#and I do have to wonder

[12pt-times-new-roman]

I am so ready for EXU: Calamity.

Like others have pointed out, I absolutely love that this is an adventure for which we know the ending, but we don't know the ending. We know what's going to happen, we know that nothing anyone can do will ever stop it — but we don't know what they will do. Matt and Brennan have created a story where tragedy and loss is inevitable, where the ending has already happened and the history has already been written, but they've done it in such a way that never robs the players of their agency.

Because the truth is, we don't know what happened. We don't know what will happen. The Calamity didn't just destroy 2/3rds of Exandria's population, it didn't just destroy every magocracy of the Age of Arcanum, it didn't just devastate the world — in a way, the Calamity destroyed itself. It destroyed its own history, and most of the history that came before it. We know that it happened, we know some of the things that occurred — but all that we know exists on the order of gods.

Vespin Chloras released the Betrayer Gods because he wanted to ascend like the Raven Queen. (Dire Children chase the Matron's wake.) The Betrayer Gods, upon seeing the world, no longer sought to destroy but to dominate. (Festering wounds from schisms long-since passed.) They formed a stronghold at Ghor Dranas, decimated Xhorhas, and launched an attack on Vasselheim. That attack forced the Prime Deities to descend and fight the Betrayer Gods. The Apotheon was given gifts of the gods and nearly defeated Gruumsh, Torog was banished (probably by Sehanine), Tharizdun was locked away by Ioun and Pelor, and the Betrayer Gods were imprisoned once more. The Prime Deities left Exandria and built the Divine Gate so nothing like the Calamity would ever happen again. (The wheel will always spin, its gilded fulcrum rotting from within.)

So the history is written, the time has gone by, but the stories haven't been told. Things end in tragedy and destruction and inevitable loss. The march of time will carry on, the march of time will stop for no one's hands, the march of time will inevitably and invariably push forward. That history happens, has happened, will happen. It's gone by. It's done.

But that's the thing about tragedies.

In my eyes, a really, truly good tragedy is a story where it seems like there are a thousand, thousand times where a character could've made a different choice, a thousand chances for things to end up better, a thousand opportunities to avoid what's coming next — but where it simultaneously feels like nothing could have ever avoided the inevitable end. A good tragedy comes when we know that the characters could have made a different choice, could have done something different, could have changed course, but we also know that those characters never would have. And that's what we know now: this tragedy will happen, because these characters may once have had a chance to stop it, but they were blinded by their comfort and arrogance until it was too late. They could have had a chance at stopping Chloras, but they never would have.

(Honestly? I think that these characters are the people who could've stopped Chloras from releasing the Betrayer Gods, but didn't. I think the city they're on either housed the temple he used, or floated above it. I think that we're going to get to see Brennan play possibly the greatest mortal villain in all of Exandrian history, and I really, really hope that this is the series where we finally get to see a full party of 20th-level characters.)

I can't find it anymore but there's a post floating around about Shakespeare's tragedies — about how if you put Othello in Hamlet's plot he'd have killed Claudius immediately, and if you put Hamlet in Othello's plot he'd out-think Iago. But it's because the characters are who they are that these inevitable tragedies are allowed to happen. Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, had a saying that went something like this: character is destiny. I think this is what they meant.

We know how it ends, but we'll watch it anyway. Because really, we don't know how it ends. We know how people think it ends, we know how the gods told people it ends, and yeah, that might be the truth. But there's a world of difference between world history on the order of gods, and the tale of a group of would-be heroes who never really had a chance but tried anyway. (Especially when those gods are known to lie.)

