#as long as it's not made actively to harm anybody

[ms-demeanor]

i mean realistically many people do deserve to be the victims of targeted harassment campaigns. if you're being an asshole you deserve to be screamed at by everyone present until you stop. some people commit acts of cruelty and subsequently forfeit their reasonable right to participate in society until they've made amends.

the people of wendy's have a moral right to scream at the manager if said manager sprays them in the neck with milkshake every time they go to pick up their order

damn following up the last ask, ig it was someone in ur notes constructing an equivalence between @tting staff and getting nuked to yelling at a wendy's manager and getting kicked out. my bad lol thought that was part of ur main post

I mean this is something that's still worthwhile to bounce off of even though you're not actually responding to me.

First of all, no, I pretty much don't think that anybody deserves to be the focus of a targeted harassment campaign. At least not the kind that are spun up on tumblr or twitter. I generally think that targeted harassment campaigns don't work to change minds, they only work to torment, isolate, and attack people, which will often further entrench them in their positions.

Sometimes people doing serious antifascist work will make a discovery like, for instance "the principal of X school is a vicious antisemite" and will run an *exposure* campaign to get them removed from a position of power, but with very few exceptions when you see an online callout post for a random internet user it's nothing but abuse and an attempt to bully them off of a specific website, not an attempt to protect victims or inform people of a genuine threat. "ABC is the new alt of this person with a documented history of starting cults, DNI, block and move on" is very different than "This specific user who is on staff posts harry potter fanart and is why fascists continue to exist on tumblr, let's make sure they know what tumblr thinks of them."

You are trying to frame bullying campaigns as normal consequences for antisocial behavior, but the antisocial behaviors under discussion here are "user posted fanart broadly disliked by the community and associated with specific ideologies long after the initial fandoms were crystallized" and "is the CEO of a social media website that is implementing features that the users dislike."

"People deserve to be screamed at until they stop the bad behavior" is punitive and shitty and so broad and open to so many interpretations that you're basically saying "it's open season on screaming at people." I think that it's bad behavior to support neoliberal political candidates who prop up capitalism but it would be horrible for me to run harassment campaigns against everyone who says "vote blue no matter who" even though I think that attitude perpetuates real world harms. (And it also wouldn't convince those people to change their minds! The fact that I think they are doing something harmful doesn't give me the social license to send hundreds of people to harass them! And it wouldn't work! These kinds of campaigns don't effect change they just isolate people and erode trust and civility jesus fuck we need to be coalition building not posting callouts over whatever activity has been deemed "freak behavior" this week)

some people commit acts of cruelty and subsequently forfeit their reasonable right to participate in society until they've made amends.

oh buddy, I think I get where you're coming from here but considering the kinds of behavior under discussion this is just straight up fascist. You are literally saying that people should be banished from society for wrongthink because nobody under discussion here has actually committed an act of cruelty.

(one of the things that i'm putting under the heading of "tumblr conspiracist thinking" is "staff is currently and continually intentionally flagging certain LGBTQ tags and bloggers" - there is ample evidence that the current staff is working to unfuck flagging and blocked tags that was done long before this crew was working on it. People talk about "tumblr had to settle because their filtering disproportionately impacted lgbtq+ creators" and that is TRUE however that was a filter that was established under different owners with different policies and different staff; the implication that the current staff is guilty of trying to stifle LGBTQ+ content because a lawsuit started before the Automattic purchase of tumblr ended in a financial settlement is just bad, wrong, incorrect, faulty logic. And if I might indulge in a bit of my own conspiracist thinking: I actually suspect a lot of the flagging and tagging and blocking of trans women specifically might actually be targeted attacks of individual users by terfs - many of the things that are getting flagged as needing a community label are things that use tags that terfs follow to attack and if enough users click "this needs a community label" the post will get flagged - I don't know that that's what's going on but just operating on occam's razor I think it's a lot more likely that terfs are coordinating attacks on trans people than that there is a secret group of cryptoterfs on staff taking time out of their day to ensure that trans users get flagged, if only because I think that the vocally trans positive former members of the staff would have said something about it.)

So, given that my position is "it is unlikely that anyone on staff is intentionally targeting LGBTQ+ groups HOWEVER prior policies enacted harm against LGBTQ+ groups and there is visible evidence that the current staff is trying to repair that damage" I'm not seeing any behaviors here that call for individual employees or users to get targeted with harassment from thousands of users.

But anyway, back to the specifics of the ask:

some people commit acts of cruelty and subsequently forfeit their reasonable right to participate in society until they've made amends.

Do you have any idea how frequently amends are made and never circulated as widely as the callout post? Do you have any idea how frequently callout posts are incorrect, and exaggerate the things that need to be amended? I'm reminded of Lindsey Ellis, who was the victim of a years-long targeted harassment campaign and made multiple apologies over the years who was finally driven off of her primary platform because she carelessly misspoke and the people who had been targeting her for years were able to make a post that she had long disavowed and was a relic of her dealing with the aftermath of sexual violence go viral. The internet doesn't let people make amends; people see accusations. They see the first post, not the follow up. That's why starting these campaigns is shitty and dangerous even if you *personally* believe that you'll forgive an individual once they "make amends." (and the "amends" people usually demand are "i want this person gone from the internet forever and cut out of this part of their life" - that's not really something that's fair to ask of people when so much of the world is online these days.)

the people of wendy's have a moral right to scream at the manager if said manager sprays them in the neck with milkshake every time they go to pick up their order

No they don't. Straight up. If the manager of a wendy's sprays you in the neck with a milkshake you have the right to escalate your complaint right up the chain, take your business away and never come back, warn other people "hey the manager sprayed me with a milkshake, stay away," but you don't have the moral right to escalate the situation by screaming at them (and you certainly don't have that right if you happened to get sprayed with some milkshake while the manager was attempting to fix the frostee machine when you came to pick up your order, which I think is actually more analogous to what is happening here).

someone in ur notes constructing an equivalence between @tting staff and getting nuked to yelling at a wendy's manager and getting kicked out

A big point that I think you're missing here is that @-ing staff when there is a problem on a post or you see harassment is generally pretty acceptable (though much less effective than filing a support claim), but the issue under discussion isn't @-ing staff, it was pointing thousands of angry people at two specific people who are *part* of staff and holding those two individuals responsible for all the problems that users see with tumblr.

partyjockers got nuked because their post directed a flood of harassment at one staff member in a post where they had highlighted that user's URL and name:

This is explicitly saying "users like the one I screenshotted are the reason you're being attacked by terfs" because one member of staff posted fanart from two franchises that tumblr-the-userbase has deemed off limits.

(Do you have any idea how extreme a bubble this is? Do you walk into barnes and noble and sigh because the managers are fascists who want trans people dead because there's harry potter merch everywhere? JK rowling is a terf and a horrible fucking person and I am no longer personally comfortable engaging with that fandom but people posting fanart of a franchise are not personally attacking you even if it feels like they are disregarding your humanity; you cannot consider other people's participation in huge, popular, mainstream fandoms as a sign that they are plotting against you this is why i'm calling this conspiracist thinking the entire scorched earth conspiracy spawned from someone interpreting a staff member's art as esoteric signposts signalling their hatred of trans people. Do you remember when the stupid harry potter game came out and this entire website was despondent because it meant that people didn't care about trans people? That's not actually what it meant! What it meant is that the vast majority of people on the planet have neither a twitter nor a tumblr account and have no idea how shitty JK rowling is to trans people and they don't interpret "harry potter imagery" as "covert terf signal" they interpret it as "possibly the most mainstream fantasy series in the last fifty years")

This isn't someone calling out the manager after they spray you with a milkshake. The manager asking someone to leave after they started screaming that the cashier's earrings were hate speech.

