#and I'm not putting the blame on individuals either btw

[acavatica]

Does voting make you anxious?

This isn't like me, but I'm going to give my fellow millennials (and younger) the benefit of the doubt: Are you not voting because you don't know how? Have you never done it on your own? Don't know where to start? Read on, I guess.

(This info only applies to the US, btw, I think the rest of y'all have it together better than us. I mean, maybe some of you don't, but I can't help you.)

Register to vote. Vote.gov walks you through the process. Note: There are primaries where each party chooses its finalists. Those happen before the main election in November. To vote in a primary, you have to be registered to one of the 2 real political parties. "Independent" doesn't mean you can vote for whichever one you like, it means you don't get to vote in the primary. I don't "identify" with the Democratic Party, either, but the fact is, any viable progressive candidate is going to be running as a Democrat and being a registered Democrat allows you to vote for people who represent you better. Do not register as an Independent. This doesn't matter for 2022, because primaries are over, but keep it in mind for the future.

Find your voting location. This time the tool is at vote.org. Right now, at least for me, my voting location hasn't been assigned. But when it is, you can put your address in here and find out where to go to vote in person. This page also has a list by state that takes you to your state's voting website. You can probably also do a mail-in or absentee ballot, but those rules vary state by state and I'm just some rando on tumblr. If you have going-outside-anxiety, google "absentee voting [the state you live in]." We are not allowed to vote online in the US.

Extra Credit for the Nerds: Look up who you'll be voting for. Put in your address, it shows you your ballot. Generally speaking, in a national (non-primary) election you can just vote down the party line of your preference, you'll usually only have two options, Democrat or Republican. It's really the primary where you can make the most difference, but we're here now, we vote for the lesser of two evils. But again, for the future, the less hype an election is, the more you can pick people you won't lose sleep over, we're talking local elections, midterm elections, primaries. When people only turn up to vote for the president, we get stuck with what we're stuck with. When people don't even show up for that, we end up where we are. I'm not blaming you. I have anxiety too. IMPORTANT: A lot of states have referendums for abortion rights this year. (California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont.) The questions can sometimes be worded really confusingly. The links above go to each state's individual referendum so you can read the question and make sure you understand before you get to the poll.

Make a plan. Find out if you need ID (bring it just in case). Arrange transportation. Get an accountability buddy. Put it in your calendar. My polling places are open 6AM to 6 PM and if you're in line at 6PM you're guaranteed to be able to vote. The list from Step 2 should get you to your state's voting FAQ. If you are scheduled to work on November 8, 2022 (or some voting day in the future), know that 30 states require employers to give their employees some amount of time off for voting. Many states offer paid leave for voting. My state offers 4 hours unpaid, but hey, that's half a day off work. 🤷‍♀️

Vote on November 8, 2022. Here's what to expect: you walk into a school or a church or a retirement home. There are signs pointing you to the right room, and there are tables where poll workers might do some of the following: find your name in a book, check your ID, make you sign next to your name. You will either be given a pen and paper ballot or you will be directed to a computer ballot station. The ballot will probably look much like we practiced in Step 3 (this is where you get your extra credit). If you're voting via computer you might get to time travel to ipod controls times. Either way, it only takes a few minutes, you submit your vote, get your sticker, and then you go home or maybe get yourself a little treat.

This feels pretty cheeseball, honestly. I'm as disillusioned as any other progressive, and I think politics are fake 80% of the time. But I do work in government (in a library), so I know how to do these things, and I know a lot of people don't or are stressed out or intimidated. You don't have to love who you're voting for. You don't have to be enthusiastic about it. You don't have to expect anything to change because of it. But if you're scared, you don't have to be.

My ask box is open and anon is on if you wanna ask specific questions. ✌

#politics #voting #american politics #midterm elections

[hadeantaiga]

Israel is less than 80 years old and is a coloniser state. I'm sick of people saying Israel existing as a settler colonial state is only bad because of the genocide of its natives. Dissolve the nation of israel now, invasion is NOT the same as 'moving in jewish citizens where they want to have a home uwu' moving in doesn't involve all the shit israel does

If you disagree with any of that, you're fucked up. If you agree, thank you.

Sick of seeing posts on tunglr that are like "well i may believe the state of israel has the right to literally invade and displace but i don't like bombs uwu" anyone can feel free to call me anything u want because of that and put words in my mouth because of that

Btw while I'm at it, fuck right wingers fuck america fuck the uk and fuck colonialism. Fuck anyone who blames israels colonialism on jews and not geopolitics and imperialism. No tolerance for antisemitism or conspiracy shit. No tolerance for Free Palestine and stuff being called antisemitic. No tolerance for "free palestine from the evil (((jews)))" either

Ok im done

Free Palestine

Everyone learn the difference between "Israel are twisted colonisers" and "Jews suck" now pls

It's fascinating timing that you sent me this and I saw it literally seconds after I made a post stating I openly support the Palestinian Right to Return.

I do honestly think that the way the modern state of Israel was created was wrong. I understand the complex sociopolitical influences behind it - and I also understand some of the more emotional logic behind it including, "the Holocaust just happened and no one wanted to save us by taking us in, so could we please have a place where we'll be safe?". So I get why some people are still really pro-Israel existing in some way, because it is promoted as the only place in the world Jewish people are safe.

But going in, evicting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and saying "this is Israel again and you're not allowed to come back", that wasn't the way to do things, and I can't honestly understand why anyone today, looking back on that, would agree it was the right choice.

At the end of the 1800's and early 1900's, Palestine was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Jewish immigrants to Palestine prior to WWI were not particularly welcomed by the Ottoman Empire, even though their numbers were well below 100,000 individuals. After WWI, the region was controlled by a mix of the British and the French. Britain, at that time, declared a wish to create a Jewish state in the region for a multitude of reasons. Dislike of Jews in Palestine continued, even though no state of Israel had even been adopted yet. But that declaration by Britain paved the way for the eventual forcing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 and continuing thereafter.