#critical role #critical role meta #exandria unlimited #exu #exu: calamity #exu calamity #note watches c3 #at first I thought one of them might play Halas but iirc he was born during the calamity but this takes place right before it #someone else said that Sam might play the Aeormaton that FCG once was and whoever you are I love you #that would be so fucking cool #but we know for a fact that Leylas Kryn lived through the Calamity #and I do have to wonder #what if all (or some of) the characters they play are consecuted #and we eventually find out who they are in the present day? #or what if someone plays one of the Somnovem? someone from Aeor? that mage trapped in the bubble in the amphitheater?? #there are so many possibilities #I apologize in advance for the state of my dash whenever things about this drop

[astearisms]

catalysts, protectors

#man those episodes #so many things put into perspective #like Simon’s role as a protector and his kindness and empathy and compassion and existence being the catalyst for the rest of ooo to #flourish #and Betty is a protector of Simon #I wonder if the last two episodes will explore more of her character? there’s so much to be explored about her giving so much of herself #to Simon but not thinking about what she wants for herself #do we get to explore her feelings or see her at all? will she have changed or learned to let go #I think there will be some sort of closure for the both of them #but at what cost #I am still crying over that scene with Simon’s memory of Betty and their song #my art #fionna and cake #fionna and cake spoilers #simon petrikov #betty grof #petrigrof #golbetty

[prideprejudce]

this whole oceangate submarine fiasco has actually led to a lot of interesting talks and debates about the grey area of human empathy vs the inclination to recoil at the bizarre behaviors of the ultra wealthy and how people struggle with both ideas and is actually very interesting to watch play out in different types of people

#like some people are on polar opposite sides where they have no empathy for the passengers and have moved on #while others are in tears over the likely death of these people #well everyone else in the middle is struggling compartmentalizing both at once in their minds #yes for this wondering I do have submarine fever this is the most fascinating thing that’s happened in a long time #oceangate #titanic

[starspilli]

dc cowboy doodles & wips !

#diana prince #wonder woman #diana of themyscira #bruce wayne #batman #dc comics #dc #dc fanart #dick grayson #nightwing #koriand’r #kori anders #dickkory #starfire #titans #teen titans #jason todd #red hood #robin #my art #artists on tumblr #i hate how this is laid out HEAD IN HANDS!!! #tumblr formatting my worst enemy #i have so many wips for this i was going to throw in lol but they’re a little tew messy #feels illegal i didn’t include clark in this lol i’m defo going to do more so lmk if any1 has specific requests 👍

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

I remember discussing Tintin casting choices with a friend from Germany and remarked how it was odd he often has an English accent in adaptations rather than a Belgian one, and my friend just replied "that's because Tintin gives incredibly strong English boy energy (derogatory)"

Here in the UK there's a lot of weird classism tied into accents. Today accent diversity and representation in broadcasting is actively pursued but in Tintin's time there certainly was a preferred accent to have.

imagine this exchange happens between pages 28-29 in The Crab with the Golden Claws

#tintin #adventures of tintin #comic #captain haddock #archibald haddock #snowy #milou #fanart #the crab with the golden claws #i remember tintin crafting a trumpet to communicate with an elephant #and he remarks he must get the accent correct #very odd scenario but it shows he would be a stickler for that sort of thing #i also have to say accents do not indicate how smart someone is #a lot of pundits use an english accent to sound more credible #but i have to say there are a lot of fucking idiots here #me included #thank you 2011 film for validating my scottish haddock headcanon #any french speakers who have read to this point i wonder what your hcs are for his french speaking accent

[voguewoozi]

tag what kinds of fics you wrote if you answer yes! i would love to know

#this is bc im wondering if people did/still do this #i have a very distinct memory of one i wrote in 10th grade #tumblr polls #fanfiction #im talking again

[inkskinned]

so one of the things that's so horrifying about birth control is that you have to, like, navigate this incredibly personal choice about your body and yet also face the epitome of misogyny. like, someone in the comments will say it wasn't that bad for me, and you'll be utterly silenced. like, everyone treats birth control like something that's super dirty. like, you have no fucking information or control over this thing because certain powerful people find it icky.

first it was the oral contraceptives. you went on those young, mostly for reasons unrelated to birth control - even your dermatologist suggested them to control your acne. the list of side effects was longer than your arm, and you just stared at it, horrified.