This analogy got out of hand but please just understand that there's a difference between @-ing an account that people are paid to monitor as part of their jobs and that they have support and coworkers to help with and @-ing someone's personal account.

Nobody got a post deleted because the used @ staff, they got their posts deleted because they focused viral negative attention on individual users.

[blues-of-randomness]

could you do more headcanons for the Smiling critters please

(Maybe when they’re Sad )

Good suggestion and yes I can.

Cw for self harm and involuntary age regression

Catnap - When Catnap gets really sad he retreats to his home and hides there for who knows how long, it could be days or even months before he comes out again. All the curtains drawn, not a single like in the house, if you're hoping for Catnap to eat or drink during this time peroid, other than a cup of juice or two...it's very wishful thinking. he'll most likely just be laying around on the floor or on the furniture. This is also when involuntary agere sets in, during this time he just feels so small and even simple tasks are two scary or frustrating for him (like brushing his teeth or even turning on the lights). During this time he might just were a bathrobe or his pajamas for some form of comfort. He'll hug himself and squeeze his arms very tightly, most of the time his claws are out when he does this so it leads to him cutting himself frequently. I have a feeling he might also wear dresses as a comfort.

Dogday - Remember that MLP episode where Pinkie pie lost her color cause she thought her friends didn't like her anymore? Yeah that's basically Dogday when he gets sad, any bright colors drain from his fur and his smile fades from his face. In my Dogday headcanons I mentioned that his fur feel like a warm mini sun, well when he's sad his fur becomes frigid cold. Unlike Catnap though Dogday still spends time outside, looking for anything that could cheer him up as quick as possible. He still has a hard time talking about what made him upset but he'll try. if what made him said was say him disappointing his friends he'll have a lot of self depricating thoughts (specfically about falling them in some way). he's not nearly as self destructive as Catnap is though, he still takes care of himself. I'll be honest though I could see Dogday having a tea party with stuffed animals when he's sad.

When Kickin gets sad he just gets angry. Like any kind of sorrowful feeling will vented through aggression before the tears eventually come. You can't tell me that Kickin hasn't gotten super overwhelmed thrown himself to the ground and started having a tantrum like a little baby. Kicken grew up with a father with very toxic views on how men should behave so he's not very comfortable crying in front of anybody. The only one who's seen him cry is Bubba, Bubba is reall the only one he's go two if he's sad. he might all himself stupid or an idiot depending on what he's crying about. He also has a teddy bear that he talks to when he's upset.

Bubba is a man who doesn't were his emotions on his sleeves per say as he always tries to keep his cool. You wouldn't even realize he's upset unless he get's really upset. Like Kickin, his sadness comes out as anger, he does cry but not often and not in front of his friends. Bubba would probably be the type to just pick of book or try to do some brain puzzles in order to take his mind of what he's upset about, if that doesn't work he tries to solve the problem on his own.

Hoppy is another critter who i imagine can get very aggressive when she's sad. Her first instinct is just to walk away, blow off the steam and come back when she's ready. She might yell or hop and down depending on how frustrated she is but she would take a deep breath and say "I need to go for a walk" or something like that. She prefers to do this alone but she wouldn't say no if you offered to walk with her and talk about it. It actually means a lot to her that you'd wanna help her.

Picky's ultimate coping mechanism is food though contrary to when she's stressed and stress eats, i feel like when she's sad she makes treats for everyone else. Since she already makes an unholy amount of food for everyone, espically when their doing an activity or going on a trip this just seems like her normal behavoir. Other than baking she might do something calming like apple/berry/flower picking. A nice picnic is also a good way to calm down.

What does any Artist do when they are upset or down in the dumps? Dump every single raw emotion on anything that doesn't move. Craftycorn has had her far share of vent pieces, some she's actually proud of, some that are just nonsensial scribbles soaked in tears. The only vent pieces her friends have seen are the ones that look cute and don't have any concerning elements to it. All the others go straight into the fire, those are not for the critter eye to see. Music, blankets and toys also help.

Bobby is a very emotional person, when she gets really upset it is instant tears or instant bawling. It's real easy to calm her down though, give her a hug, a flower, take her somewhere safe, play a game with her, and voila! If you couldn't tell she does not like being alone when she's upset, She'll cling to the closest person until she isn't upset anymore. If she's bawling she'll be begging you for a hug, she won't make yu hug you if you're uncomfortable with that though.

#headcanons #poppy playtime #smiling critters poppy playtime #smiling critters #bubba bubbaphant #catnap #kickinchicken #dogday #bobby bearhug #hoppy hopscotch #craftycorn #picky piggy

[herbal-tylenol]

"Abolish cringe culture!" until it's band/art/choir/drama kids, moms on TikTok, people on dating apps, adults without jobs, adults that still live with their parents, kids using internet slang, beginner artists (in music and drawing), awkward texters, people with bad hygiene, fans of popular media, the list goes on.

Cringe culture isn't just about fandom culture, or people that use terms like XD and rawr. It's about making fun of a group of people that isn't actively doing harm solely because you deem them "embarrassing". Don't say you dislike cringe culture if you stop at what YOU deem as cringe. Normalize doing whatever you want on the internet, as long as it's not hurting anybody there's no reason for you to be made fun of for it.

#im so sick of the double standards tbh #i got back on tumblr just to make this rant tbh #cringe culture #cringe #cringe culture is stupid #cringe culture is ableist #cringe culture is over #cringe culture is dead #cringe culture tw #fandoms #fandom #rawr x3 #XD #rawr xd #art #artist #music #hypocrisy #drama #band #band kids #art kids #choir kids #choir #drama kids

[tanadrin]

You're not wrong about anything wrt cost of flying, but man is it bracing to wake up to a reminder that I can never ethically see most of my loved ones in-person again.

hmm. i think this is also the wrong way to think about it. flying is not a sin. being in some indirect way responsible for a certain amount of carbon emissions does not Taint Your Soul. and absolutist frameworks for this kind of thing are not helpful to anybody, least of all the people who actually might already be contributing to fixing problems like this through positive behaviors, like voting or political organizing.

the problem with carbon emissions is that they're a difficult to solve collective action problem, where a lot of the incentives point in a harmful direction, not that they are Fundamentally Immoral, and i think that's an important distinction to make, because i think a handful of semi-scrupulous individuals flagellating themselves and depriving themselves of things that would make them happy in the long run has no real effect on big problems like this. you not seeing your family is not going to fix global warming! and there are not enough people who are willing or able to act on guilt alone to refrain from flying that it's going to meaningfully dent emissions from the air transport sector.

what we need are policies that shape collective decisionmaking. this is why a fat carbon tax (especially when coupled with a rebate for lower-income people) can be a useful policy: it might make it harder to fly to visit family, but it won't make it categorically impossible, and it will reduce air travel in general, or encourage finding lower-carbon alternatives that allow people to travel just as much, like high-speed trains or, i don't know, some kind of fancy jet fuel that emits less CO2.