Even though I'm converting, I don't have any desire to visit Israel as it is right now. The actions its government are taking right now is, to me, unconscionable and I could not support it by visiting. The government of Israel has become the oppressor in the region.

#i/p

[fourseasonsfigs]

I Have Caught You (Kiss of the Century)

The fig maker's original listing for this fig set was so wonderful I saved it (poorly machine translated, as usual):

I Have Caught You - mystery figures, wearing red and blue concert robes. The 5.3 concert was the beginning of all fate. I played the rps of the two of them, met a group of excellent and lovely friends, and did some interesting things. Occasionally, when I feel that I can't persevere, thanks to their encouragement, I can persevere all the way. It was not easy for them to catch each other.

The fig maker didn't make it easy to catch this set either - it was a small run limited to 500, and required proof of purchase of at least 164 yuan (each) of endorsements to prove support for each actor, and Gong Jun's endorsement purchase had to be after 5/4. While I had come late to the party and unfortunately never bought any of Zhehan's endorsements, I had made a donation in his honor for his birthday, which counted. For Gong Jun it was much easier since I had already bought some of his 361 products (which I really like btw, all very nice).

This is such a beautiful set - I love it so much. Of course because it's from the SHL concert, which is always an instant shot to the heart, but also it's just a delightfully done pair.

But first, a few pictures to go back down memory lane, on that first day of the concert on 5/3/2021...

HELP I'm feeling emotional! What a great night. Or you know, early morning Pacific Standard Time, it was 2000% worth getting up at 4am for.

I was going to keep going with the concert pics but I have to stop myself because Tumblr's 30 photo post limit has no remorse, and I need to save some bandwidth for these figs!

These arrived safely, thank goodness, tucked away in their polystyrene cases. I found (to my horror) that this, my most recent sea shipment, had a ton of resin figs I had forgotten to get bubble wrapped before I shipped. AND I shipped these with a literal ton (ok not that literal, but close!) of acrylic fig stands, which sure don't weigh much individually but add up when you buy 300 at a time. And when the warehouse puts the pounds and pounds of them right on top of all these figs in the box. The look on my face when I opened the box and came face to face with the sins of my youth. And I would have only have myself to blame, which is always the worst. But miracle of miracles, all these figs escaped unscathed.

Now I know I've said in the past that I can't stand to see figs cry, and I can't! But I will make an exception for this set, because tears of joy at the end of that concert was entirely acceptable and very welcome.

Their little hands! So cute.

Yes my husband just looked over at my screen where I had the enormous photo of two figs kissing up on my photo editor, and he just shook his head. I just started laughing and laughing! Yeah, I don't know how I became this person either (at my age!), but I have NO regrets! NONE.

[Side note - actually, I know exactly how I became this person. And it's this concert, together with the joint Happy Camp episode, that started launched my hyperspeed journey down the Couple Fan Junzhe road. Before this concert, I would have told you definitively, like I would have bet cold hard cash that there was no way I would ever be so crazy or this delusional. Like I've been around, you have to be pretty tough and cynical to survive in today's business world, and I'm not in the habit of believing in much of anything these days. And yet fast forward and here I am (at my age!), watching Gong Jun post vacation photos from Yunnan and swearing up and down these two are in love and married. I am the tinnest of tin hats and I have NO regrets! NONE!]

I think the hair is beautifully done - look at Lao Wen's beautiful guan (which should be gold instead of silver, but not quibbling here!).

The costumes are just beautiful here. I know fig makers despair over Wen Kexing's gorgeous red costume because it's so incredibly ornate that it's hard to replicate, but this looks wonderful.

I like the motion on the robes too, the sweep of it out behind them.

You can just barely see Zhehan's boots here, which is pretty accurate since his outfit is shorter, and given that WKX's red robes are really, really long.

Coming back around - I love the fig maker's choice to have Zhehan's eyes open and Gong Jun's closed, it's a beautiful call out to the Century Hug in the following day's concert.

Here's an extreme close ups of the beautiful costumes.

And from the top...

...and the bottom! These figs are decently stable on their white booted feet, and their interlocking hands actually holds them together really nicely.

One last close up of the Kiss of the Century!

Material: Resin, and a whole lotta love

Fig Count: 262

Scene Count: 19

Rating: Pure romance

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#junzhe #cpf #lld #1640 #51129 #word of honor concert #word of honor cast #woh cast #shl concert #shl cast #zhang zhehan #gong jun #i love them #I may be cynical #but I'm still a sucker for something honest and beautiful and pure

[jorenilee]

i typed this out quickly and in one take because i was offended by your post about frye consistently losing splatfests. in your tags, your reasoning doesn’t make sense and frankly comes off as racist. i don’t agree that her team is typically the “fiery” or “awesome” team unless this was explicitly said somewhere and i missed it. i don’t get that impression. either way, referring to the entirety of japan as if they’re one collective without diversity of thought or individuals IS racist. you should think twice before making assumptions like that japanese people prefer “logic” and “maturity” over something that’s “cool.” also, blaming japanese people for all the bad things about the game + immediately turning to point fingers at japanese people when your team loses the splatfest is also racist. i am a japanese-american whose favorite character is frye and i want her to win as much as you do, but you need to stop putting racist takes out onto the internet as if they’re facts

yeah this is fair. when solo won, my tl was full of people immediately jumping onto accusations about white ink and rigging, + the year of people dragging shiver and saying frye's choices were "bad" and being venomously racist when japanese playerbases do sway votes, so I tried to find an actual pattern that wasn't just "japan rigging" and made baseless assumptions myself.