it made you so mentally ill, but you just heard that this was adulthood. that, yes, there are of course side effects, what did you expect. one day you looked up yasmin makes me depressed because surely this was far too intense, and you discovered that over 12,000 lawsuits had been successfully filed against the brand. it remains commonly prescribed on the open market. you switched brands a few times before oral contraceptives stopped being in any way effective. your doctor just, like, shrugged and said you could try a different brand again.

and the thing is that you're a feminist. you know from your own experience that birth control can be lifesaving, and that even when used for birth control - it is necessary healthcare. you have seen it save so many people from such bad situations, yourself included. it is critical that any person has access to birth control, and you would never suggest that we just get rid of all of it.

you were a little skeeved out by the implant (heard too many bad stories about it) and figured - okay, iud. it was some of the worst pain you've ever fucking experienced, and you did it with a small number of tylenol in your system (3), like you were getting your bikini line waxed instead of something practically sewn into your body.

and what's wild is that because sometimes it isn't a painful insertion process, it is vanishingly rare to find a doctor that will actually numb the area. while your doctor was talking to you about which brand to choose, you were thinking about the other ways you've been injured in your life. you thought about how you had a suspicious mole frozen off - something so small and easy - and how they'd numbed a huge area. you thought about when you broke your wrist and didn't actually notice, because you'd thought it was a sprain.

your understanding of pain is that how the human body responds to injury doesn't always relate to the actual pain tolerance of the person - it's more about how lucky that person is physically. maybe they broke it in a perfect way. maybe they happened to get hurt in a place without a lot of nerve endings. some people can handle a broken femur but crumble under a sore tooth. there's no true way to predict how "much" something actually hurts.

in no other situation would it be appropriate for doctors to ignore pain. just because someone can break their wrist and not feel it doesn't mean no one should receive pain meds for a broken wrist. it just means that particular person was lucky about it. it should not define treatment.

in the comments of videos about IUDs, literally thousands of people report agony. blinding, nauseating, soul-crushing agony. they say things like i had 2 kids and this was the worst thing i ever experienced or i literally have a tattoo on my ribs and it felt like a tickle. this thing almost killed me or would rather run into traffic than ever feel that again.

so it's either true that every single person who reports severe pain is exaggerating. or it's true that it's far more likely you will experience pain, rather than "just a pinch." and yet - there's nothing fucking been done about it. it kind of feels like a shrug is layered on top of everything - since technically it's elective, isn't it kind of your fault for agreeing to select it? stop being fearmongering. stop being defensive.

you fucking needed yours. you are almost weirdly protective of it. yours was so important for your physical and mental health. it helped you off hormonal birth control and even started helping some of your symptoms. it still fucking hurt for no fucking reason.

once while recovering from surgery, they offered you like 15 days of vicodin. you only took 2 of them. you've been offered oxy for tonsillitis. you turned down opioids while recovering from your wisdom tooth extraction. everything else has the option. you fucking drove yourself home after it, shocked and quietly weeping, feeling like something very bad had just happened. the nurse that held your hand during the experience looked down at you, tears in her eyes, and said - i know. this is cruelty in action.

and it's fucked up because the conversation is never just "hey, so the way we are doing this is fucking barbaric and doctors should be required to offer serious pain meds" - it's usually something around the lines of "well, it didn't kill you, did it?"

you just found out that removing that little bitch will hurt just as bad. a little pinch like how oral contraceptives have "some" serious symptoms. like your life and pain are expendable or not really important. like maybe we are all hysterical about it?

hysteria comes from the latin word for uterus, which is great!

you stand here at a crossroads. like - this thing is so important. did they really have to make it so fucking dangerous. and why is it that if you make a complaint, you're told - i didn't even want you to have this in the first place. we're told be careful what you wish for. we're told that it's our fault for wanting something so illict; we could simply choose not to need medication. that maybe if we don't like the scraps, we should get ready to starve.

we have been saying for so long - "i'm not asking you to remove the option, i'm asking you to reconsider the risk." this entire time we hear: well, this is what you wanted, isn't it?