honestly, if you vote consistently for pro-environmental policies and parties, if you donate a bit of spare cash from time to time to the same, and/or if you are minimally politically active in other ways, and you're not, like, the CEO of BP in your professional life, you are fine. go, free from sin. if everyone did that, the problem of carbon emissions could be solved in a few years. now, you might go, "but not everyone is doing that!" well, not everyone is sitting at home miserable because they missed seeing grandma on her deathbed; that won't solve global warming either. in fact, it will do even less to solve global warming, because it is (and i say this with compassion) an anxious, guilt-ridden, useless gesture meant to salve your own spirit, not actually a contribution to solving the problem.

in general, i am really opposed to letting a vast and nebulous sense of guilt on big, systemic problems shape your personal behaviors. none of the behaviors that these feelings of guilt ban ever contribute to significant or systemic improvements in the problem--guilt is not building nuclear plants or preventing oil from being drilled. and in my experience, the kind of people who feel this guilt are prone to anxiety, maybe as kids were made overly responsible for the emotional state of people around them, and thus feel an outsized sense of responsibility in other areas of their life, and they mistakenly think that 1) this is a healthy way to go through life, 2) if they don't go through life this way they're a Bad Person, and 3) most people (or most people they think of as Good People) feel this way.

i wish to free people from this burden. there are no individual solutions to big collective action problems! and if reading about global warming, or racism, or poverty, or any other big social problem fills you with an enormous sense of guilt and has you wracking your brain for ways you can help by cutting/reducing/abstaining from things in your life, congratulations, you are one of many people in this world who can be at least 300% more selfish and still be a certified Good Person. so, uh, chill.

#wait is oil 'drilled' or 'mined' or 'dug up' or what? #what is the verb here to refer to the process of oil extraction #is it just 'extraction'? #you drill *for* oil #but do you *drill* oil? #anyway here's another plug for The Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents #because this kind of Eldest Daughter/I Must Fix Everything syndrome #can be a result of a particular kind of emotional immaturity on your parents' part #and i suspect but cannot prove #a lot of people who feel this way had parents whose emotional state #they had to be very sensitive to

[vidavalor]

The way your analysis of the water boiler scene with Crowley and Shax made me wheeze 🤣 I'm with the Crowley-is-ace-but-knows-everything-in-theory crowd of the fandom which makes him giving "instructions" even more funny 🤣

Glad I could make you laugh! However you see them is all good. I'm of the Crowley's-a-hands-on-learner variety over here as you probably can tell lol but the point of the story to me isn't what is "right" so much as that it all is. If you're not harming anyone, then whatever you are and whatever, if anything, you like to get up to is all fine and no shame.

Also? He is asexual to me as well, even if it's pretty evident from my blog here that I think he and Aziraphale are getting up to it like rabbits. Angels and demons, per Gaiman, are canonically asexual unless they wish to make an Effort, right? To me, that means the idea of asexual default in Heaven-- so, the inverse of how the human world operates. It's a way of reiterating that the ace spectrum is as normal as more active sexuality, which is very important to me. I'm not ace but I think the world would be better if we stopped the entire idea of a 'norm'/'default' when it comes to anything related to sexuality or gender.

The world of Heaven/Hell is an allegory for the human world in the story so where it differs is where the commentary is. To say angels & demons are "asexual unless they wish to make an Effort" is to say that there are some angels and demons who are asexual and there are others who wish to make an Effort and explore those options-- which is the same as the humans. As a result, all angels and demons are asexual because they're angels and demons, so they begin from an assumption of asexuality within their society, and many might stay there because it is who they are and right for them and there's nothing wrong with that. There are other angels and demons, though, who fall into the 'wish to make an Effort' category and so explore sexuality in a different way. I personally think Crowley and Aziraphale both fall into the latter category but neither of us are "right" or "wrong" because, technically, just by being a demon and an angel, there is an element of ace default to them.

The angels & demons not only are allegorical for human experience in the story but what they have *in common with* humans is a human corporation. This isn't to say that an angel or a demon or a human is inhuman if they are ace-- absolutely not. Sexuality is not like the need to breathe and to eat for humans. It's not something we all need and if we are the kind of humans who do need it, we don't all need it in the same ways. The same is then true for the angels and demons as they explore the humanity they have in common with the humans. Some of them won't be interested in sex at all. Some of them will in certain situations or infrequently, etc. Some will be more sexual beings. They're really no different from the humans in this way. We aren't all the same and there's nothing wrong with that.

By having that 'asexual unless they wish to make an Effort' default for angels & demons, the show is reiterating that not every human experience need be necessary or the same for everyone and that sexuality isn't humanity. It can be a very human experience but so, too, can a lot of things, and someone who is ace is still every bit as human as someone who isn't, as sexuality is not the defining feature of humanity. That's true if you're an angel or a demon or a human or a semi-sentient car or anything else and our Earthly world here would be better if we approached it from a standpoint of whatever you say you are and however you present yourself and whatever you want to get up to or to not get up to is all fine, so long as it's all consensual and you're not harming anybody.

You can read the hot water boiler scene as just in support of that, if you want, and it sounds like you have. Crowley just being all sex-positive in the sense that if it's something you're into, that's fine, and if it's not or if it's often not, that's fine, too. (Also, he's obviously poking fun at her by being like yeah, I know why you need your hot water boiler, Shax. Stressful week being Hell's new rep in London? Must be exhausting, all this threatening you're doing...)

Sure, Shax, you need a hand-- heh-- with your self-love shower time. Unlike Maggie, I really mean it when I say "no judgement." Maybe it'll make you less crabby when you come to harass me and Aziraphale. One can really hope. I've really got to just make a tutorial video... Ok, so, yeah, you just wanna make sure you don't accidentally miracle something while you're doing this, alright? Rumor has it Lord Beezlebub once locked themselves in their office to get off and accidentally created a 1960s-era advertising agency in the middle of Hell for some reason so tread softly here...

#ineffable husbands #good omens #good omens 2 #crowley #aziraphale #good omens meta #shax good omens #aziracrow

[lazaefair]

I am begging white fandom to DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING.

I’ve only experienced a tiny, tiny fraction of what Stitch has experienced, and I still think about it every few days that there are malicious people out there who are still actively stalking my blog, who know where I live, and have attempted to terrorize me with that information before. And you know who gives a shit about that? No one. I still have not had anybody stand up and openly defend me in TOG fandom. Ever.

(Hell, at this point I’ll take just people doing some basic fact-checking.)

Anyway, as bad as all this feels, it’s still nothing compared to what Stitch has gone through. I tend to default to the hope that things are getting better. But it’s hard to hold on to that hope when the violent racism just keeps showing up day after day after day.

From the podcast transcript:

There are white supremacists in fandom who get away with it, because they’re, like, pretending somehow that they’re better at anti-racism than me, that they’re calling me out on behalf of, like, whatever villain stans are currently upset with me for no reason. And they get away with overt white supremacy in fandom, because they’re pro-fandom, nominally, and it’s like, I don’t want to wait around until I start doing offline events and someone decides, you know, to defend fandom they have to, like, shank me in the line at Comic-Con. People are scarily violent about it. I’ve had people suicide-bait me—I guess, that’s a terrible word, I’ve had people say I should kill myself. You know, I’ve had people wish harm on me. And it’s like, well, if anything happened to me, it’s not like you’d care. It’s not like you would go, “Oh, that sucks. They should have left Reylos alone.” There’s no point at which people will go, “Shit, I really fucked up in supporting this. I’ve made fandom such a bad place.” 

