#Occam’s razor folks.

[jojotier]

backseat prophecy.

Anna takes an uber to the graveyard again. When the coral pink sedan rattles to a stop in front of her secondhand house, Anna leaves her own car baking in the driveway. The summer’s still sticky against the back of her neck and there’s no air conditioning waiting for her in the car.

It takes everything in her power not to cover her nose against the onslaught of sandalwood seeping in. It smells so overpoweringly earthy that it buries the air. Anna’s almost convinced that the driver’s rubbed massage oil into the seats. 

Anna says hi and the driver doesn’t turn her face fully around. She just tilts it in Anna’s general direction behind and to the right of her, the hint of a dimple peeking out at the edge of her profile. She’s got a Southern twang when she says, “Hi, sugar,” but it feels stiff, as though the accent had been bought earlier that day and hasn’t yet been fitted properly to her heavy voice. 

“Bit hot,” Anna says.

The woman smiles at her in the rearview mirror. “That’s summer for you.” 

Anna won’t press the issue. She knows drivers can be picky with their cars; the last thing she needs for an already expensive trip is to piss off the woman getting her there. She shrugs and adjusts the bouquet on her lap. The woman continues, “It’ll cool off some here soon; sun’s setting.”

 “Yeah,” Anna says, “suppose it will.”

The car lapses into silence as she looks out the window. Her mom’s house is closer to civilization than most but that illusion doesn’t last long. The small houses packed together begin to be pulled farther and farther apart. These houses are as shabby as stragglers tend to be; their patchwork shutters and splintered doors lean toward the town’s center as though straining to catch up in a race that’s fifty years past. The daylight glances off of broken glass pieces in window frames and into Anna’s eyes. She doesn’t look away even as she slowly blinds herself. 

The car is hot and the driver is hard to look at for long, though Anna isn’t sure why. It occurs to Anna that she doesn’t remember what the driver’s face looked like in her profile picture. It doesn’t stay in mind for long. She’s taken enough ubers that she doesn’t always keep the names or faces in mind; a revolving door of faceless chauffeurs whose names will fall out her ear the moment she steps out of the car. 

They’re far enough outside of town that the houses have been swallowed by the encroaching woods, shacks disappearing through the treeline. The glare of the asphalt scatters reflections of summer sun into her retinas. Anna feels the heat festering against her cheek, magnified through the car window’s glass.

As they turn off of the main road and into the dusty sidestreet, her driver says, “You’re gonna watch people die.”

There is a bead of sweat that’s rolling down the back of Anna’s neck. The driver’s pale hands continue to maneuver the car toward the sun.

Anna asks, “I’m sorry?” 

“People will die.” The woman says. It’s slow and deliberate, and when Anna looks, she’s still smiling into the rearview mirror. “You’ll be there when they do. And you will watch.”

The flowers have wilted in Anna’s grip. The stems crunch under her fingers as she grips them. She tries asking, “What do you mean?” but the offense dries in her throat before she can croak out a singular, “What?”

The driver’s teeth are perfect, blunt, and numerous. “You won’t even lift a finger to help.”

It’s cold where the back of Anna’s knees have stuck to the upholstery. She’s sweating so much that the chill burns hotter than the sun that melds Anna to the pleather. There’s more questions that come to mind- how does this woman seem so sure, what does she mean by doing nothing, why her? All of the questions crack on their way to her tongue and catch in splinters between her teeth. The car slows as the road becomes more uneven.

Anna finally summons enough voice to say, “That’s none of your business.”

The driver laughs. It sounds like bells ringing out of tune. “Enjoy your visit, Miss Rivera.”

Anna stumbles her way out of the car the moment it stops. The sedan rolls away without a care and Anna is left coughing on the exhaust, hand to her throat as she draws a blank on the driver’s name.

#short story #my writing #anna rivera #folk horror #admittedly this was supposed to be the prologue to a longer thing but then! #the setting kept getting too complicated #so i had to take occam's razor to it and now im reworking it into two separate books instead lol

[whysojiminimnida]

WELL I SEE IT'S TIME TO TALK TATTOOS AGAIN

Holy cats, hoes mad:

I just adore Black&White KM, don't you? Honestly, never yells at me no matter how often I steal their pics, they give out freebies at concerts, they're respectful -- if you're gonna make a living off photographing famous people, do it like they do. Honestly. So they're in Qatar doing their whole job and hoes losing their shit all over the internet, apparently, all because a certain JM is darker. STILL.

This is not a brand new development.

Y'ALL HE DID THIS MONTHS AGO WHY ARE WE JUST NOW FREAKING OUT ABOUT IT?

This is at LAST YEAR'S GRAMMYS Y'ALL:

And completely unedited, unretouched, the JM was darker enough then that I did a whole post about it.

I MEAN DAMN have we not gone over this, like, several times? (In case you're new to this house elf situation we have here, yes. YES WE HAVE.) We have talked about Jungkook's tattoos at GREAT LENGTH. Well, I have, as far back as a while ago, most recently along about here but also here and here and here and several other places. There is zero tag organization in this house, I don't know what else to tell you.

