze herself through a tiny grate to reach the sewage pipes of a nearby house...)

As I previously mentioned, the Alolan variant has a different body composition from the Kantonian form as a result of living in a different environment and a slightly different diet: Grimers were brought to Alola to deal with the garbage disposal and so they mostly feed on waste (either food waste and other types, chemical too) whether the Kantonian feeds mostly from polluted sludges from industrial waste and from city waste (this is also why the Kantonian form tends to be more dangerous, as their body contain also a high amount of bacteria of varied origin).

Beware of the white crystals that will form on their body! They contain a mix of many toxins that are highly poisonous and can cause poisoning even with brief contact. Those crystalline formations occur naturally as a result of Grimer's body processing the toxins. On a positive note, their body does not give off a strong smell as could happen with the Kantonian counterpart.

Personality-wise, Alolan Grimers usually are quieter and friendlier than Kantonian Grimers, but they are also way more voracious: they tend to get hungry easily and require to be fed often as to avoid them trying to eat anything they deem edible. Food waste (or also simple scraps), trash in general and PokéFood for Poison types are all good options for feeding them. Their adaptation to digest and absorb solid trash doesn't make them difficult to feed.

TL;DR: They can eat almost anything and get hungry often, quite friendly unless they get too hungry. Even though they might be able to control the chemicals in their body to allow them to not hurt you when touching you, I heavily suggest using precautions like rubber gloves, raincoats and the like. Tarps or kiddie pool are a good way to let them roam a bit and/or play without worrying about anything getting corroded or stained or whatever. Do not touch barehanded the white crystals as they are packed with a dangerous mix of toxins: it's a natural thing that grows on them but sometimes they can fall off. They can squeeze into any crevice so beware of places you are sure you don't want them to be in.

Aaand that's all I could think of off the top of my head! Let me know if you have other questions! :D

[acostaplumbingsolution]

Installing A Garbage Disposal: The Only Way To Dispose Of Things In One Piece

With many companies making an effort to improve the installation process for their customers, these extra steps in installation are often unnoticed. In this article, a healthcare agency captures some of the more difficult installations that it faces on a regular basis and shares their suggestions for what patients should know before garbage disposals installation. Before you have garbage disposal installed make sure you know all the hard work that goes into installing one!

Why install a garbage disposal?

There are many reasons to install a garbage disposal. First and foremost, it’s the only way to dispose of things in one piece. Imagine trying to chop up a steak with a knife and fork. It would be impossible. The same goes for disposing of food in one piece with other methods such as composting or recycling. Second, a garbage disposal wastes less energy than other disposal methods. Third, a garbage disposal doesn’t create odor problems like composting or aerobic digestion can. Finally, a garbage disposal saves you time because it takes care of the disposal for you.

Garbage disposal installation kits

Garbage disposal installation kits come with all the necessary hardware to install a garbage disposal project. They include items like bolts, washers, nylock nuts, and even angle iron if you're working on a particularly tight space. There are two main types of garbage disposal installation kits: professional and do-it-yourself. Professional installation kits are typically more expensive but include items like an accurate depth gauge and detailed instructions. If you're confident in your DIY skills, you can install your own garbage disposal without a kit by following these general tips: Measure the height and width of your sink before starting , and consult the manufacturer's instructions to determine the correct size of garbage disposal drain pipe.

Install a garbage disposal the right way

Installing a garbage disposal the right way is key to ensuring that your drain stays clear and your home stays healthy. Here are four tips for installing a garbage disposal the right way:

1. Get Your Estimate: Before you purchase a garbage disposal, get an estimate from a professional. This will help ensure that you're getting the best value for your money.

2. Drain Cleaning: Before you install your new garbage disposal, consider draining and cleaning your drain in both the sink and bathtub area. This will help reduce the chances of water backing up into your drainage system and flooding your home.

3. Clear The Blockage: A clogged garbage disposal can cause hours-long backup periods in your sink, making it difficult to clean and causing odors. Clear all obstructions from around the drain with a plunger before installation to avoid future issues.