I do definitely think now I should've rephrased, especially making sure it wasn't flat statements, saying ALL japanese players thought that, or sound like I'm pointing fingers or was upset. Also really sorry I came across as blaming Japan. I thought the difference between the west/japan's popular votes (going off popularity polls and reported mirror matches) were interesting and it was my fault for assuming the reasons behind them. To emphasize so no one gets the wrong idea from my tags, japanese playerbases contribute hugely to splatfest results just for the simple reason of larger player numbers but it's stupid to label them as "responsible for bad things" or splatfest losts because they are just playing the damn game. No ones being malicious or whatever (+ nessie/aliens and the chocolate fest seem to be very evenly balanced global vote-wise).

Just for clarification (you definitely didn't miss anything), Frye's choices being on the more silly end was just another assumption I did. It's usually kids - who are famously not very skilled - that are into fire types, being with family, doing fist bumps (which was a western fest) or her teams are a bit more geared towards the west (to my knowledge, skeletons don't have quite the cultural significance ghosts do in japan but imo, ghosts are just way more famous Everywhere).

or had the VERY SUBJECTIVE "less mature" choices (strawberry vs vanilla, sweet vs spicy or sour, again fist bump vs handshake or hug, milk vs dark or white, (people said japanese players thought the white ink was cute so it was more popular which ??? that didn't sound true nor important enough to sway the results like that), grub vs gear (gear was literally the logical right choice btw) and fame was just. unfortunate all around)

and I just thought Shiver's personality is more "cold" and "logical" or very very mildly "edgy" (ie team power or money) > her team choices usually are > adults pick them more > win more, but it was my bad for naming japan as a whole instead.

That's also my bad for being too lazy to expand on it in the tags. Thanks for bringing this up 👍 I'll remove the tags so people don't get the same assumptions

#long #ask #words #wanted to address since there is very real xenophobia in the splatoon community that i have seen #and i dont want to be regurgitating any rhetoric like it #glad you shared anon 👍 #i also typed those quickly in a much less thought out and correct manner i def shouldve realized huh. maybe this is wrong #and i beg. it is fictional characters pls guys do not take splatfest losses as damning tragic events

[risingnovas]

hello world :)))

studyblr (re)introduction.

i used to lurk in the shadows as an inactive studyblr account but now that i'm a university student i want to team up and make friends :D

about me

i'm aleixandre, i use she/her pronouns and i'm studying robotic engineering. i'm only on my first year so there's a lot i have yet to learn !!

my degree involves chemistry, physics, a lot of maths and programming, for now.

i'm from spain, so i speak spanish as well. i'm not interested in the language side of the community but if anyone wants to chat in spanish i'm open to it. also, if i make any mistakes in english i blame it on not being a native speaker lol.

what do i plan to use this account for?

i'm looking for people in the stem community so we can complain about how our degree is so so hard together :) and also to see how is it like to study engineering at other places/countries.

i'll post cute pictures from time to time, but i'm not all that focused on aesthetics. i'm messy at heart but i like toying with image edition :)

i like poetry and essays too, so i'll share quotes/articles about learning and academia that i find around.

lastly, i'd like to take part in productivity challenges and other commmunity activities, if only to connect with more people :D. i study a lot anyways so i might as well share it with the rest of the class !!

misc

i listen to a lot of music and i like making connections/web weaving !! some of my favourites are

° argentinian urban music (which doesn't feel like most people in the studyblr community are into, but it's like. really mainstream stuff lol),

° kpop groups such as itzy (the girl in my profile picture is ryujin!) , xdinary heroes, stray kids, [g]idle or nmixx.

°sad girl classics, aha, like fiona apple and mitski

° and... a lot i don't feel like individually mentioning but can't sort into categories either. they will come up in my blog though :))

i also watch anime sporadically. i'm currently obsessed obsessed obsessed with chainsaw man !!!

i was told i should be more participative in class so i'll try my best to put myself out there too. people usually tag people here but the blogs i used to follow (main is @originz, i follow from there btw) are mostly dead so if anyone from the stemblr community wants to be buddies it'd be great ?? if you read till the end you get my gratitude <3

see you around!

#studyblr intro post #stemblr #engblr #studyblr introduction #new studyblr #studyblr community

[nimbus-tatze]

Ok so lab grown meat

I hate (with a passion) the idea that stuff like lab grown meat or vertical farming (the indoor uv lights stuff) would be a good long term option of massive food production. The concepts themselves are amazing, bc maybe it'll be used in healthcare and it's generally nice to know what options you have and to expand them and just drive science forward, you know?

But when people talk about lab grown meat as a serious alternative in the food market I just have to log tf off bc that's the typical 'man-conquers-nature' bullshit that my indigenous self can't deal with.

People are seriously taking mars colonies or lab grown meat into consideration bc they are just unwilling to get dirty for once in their lifetime by turning around and cleaning up their own shit. Instead there is this idea of just leaving it all behind to rot by itself and venture to new horizons bc they think it's cleaner and more efficient.

Like if you would bother to turn around you'd see the millions of piss poor farmers that have done it clean and relatively efficiently regarding their circumstances, for centuries. Imagine how much more efficient they could be if they received a shred of the funding and support they actually need and deserve. But of course it's a lot more tempting, more shiny (and racist to a degree), to invest into another adventure with the belief that we'll make it better. How tf are you going to make it better if these technologies CONTINUE to leave behind rural communities? It's like a spoiled child that gets tired of their toy a week later.

This is getting long but shit it's a rant bc I'm frustrated like many others in our field

How on earth do you support these weird ass billionaire wet dreams and then make cyberpunk pity parties about being stacked on top of each other in the cities?? Like, I don't understand it at this point.