Because to them, what matters is that I would no longer be around ruining fandom for them. Forget that fans of color deserve space to be fans of color, and that means positively and negatively talking about race. Forget that we have been in fandom as long as everybody else has. Talking about racism is the real problem in fandom, and anybody who ruins fandom by bringing that to attention deserves whatever they get, you know? People are not going to listen. They’re not going to learn. 

I think that if, when I started this, people had been more aggressive in—or aggressive at all in defending me and defending my work, instead of writing it off as somebody else’s problem, or complaining about my tone, maybe things would be different. But we’re seeing just really racist radicalization in all of the different social spaces and political spaces. Like, why would queer transformative fandom be any different? 

#fandom racism #fandom harassment

[korkiekenobiconfirmed]

Okay Aelin’s plan at the end of EOS was complete bullshit for so many reasons, all of which can be lumped under 3 larger categories.

1) Probability of success during the war

This is limited, as they mentioned in the books, but Lys’s ability to trick people into thinking she’s Aelin lasts about as long as it takes for them to need her fire powers. The point of pretending Aelin was alive was to help morale and keep the bad guys from learning that she was out of the picture, but if your supposed “fire breathing” savior queen doesn’t show a single spark of power, even when a battle turns dire, that’s arguably worse for morale and does nothing to rally the people. Martyring Aelin & saying she died arguably would’ve been a better choice for this purpose.

Strategy is a huge part of war. Someone like Aelin, with magic as powerful as hers (especially bc of how effective a weapon fire was against Erawan’s forces), would be treated as a battalion all her own. War strategy relies on knowing every player on the board, every move that needs to be made. Generals (like Aedion) are factoring Aelin’s powers into a battle (how it’s fought, chances of success, etc) which means innumerable deaths and devastating losses when that power doesn’t show face. It’s actively harming the war effort — imagine if you thought you had a nuke but then it turns out your strongest weapon is a nerf gun and nobody fucking told you…

2) Aedion & Lysandra’s involvement

Was Aedion justified for how he treated Lysandra? No. Was he justified in being that angry? Yes. Lys knew what she was getting into, understood the sacrifices she was making to execute Aelin’s idiotic doppleganger plan, but nobody told Aedion. He was going to have to sleep with Lysandra just for his goddamn genetics like some prize cattle and, in one fell swoop, lost the woman he loves and cousin he should have sworn his life to. It’s also implied in EOS that he has some sexual trauma in his past, having slept with people to move up Adarlan’s ranks as fast as he did, which makes the role they expect him to play even more fucked up. Lysandra’s essentially sacrificing her entire life and any possible chance at the happy ending she wants(which, btw, I can’t fathom asking of anybody, but at least she agreed to do it on her own…I guess)

3) The likelihood (& morality) of continuing the deception post-KOA

This entire plan moving into the future hinges on some weird ideas about genetics. Yes, the “Ashryver traits” seem to be dominant and there’s a high chance of Lysaedion’s children looking like Aedion… but if they don’t? What then, pass them off as bastards? That would mean they don’t get the throne. It’s also pretty well established that magical abilities follow the same heritability as physical traits but neither Lysandra nor Aedion has magic that could be passed off as a child of Rowan/Aelin. The best case scenario is that the kids inherit Aedion’s lack of magic and it’s all seen as some cruel joke from the gods, that the offspring of two such powerful magic wielders didn’t get any of their parents’ abilities. The worst (and most likely) case is that the kids turn out to be shape-shifters and they’re still written off as bastards…so they don’t get the throne.

The other problem with putting a false queen on the throne lies in the fucking morality of it all. Aelin’s whole claim to the throne relied on divine right (or some fantasy version of it) and the idea that people who are born to a throne have the inimitable right to rule. Darrow had the right idea in QOS when he told Aelin that she didn’t have the proper upbringing to be a queen, to rule a country, and her only argument against him was “weLL iM AeLiN aShRyVEr gaLAtHyNiUS.” As though that means anything in terms of all the knowledge, temperament, and responsibility required of being a GODDAMN QUEEN.

So if Aelin deserves queenhood purely because of circumstances of birth and blood, what are they achieving by putting a lowborn shapeshifter and her illegitimate children on the throne? Does that not go against everything that was supposedly so important? It seems more like Aelin only cares about the appearance of herself/her family sitting the throne of Terrassen, which is fine as far as writing an interesting character goes, but that’s a sinister kind of corruption that should be acknowledged for what it is. If she truly wanted what was best she would let Darrow and the other northern lords lead it (or at least put Aedion on the throne working with them) because they were the ones helping Terrassen through those ten horrible years and they have the power and experience to bring the kingdom back to its former glory.

SJM writing a plan that was so clearly not going to succeed is lazy writing. She knew it didn’t have to be a foolproof plan bc she knew Aelin was going to survive & be rescued (duh) but the fact of the matter is, an author’s actions and thoughts become the characters’ actions and thoughts. To make such a poorly-thought out plan then to present it through the narrative as some kind of genius move on Aelin’s part is…bad writing. It’s just bad writing.

#update: I wrote a fic dealing with this whole issue/how I think in-character aedion & lysandra would've reacted #find me @wxlves on ao3 #sjm critical #anti sjm #the way Aedion treated Lysandra also felt horribly ooc for him #and the way Lysandra just took the abuse was also ooc #but what do I know I’m not the author 😶

[acaciapines]

obviously if you’re busy leave this alone but: your tag essay has made me VERY intrigued about Dess and Azzy’s relationship in this AU. Tell me about it?

(also, did you see they did an announcement about Starship Iris season 3? It’s finally gonna happen!)

okay IM HERE TO TALK LOL i will NEVER not talk about this au <3 uhhh under a cut bc. really i should just expect these get super long.

big important note up top: all of this is in! early stages! things are not fully formed and researched yet so please keep that in mind as you read this. ideas might change and will get deeper as i do more work for this au, but since rn im focusing on owl house most of these are my ideas i've had without time to do deeper dives into them.

okay so with asriel i've always sort of written him as this guy who like...has an idea of what is 'normal' in his head, ie, what society wants from people, and what it doesnt want, and he has tried his hardest his entire life to always fit into this box. (think about i know im not well--this is why he's always seen kris as a human. being nonhuman is abnormal and gets you punished in society. to an extent this is also how he views dess being aromantic.)

i think a lot of this comes from fear--asriel IS for sure contorting himself and actively harming himself to stay inside this narrow box of 'normal' (think of this as another sort of prophecy--these are all touching on the same themes). and he applies this same mentality to other people BECAUSE of this fear, because he doesnt want his loved ones to be hurt, to be punished, ostracized, etc by society--which are i wanna be clear VERY MUCH THINGS THAT HAPPEN--but in doing this he sort of just hurts the people he loves. because instead of being someone who rejects these boxes hes like. no we gotta be good and fit into the boxes and then everything will be okay.

so when it comes to dess, dess has always very much Done Her Own Thing, consequences be damned. partly this is who she is, partly this is hashtag undiagnosed and untreated mental illness, the onset of which happens around when shes 18 and everything is going down with the bunker (which is NOT helping at ALL). and so when dess comes back from the bunker asriel does very much go 'oh. shes delusional.' and proceed to be No Help At All.

and like, the thing is dess IS very much having a psychotic break. this bit is very much still in deep research (sidenote: anybody in my audience who has experience w/ these things. feel free to hit me up/dm me lol i'd love to talk through some of my ideas as a sort of preliminary sensitivity read, but of course only do this if you are up to it, no pressure lol bc again we're in early stages) but she has schizoaffective + bipolar disorder. dark worlds dont help with this, asriel SUPER doesnt help with this (he doesnt know her actual disorder--neither of them do, this is the onset of things. but tbf even if he did he Would Not Help asriel is essentially doing everything wrong here.) and what dess needs is literally one single person in her corner but the person who is supposed to be in her corner (azzy) is basically being like 'you are making this up' and shes like im NOT, and everything is all mixed together, terrible, bad, awful, and eventually everything culminates and. we know what happens.