4. Check Your Sink Drainage: After installation, check your sink's drainage to make sure everything is flowing smoothly. If there are any problems or blockages, call a professional to correct them before they become larger problems that require more complex repair work or replacement parts.

Conclusion

Installing a garbage disposal can be a daunting task, but it's one that is well worth it in the end. By following these simple steps, you will be able to install your garbage disposal with ease and dispose of all of your food waste in one piece! Be sure to read through the entire direction before starting so that you don't run into any trouble along the way. Thank you for reading and we hope you find this guide helpful.

[mag-agenttorture]

I've seen mention of the "drones", and the "sheep". Interesting turns of phrase, no? After all, how are you certain that you are not the ones being shepherded?

Interesting question, and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and answer seriously.

Those in power tend to have flaccid egos and will ban, punish, imprison, or even murder, those that dare step out of line and go against what seems to be the status quo, even if they realize that the status quo in question isn't to their favor. If you think people are mindless because they follow someone else that's telling them to go against something else, I wouldn't call them dumb drones, or mindless, or whatever else. Those same people either recognize in themselves the quality of leadership, or know they don't want the responsibility. Both of which is fine, to me.

What makes a person ignorant is when they refuse to even entertain the possibility of being wrong, especially when the information is being presented and easily digestible, without having to search too hard for it, even finding its way to other people in the first place. Hell, not just contradictory evidence, but LACK of evidence is enough to start building a case. This is why keeping facts straight and using the Internet as intended, that is a library to learn things and read what others have already learned, is important and a cornerstone of information communication.

Refusal to take off the yoke when someone is actively trying to remove it. Not bothering to see that two plus two does NOT equal five. Seeing that something does say what someone else says is on it, instead of just (I've seen this) yelling "IT DOESN'T SAY THAT," throwing it in the garbage, and standing between the person who presented the information and the trash can so they can't retrieve it.

The world is not what you make it, and especially not what those in power want it to be. It's what we, the people, allow it to be, and too many are complacent and letting the world slip away into something gross, filthy, and rotten. Too many either refuse to see it, and even fight against those who want to help, despite such inaction leading to them slitting their own throats.

In short, ignorant fools don't know they're ignorant, or do know, and like it that way.

I hope this was satisfactory.

[puppybeetle]

wait haha i wanna talk abt the concept i has that each horsie has a ' curse ' and other stuffff :3

basically the horsemen r ' harbingers ' , it both a role and a race ... . in a way i dunno , tho ' horseman ' and ' harbinger ' r interchangeable terms tbh . anyway , a harbinger are bascially just personification of some type of major human tragedy , these being famine , pestilence , war , conquest , and death . there are other minor ones like meltdown and pollution , basically fanmade horsemen are what i consider minor harbingers , the ones already in tboi are major harbingers , basically the main ones , with death basically the ' leader ' in a way since he was the first harbinger to be born . anyway , harbingers are neither ( i almost typed out ' neigh ' btw ) holy nor demonic but are in a way most related to holy beings like angels . they are basically an inbetween so they associate and work with both angels and demons , whether they like it or not because since they personify a human tragedy they kind of have no choice in it , think of them as middlemen in a way ?? best way i can put it but also kind of not ... . angels and demons still interact directly but its the best way i can describe it .

bleh whgatever , each harbinger is born with a ' curse ' that is related to the human tragedy they represent . for famine , she is ' cursed ' with eternal hunger , she can sate it by eating but after a couple hours she becomes hungry again . this hunger is painful but shes used to it , but if famine goes too long without eating she becomes ravenous and will just abt eat anything , rotting corpses , garbage , anything at all to sate her hunger .

as for pestilence her ' curse ' is well ... . his body . basically , its body is constantly decaying , this causes her to experience extreme pain and a lot of times he cant walk or move . think of it as chronic pain , where there are times shes okay !! and is fine moving around , but most of the time its a huge pain to move which is why he is seen on her horse most of the time .