You feel bad about animals dying for food and that's why you feel great about lab grown meat, ok. But at this point, in my field at least, we're standing in front of a huge, like globally huge, problem in terms of food production and the current popular trends just...fucking tire me out man. I don't even know what to say. We have a big fuck up to take care of and rural communities need to be backed up to deal with it. And essentially many smaller communities still survive off of animal agriculture, not the industrial kind, so it boggles my mind that there is this unintentional attempt by some at getting rid of these forms of agriculture (at least unintentional by society, personally I very much belive this couldn't be any better for corporate entities). Like pls, I beg you, look outside the western world. Travel if you can, visit villages, talk to the people (and not to impose your own beliefs like some missionairy but to learn!!!).

And before I get ARAs on this post as it sometimes happens, I honestly can't take people seriously that want to treat animal agriculture as though it is the same everywhere and I just plain don't see the point in having a conversation with folks that to get rid of animal ag, no matter the form.

This isn't about eating or not eating meat or how it tastes, in case I didn't make that clear. This is about entire communities, it's about landscapes maintained by nomadic lifestyles that very much include livestock and hunting. It's about how we leave them behind and make feel-good-alternatives instead of looking at the issues case by case and let the locals speak.

If you think the solution is to let everything rewild and get meat exclusively from labs I can't with you. This is borderline neo-colonialist bc you are pushing shit on people that don't need that solution. Globally we need rural communities (especially indigenous ones!!!) and their adapted and respectful forms of agriculture (and this includes animal agriculture, can't believe this is seen as smth so seperate), and that's a hill I'm not just willing to die on but be buried in.

Don't interact with me if you want to preach against animal agriculture and get rid of it. I KNOW what's going on in the industry, I know it's not perfect and god we work our asses off to improve shit. But some of you really need to reavaluate your positions bc I do see enough of you (sometimes the exact same person!) argue with dairy farmers about dairy farming, with conservationists about conservation, with vets about animal care, (with me about indigenous matters and ag engineering) and so on and that's not ringing a bell??? Like you don't realize that you are arguing with people about their own fields?

Anyways new technologies aren't always good and lab grown meat is one of those new technologies people should be careful about.

#I beg u to study agricultural engineering like to get a degree bc god knows we need more good people #dunno man everytime i get deep deep into engineering stuff I could call my therapist #tf #people still talk about climate change like it's just around the corner #in agriculture and rural communities of certain countries it's been fatal for DECADES now #certainly the regions I've been to are fckg dying out with houses and huts rotting away #and people in the city complaining about housing and traffic #and I'm not putting the blame on individuals either btw #this shit is political and deeply so and if I'm honest it's fckg strategic to the point of being a prime tool for wars #I promised a post about famines and agroterrorism and i'm working on it oh don't you worry I'm working on it #but i could combust with the frustration about articles praising some other new technology #support small communities and small farmers!!! and if they produce animal products and that's a reason alone for you to shy away #even though their animals receive good care/welfare i will actually judge you a bit #not that it matters or is right for me to judge #but if you're ok with small farmers disappearing or changing professions bc they're working with animals i don't want you anywhere near of #agricultural engineering #indigenous #nt long post #animal agriculture #can you imagine the number of people killing themselves bc corporate forced us into a dystopia? it makes my blood boil #edited to fix some typos and sentences #lab grown meat

[stellocchia]

I think it's been more than two months since I pushed my "Wilbur is remembered far more competent than he is" agenda in your asks.

So let's rectify that, shall we?

Wilbur is pretty fucking incompetent. He's never been that amazing charismatic smooth talker we characterize him as (not that I'm not absolutely behind that too)

Like. Who did he ever successfully smoothtalk? The Lmanbergians? None of them were ever hesitant to join from the very beginning and Eret betrayed them pretty easily when Dream manipulated them.

Techno? Techno wanted to join them, he was the one who reached out to them. There was no convincing needed and Wilbur never convinces Techno of anything Techno wasn't already willing to do by himself.

Dream? Definitely not during the revolution and Dream's support during Pogtopia was Dream following his own agenda, not being influenced by Wilbur in any way.

He couldn't even get Quackity to let him into Las Nevadas.

Nah, the only person Wilbur ever smooth talked is TommyInnit. The fucking powerhouse of this cell. And even that's not completely true. Tommy hasn't been convinced by Wilbur of anything since the very beginning of the Lmanberg revolution. Not during Pogtopia. And not even now (it's not smooth talking if it's just exploiting mental exhaustion and trauma and all that. Tommy isn't convinced of what they're doing.)

Really. Not even Tommy, per se.

He just got Tommy extremely loyal and attached to him.

And honestly, that's all he needs.

You don't need to have influence over everyone, you just need to have strong influence over the right person.

And that's what Wilbur had and has.

Wilbur's accomplishments are just pretty much him having a vision and Tommy throwing himself at it to make it come true.

Wilbur had the idea for L'manberg but Tommy was the one leading the troops. Tommy was the one who negotiated for their independence and got it when Wilbur was negotiating their surrender. Tommy was the one who FOR NO REASON built the escape tunnel they escaped through when Dream blew up L'manberg and he was the one who built the lil panic room at the end. Tommy was the one who's home became the embassy to L'manberg (something Wilbur very much pressured and kinda manipulated him into btw. I'm never not gonna mention that lil detail when the embassy comes up)

Wilbur had the idea and stood around looking pretty. My guy literally stood around looking pretty, without armor, during battles. Just. I love him.

And let's not forget that Tommy was fckin great at being the general. The SMP was so much better equipped and still, L'manberg was kinda winning. To the extend that Dream saw the need for TnT (which was hidden) and the betrayal through Eret (which was hidden)

Dream felt the need to pull two deceitful moves to keep if not even gain the upper hand.