(side note but this is why she and chara work real well together actually--chara gets her when asriel doesnt!!)

asriel never actually like. tells anybody about this though. in his head after its assumed dess and kris have died he sort of just. is like well this proves it. i cant let anybody else i care about go that far EVER AGAIN, because if i was a better friend i would've noticed and i wouldve stopped it and made dess "normal." (yes asriel sucks here. the focus is on the kids but. he's getting an arc. i do promise he will get better but. that doesnt really fix what he's done in the past.)

and all of this is like. it fucking sucks for the people around asriel. in hurting himself he's hurting his loved ones--it pushes dess away, and that relationship is never going to be the same. even when asriel realizes how he fucked up i dont think dess really forgives him. because if asriel had just believed her, or at least even if he didnt actually took her seriously and tried to help, shes like. things wouldve gone differently. and asriel knows this too.

and then when it comes to NOELLE, well. asriel's always been very overprotective of her. terrified the world is going to hurt her. and so when noelle starts experiencing things, things she cant tell if theyre real or not...

she doesnt tell him. she doesnt tell anybody. she keeps it all to herself, and this means its a hell of a lot easier for the player/red soul to manipulate her. and nobody finds out until its too late.

#ask #drkau #hi welcome to the reveal of a real big thing this au is about that i havent mentioned anywhere yet <3 #unless youre one of two people in which case hey. hey guys. #but yeah uh. ive had some thoughts. about what i want to do. try to say. #about prophecy and how that relates to This World Here #and yes the only place i can say those things is in a deltarune au <3 i love my life #also STARSHIP IRIS S3 YES. I SAW. SO EXCITED. #also also. writing this it hit me that holy shit asriel is the monster in 'human monster prince from the dark' isnt he. fuck. god. #GOD BC. if this is all tying back into prophecy...we get the red soul upholding it...azzy upholding it..and ralsei who was supposed to #but shes the one who BREAKS IT. oh my god. okay lemme write this down love having banger ideas in the tags

[chounaifu]

I’m really glad that those asks I sent out are being well-received. There’s still a few more that I need to write up, but, I’m pacing myself. :’)

Thoughts about my own current state beneath the cut, since my therapist always encourages me to open up to the people in my space. Some of it can be potentially triggering, so, please do not open if the discussion of trauma, stalking and abuse is harmful to you:

I’ve been vocal about the horrifying, traumatic stuff that caused me to leave the RPC in 2017, to a few of you before. Without going into deep detail, between the years of 2017-2021, I was trapped in an extremely, extremely abusive relationship with a member of the RPC who is no longer here, thank fuck. Because of my poor coping skills and extremely fragile mental health at the time, he managed to keep me in a social isolation until I finally left him in 2021. And I mean true social isolation; I wasn’t allowed to talk to anybody but him. (I literally had to lie and pretend like I was having internet troubles if I even wanted to open up another chat box on Discord to talk to somebody, because he would literally point out the amount of minutes it took for me to respond to him.) He tracked my location in real time with GPS. He controlled what I ate when we spent time together irl. He forced me to quit one of my jobs before, because he wasn’t pleased with how busy I was. Any free time I had, had to be given to him. I had no identity, no autonomy, no sense of self.

Since I left him in 2021, I’ve been in a long process of learning how to be a human being again, how to exist around multiple people, and how to monitor my energy levels. It’s been hard, and, there’s a lot of times where I have to learn that I am adapting to an entirely new way of life. I used to be able to write a lot of thread replies, ask replies, and drabbles in a short period of time, but, my brain just does not do that anymore. And it makes me sad, but, I know that my RP partners understand my situation.

I cannot emphasis how much going from *one* person to— well, a lot of good friends has been good for me, but also a difficult experience in itself, because I’m still fighting with my own hypersensitivity and paranoia.

Choosing to come back here was one of the scariest decisions I have ever made. And, even though I don’t vocalize it, I actively fight trauma responses every single time I open Tumblr— not because anybody is doing anything to me, but because the experience I went through was so deep.

That’s why I’ve been trying to take a minute to sit down, and send some nice words to everybody. You never know what somebody is going through. *Nobody* knew what I was going through, because I hid it so well— because I was forced to. We’re all human beings, on this rock, and we all chose to sit here and write, whether because it is a coping mechanism, something we’re passionate about, or because it’s simply fun. And I think that’s really, really beautiful.

I don’t think I’m ever going to be the same, energetic Rex that I once was. And I wish I could be. But that is okay.

So, for the people who welcomed me back, and remembered me: thank you for accepting my return, and accepting my apology.

And for the people who didn’t know me, who have become my friend lately: thank you for giving me a chance.

I’ve lost a lot of people, both friends and family, in the past decade or so. Nobody can fill those gaps, but, you guys make me feel a lot less lonely. Believe it or not, I don’t have many friends irl, and I really don’t know what I would be doing with myself right now if I hadn’t chosen to come back to Tumblr.

I wish there was more I could do to help uplift everybody who has been having a difficult time lately, I really, really do. But, at the end of the day, I cannot; what I can do, is point out that there’s at least *one* person out there who wants to see the best happen for you.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, I just want to be a good person, despite of the horrible things I was called by my abuser, and I hope I am doing that.

#➤ 《 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠 》 Out Of Character

[probablyaseamonster]

to all the people making fanart about My Little Pony infection AUs:

That was my childhood! MY. CHILDHOOD! My largest source of happiness because I sure as hell wasn't getting that from my family or anybody I interacted with after leaving the house. I lived vicariously through the Main Six because I apparently didn't understand how friendship worked since people either avoided me and gave me looks or pretended to be my friend just to gaslight me afterward (like i wasnt getting enough of that at home). The few friends I did manage to get never lasted long, and I'd spend hours wallowing in jealousy because my siblings managed to manifest massive friend groups despite being absolutely awful.

I happened upon Cupcakes by accident like so many other children and I could never look at my favourite show the same way again. Even when I was enjoying it there would always be those terrifying images at the back of my mind. Not even the most innocent media in my childhood were safe from adults who "liked" children.

You ruined it! You ruined the one good thing I had! And now you have the gall to be like

"Hey, remember when we destroyed the innocence of thousands of children and drew and wrote so much heinous art that we became an entire subset of the fandom? That was fun! Lets do that again, for old time's sake."

FUCK YOU. How come you get to enjoy your nostalgia at the expense of the people you already actively prevented from experiencing? How come you get to ruin the corpse of the characters you ruined during their life?