now for war and conquest , as twins their ' curse ' is shared , and it is that whatever injury one sustains is sustained by the other . the only difference is that these injuries are mirrored on the other twin , so war and conquest have mirrored scars . the only difference is that conquests blindness was not also given to war , and thats because their blindness is basically a symbol of the oath they took towards ' god ' . since it was only conquest that took this oath , war is not blind , same reason why he also doesnt have the autopsy scar that conquest has .

as for death , it has been realsies difficult for me to come up with a ' curse ' for it . at first i thought of it as his immortality , but to me , every harbinger is immortal so it didnt make any sense realsies ... so really , death kind of has no ' curse ' , it just kind of exists .. . that doesnt change the fact that he has 100 million problems tho .. . my poor kitten simply cannot catch a break ;^;

okay more on harbingers or else my brain will explode . they can eat , but anything they eat is turned into pure energy as they dont really have a functioning digestive system . while theyre bodies are extremely similar to humans , they are completely sterile and are pretty much devoid of any biological functions , they dont even has a functioning heart . another thing is their recovery rate , a harbinger heals much quicker than a human and can heal any fatal wound . exceptions would be like a missing limb , where the detached limb would have to be immediately ' reconnected ' in order to make a full recovery , a harbinger simply cannot regenerate so much . either way , a wound can never be fatal to a harbinger , and really nothing can really do significant damage to one . only exceptions are holy and demonic beings , other harbingers , and holy metal , which is what deaths main scythe is made out of .

bweh uhmmm harbingers have like .. . unnatural strength , even if some of them are literal twigs ( cough famine and death ) they can still easily overpower a muscular human person , its just that compared to other harbingers they are notably weak ... . tho harbingers also have magical abilities !! its like a tradeoff of sorts , where physically stronger horsemen have weaker magical abilities and horsemen who have stronger magical capabilities are physically weaker compared to other harbingers . it explains why death can slow down time and stuff like that , out of all the harbingers its the one with the most magical strength and it is both war and conquest who have the most physical strength ( making the twins evenly matched ) .

another thing i wanna bring up is apollyons associations to the harbingers . if anything hes like a cousin of sort , a kind of distant cousin maybe . i hasnt really thought up much other than that for apollyons relation to the horsies .. . but that bring up other point that all the harbingers are related , the main horsemen ( ones in tboi already , exception of headless ) are siblings while minor horsemen act as cousins . its a family sort of .. . a really dysfunctional one that death has to deal with ;_; this kind of all i has because my brain blanked out and now i cant rember everything else i wanted to type so u only get half of harbinger hcs </3

wait actyually i might as well put this here too becayse bleh idccc but death and siren r bffs :3 and have been for few hundred yrs ^w^ siren porbabky would jus gossip and death wuold go ' ah yeas of course :3 ' even tho he has no idea what going on XD i like to imagine ... . he also helped her out with styling her hair ?? bcause i do see siren as trans so death would help her with presentation , and then she saw his sister ( famine ) and went ' wouaghh .. . ' :3 eiethr way i tihnk it silly than siren woulg has her best freind , a BALD man , help her out with experimenting with her hair XD i am sorryu girl .. . he is going to give u the worst haircut evar ( jk he didnt .. . i mean death did few couple times but he got betterrrrrr :3 )

[mostspecialgirl]

nonsensical super nerd rant below about the fate series. spoilers for the stay night routes and zero ahead, probably

okay, we’re good, right?

every time someone tries to get someone else to start fate by saying “just watch it in the correct order. start with Fate/Zero :)” Something in me dies. Ive had to tweet about it so many times. There is no series i will ever have nerd rage of this caliber over other than fate. reading fate/stay night changed the way i engage with media and feel about storytelling and writing and all that stuff and its like Why would you ever want someone to spoil all of the coolest twists in fate/stay night by watching zero. it literally spoils like ALL of them. (by the way, gil’s introduction and reveal with him coming out of nowhere is what cemented him as one of my firm favorites. he’s so cool!!!!) And i know the answer. Because no one plays the VN. Because no one ever plays visual novels and theyd rather just flick on an anime. Because for some god awful reason there is no definitive adaptation that cleanly allows you to digest the fate stay night routes !!!!!!!!!! and reading the fucking thing will take you forever !!!!!!!!! and it’s so terribly inaccessible!!!!!! i probably wouldn’t have played it if my sister didn’t already jump through the hoops for me !!!!!!