Anywho Jungkook's tats do not, as nearly as I can tell, mean this:

Because, like the nice graphic above says that I just edited, THIS IS FAN-MADE BULLSHIT. I dunno who made it but I suspect the addition of the J upset some folk enough to need to make JeiKei's motivation anything OTHER than Jimin. Because, as we know, he started out with his ink like this:

Yes, that is a pic someone ripped off. I don't like using it. But it's what we have, and it's years later, and it's been out there for a long time, don't shoot. But I have expounded more than once on why it makes NO SENSE to GO BACK LATER to add one letter to a near-complete hand piece. It doesn't. And that A is not, never has been, a V. In Korea you can go literally anywhere and see Samsung logos, Shilla hotel logos, and of course Jimin's dad's cafe' all using that stylized A with no crossbar.

And I think it's pretty clear what JK thinks the JM means. It means Jimin. Ji Min. JM. DUH. And just like his "rather be dead than cool / make hay while the sun shines" crossword ON HIS ARM, he has a crossword on his hand. A very obvious crossword. Who he loves is written for all of us to see: ARMY, and JM. And lest I forget about that crown:

It's THE SAME CROWN. Wanna go one better but likely utter fanfiction, you could even go heart-arrow-crown like so: 💜 > 👑... ... and make that story work. It actually makes more sense than one J for four people and four letters for three. But we're not here for that. Occam's Razor tells us that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, and the simplest explanation is the one that's got bitches tearing their hair out. Because THEY KNOW. They KNOW that JM means Jimin, and they HATE IT. (And so what, to quote JeiKei directly. We're gonna talk about fan hate today, too, just... not in this post).

MEANWHILE JUNGKOOK is always showing us his hand, too, have you noticed? Ever since he got the tattoos, but I think more in the last year. It's gotten really pronounced since the PTD dates.

Jeon Jungkook does what Jeon Jungkook wants, and what he wants is for us to pick up what he's been throwing down since, oh, FOREVER but even more recently. Like, it's NOTICEABLE, the way he gets that tattoo in frame at every opportunity. I'll run out of image space before he runs out of ways to show us his touched-up hand.

Yeah. I think the fanmade bullshit has been exposed for what it is. Some of us have known it all along, but even if you're baby Army and you accidentally got stuck watching a lot of comic sans rainbow font youtube garbage (or got up on the wrong side of stan twt), there's no shame in that. I ain't even mad. I'm just happy you're here. Jeon-Park house elves, how we doin'?

#jungkook tattoo #jungkook tattoos #jeikei's tattoos #those damn hand tattoos again #here we go #jikook just jikooking nbd #must be 2022 in the jeon park house #hand tattoos #hand tattoos and ring placement #we didn't even talk about ring placement #jkjm #jmjk #kookmin #minggukie supremacy #jimin #jungkook #jeikei #jk #must be 2022 in qatar

[jaskierx]

i know i’m complaining about bad takes on the bad take website but i’m truly baffled by the idea that depression robe ed was ‘flaying himself open and begging the crew to like him’, and that he needed izzy to have that outburst bc otherwise ed would be endangering the crew, and that whatever kraken!ed is doing is somehow ‘healthier’ and ‘more normal’ than what ed was doing when he had finished his mandatory few days of post-breakup lying in bed and was starting to move on and tidy his space up and interact with other people.

what he was going through wasn’t massively healthy, no, but that doesn’t mean it was abnormal or invalid, or that izzy suddenly had free rein to call him slurs and make death threats (even if it was out of genuine concern for the crew, which i think is giving him way way too much credit. occam’s razor folks. he’s literally just a homophobe.)

idk it’s sometimes very jarring to see people perpetuating all kinds of ideas about tough love and ‘getting too close to the crew’ when talking about a show that very obviously wants you to root for ed (and stede) and to question ideas about masculinity and how a man should behave and how, particularly, men in authority should behave

#this is awfully written sorry but it's the end of the day on a friday and ya girl is Sleepy #ofmd #edward teach #fandom critical #izzy critical #lyse.jpg

[skaruresonic]

I feel like there should be way more discussion and analysis about the government demanding gerald to figure out immortality while also working on weapons of mass destruction

Yeah, especially considering the foil between the two and SA2's narrative reflecting contemporaneous cultural anxieties around the development of WMDs.

Not to sound like a boomer or anything, but I feel like the people making Gerald out to be morally gray because he "experimented" on Shadow must skew young, or otherwise not remember the political climate of the late 90s and early 2000s, because they seem to think of stereotypical biomedical experiments as like, the epitome of scientific evil. It doesn't seem to register with them just how extremely sketchy it is for a research facility to make WMDs in secret. That alone ought to tip people off to the idea that the ARK was up to some shady shit under the table, but for some reason folks eschew that side of things in favor of more overt markers of questionable ethics.

The Quintessential Evil Research Facility MUST have experimented on its test subjects a la Aperture Science. like bro I did not spend my childhood hearing George W. Bush mangle the pronunciation of "nuclear" as "nucular" for this lol

My personal pet theory is that the weapons of mass destruction being developed aboard the ARK are the particle beam cannons and antimatter weapons outfitted on GUN mechs. My reasoning rests on Occam's Razor, what we know of Gerald's dealings with the government from Battle, and the fact that the safe storage of antimatter requires near perfect conditions at temperatures approaching absolute zero in a tight vacuum. What fulfills those conditions better than the vacuum of space? What better place to develop these cutting-edge weapons away from the public's prying eyes than a secret lab not easily accessed?