If I'm not mixing stuff up here, correct me if I'm wrong.

And stuff like the tunnel weren't even expected of Tommy. My boy just thought of that on his own and did it on his own. Noone knew it existed. Noone expected it to exist.

After independence Wilbur is implied to have been leading but he generally wasn't around too much. Tommy was keeping order in the more face to face kinda way. He tried to navigate people's personal conflicts and make sure things didn't escalate and just. He did so well.

And Pogtopia? Oh, Pogtopia.

It's a bit more difficult here, since they were no longer on exactly the same side and goals are more muddled but still.

(and I want to make it clear that I'm in no way trying to shame Wilbur for mental health issues or anything. This isn't about that. I'd never fucking even imply that)

Tommy kept morale high. He made sure that other people were fine, when there was a chance. He tried to reassure Wilbur when Wilbur was spiraling, he asked Tubbo if he was happier, he told Tubbo to be safe, he recruited Quackity when he saw the chance while making sure that Quackity's intentions were sincere enough (he didn't just naively offer Quackity a place in Pogtopia and risk it being a trap).

He avoided any kind of destruction to L'manberg as much as possible.

He rallied people.

Really, his one actual flaw was not "turning" on Wilbur. His unwillingness to give up on him or even just incapacitate him or limiting his ability to act as he wanted was what ended up costing him everything. His unwillingness to interfere with Wilburs plans beyond talking to him and threatening him with a crossbow that one time ended up making the 16th possible. And he can hardly be blamed for that.

And Wilbur, during Pogtopia... Well... Nobody liked him, he made everyone uncomfortable and most people just kinda tolerated him because... Yeah...

Without Tommy troop morale would have been abysmal thanks to Wilbur. He constantly put himself and his side down, labeling them as villains and thus morally inferior. He pitted his own people against each other, spread paranoia between his people. No communication or actually planning involving other people. Still refused to wear armor.

And don't get me wrong, that's the point. He wasn't on their side. Obviously Tommy added more to their victory, Wilbur didn't want their victory. But still I just wanna praise my boy Tommy, he was. So amazing. Boy fucking peaked.

He's so good in tactical warfare or whatever you call it.

And I wanna just make it clear that this isn't criticism of Wilbur. Not at all. This isn't criticism at all. This is just about the big fanon perception of Wilbur as this great and mature leader.

Tbh this is actually more about showing people how amazing Tommy was and PLEASE I WANT FICS TO HAVE TOMMY BE MORE OF AN EFFECTIVE POWERHOUSE

Regarding my former ask I just wanted to clarify again that I'm not trying to critique Wilbur or anything.

It's really just that I think it's hilarious how people remember him as way more put together and competent than he really was.

-

Yeah, honestly one of the biggest disservice people have done to c!Tommy in this fandom is fail to portray him as the badass general that he actually was. Like, sure, Wilbur's title was as "general", but he never did anything for it. He gave a few speeches, but then the work was left up to Tommy. Like, genuinely, rewatch the Eret betrayal vod, Wilbur says it openly that he's leaving it in Tommy's hands. And Tommy does manage to lead his troops into an advantageous position! They get their enemies to retire at one point during the very first battle!

Then, of course, there is the betrayal, but, once again, Tommy didn't give up. He built the tunnel for their scuffed escape beforehand and, when everyone was just about ready to give up, he went against Dream in a duel and then traded the discs for their independence without loosing a beat.

Tommy was a BIG asset during that war!

Wilbur mostly was and still is kind of a wreak. And it's not his fault, 'cause mental health is an absolute bitch and he wasn't doing too hot after the war, then it got worse with Pogtopia and even worse during the 13 years in Limbo. And now we are where we are now with Wilbur being... not a great individual.

But still! In Pogtopia Tommy was the de-facto leader. And yeah, that was because Wilbur wasn't on their side anymore, but they didn't entirely know that. Or didn't wanna see that.

Tommy himself was hoping that Wilbur would "come back around" if he managed to get back their country. That was a big motivator for him. And he did everything that was in his power to do to not lose either Wilbur or L'Manburg. He tried talking to Wilbur multiple times, tried persuading him that there was another way, he never bought into Wilbur's ideals, he recruited people and he lead the troops once again. It wasn't Techno that lead the troops (despite him being a much better fighter) it was Tommy. And once everything was exploded and Techno and Wilbur betrayed them? Well he kept encouraging people. Literally I'm begging everyone to watch that vod! Tommy was there at every step of the way, telling Niki that it wasn't over, telling Quackity to keep fighting and, after that, you know who was there to validate Tubbo's presidency? To rally people behind him? It wasn't Tubbo. Tommy gathered everyone by the L'Mantree and got their spirits high once again.

He is just genuinely amazing.

And, like, yeah now Wilbur managed to manipulate Tommy to an extent to be by his side. But that's not that much of an accomplishment anymore because Tommy has just been through so much that he's exhausted now, as you said. Like, remember when Tommy said he wanted to be on Wilbur's side because "he gets things done"? Well, I'm still waiting to see that one honestly...

#ladycatland ask #dream smp #tommyinnit #c!tommy #c!wilbur critical #<< just in case #long post #character analysis #tl:dr #the fanon interpretations for tommy and wilbur are often a reverse of canon #tommy is made to be a lot more incompetent and in need of help while wilbur is made a lot more competent and in control #I wonder why that became the case?

[everyothermouse]

A lil group portrait of the time au adventuring gang!! Them <333

Basically tol fucked up as a kid and is now on the run from the law, but realized that since his life was so crazy he could live off of telling stories of his wacky adventures. When he met Jay he wanted him to come with him, and when he found out jay couldn't come cus he was virtually a demon/god/magic magnet he decided he NEEDED to bring him to capitalize on how it'd make more cool stories. And yeah it worked so since then he's been collecting wackos to aaa go crazy aaaa go stupid (and also bcus safety I numbers or whateva, pop and pip are also criminals and pastel and jay are crimes against god <3) more about each individual under the cut!