#where's the word woman in this u might wonder if u suck #good news i am nonbinary and have a uterus so that is something that can happen #im also gender fluid tho which means im immune to certain psychic damage bc if u call me a woman i'll be like <3 okay <3 #writeblr #the tightrope of ''ppl need access to this'' #and like also #''what the fuck is going on over there'' is like. so difficult as an activist #i was <3 punctured <3 during mine #and almost bled out on the table :) they didn't have anyone standing by bc it's ''just a little insertion'' #so i started crashing and i vaguely remember apologizing for the fuss as i heard my heart rate monitor start going <3 tachycardic <3 #she wasn't even a bad doctor tbh #ps btw the reason i even HAD a heart monitor is that i have a genuine heart condition and they knew GOING IN that there was a chance #i'd crash on the table #like my heart just likes to do fun little tricks and <3 stop working <3 (i do not want to discuss the specifics ty i am okay im ontop of it #and they were like 'oh u will be fine' and then she did do a puncture thru my uterus . pop! #and im sitting there dizzy and feeling my heartrate start to drop bc it feels almost. beautiful. like. the whole ground just #woosh! out from under you. and shit is like grey's anatomy. i'm looking up at her grey eyes #she's old she wears this nice shawl she's like got Cool Lesbian vibes and people are sprinting into the room #from other parts of the clinic unrelated to me. while the monitor is like a little aria singing #and shes like hey youre okay stay awake stay with me something went wrong we have to keep trying #and i remember thinking - i was trying to think of nice things. i have so many beautiful places that now overlap #with this terrible memory #i became dimly aware that there was too much on her wrists and hands. like #that was too many liters #and then when they had finished all this. i packed up and drove myself home #i have had (bad thing) happen to me. and the same feeling happened after #that numb almost lamblike bleating. you cry without noise. like. ur body is so shocked and ur mind so empty #you just stare at the road and everything everything is happening behind glass and static and you are standing so far away from it #while you hold ur hands at 10 and 2. and something in ur brain is SCREAMING at you - IT WAS BAD AND IT SHOULDNT HAVE HAPPENED #and ur just watching the alarms in your body going off and youre thinking. a little pinch! ha. i think i just lost something important.

[rendevok]

“Promise” - a nrmts + trucy comic

This comic is for @metaphorical-goblin for the Nrmts creators server art/fic trade!

#narumitsu #miles edgeworth #phoenix wright #trucy wright #7yg #once again telling everyone to go join the server bc it’s fun there!!!! #HUUUUUGGGEEEEE shoutout to willow for having a huge brain and for being such a wonderful trade partner! it was an honor to work with you <3 #i love seeing edgeworth and trucy together…. #trucy be like ‘this performance SUCKS. BOOOOOOO :tomato::tomato:tomato:’ #i saw it was sicktember and tbh i laughed because i didn’t even mean to do this… i’d been planning it since august so JHLKSDJF #anyway *baby coughs on phoenix* #beanix #fan art #fan comic #aa #rendevok

[ruporas]

… and it all came flowing to his brain, three years of his youth. (ID in alt)

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #gojo satoru #kenjaku #geto suguru #ruporas art #happy boxing day :partyexplosion: this is technically a redraw of an old piece i did!! #one of the top tier scenes of jjk - the tragedy was truly crazy i remember seeing this back then and had my whole life sucked into stsg #for a bit wraghhhgds it came back when s2 started airing but not for long... i knew i wanted to do a piece in celebration of the boxing tho #after this........i wonder if ill have the strength to do more jjk art... after that new chapter *puts my hands behind my back* #*staring longingly into the distance* but it was fun revisiting these scenes. im also queueing this before the ep airs #so im excited to see how devastating the effect will be in mappa's animation!!!