people who are fate fans and talk about how good unlimited blade works or heavens feel are two starkly different groups depending on if they watched it or read it because they are genuinely two completely different things. don’t get me wrong i Love Love LOVE the heavens feel movies and i doubt they could have done them all too much better (ubw however… ) BUT the thing is fate RELIES on shirou’s internal monologuing and narration and SO much is lost when you have to transfer all of that from writing to screen. even with the english patch translation purportedly being less than ideal i was still out here getting my heartstrings played with by the writing.

BUT ENOUGH GUSHING!!!! THATS THE THING!!!! THE STAY NIGHT ROUTE IN ANIME FORM IS NONEXISTENT!!! UBW AND HEAVENS FEEL ARE SO SEPARATED!!!! THEY’RE THREE ACTS OF A WHOLE AND IT’S PAINFUL TO HAVE THEM BE SO SEPARATED PEOPLE START WITH THE PREQUEL that, while standalone is an incredible story, CANNOT BE EXPERIENCED TO FULL BREADTH WITHOUT HAVING READ STAY NIGHT FIRST!!!! PEOPLE ARE LICKING THE WRAPPER OF A CANDY AND THINKING ITS THE DAMN TASTIEST THING IN THE WORLD !!!!! YOU ARE NOT YET A FAN !!!!! YOU’RE MISSING THE WHOLE POINT !!!!!! KOTOMINE’S VALUE AND INTRIGUE AS A CHARACTER IS UNDERMINED !!!!! GILGAMESH HAS NO TIME TO BE TRULY HORRIFYING BECAUSE YOURE TOO BUSY BEING DISTRACTED BY HOW SEXY HE IS !!!!!! EVERYTHING ABOUT KIRITSUGU !!!!!!!!! SAKURA’S ENTIRE BACKSTORY CHANGING HOW YOU UNDERSTAND AND VIEW HER AS A CHARACTER !!!!!!!!!!! THE FACT THAT YOU KNOW ZOUKEN EVEN EXISTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(composing myself instantly) i just think it’s kind of garbage how people see cool screenshots from the VN and go Wow I Can’t Wait To Go And Not Experience This Thing I’m Getting Intrigued By. or seeing astolfo and thinking fate is all about porn. fate is so much more than anyone thinks it is and you can’t understand until you sit down and read it and suddenly you’re born anew and have to go play tsukihime or mahoyo too. it’s absurd that fate’s whole reputation online is based around porn addicts because YES, EVERYONE, fate OBVIOUSLY began as a Naked Boobs Visual Novel but it was God’s Greatest Naked Boobs Visual Novel that was SO damn good it stopped being about porn immediately and cemented itself as an astoundingly successful work of fiction that has engrained itself into the world line. they added gacha to it and it’s been one of the most successful mobile games Ever. the seventh highest grossing mobile game of all time. and it’s straight up just another VN with barebones combat and grinding thrown inbetween

anyway i forgot what i was even getting mad about everyone should sit down and drain away a week or so reading through all of fate stay night. and then they can truly earn the incomparable experience of cry watching today’s menu for the emiya family. that is all.

supplementary edit: i used to read through fate stay night together with my sister every day in the late afternoon and it became such a great ritual for us. it was some of the best times of my life and if you’re going to read it and have a likeminded friend who can just sit there and chill out for like an hour with you it makes all the crazy moments so much more fun. because you probably are here to read my rant despite not playing the vn. i remember i had a little text file on my phone we’d update every time we learned the identity of a new servant or master and id be sitting there using my love for mythology trying to figure out their identities. there was such a delightful satisfaction when finished the stay night route and unlimited blade works and got to begin the next one. i’d give up a lot to relive those days, i think.