Doin them from left to right :)

Pastel: died when she was messing around with some friends and got stuck under a big rock and left to starve. But because of a fluke in the underworld her God decided to resurrect her, a right usually only belonging to saints. Because of this she's now poorly pretending that she totally did something to deserve being revived (she tells a different story every time someone asks, she thinks it's funny) to avoid being persecuted for suspected witchcraft. She met Jay when they were both drunk and they had fun fucking around in the city, and she spilled the beans to him that she was revived for no reason. She regretted it, but jay didn't kill her because even though he's religious he knew what it felt like to be magically cursed and have everyone be pissed at u for it. Also she's really funny with jay so tol begged her to come with them to add more Comedy(tm) to his memoirs

Pop: a time traveller and angel who is trying to hide both of those facts but only really succeeding at hiding the time travel thing. When they were a kid they traveled to this time with his friends Lustre and Cherrybomb, but when they were attacked by the vicious royal guard they weren't able to escape without leaving Lustre behind. Cherrybomb super repressed that memory, and while pop recovered from some minor injuries they vowed to never time travel again. Yeah they only kept that up until they were like 15, but they still couldn't bring themself to go back to when they left Lustre. But now they're 26 (well technically they're like 33 but in their time their supposed to be 26) living with their boyfriend cherrybomb and have years of time travel experience under their belt, and they're ready to go back. Except they can't go back because they created a travel block for themself by accident because of how upsetting the event was, so instead they traveled as close as they could, about 10 years in the future of the time. Now they search for any form of closure, all they need to know is what happened to their friend, and they will do whatever it takes to find this out. But angels aren't super welcome in the past, especially not with uncut wings, so it's not exactly easy for them to navigate this time period. But after a while of their search they met two lovely children (well young adults), a demon and a "cursed" (nowadays they call em spiritually gifted) and felt so bad for how much the world seemed to be against them they decided they could travel with them, just for a bit, to protect them. They tried not to get attached. They failed. They're in it for the long run now aren't they TwT also as they explore this time and learn more about the gods, they start to realize that they might... be the God of longevity???? Or at least an older version of them became them? Time travel is fucked man

Btw Lustre plays a big role in this plot, her hyper futuristic knowledge, 'blessed' white eyes, and strange God gifted clothing would all lead to him rising to a much different role than fugitive rather quickly, but they're not who this post is about ;) also I'm gonna go bottom to top for the 3 in the middle let's go

Lune: just a little guy :) lune is a young rancher/gardener who worships the God of the wood, who kind of goes missing sometimes and is lowkey the least loyal God but shhhh he loves them. Lune and tol were childhood friends (along with their pal cleo) but on one of their little excursions tol took something very important to a very powerful king, and refused to give it back. As retribution the king destroyed their entire town, and cleo put all the blame on tol, tol and lune both knew lune had to take the side against tol in order to not have the town turn on him. So yeah he moved with the town to bring up a brand new farm, long awaiting the day when tol would come home and say that things were OK and they could settle back in town together, hopefully with cleo too. That didn't happen, but tol did come back and peer pressure lune into part time adventuring with him! So yeah generally lune just runs his lil farm and prays, but when tol comes to pick him up he gets a chance to go be free to act batshit crazy, just like when he was a kid 🥰

Pipes: DEmon! One time lune and tol had a little squabble so lune was like 'im gonna get a new best friend and ur gonna regret this' and tol was like 'yeah right, u live with a bunch of criminals right now no one's gonna wanna be ur bestie dumbass' so lune just walked into a cave at night and dragged out this little nonverbal demon because demons who live alone in caves don't have high standards for friends. Even tho it was just a ploy to make tol jealous lune went super hard on it and now pipes is actually friends with the gang lmaoo

Tol: like I said with lunes, stole something important from a king as a kid, monarch got pissed, blew up the town, town got pissed at tol for it, and since then he's been on the run because he's too stubborn to give back the damn thing (they could have just attacked HIM for it, but since la queen decided to fuck with his town, his family, tol thinks he doesn't deserve to have it back.) He had to run from town to town and got into a lot of danger in his attempts at finding places to hide, but he lacks fear and tended to fight stuff off. As a kid he found that he could get enough pity to be welcomed into towns if he told people he had to fight a monster to get there, so he told stories at every town and camp he went to of his hardships. But as he got older, those he stayed with beckoned him to keep talking, and more and more people said they had heard of his adventures. And that's when when it clicked, his shining ticket to true freedom wasn't a place, it was his stories. They gave him food, shelter, fun, memories, a life. So he made it his mission to never settle down, to make his life as crazy as possible and to talk about it as much as possible, and if he ever ran out of energy to adventure, he'd spend the rest of his dying days writing and writing his entire life story. He thought this was a life he'd live alone, but one day he sought refuge in jays little lonely house because he thought it was abonded, luckily though Jay had just been praying for a second chance at life and decided that considering the timing, tol must be that second chance. So yeah jay patched him up, found out on his monthly supply route he was harboring someone very wanted, and took care of tol even harder because he didn't know or care why he was wanted, he just knew that anyone who had a drawing of them as a child on a wanted poster definitely didn't deserve it. So yeah they're besties now.