I don't fucking care if you're neurodivergent! I am too and you actively took away the only source of joy I had when I was surrounded by ableism on all sides. If you can't tell, this is an extremely personal subject to me!

The MLP revival shouldn't be more creepypasta shit. And don't you DARE call me a white Karen mom about this. Because of you, MLP is known for horror and characters brutally murdering each other, and don't get me wrong! I love that shit! I'm in the life series fandom for God's sake! I was a Magnus Archives fan! But this is different! This is an innocent piece of media I was LIVING on.

Can you all just fucking stay out of it? I would rather a timeline where only a few people made MLP fanworks in 2024 and were made fun of than you all doing this with its legacy. Abusers shouldn't be able to kick the actual mourners out of a funeral and assault whoever, dead or alive, is left.

Ive never understood the reason why people make DNI lists but I think I'm getting it now! Istg, if you come at me with more MLP horror, I am blocking you, and if you make fun of that statement I'm sorry but I would deck you in the face if you did that IRL because how dare you laugh at a person this angry? I get enough of that on the regular already and I don't need people I could've been friends with online adding themselves to the list.

Now how about you all squash your indeserved and harmful nostalgia and LEAVE so that us traumatized kids can enjoy what little content we still make?

#anti mlp infection au #god i hope that works #last time i checked the anti au only had pos stuff for some reason #i removed this from the main tag i hope it suffices #hate #apparently #mlp #controversy #personal #fandom drama #fandom discourse #PLEASE don't explain to me about the blacklist system #I ALREADY KNOW it exists #the ISSUE is YouTube #and I'm PRETTY SURE that I can't control that #i am sensitive #in an angry way #that is not an excuse to infantilize me thanks

[2braincellslz]

Rest Your Eyes

Ship: male!yn x The Corinthian

Desc: Yn has a nightmare and wakes up in a cold sweat. Cori helps him calm down and go back to sleep.

You were running. From what? You didn't know. Just kept going. Keep running and running and running. Something was chasing you. You knew that much. Something wanted you and was going to get you so you had to keep running. You didn't even think to look around the hall you were running down. All you knew was that the door to your freedom was getting further and further away with each desperate step. 

You ran as hard and fast as your legs could take you till they gave out, causing you to tumble into a bookshelf you had passed a dozen times. 

You pulled your knees up to your chest, hiding your face away into your knees. Choking out soft broken cries for your safety. 

You felt a presence, you heard the floorboards creak as something stepped closer to you. A hand rested on your back.

¨no more of this. It's over now.¨ a familiar monotone voice said but you refused to look up.

¨ Look at me. It is time to go.¨

¨No, please. No more.¨ 

You let out a blood curdling scream as pain enveloped your body.

You shot up, a cold sweat dripping down your forehead. 

That nightmare played over and over in your head. The same ordel night after night. It was hard to get to sleep in the first place. You dreaded hearing the stranger's voice. The few times you did look up you were met with a shadow of a figure with two wide eyes staring back at you and teeth turned into a twisted smile. As if Dream was punishing you for… well…

You heard something shift next to you. Looking over, you saw the blond that had been ¨hiding out¨ in your apartment. Except he really wasn't hiding out, was he?

He looked peaceful. You didn't know nightmares could sleep yet here he was. He wasn't really a nightmare to you though. A charmer and a gentleman. A sweetheart. 

He wasn't wearing his sunglasses but his eyes were closed. After about two or three months of living together, you caught him without his sunglasses on. He had to explain the whole Dream world and Nightmares and Morphus and his ordeal. You already knew about his… activities… but you didn't really care. As long as he cleaned up the carpet. This whole Nightmare thing was just frosting on the cake, per say. 

After you saw him without his glasses, he started being more genuine to you. He was more careful around you. Treating you as if you were a fine art. He would compliment you more often, pulling you closer to him while the two of you watched movies, preparing food.

From that, stemmed dates. The first time he asked you out, you nearly screamed yes. You didn't know how to tell him you wanted to go out, so thank god he made the first move.

Dates where the usual kind of boyfriend boyfriend dates. Dinners, movies, arcades, the beach, trips. 

Then you met Dream. He was a lot less scary than you had first thought and he was a lot more tired. Makes sense though. You had practically begged on your hands and knees for Dream to let The Corinthian stay around. Must have worked, because he made a deal with the two of you. As long as The Corinthian did not harm anybody innocent, Morphous wouldn't bother us. 

It was all domestic fluff from then on with the occasional scolding Cori about keeping the rug clean.

The sheets beside you shifted again and a long groan was let out. 

The Corinthian flipped over on his back, usually he would use his arm to cover the sun from his eyes or eye mouths but it was still dark out.

"Darlin?" he blinked his eyes open. "what time is it?"

"uh… 3 in the morning." you sighed, rubbing your temples.

He sat up, streshing his arms up in to the air. "why are you up?"

"nightmare." you said simply, pulling your knees up to your chest and looking away. 

"nightmare? Want to talk about it? I know a thing or two about nightmares." he chuckled.

"i was running down a long hall. The door kept getting further and further away. Then i tripped and some void thing caught up with me. Then i was in a lot of pain." you layed back down. Corinthian smiled, leaning on to one hand so he was looking over you.

"You are so pretty when you are tired."

You let out a audible groan, rolling your eyes. "Cori." You whined.

He just laughed and layed back down, pulling closer with his arm wrapped around you and his other behind his head.

You layed your head on his bare chest, tracing circles in to his skin.

"Do you want me to see if I can do anything about thoughs nightmares? Talk to Morpheus?" He asked, gently rubbing your arm with his finger tips.

"Would you? As long it's not to far out your way."

"Oh sweet boy, if you need me to do anything then it isnt too far out."

"You are too good to me, Cori" You hummed, letting your eyes flutter close.

"Whatever you say... rest your eyes, try and get some sleep."

You yawned, letting the warmth of sleep and Cori rock you to sleep.

Corinthian stayed up a little bit, making sure that you were dreaming of him.

#gays on the fyp #the corinthian x male yn #the corinthian x reader #the corinthian x you #the corinthian #the corinthian x male reader #the Corinthian x trans reader #trans safe #the Corinthian x ftm reader #the Corinthian x masc reader #the Corinthian x masc yn #the Corinthian x ftm yn #we stan #stan gay icon #nightmare #i just want to sleep #the sandman fic #the sandman

[waywardsunlight]

TW: Child abuse. Speculation on the Coven Heads’ knowledge of Hunter and Belos’ relationship, and also the Collector:

Kinda headcanony in the worst way but I think Terra and Kiki knew about the grimwalkers but Lily probably didn't. If Terra was already working for Belos in the 90s she probably knew 90s Hunter. Belos sheltered them pretty heavily but it appears that Hunter is generally allowed to be around the Coven Heads and she probably saw 90s Hunter "disappear" and then our Hunter show up. I also don't doubt, since Kiki listens to everything, that she knew Hunter was a grimwalker and that made her less inclined to care when he was being abused and be more okay with enacting violence against him bc Belos already does that and “he’s not real anyways”. 

I imagine that Hettie knew something was up, even if she wasn't there as long, because she's the healing coven head and Hunter probably never went to the healing coven (he has a box of supplies in his room) which feels very weird given the amount of injuries he has and how extreme they are. I think she probably was like: Belos’ business isn’t our business and I want to stay alive, and I imagine this is true of Terra as well (and I mean, Terra loves to harm kids so like... probably didn’t care).