#asks

[agirlcandream84]

I may regret posting anything but I keep seeing unhinged theories on the Chris Evans / Alba marriage. I write fanfic about the man but his marital status is largely unimportant to me because he is, after all, a stranger. But on logic alone I cannot understand the claim that this is all PR. If this were all a PR campaign it would go down as one of the worst in history. It's more or less destroyed his core fandom, it's shrouded in secrecy, it's done nothing to boost either of their careers, he's closed down his social media, there are next to no pictures of them and it's gone on for two years.

By what metric would this campaign be measured?

What was the campaign's objective?

If PR's purpose is to favorably boost public opinion or awareness, how has this campaign achieved that?

This is, by every measure, a horrible PR campaign. One that no publicist would ever run, let alone for 2 long years. And that's because it's not PR. He is not some D-list reality star desperate to stay in the public consciousness and nor would his PR team develop a campaign that treats him as such. To assume as much is, frankly, silly and out of touch.

There's a principle called Occam's Razor that says if you have two competing ideas to explain the same phenomenon, you should prefer the simpler one. The simpler idea here is that he's spent a majority of his adulthood in the public eye, with a fandom that is obsessive and often quite cruel to the women he dates*, and has decided he wants far less exposure of his personal life and you're seeing the product of that decision.

We don't have to like his choice or what it says about him (I'm personally very put off at how pre-pubescent she looks and what that means for his tastes) but we don't know him-- no matter how much online lurking we've done. Our familiarity with him is an illusion.

Acceptance is peaceful. I encourage you to explore it.

(*this is not to suggest the women he's dated are without flaws or issues but the misogyny has practically leapt out of some folks when Alba shares a shower pic.)

#chris evans #chris evans alba baptista

[princeescaluswords]

McCall hunter Anon. I understand exactly what you mean when it comes to AUs that change the open and dynamic for everything. However I argue that the reason I myself don't like them too much is because folks that do such things don't think about the butterfly effect one has on everything else that comes next.

I love your take on it and yes the Argents backstory would be the same however you've given me a question I never thought to ask "why wasn't Scott trained?" I have my own answer for why Melissa gave up the life. But I never thought to ask about Scott and the answer would be he was the opposite of Kate. And on the spot idea would be that Scott was too pure. In a world of boys will be boys Scott idolized and took after his mom with he wanted to take care of people he wanted to take care of everybody even his hyperactive friend styles he took care of when injuries came. He mimicked his mom and her attitude when she was studying for her medical degree. And, Melissa looks at Scott and says I don't want to take taint this. As far as we know, as according to the Argents, females were leaders and men were soldiers. And, if he doesn't fit the roles of either then why not make him something different; a healer.

Using your thoughts a dynamic that I now want to explore is Deaton. If Mel has the backstory that she has then that would mean she knows who Deaton is. What if Scott's whole Outlook on life to help everyone and job came from a change of heart hunter and a heartbroken emissary? Such a thoughts, both minds and yours, I feel wouldn't change the story but it would change\depend the dynamic of a few people.

For me, I always prefer the simple answers. When it comes to "why wasn't Scott trained the way canon Allison was?," Occam's Razor suggests that regardless of what type of Hunter the McCall's would be, Scott's asthma would be an obstacle. Unless you want to make the McCall parents as bad as Gerard, they're not going to ignore the fact that it would not be very good if a hunter has an asthma attack in the woods in the middle of the night. I'm sure that there are other roles an asthmatic Scott could play in a McCall Hunter AU, of course, but it remains a valid possible reason for him not being trained.

I want to push back on any description of Scott as pure. I don't think you meant it in the way it's usually taken, but it is still a dangerous idea to me. Canon Scott is not so much different than any other teenager in the show: Stiles, Jackson, Danny, Lydia, Isaac, Boyd, Erica, etc. He's ambitious to make first line, to make something happen in a life he sees as 'sitting on the sidelines'; while he falls in love with Allison, he is definitely lustful; he is resentful of his father's absence. Melissa may have encouraged him to be compassionate and courageous, but he's not inherently better than any of his peers. When it comes down to it, he's the heroic protagonist because he makes better choices according to his own judgment.

"Purity" as a trait in fiction appears as often and can be as damaging as "destiny"; they become shorthand for "the hero is the hero because he was always meant to be the hero and thus has an advantage in being better." Which means, of course, that those who aren't heroes were never meant to be the heroes, and thus somehow have a disadvantage. I feel this is what leads parts of the fandom to dislike Scott because they, wrongly, feel that his role as heroic protagonist means their favorite character is supposed to be seen as inherently bad. (For many, this offends their racism.) This isn't true. Scott not only could have chosen wrong but he sometimes did choose wrong. He's the hero because, in the critical moments, he decides to do the right thing. For example, he had every reason to listen to Stiles and abandon Derek to his fate in Formality (1x11), but he didn't. He needed to save Allison, and no matter that Derek had just betrayed him to Peter and just tried to kill Jackson, Scott believed that Derek was the type of person who would help him.