AAA I wrote out a really long description for jay but tumblr glitched and I lost it :'O ble here's a shorter rewrite cus I'm not writing out that whole thing again >:P

Jay: brought up in a church village,, he was born with the curse, which allows him to tap into magical properties very easily, and be very easily controlled, manipulated, and possessed by them. This allowed him to be very connected with his god (the god of longevity) but also meant he was often treated as a security risk and a monster by the adults of his town since he could let in evil spirits so easily. He spent most of his time praying and he became obsessed with acting on compulsions (repeated prayer, overscrubbing, scratching himself, touching religious things until he felt like he touched them "right") because he believed they were messages from God and would prevent him from becoming evil (look he was a teenager and everyone told him he was a monster his whole life leave him be.) He gets possessed twice, mage as a rep of the town is like "either have ur cursed removed or leave town forever" (uncursing is only hypothetically possible, it's hella dangerous) and he's scared itd sever his connection to his god so he leaves and he's upset bcus his entire life plan was built around his church, so now he's livin alone on a hill and leaving like once a month, he stays up there and sews and prays mostly, he sort of works on himself and becomes vaguely mentally stable, so he prays for a second chance at life since he lost his original path and needs a sign where to go, and then boom tol shows up and the rest is history. Now he has his own little family and things are going great :) other than the still getting possessed like once a week but shhhh

Pip: in between the entrance to hell and the religious central of the continent is a little town that sides with neither. They mostly fuck around and find out, and in this town lives a monster researcher and her less formal wife, pip! Pip is just a silly goofy little guy livin life, and when the crazy bunch shows up she feels like he's finally found her people :3 and for the first time the group gains a member who's begging to join them as opposed to the other way around

Ya and together they all go on wacky lil adventures with demons and monsters and monarchs and what not.

Tldr pastel is a funny lil dead guy, pop is a time traveller and the Adult of the team, lunes a lil farmer man, pipes a hobo demon they picked up off the side of the road, tols a little criminal demon adventurer, jays a religious weirdo who tol dragged out of his hermit hut, and pips an insane little guy

#theyre all adults in this au tol is just short </3 #artinevee #art #oc #digital art #original character #time au #pastel #pop #lune #pipes #tol #jay #pip #chibi #cute #fantasy #original story #for once instagram gets a drawing before yall because i had to find time to rewrite the jay and pip sections #Tolverse

[gettin-bi-bi-bi]

I'm afab, nb, and bi. I'm in a very happy relationship with a cishet man who has always been completely fine with me being bi, but me being nb disturbed him a little, because I only told him some 6 months after we got together. By now he's accepted that I'm nb and is supportive, but can't wrap his head around what that makes him - if he's straight, how can he be attracted to me, a nb person? The thing is that, being bi, I can't wrap my head around this issue because for me gender has never played a role in my attraction to someone. Do you have any advice that might help him? Thanks so much.

lol I also often struggle to understand how people can be monosexual. Blows my mind. Anyway... I’m cis, so my perspective is kinda limited in terms of how deeply I can relate to your situation. But from what I know about non-binary people who are dating binary people it’s a very individual thing whether you (as the non-binary person) are okay with your partner identifying as monosexual (gay/lesbian or straight) or not. Some are cool with it and others aren’t, afaik.

And that, I think, is one important aspect here. If he identifies as straight - is that okay for you? Or does it feel like he misgenders you? That’s a question you can only answer for yourself and whatever result you come to, it’s something you should communicate to your partner. Let’s say it doesn’t bother you at all - well then I guess the problem is solved because he doesn’t have to change anything about his labels for your comfort. But if it doesn’t sit right with you and it does feel like you’re being misgendered then it’s something you and he should try to navigate with more nuance.

If he was the one messaging us about this I would explain the following: bisexuality means attraction to more than one gender. Those genders do not have to include any or both binary genders, which means someone who is attracted to women and any number of non-binary genders can call themselves bisexual because nb genders are just as valid and “complete” in being A Gender™ as the genders man and woman. He does not have to be attracted to men in order to identify as bisexual (or heteroflexible or queer, to name some alternatives). And he, as the partner of a non-binary person, might just have to learn to accept the fact that he is not monosexual and that he has the ability to be attracted to someone who is not a woman. But in order for that to really sink in, it’s important that he fully accepts and sees you as non-binary, not as “woman light”.

I am definitely compassionate with him in the sense that this is like a ~surprise! you’re not heterosexual!~ situation that is suddenly thrown at him out of left field. It’s not a process that started organically from within himself where he realised “hey, maybe I’m interested in multiple genders, let’s explore this at my own pace” but instead his partner went “btw I’m not a woman” and now he’s probably very confused what that means for him. And it is possible that if you had never told him you are nb he may have gone his whole life never questioning his sexuality and always identifying as straight. I can’t even begin to imagine how strange that must feel for him right now.

Which is, again, why I think it’s important you both have conversations about this. Plural! this isn’t one 30 minute session and then everything is said and done. It’s probably gonna take a lot of repetition and self-reflection and going back to old topics from months ago and checking back in with each other. And it’s important that there’s nuance, patience and understanding on both sides. You shouldn’t be expected to just swallow a feeling of being misgendered (if that’s what you’re feeling) and he shouldn’t be expected to just change his sexuality label over night like it’s no big deal - because the way he’s stumbled into this situation probably does feel like a very big and unexpected deal to him. This is totally not to put any blame on you - you had your reasons for coming out to him later. I get it, it’s not your fault at all. But from his pov... he literally didn’t sign up for a sexual identity crisis so I feel like one’s gotta cut him a liiiittle slack and give him space to digest and decide if he does wanna sign up for it retroactively, you know?

I would recommend that you try to conntect with people who have made similar experiences where one partner identified as monosexual and the other partner came out as a different gender (be it non-binary or the other binary gender). Some relationships break apart because of this, others grow even stronger. Either way, I’m sure that there are some people out there who can help with some first-hand experience.