Lily only saw Hunter at work so she didn't realize what was going on for him and Hunter says he didn't spend time with the other scouts. Hunter was kind of like the random kid that Belos was saddling her with on the weekends. She felt he didn’t earn his place there, and she probably didn’t see his injuries because he wears his mask constantly in the EC. Raine for sure had no idea any of this was going on, they were only a coven head for a few months and even though it seems like they had a friendly relationship with Hunter, I doubt anybody told them and Hunter wouldn’t’ve either because he didn’t see it as an abusive relationship even though he was upset by it until long after he escaped.

The more questionable ones are Adrian, Darius, and Eber because on one hand I’d be surprised if they hadn’t picked up on something. Adrian is extremely cruel to Hunter and takes pleasure in hurting him which I’ve seen speculated as that he thinks Hunter is a nepotism baby. But it could also be that Adrian is in the same boat as Kiki where he feels able to harm Hunter more easily because he views Hunter as lesser than him or not as a person. 

Darius 100% knew about the grimwalkers or at the very least had extremely strong suspicions even if he didn’t have a name for it. I think Eber and Darius were in the same boat. Darius also might’ve known that Belos was an abuser but I don’t imagine he would’ve just stood by if he thought Hunter was actively being abused. I also think there’s a level of “I can’t care because I know it’s going to destroy me” with Darius but then he does give in to that and cares, and it seems like he’s in contact with Hunter for a period of time between ASIAS and Hollow Mind where their relationship really improved. I think Darius might’ve had misdirected anger at Hunter because Belos treats him openly good and talks about how Hunter is his favorite, etc. which might’ve made Darius think that Hunter wasn’t in as much danger as he actually was and driven some of that resentment. But Darius kind of checks himself I think, he realizes that Hunter isn’t a lapdog, he sees Hunter as a fully fleshed out person who he misunderstood and while it isn’t great that he was pretty mean to Hunter before this turn, I think there’s a huge level of forgiveness there because Belos really fucked everyone up.

Okay and finally really fast... Hunter and the Collector. The Collector does seem sympathetic to Hunter’s struggles despite seemingly taking joy in the fact that Belos likes to hurt him. The Collector points out Belos’ behavior a few times and seems a little self-aware about his participation but ultimately doesn’t care because his own freedom and getting to enact violence is more important to him. I think the Collector is a little weirded out by it but also finds it entertaining. Ultimately he views Hunter as another toy to play with and see how far Belos can push him until he breaks. But there’s also a little bit of that “I’m starting to think that you make these things just so you can destroy them”... kind of questioning Belos but ultimately not really caring.

#the owl house #toh speculation #tw child abuse #hunter noceda #emperor belos #darius deamonne #lilith clawthorne #TOH meta #the owl house meta #the collector #long post #I write stuff like this to keep twitter users away jk

[faintingheroine]

In relation to this discussion on Heathcliff’s grasp on different types of love, what do we make of this exchange between Younger Cathy and Linton Heathcliff?

“Yes,” said Catherine, stroking his long soft hair; “if I could only get papa’s consent, I’d spend half my time with you. Pretty Linton! I wish you were my brother.”

“And then you would like me as well as your father?” observed he, more cheerfully. “But papa says you would love me better than him and all the world, if you were my wife; so I’d rather you were that.”

“No I should never love anybody better than papa,” she returned gravely. “And people hate their wives, sometimes; but not their sisters and brothers: and if you were the latter you would live with us, and papa would be as fond of you as he is of me.”

Linton denied that people ever hated their wives; but Cathy affirmed they did, and, in her wisdom, instanced his own father’s aversion to her aunt. I endeavoured to stop her thoughtless tongue. I couldn’t succeed till everything she knew was out. Master Heathcliff, much irritated, asserted her relation was false.

Papa told me; and papa does not tell falsehoods,” she answered pertly:

“My papa scorns yours!” cried Linton. “He calls him a sneaking fool.”

“Yours is a wicked man,” retorted Catherine; “and you are very naughty to dare to repeat what he says. He must be wicked to have made Aunt Isabella leave him as she did.”

“She didn’t leave him,” said the boy; “you shan’t contradict me.”

“She did,” cried my young lady.

“Well, I’ll tell you something!” said Linton. “Your mother hated your father: now then.”

“Oh!” exclaimed Catherine, too enraged to continue.

“And she loved mine,” added he.

“You little liar! I hate you now!” she panted, and her face grew red with passion.

As Younger Cathy also points out, Heathcliff hated his wife, so he must be under no illusion that people never hate their wives. He seems to have actively lied to his son about how much wives and husbands love each other to manipulate him into marrying Younger Cathy. But then he also presumably said to his son that Elder Catherine hated her husband? What happened to wives loving their husbands best? It is all over the place.

But, him saying to Linton that Cathy would love him better than all the world and her father if he were her husband, when taken in relation with him later dismissing Cathy’s love and care for her father, might still be an indication of how Heathcliff prioritizes romantic connections to parental ones.

What does Heathcliff think about love between brothers and sisters? Not much I would say. Contrary to popular belief, Catherine and Heathcliff never openly regard each other as siblings (which does not mean that their connection doesn’t have a near-incestuous side, it does as they grew up together, but they never call each other brother and sister) so he might not be making a connection between his love for Catherine and fraternal love. And he does relish telling Isabella that her brother doesn’t love her.

What does Heathcliff think of Hindley and Catherine’s connection? He does respect Catherine’s wish that Hindley would not be harmed while she is alive, but his initial plan before taking that instruction from her was to kill Hindley then himself, so he must not be organically thinking much of that connection either.

The form of love that Heathcliff empathizes most strongly with is Hareton’s crush on Younger Cathy, which confirms my belief that Heathcliff regards his love for Catherine as a primarily romantic love.

#wuthering heights #heathcliff

[drustvar]

Ch. 18: Shrouded Eyes

The path to the Coliseum is fraught with danger, at least, in Rosie's eyes. Those who would wish her beloved harm surely lurk in every shadow, don't they?

WC: 1.4k + A/N: Took a little break but I think I'm ready to kick it back into high gear! Had some fun with the little bits of Rosie's paranoia and hinting at some very old magic possibly being connected to the Coliseum ;) Ao3 link in reblog || full text under cut

Vesuvia’s coliseum was once one of the city’s defining features. It had been a public hub for both the rich and the poor: bartering outside its gates in makeshift stalls and crowding into the seats, eager to watch bloodsport. But now it sat empty; no more cheering crowds, no more fights. Only sand and dust whistling through the cracks of crumbling stone walls.

Rosie couldn’t recall ever watching one of the gladiator fights. In truth, they had been falling out of fashion ever since the Countess had married and moved to Vesuvia; seemingly one of the few social reforms she had been able to encourage. Then of course the plague came, and everyone was too preoccupied with trying not to die to have time to watch oiled, scantily clad men try to kill each other. Gladiators stopped renewing their contracts, and without prisoners of war or any kind of organized crime watch, Count Lucio had been unable to refill his roster of fighters. Although it had been abandoned for years, the sight of it filled Rosie with a sense of terrible dread, as though the dangers that it once housed were still lurking in its walls; she brushed off the feeling as being her own anxiousness about Julian making no effort to hide his identity as they made their way to the coliseum. 