But pushing back against "purity" also means I have to look at Scott's relationship with his mother. I don't think we're supposed to take Melissa as some sort of perfect parent. She's not portrayed as such. She's never shown as uncaring about Scott, but she is significantly detached from his life, even during Season 1, in a way that no other parent (aside from Corey's) is indicated as being. I feel this is a function of class and narrative necessity, considering how much her work is empathized. Fandom makes a joke about Melissa doing everything at the hospital, but I don't think we're supposed to dismiss it. Melissa always being at work isn't laughed off by the narrative and that makes her distant. Unlike the Sheriff for example, she has no idea that the sacrificial ritual is causing her son any problems. She misses Scott's uncharacteristic aggression toward Isaac and is confused by Scott's lack of control in Anchors (3x13). And what's more telling is that even after these situations -- she never follows up. This never changes. The scene at the start of Creatures of the Night (5x01) demonstrates this. Scott isn't "pure" because Melissa is always there for him; he makes good decisions despite Melissa being involuntarily neglectful.

I push back on this because of the way parts of the fandom try to insinuate that Scott didn't earn the True Alpha status or even something like a positive relationship with his friends. Or that he was given special treatment instead of the bullshit he was put through. It would have been very easy and justified for Canon Scott to have actually hated Derek enough to leave him to his well-deserved fate, and very easy and justified for Canon Scott to have let the Knowledgeable Adults have their way and execute Void Stiles, and very easy and justified to spend the ten episodes after Status Asthmaticus (5x10) waiting for himself to heal and let other people deal with the Doctors, the Beast, and Theo. But he didn't. And it's that choice, not any inherent quality, that makes him the heroic protagonist.

#scott mccall #scott mccall defense squad #melissa mccall #teen wolf meta

[thewordwideweb]

Egg cream. No egg, no cream.

Today’s Word of the Day will focus on that drink of the gods, the sweet, satisfying beverage known as an “egg cream,” even though it contains neither egg nor cream.

As real aficionados know – and to be one of those, you have to have grown up or at least spent some time in Brooklyn or one of the other boroughs comprising New York City – a true egg cream contains just three ingredients: milk, seltzer and Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup. I could wax poetic about making sure the milk is ice cold and how you must bounce the seltzer off the back of a long spoon while stirring vigorously, but I’d just end up drooling on my keyboard, so I’ll restrain myself.

So why is it called an “egg cream” and why, since I’ve been enjoying this fizzy delight for seven decades, am I just deciding to write about it now? Well, because I had never heard this particular derivation theory before today.

Until now, I never knew that some folks believe “egg cream” is a corruption of the Yiddish “echt keem,” meaning (we’re told) “pure sweetness” (although I think the Yiddish word for sweetness is “ziskeyt”). I had heard many times the alternate theory that the drink was named for the frothy white foam that develops on top of the luscious libation, which kinda sorta resembles a beaten egg white.

Personally, I subscribe to Occam’s Razor, which postulates that the simplest solution or explanation is usually the best one. And in this case, the simplest explanation is that once upon a time, as early as the 1830s, folks were enjoying beverages that contained both eggs and cream, although they may not have been called egg creams.

There was a reference in the Hereford Journal in Hereford, England (which is about as far as you can get from Brooklyn) in 1838 to a recipe which called for the yolk of an egg, a spoonful of cream, and “if convenient” two drops of oil of cinnamon.

By 1897, the “American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record” in New York City (now we’re talkin’!) had a recipe for an “egg cream” that included evaporated cream, egg yolk, vanilla extract and syrup. By 1914, the Los Angeles Times carried an ad for a variety of egg-based drinks, including “egg chocolate, egg cream, egg lemonade, egg coffee, egg flip, (and) egg phosphate.”

No matter how it got its name, it is without question an egg-cellent soda fountain treat!

#word of the day #words #language #humor #egg cream #brooklyn #soda fountain #fox's u-bet #seltzer #yummy

[salt-volk]

since I’ve seen a few folks here mention it, I figured I might as well toss my two cents into this ring. (bonus: I don’t have to mince words quite as much here, haha.)

I don’t think the custom raffle was a scam. I don’t think that’s a wise or logical conclusion to jump to, given what we know. It just doesn’t make sense for the devs to shoot themselves in the foot so blatantly, for so little return.

1) making more customs does not negatively impact DV’s bottom line; in fact, it bolsters it.

If making customs cost anji more than just time, I’m sure the whole Irin situation would’ve been handled very differently. In fact, one of my suspicions as to why the bugged makers were not immediately rescinded (perhaps a bit conspiratory in and of itself) is that more customs = more money for DV. The more individual customs there are on-site, especially public customs, the more mirrors people will need to buy. There would be no benefit to going back on two (2) custom makers, especially when upwards of a dozen (iirc?) were previously given out at once. (I think there were obviously other factors to the irin situation, too - it would take an immense amount of time to go through logs/determine makers spun legitimately and those spun by people who knew of the exploit, they thought it would make people angrier to revoke the makers, maybe it was just sheer incompetence, etc.) Anyhow, point is: there is no reason for the devs to withhold the custom makers they promised. It’s better for them if they’re distributed.

2) As absolutely fucking stupid as a lot of the devs’ decisions are, I really don’t think they’re this stupid.