[raytorotits]

CDs are obsolete because the sound quality sucks

yeah sucks me good and hard through my jorts

#okay in actuality?????? vinyl is inaccessible in so so many ways. #cant afford a decnt record player which means that the vinyl i DO own is uhhh soumds worse than #my cds theough the blutooth speaker i have #cds arent 'better' than vinyl but theyre an affordable access point #and wonderful technology #and for the majority of people cd sound is better than spotify or youtubemp3 #they didnt go obselete bc they sucked they went obselete (to the extent they did) bc of digitization #it ALL depends on what speakers you are playing things through #cds are LITERALLY lossless like????? #cd quality is usuallly better than vinyl cd quality is better than anything but flac #bc flac is MODELED ON CDS #ask bosk

[twinstxrs]

so much happened in this whole episode but i’m still on fig infiltrating ruben’s dream, making it look like the place where his friend was murdered, and then disguising herself as kipperlilly & repeatedly saying different variants of “somebody needs to take the fall for this, and it’s not going to be me. it’s going to be you.” while adaine as the elven oracle shows up next to her. can you imagine waking up from that, the idea of a horrible truth being pinned on you by your friend to save her own skin while the personification of fate and destiny stands there, almost as a promise that this is GOING to happen to you. we don’t even know if this kid is guilty. my god.

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #fantasy high junior year #fig faeth #ruben hopclap #lucy frostblade #the rat grinders #adaine abernant #kipperlilly copperkettle #watching fig terrorize him like girl!!! we don’t even know if he’s guilty!!!! #this might just be for me but i do not think 5 teenagers willingly brutally killed their friend idk #like there just has to be some other element to it and i am very scared to find out what that was #what if they were put in a position where they felt there was/there was no other choice… like oh my god #my comedy brain is having fun but my ‘this is a teenager’ brain is in such deep distress all the time this season #the rat grinders i trust brennan to not make u cartoonishly evil so i am holding u as gently as i can in my confused shaky hands #also with the devil’s nectar i’ve been wondering why they all seem so well-adjusted & now i’m curious if they’ve been intentionally- #changing their memories in a way so that either the trauma is lesser or they think they aren’t guilty. idk #but it seems like from how gertie was talking she was making it more recently so the well adjustedness from early jy doesn’t quite add up #they could have another source maybe??? idk i’m just low stakes 4 a.m. spitballing here #there’s also the strong possibility that they’re aware of what happened but they weren’t the ones who killed lucy. idk who knows #the way you could probably devil’s nectar yourself into believing it wasn’t your fault someone died… CRAZY IMPLICATIONS!!! CRAZY IDEA!!! #anyways the bad kids & the rat grinders don’t ever have to like each other but i do wonder if at least some of those kids deserve a chance

[egophiliac]

swipes everything else off of the table to yell about diasomnia flower bookmarks

(I gave Silver one too :D)

#art #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland spoilers #white rabbit festival #me: oh boy i wonder what excitement will happen in this new part #characters: now it is time to buy souvenirs :) #me: oh god #jk jk even when the filler is kind of painful i do enjoy the little character moments #like everyone screaming as loud as they can into silver's watch #deuce busting out his suzy izzard impression #SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER! #and of course silver assigning flowers to the other dias and getting all sappy over lilia. god. delicious. #you don't understand this ten second long scene is everything to me #though we all know the real highlight #the knowledge that 1) deuce used to have an extremely silly edgy badass nickname #2) he almost certainly gave it to himself #3) he harassed epel's extended family to the point that they told horror stories about him and he was briefly epel's personal idol #epel: i heard he once killed three men with but a look #deuce: what no i never...i mean...ha ha sounds weird nothing a model student like me would know about #also deuce: if you fuckers don't apologize to my mom right now i'll fucking kill all of you (sees dilla) uhhh i mean #deuce: i challenge you to a children's game #black bunnies leader: (strapping on his duel disk) i accept #meanwhile silver is running full speed at a group of children screaming to them about donuts #we aren't going to talk about what ortho did with that fantasy-gregg's sausage roll #so glad that we've reached the 'what the heck is even happening' portion of the event #anyway i completely screwed up the resolution of these so here's hoping they don't look terrible! #whoops!