Maddie

#Anonymous

[him-e]

Hi Claudia. just wondering are you going to talk about american gods? i'm very interested in what you thought about Laura and Mad sweeny. basically i'm interested in your opinion with all of it tbqh!

Sorry for the late reply, I wanted to catch up on the whole season before answering this. 

Laura/Mad Sweeney is one of those cases where the characters are individually good and interesting and all, but you smash them together in the same storyline, link them through the same mission (pursued by each for their individual reasons), add an improbable road trip that makes them care for each other even though they don’t want to, and BAM, they become SO MUCH MORE. their chemistry is weirdly explosive, which is funny because you never saw it coming.

A prayer for Mad Sweeney (a fantastic episode btw) got me hooked on this dynamic, although I’ve liked it since the beginning and had seen gifsets of it even before I caught up on their episodes so I was sort of expecting something interesting. I also have been reading the book as I watched the season—I’m being exceptionally slow, but I’ve read and loved the part about Essie McGowan’s coming to America, and it was a total surprise to see Emily play Essie too, which adds a new layer to Laura’s interactions with Sweeney (it’s SO “I’ve crossed oceans of time to find you”, isn’t it). I don’t know how the whole Laura thing plays out in the book—it is my understanding that she has a much smaller role in the novel, and they expanded it in the show? If so, they made a brilliant decision.

like Laura is SUCH A GOOD CHARACTER OMG?

she starts out as the most boring, sexist, predictable trope on earth. The dead girlfriend. Well, wife. Dead before she even appears on screen in tragic circumstances, so that the male hero can begin his journey while also sympathetically grieving for this terrible loss. How interesting. Did they really cast Emily Browning for this?

then we learn she was actually a cheating, lying bitch who died with another man’s dick in her mouth (her best friend’s husband, no less), while her husband was in jail because of her. THAT’s where we start suspecting there might be more to the trope, even if it’s not pleasant. Suddenly it’s incredibly hard to romanticize the Dead Wife.

but she doesn’t stop there. she literally walks out of the fridge the narrative had seemingly put her in, and comes BACK FROM THE DEAD, not as an ethereal ghost to motivate the Hero, but as a foul-smelling, decaying corpse with superhuman strength and a REALLY BAD ATTITUDE (including towards gods). Who is Very Determined to get her husband back, (also) because he’s apparently the only thing that makes her heart beat (literally). So you have some nice trope-inversion here because suddenly the (Alive) Hero becomes the Dead Wife’s motivating factor, idealized lover AND object of the quest, and she becomes the protagonist of her own storyline.

I mean she gets an entire episode dedicated to her backstory. which isn’t even THAT interesting (except it is, because she is). That’s really cool, even more so since it was a departure from the book itself.

what I like about Laura is that she’s actually a very repulsive person… in a relatable way. She’s selfish. She’s self-destructive (her addiction to the fly-spray is a superb use of foreshadowing). She doesn’t seem to have genuine feelings for anyone, let alone Shadow. She annoyingly calls him “puppy” which is both infantilizing and dehumanizing (esp. for a MoC). On a whim, she decides she wants to be “happy” and that happiness involves for some reason robbing the casino she works in, so she convinces Shadow to rob it for her, and he is arrested. Bottom line, she’s either just a total jerk with little redeeming qualities except being a cat person, or severely depressed (and it’s probably the latter).

She dies because of her self-destructiveness (subverted later, because after spending so much time blaming herself for that, she learns that the car crash wasn’t her fault, but Wednesday’s), is scorned and rejected for her unpleasantness even by the god of the underworld himself, but Mad Sweeney’s lucky coin, unwittingly given to Shadow, brings her back to life. So she comes back with a purpose, and that’s when she starts actually living, ironically. It’s funny because Shadow and Laura are linked through Mad Sweeney’s coin, because that’s what reanimated her, while Laura and Mad Sweeney are linked through Shadow, who is Laura’s purpose and unfinished business on earth, the spiritual reason why she’s alive (and able to physically meet Sweeney in the first place).

You know what else is funny? that Sweeney’s ~heart desire~ (his lucky coin) is ~literally~ IN LAURA’S CHEST. 

It’s her ersatz heart now. HE NEVER MEANT IT TO BE. So he tries to get it back through sheer force and manipulation at first, which is obviously not working because Laura has no problem beating his ass, then decides to help her so he can take her heart, er, his coin, from her chest without killing her. And THEN, ta dah character evolution, he sees her lying on the floor, dead as a doornail, chest open, all he has to do is reach out for his coin and just forget about her… but he puts it back in her chest. OMG? maybe he only needed Laura’s strength to move the truck… but the best romantic sacrifices are those that remain debatable in the eyes of the wider audience (see: Jaime jumping in the bearpit).

I say romantic even though there’s nothing explicitly romantic in their interactions (YET), which of course is why I fell for it. That, and other things (the ~hate at first time~ dynamic, the bickering, the height difference, the ~age~ difference—Sweeney being hundreds of years old— subverted by the fact that the *older* one really is just a whiny teenager, the ~small girl repeatedly kicks big foul-mouthed guy’s ass and is actually one of the few things he’s afraid of~, etc.)

I guess interacting with Laura (and Salim) was an A+++ thing for Sweeney in particular. Like Laura, he also starts out as a slightly opaque character. A minor one, to be honest. he’s huge (a tall leprechaun! LOL!), he’s ginger, he’s angry, he loves brawls, he has a bunch of magic coins. As a supernatural being, he’s not even a truly powerful one. While Laura’s zombie storyline is actually pretty interesting on its own, it would have been super easy to use Sweeney just as a comic relief, but thanks to this sideplot he’s allowed to reveal his softer side and humanity and hopefully have his own identity arc. So fingers crossed that there will be more next season!

#anon #asks #//// #////// #/// #american gods #** #laura moon #mad sweeney