With DV, there’s a reasonable level of fumbling and bullshit to be expected with pretty much anything that comes out. This surpasses it. I mean, DV’s reputation is in the mud already in pretty much every circle I’ve seen. It’s a small miracle we get new users (even if 90% of them leave in a month, lmao.) Running a raffle that specifically asks people to advertise DV on social media, then expecting them not to tell everyone about a piece of drama this juicy, is… wishful thinking, at best. I truly don’t see staff sabotaging themselves this blatantly.

3) there are more reasonable explanations for the lack of raffle results, ones that are based on the devs’ past actions and are much simpler conclusions to reach.

Occam’s razor and all that. Staff has a history of both not knowing how to do very basic things for a petsite (I mean, they can’t get their own goddamn droprate straight enough to release. doesn’t get much worse than that) and also just… not communicating anything, ever, without the userbase begging and pleading for even a crumb. Either explanation makes much more sense than some tinfoil hat “it was all a lie for free advertising!!!!1!1” nonsense. Hell, you could even combine the two and get a pretty reasonable solution.

So, that in mind, there are three possibilities as to why there’s been no word on the custom winners.

A) The winners haven’t been drawn because staff either hasn’t finished compiling the data, or they can’t figure out how to select a winner. I think the main evidence is the sheer length of the custom entry thread on-site. They’ve run giveaways on social media before, and smaller raffles for events, but I don’t think they’ve done anything that was 1) both at once and 2) this large in scale. Capes were distributed gradually as people posted in the thread, so it would be logical to assume that entries were compiled as the thread grew, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the most crucial step was saved until the very end. Additionally, they could be short-handed due to finals or holidays, Anji could’ve insisted on doing this alone, etc.

B) The winners have been drawn and contacted, but staff has not communicated this at all. I’m somewhat less keen to believe this (though perhaps that’s wishful thinking on my part, haha) because surely at least one of them would have said something? The only reason I can think of is that either both winners are hardly active/hermits/wish to remain anonymous, or winners were asked not to reveal the fact that they won. I really can’t say how likely either option is.

C) it’s a lovely cocktail of both explanations. Winners haven’t been drawn, and staff won’t communicate because this kind of delay makes them look incompetent. I think this is the most likely option. I mean, there are threads on-site addressing this very issue. Surely, if the winners had been drawn, either the winners or the staff would step in to clear things up?

In short, take off your tinfoil hats. I think this entire situation is another example of the incompetence and ineffective/nonexistent communication that has plagued DV since its inception. Just another goddamn Tuesday on the most poorly conceived petsite this side of the 2010s. That said, I think we should keep posting about this on-site; historically, raising a ruckus and posting a few conspiracy theories has forced staff to post some kind of response in the past. It sucks that we have to force their hand for basic communication, but… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

To any staff involved with the raffle who might skim this blog and come across this: for the love of god, just say something on the matter. The only reason speculation spirals this far into the land of conspiracy is because you let it. We have nothing to go on, ever, because you refuse to give it. It’s infuriating to watch because I want to have faith that y’all have morals and half a braincell but you make it so fucking difficult. Even typing this out, I caught myself thinking, “but what if.” Your userbase’s lack of faith in you speaks the volumes that pretty art and cute npcs could never fill.

.

#oqulis #mod yoshi #customs #staff #reply

[fellhellion]

I’m sorry to keep messaging but I’m literally going insane— people who think that Miguel is just bullshitting or lying about the stuff with canon events and that the entire spider society is just blindly following him are also discrediting characters like Peter and Gwen who have been established to be extremely smart and also very independent

like do you think they believe in the canon event algorithm without proof?? Miguel literally says “we haven’t always been lucky” implying MULTIPLE universes have been lost to the breaking of canon. Miles defying the odds breaking the cycle of canonical suffering is interesting BECAUSE it is something that actually exists (both inside and outside the story). Imagine how fucking flat it would feel if in the theater for btsv the story just went “oh yeah btw that stuff was never real Miles’s dad was never in any actual danger teehee”

nah nah no need to apologise, i enjoy hearing other people's thoughts on this stuff!

and nooo head in hands this bothers me so much too. like putting aside the fact that miguel as a character doesn't make sense if his fear of dimensional collapse and sympathy about the more awful canon events ISN'T genuine, the spider society isn't just taking this on the word of one guy!

a whole group of them including Peter B were literally present during the original collapse, anomalies (as in folks in the wrong dimension) do seem to cause some form of damage to the dimensions they're in like vulture affecting the stability of the art museum etc. Not to mention that of course nobody wants to be playing scientist with billions of lives and testing which triggers will cause dimensional collapse! Especially since they seem to be able to disintegrate incredibly fast. They're scared and trying to protect people, and Miguel's alt dimension collapsing literally only happened at MOST a couple months ago so memory of that is literally sitting in the forefront of everyone's minds.

Even the way they brush aside the idea the Spot is to blame for Pavitr's dimension unravelling, I can understand where that sentiment comes from. We aren't shown any other universe Spot has visited manifesting the same kind symptoms from use of his powers (not even the one he used a mini collider in), so I get why they'd go occam's razor and attribute that unravelling to a canon event being disrupted.

But yeah on your last point! Miles triumphing over this conflict is, to me, at it's most effective and moving when he conquers stakes characters genuinely believe can't be beaten, that have weighty dramatic tension! When he triumphs over a legitimate idealogical position and not just over some guy lying for reasons incoherent with the actions he takes and retroactively making every other spiderman look kind of silly!