[lazycranberrydoodles]

getting back into the untamed and i had a thought. / follow for more yllz babygirlism

#i saw someone a while ago talking about how wwx always has good intentions…. #his personal road to hell was paved with good intentions yes but i’m not sure where making a guy eat his own legs fits #it is so funny to me how the tiger tally/yin iron influences wei wuxian differently in each adaptation #i remember making a sliding scale of how ‘culpable’ wwx is from adaptation to adaptation #based on how they portray the mental effects of the iron #but for the life of me i cannot find it :( #wwx really said ‘if i had a cursed amulet i simply wouldnt be corrupted🙄🙄’ #that’s basically what he tells lan zhan in this episode…. if necromancy was having ill effects i would notice #and you know. at this point he is lying about everything. but i do wonder how much he actually believes that 👁️👁️ #how much of his mind is resigned to doing whatever needs to be done to exact revenge regardless of harm to himself #and how much genuinely believes that he’s smart and competent enough to make it through whole #the answer of course is BOTH!! bisexual pride #mdzs #art #mdzs spoilers #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic arts #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #my art #the grandmaster of diabolism #cql #the untamed #魔道祖师 #陈情令 #mdzs meme #doodle #lmao

[uncanny-tranny]

Not a day goes by where I do not think about the advent of medicine like PrEP and wonder just what the people - especially queer people - who passed from HIV/AIDs during the AIDs crisis would think

And then, I read this survivor's testimony and it just makes me emotional. I think this is the closest answer we have. HIV has changed, and we must always remember the people who didn't see that change before it happened.

#gay #queer #lgbt #lgbtq #described images #image description in alt #i do try to learn from older queer people about this tome period because i wasn't around for it #but i always wondered what the people who didn't make it would have thought of where we are now #there's this weird grief and celebration because i am so glad we are where we are. i just wish everybody cpuld have seen this #this is why it's so important to learn from each other about everything #it takes a village to create community #i have been thinking about that twitter post at LEAST once a month since i first saw it #very complex feelings on this one folks #there is so much left to learn i think but this just hits me in a specific way

[kthulhu42]

Women do not owe you anything. We do not owe you access to our bodies. We do not owe you access to our emotional labour. We do not owe you attraction. We do not owe you acceptance to our spaces or opportunities.

Women do not owe you anything.

#radblr #radical feminism #feminism #terfblr #The male socialisation really jumps out of this one huh #“Who told you that you can say no to men and get away with it?” #terfsafe #gender critical #It's all “you have to” and “you gotta” no I actually don't #“They can and do read trans womens traits as masculine/male” yeah I fucking wonder why jakey maybe it's because you're a man

[wasabi-gumdrop]

Kabru has a secret admirer in the castle!

#running from my responsibilities (drawing armour) by imagining post canon Kabru fashion #minor spoilers in the tags! #royal advisor Kabru’s office is probably overflowing with gifts from foreign dignitaries eyeing him up for marriage #and sacks of perfumed letters from Melini citizens #Marcille would be so sick of it #Laios also has his fair share of proposals #Yaad is like … boys spare us all and pick a suitable candidate already #well Yaad there’s a saying that goes two birds one stone #anyway lol #someone might have suggested to Laios ‘hey Kabru works so hard. you should show your appreciation.’ #Laios (blushing sweating): uuuh how do i do that #Marcille probably: i hear it’s customary to give your royal advisor flowers the same colour as their beautiful blue eyes #Laios: well if you say so #but he starts having second thoughts bcs what if the gift is too romantic #so then Laios is like oh i know i just won’t sign it (: #fool proof plan Laios good job #totally not taking into account that Kabru can recognize his penmanship at a first glance #so at their next meeting Kabru is like ‘i wonder who my secret admirer in the castle is 😉’ #and Laios sweats so hard he falls out of his throne #doesn’t Kabru of Melini have a nice ring to it #better yet …. Kabru Touden #much to consider #dungeon meshi #dungeon meshi spoilers #kabru #kabru of utaya #labru #if you squint #wasabi doodles