#i do think the 'we haven't always been lucky' COULD just be in reference to their failed attempt to save miguel's alt dimension #but could also plausibly be about the idea that dimensional collapse has happened before. imo i think not though because otherwise it would #be something important to show the audience as multiple examples of the same stakes #ask games #anon

[beesmygod]

i get what you mean but the writing around Gwyndolin always made the whole thing feel a little uncomfortable imo. and the idea of "why keep it up if Gwyn's not around" falls a little flat since that's their entire deal, being saddled with sticking around and holding up societal conventions for a bunch of gods who are dead or left long ago. no disrespect to folks who see her as her but the writing around them always felt too messy and uncomfortable for me to say she without strings attatched

this is the occams razor part, imo and i understand this view esp considering the interviews ive seen. my (GAME) theory rides on twisting the nature of gwyn's influence on gwyndolin and gwyndolin's intent with anor londo now that all the gods beat feet. i think her intention with staying in anor londo have less to do with gwyn's desires than the fact that darkness is descending upon the land bc the flame is fading. she's actively assisting in helping find a new sucker strong enough to feed the flame in order to maintain dad's status quo. anyway: i get it

[thelonesomequeen]

It’s to make the “relationship” look real. ////

Maybe it looks real.....because it is?

The simplest explanation is often the most likely.

Occam’s Razor, folks 🧜🏻‍♀️

[atypical-irritant]

Discourse Stances & Personal Opinions

On the topic of my general views, my present stances are;

PROSHIP/COMSHIP » People are free to "ship" whatever they want, even comship. No stranger online has any right to dictate another person's art, written or otherwise. Don't like? Don't look.

PRO CONSANG » Consanguinamory is odd and, personally speaking, I couldn't have less attraction or interest in it if I tried. That said, what consenting adults do together is none of my concern nor should it be anyone else's. The arguments about inbreeding reek of eugenics, anyway.

PRO PARAPHILIA » I have no issue with paraphilias in general. Demonizing someone based on what's in their head is textbook thought policing. If someone is struggling with those types of thoughts or impulses, they need help; not harrassment.

PRO MOGAI » MOGAI orientations and microlabels exist and do plenty of good for those who use them. They don't "give the queer community a bad name", though queer folks parroting homophobic, conservative rhetoric in hopes of being considered socially palatable sure do. MOGAI labels are just people exploring their understanding of self; get over it.

PRO SELF-DX » In a world where it cost over $2,000 just to get some neuropsych to ask me a few questions, self diagnosis is a valid action. Even if it wasn't, demanding medical proof from strangers is much worse. If they're wrong, that's their problem and not your concern.

PRO KINK » Kink is healthy (because that's somehow controversial 🙄).

TRANS-ID NEUTRAL » I don't care if someone identifies as transid. I can't say I fully understand it, but I don't make it a habit to take someone else's identity personally. If their self perception offends or otherwise upsets you, then it's your responsibility to avoid them for their's and your own sake. Harassing and demonizing them won't make them go away

ENDO SAFE » (TL;DR I can neither confirm nor deny the possibility endos exist and, to my knowledge, no one can nor should they try. I'm also critical towards those who are aggressively against their existence.) When it comes to the possible existence of non-trauma formed systems, I believe that, due to the covert nature of dissociative disorders such as DID and the varying affects societal stressors can have on a person, it's entirely possible anyone believed to be non-traumagenic could very well have gone through trauma and not recognize or remember it. I also believe that entire possibility is completely irrelevant and serves no purpose other than to make others paranoid of their own mind. In the same vein, anyone that shares a similar opinion who then goes on to declare non-traumagenic systems are impossible and/or demands endogenics find "proof", needs to read up on the argument from ignorance fallacy and get their head out of their own self-absorbed ass. Endos exist because they say they do. That alone is a very important distinction that deserves to be identified and treated with the same legitimacy as any other system. They're clearly separate from traumagenic systems, seeing as their mere presence in the general plural community played a sizable part in creating the incredibly divisive atmosphere we have now. Fakeclaiming is even more outlandish when you consider the likelihood that large slews of people with zero prior relations all decided to fake a covert and complicated dissociative disorder for fun/attention. Should I recommend reading about Occam's Razor next?

ANTI SYSCOURSE » This is somewhat complicated. Those who treat "syscourse" as an excuse to harass people they don't agree with are the problem, not the groups as a whole (though I wouldn't say syscourse in general is all that productive either). Essentially, I can't stand die hard exclusionist and "antis" from either side of syscourse arguments. So why do I participate in it? The behaviors of those who genuinely believe they're making some type of difference and wholeheartedly believe their shit fascinate me.

I'll add more as I'm made aware of other hills people intend to die on. Feel free to send me an ask if you're curious about any of the things mentioned or have information that I've perhaps missed. I'm not above changing my mind. Conversely, I'm not beneath telling self-important assholes how wrong they are neither.

#discourse discussion #syscourse #pro para #endo safe #pro consang #pro mogai #pro kink #intro post #my post #my thoughts

[pr0blemd0g]

diff anon — but you kind of just outed yourself as someone who digs in their private business by posting an ‘evidence picture’ from an account of an acquaintance of N&A who is clearly not in the public eye, thus your need to censor it. it also gives pay to the reluctance of that other person that Nat would not want this information out publicly if you had to dig through his non-famous friend’s Instagram account for it.

nobody said it was bad to have Tourette’s. you making that insinuation because you were criticized for potentially violating a privacy concern is particularly obtuse. Michael is very open about his having of the disorder — Nat does not have to be if he does not want to. he’s been bullied since he was a kid for every other thing under the son. it is all completely speculative if he has it or not. you’re not doing favors for him or for awareness by stating what you believe is objective.

i’m gonna also guess that you do not know many folks with neurological conditions if you think that tiredness on a talkshow is a fucking symptom of a nervous system disorder. he’s a celebrity who lives in NYC and is in his 20’s. apply occam’s razor to that.

Nat was tagged in the post, the account is public, I didn’t really have to dig at all. I censored the guy’s username because I felt like it 🤷‍♀️

Also my source for that last part was a study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience, so maybe take it up with them if you disagree with that.

#ask

[winkle-pickers]

12, 27 and 29 for the wrapped writer ask!

HEY YOU!! 💖

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

Um. Oh god. About a million. Including a Spider-Man/YGO crossover that's closing in on 100k words. (I'd vowed to never publish it, but if Ten Thousand Year Elegy is any indication, apparently my weird niche YGO crossovers actually DO have an audience, so...v( ‘.’ )v)

27. What do you listen to while writing?

I have a playlist for Ten Thousand Year Elegy that nonsensically contains everything from typical fantasy adventure music, to Bach, to Canadian folk music. For everything else I write I usually get utterly hyperfixated on a random song per chapter. In Occam's Razor these ended up being the chapter titles (◌˘◡˘◌)

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

OH GOD IT'S A TIE I'M SORRY I'M GOING TO CHEAT FOR THIS QUESTION.

From 'on fulcrums and floral blends:'

Mokuba looked at Hiroto expectantly, and Hiroto realized that Kaiba was going to be utterly useless in this situation. He cleared his throat. “Ahem. Do you wanna…do something together on Sunday, Kaiba? “I bet he does,” Mokuba said under his breath, so quietly that Hiroto almost didn’t catch it. Hiroto pretended he hadn’t, because he wasn’t prepared for the possibility of the world’s cutest sixth-grader roasting him with a disturbingly snappy innuendo. Kaiba finally managed a grunt that didn’t sound like one of his “fuck off and die” grunts. “You two should exchange numbers,” Mokuba said slowly, over-enunciating like he was trying to teach two gorillas how to speak Japanese, “so that you can figure out the details.”

From 'Ten Thousand Year Elegy' as the Yuugi-tachi follows a Korok through the Lost Woods. Honda has just asked the Korok how they navigate through the woods:

“So anyways,” Chio continued, “I listened real hard to that music. And I realized that the music is friendly! It wants us to find our way home.” “Huh?” Jounouchi said. “Who’s playing the music and how do you know they’re friendly?” “Keep up,” Chio chided. “No one is playing the music. The music is friendly.” “Okayyyy,” Honda said. “Got it. So to find your way around, you just...” “That’s right! Follow the nice music! It always takes me home.” “We’re going to die out here,” Kaiba deadpanned. “Probably eventually,” Chio agreed cheerfully. “Death is not so bad. You just fall down on the forest floor and sleep for a while, then all the little bugs come and make you into dirt, and then you get to be a home for plants. Maybe even a tree if you’re real lucky.”

Idk I just really liked writing the Koroks, they're so ridiculous and cute!!

Always a delight to see you in my askbox michelle!!! <3

#asks #my fics #ask game

[russilton]

ngl, i also wouldn't want lewis to force himself to do his posts (although i know that this wasn't what the anon meant, it also makes me feel better to read his motivational rambles, because it means he had the emotional capacity to write them, which is good). i suppose we're all sensitive after he didn't give any sign of life for two months or so after abu dhabi and instead completely disappeared from the radar, especially since lewis is usually chronically online.

last time, i think it was a very needed mental health break, he's spoken about it at lenght and it did him good. sadly the following season decided to be pretty unkind and another test of faith. for all the patient things lewis said and for how extremely good every rare high felt, he obviously hated this season. on sunday all the said was how much he was looking forward to the end, the car was a disappointmet again, he wan't happy with the one stop strategy, the dnf happened. also, the whole seb thing clearly does a number on him and the emotions of that added to the general mess that his race on sunday was.

i guess him taking longer than 24h to post has always been a sign of him just taking longer to feel like he's able to but that's alright? it's not ad21 2.0. i don't think he's shell shocked or depressed or even angry anymore, i suppose he's just a bit tired and looking forward to his holiday. and i know that this isn't what anyone means when they worry about him being quiet for longer than usual, but guys, he doesn't owe us, right? like it's not his responsibility to keep up the social media presence every single day when he doesn't feel like it. which goes for every other person as well!!

(and shit haha sorry mark i rambled)

I think people get VERY over analytical with social media posts, and it pains me to say this, but you guys (not specifically you anon but the people who often come to me worried about x number of posts or x missed mention and so on) need to chill out somewhat.

He’s posted now, so y’all can go look at that if you want, but it always gives me a side eye to see folks go “it’s been 24 hrs” etc - guys, he’s probably busy. First free day in months, he probably put his phone down and did his own thing. It’s not always a big sign of the end or a deliberate choice. Life is not a structurally paced TV show. Sometimes I don’t come into tumblr for a day cause I have stuff going on that’s more important than tumblr. It’s not a sign of mental turmoil, I just got distracted.

All Lewis probably did was sleep for a decade after a tiring race, go out the next day to something he pre planned, and then the next day he’s back at work on the car. Occam’s razor and all, the simplest solution is probably the correct one. He’s not a social media influencer he’s a driver who happens to use social media. It’s probably not scheduled into his day.

Also, when I’m tired, the last thing I want to do is explain myself clearly and eloquently to others. I want a nap! Give the guy his metaphorical nap from PR and such. It’s something you can’t change by worrying about it.

#asks #anonymous #wank/rants

[morkhan]

Much ballyhoo is being made about the supposed 4x8 script including a line that seems to confirm that Will recognizes Dr. Brenner, even though, as far as we currently know, they've never met.

So I've come up with some possible explanations for this scenario. They are, in order from simplest to most convoluted:

1. Script is fake.

This is the "Occam's Razor" option. Script writing programs are plentiful, and many are free. It would not be difficult to make a fake script to mess with people. I know, this seems like a lot of trouble to go through to set up one weird detail you know people will latch onto, but people have gone through more trouble for much less. Sometimes folks is just bored, y'all.

Honestly, this is where I'm currently at. There is no point during the series where it makes any sense for Brenner to have met Will. Will was in the Upside Down most of season 1. What did Brenner do, have his men catch Will, bring him back to the lab, tag him, and release him back into the wild like an exotic bird? I doubt it. Did they meet in the hospital, while Brenner was being treated for having his face munched? I don't think Joyce would've let Brenner near him, nor do I think she would've left his side long enough for him to sneak in, so that seems unlikely.

The thing that really makes me scratch my head is Mike's described reaction, because... like... we know Mike has seen this dude. We saw the scene. It was an extremely tense and traumatic moment that directly involved Eleven, so we know Mike would have been paying attention. Forget the question of why Will would recognize Brenner - why wouldn't Mike?

It just seems fishy to me.

But, just for fun, let's entertain the possibility. Other potential explanations include...

2. Eleven told Will about him at some point.

Second simplest option. El lived with Will for months, they seem to have become relatively close. Maybe they bond over their less-than-ideal Papas. Maybe she even shows him a picture! We know they exist, we know he was in newspaper clippings. Maybe El kept some, trying to work up the nerve to search for him after the guy in season 2 told her he was alive. El learns about Lonnie, about good old fashioned abuse and neglect, and Will learns about Papa, about emotional abuse, gaslighting, and manipulation.

The thing that makes me think is is unlikely is that it's so mundane, it almost seems like it's not worth mentioning. Why would you bother to note Will's specific reaction to some guy that somebody else told him about? It's a very odd note to include. So even though this is the second simplest explanation, I don't think it's particularly likely.

3. Brenner met Will before the series.

This is where things start to get wacky. It is, I suppose, technically possible for Brenner to have met Will before the series began. But in what circumstance? It would have to have been a situation without Joyce present, since there is no indication that she is at all familiar with Brenner when they interact in season 1. So how would he have met Will alone? Will did have a degree of autonomy before he got abducted, but he was still a child; all he did was go to school and his friends' houses. I don't think Will would have just randomly run into Brenner while riding his bike, and I don't think he would remember him if he did.

So Brenner would've had to meet Will in a very specific circumstance, one that would have stuck in his mind, which would most likely involve Brenner doing something to him. What would Brenner want with Will? The only thing I can think of is that maybe, in the immediate aftermath of the Massacre at Hawkins Lab, he briefly searched for other children to induct into the program to replace the ones he lost. Maybe he posed as a doctor at a children's clinic, and did a bunch of weird tests on kids who came in for routine checkups. But then, Joyce probably would've been there for that, so that's a no go. Maybe he went to the school? But then the other kids would remember him as well.

The only other thing I can think of is maybe he just walked up to Lonnie one day, slipped him a $20 and said "hey, let me do weird shit to your kid for a couple hours" and Lonnie was enough of a POS to say yes. I could see that. But in that circumstance, it's worth noting that Brenner decided not to use Will, which is not a great sign for the "Will has powers" crowd. I don't know, this one seems extremely iffy.

4. Unexplained Psychic Shenanigans

Probably the second most likely option, even though it's the most convoluted. Through some kind of shared memory or dreams or what have you, Will knows Brenner through Henry, or maybe even through Eleven. The crucial thing here is that if this is the case, then we just don't currently have enough information to make sense of it, and it will be explained in season 5. So even though my money is still on option 1, I'm willing to say this one is at least possible.

~

So yeah, those are my thoughts on that subject. Not to rain on anyone's parade, but this one just smells fishy to me. It's pretty widely known that the Byler fandom is... let's say "conspiratorially minded," liable to latch onto small details and turn them into huge deals. I've seen people go out of their way to mess with such fandoms before (look up TJLC sometime if you're curious). So it's not hard to imagine a scenario where somebody is just doing this to fuck with people. But I guess we'll see one way or another, won't we?

#Will Byers #martin brenner #stranger things #mike wheeler #joyce byers