“You should have kept that mask from the theater,” Rosie hissed as she pulled Julian into the shadow of a building as a pair of wealthy looking merchants ambled past, chatting amongst themselves about various wealthy frivolities as they turned down the main road that led to the floating markets. 

“Are you still worried about that, my dear?” 

“You’d be a fool not to be,” She said as she peered out of the shadows. She was sure she had seen freshly polished insignias bearing Lucio’s likeness pinned to the merchant’s robes. Ever since the masquerade had been announced it seemed more and more loyalists were coming out of the woodwork. “We’re a long way from South End,” she murmured as she took his hand and continued on, still staying within the shadows of buildings and pillars that lined the road. 

“Ah, I understand your worry completely. But look around,” he swept his arms out and stepped back into the sunlight. “See? Nobody’s around.” “There just were,” Rosie hissed as she looked up and down the street. “They were  just using a shortcut. And uh, well it’s rude to gossip but, well these empty buildings are a good place to sneak off to for…any number of activities,” he said with a grin that Rosie did not return. “How can you be so sure they’re empty?” “Oh, well I’ll show you!” Rosie didn’t have time to stop him before he had leapt onto the crumbling wall outside one of the abandoned huts. 

“Oh, yoooohooo! Anyone home? Anyone at all?” He waved his arms and called in an exaggerated voice. Rosie hissed and grabbed for him, but he laughed and easily sidestepped her hands. “Ah, looks like nobody’s home-” his grin dropped when he saw how her eyes darted around and her hands clutched her amulet. He made a worried sound as he nimbly stepped down off the wall. “Rosie,” he gently pried her hands free of her amulet and held them. “I’m sorry. I was only trying to lighten the mood.”

Rosie just shook her head and sighed as he pulled her close enough that her forehead rested against his chest. She didn’t want to think about what could have happened if the stalls along the street hadn’t been abandoned. How anybody squatting there would be stupid to not try and turn Julian in; surely the bounty on his head was enough to live comfortably for many years on. “Let’s just keep movin’,” she said. “The sooner we track down this ‘Scourge’ the better.”

|| The arena was empty, just as it had been for years. ‘If there’s a Scourge here, the only thing he’s fighting is ghosts ,’ Rosie thought as she scanned the dusty rows of benches. A breeze occasionally swirled the sand into small torrents around their feet. 

“Right,” she said, her hands planted on her hips. “This market’s underground, yeah? There a trapdoor buried here somewhere?” She asked as she pawed at the ground with the toe of her boot.

“Oh no, the Red Market Merchant’s Guild was more sophisticated than that,” Julian said as he strode past her to the northernmost wall. “The lock was a puzzle of sorts. Some kind of identity magic…I’m sure that’s how Asra managed to sneak in,” he said as he began to run his fingers over the bricks set between two of the columns. 

“Was it two to the left? Or three to the left,” Julian muttered. “Ah, give me just another moment dear, I’ll have this open in a jiffy,” he said as he felt Rosie press close against his side. She nodded as she cast a wary glance over her shoulder. Although the arena was empty, she was sure the eyes of all those slain in its sands were surely watching them; she regretted not packing an extra pouch of salt. 

“No, no it was three to the right, two to the left, and then up and down, yes that was it! Stand back now, dear, it was always a little messy. Used to throw sand and stray shrapnel everywhere.” The pair stepped back and waited — nothing happened.

“...Did you break it?” Rosie asked. “Surely not! Don’t even know if it can be broken,” Julian shook his head and began to examine the wall again. “Did they take me off the VIP list?” 

Rosie turned away as he continued to fiddle with the bricks in the wall. An energy thrummed beneath her feet that she couldn't ignore any longer; wild and erratic, the same way a busy marketplace felt. 'It has to lead to the underground, it's gotta be some kind of spell signature...magical residue,' she thought. The sand was warm and soft between her fingers as she dropped to the ground and pressed her palms flat and felt around for the pulse. "Uh, Rosie?" Julian had glanced back to find her on her hands and knees, feeling around in the dirt. Rosie tuned him out as she centered herself and tried to follow the energy’s trail in her mind’s eye.  She crawled forward as she followed the trail, which faintly glowed as she shut her eyes. The edges of the darkness took on a red tinge as she drew closer and closer. 

“Where are you going?” Julian’s voice sounded faint, despite being just a few steps away. “Is this a magic thing? Are you doing a magic thing, Rosie? Dear? Hello?” 

The red in her mind’s eye was almost blinding as she reached the trail head. Her eyes snapped open and she began to frantically dig in the sand, until her fingers brushed against something cold. She brushed the remaining sand away and stared down at what she had uncovered: a circular iron hatch, barely two arm lengths in diameter. There were strange runes carved along its rim; for just a moment it seemed as if they were glowing the same red as the magic that led her there. She told herself it was merely a trick of the light.

“Well I’ll be,” Julian had followed close behind her. “Brava, Rosie.  A trapdoor, just like you’d thought! Hidden by some magic I assume?” 

“Something like that,” Rosie shrugged as she took his hand and got to her feet, brushing the sand off her skirt. There was something very old and very dark about the magic that emanated from the hatch that was deeply unsettling; but she had faith that Asra wouldn’t have sent her into danger. At least, not on purpose. She fiddled with her amulet as she watched Julian pull the hatch open. Just below the surface was an old, rickety looking ladder that descended into a seemingly endless darkness. 

“Well, uh,” Julian rocked back on his heels as he stared down into the hole. “Are you ready?”

‘No ,’ Rosie thought. ‘ What I’m ready to do is go home and hide away from all of this. Maybe the two of us pack our bags and skip town, start a new life and try to forget we were ever in this mess .’  But she knew that wasn’t an option. If the two of them were ever going to be free, they needed answers. “Aye,” she murmured as she brushed her thumb over the face of her amulet. 

“Then uh, down the rabbit hole we go,” He said as he started down the ladder. Rosie gave one last glance at the empty coliseum before she followed after him and pulled the hatch shut behind them. 

And just like that, the coliseum stood empty and silent once more.

#kismet #julian #julian devorak #the arcana #arcana #rosie #mine

[sburbian-sage]

Uhh, hi. Grace of Light here. I was a Seer of Time in my last session, and this is my first replay. I've been looking through all the guides and stuff that I can, but it's very overwhelming...

I've been having trouble finding clear info on Graces... and that Grace of Blood has me really worried. I thought my cataclysm would be an accident of some kind? That's how a lot of guides made it sound, but maybe I mixed it up with the Waste.

But for that person, they sounded like they were doing it on purpose, and it sounded really scary and confusing. I don't want to hurt anybody, (or whatever they did exactly...), am I really gonna go crazy like them?

No, as a Grace you're not predestined to go insane, I was being a bit hyperbolic (and insulting towards someone jokerposting in my inbox, people jokerposting in my inbox is surprisingly common and always annoying). I don't think whoever that was is representative of most Graces. Partially because I don't think their "plan" fits what Graces typically end up doing, and partially because they were ranting about something much more philosophical and personal than just the game. At worst, they cracked under the pressure and are about to undergo their cataclysm, but it will be nothing like what they described.

Graces and Wastes are both cataclysm classes, and are both destined to cause a cataclysm. The difference being that the Waste is "active", and their cataclysm is more like a bomb going off, while a Grace is "passive", and their cataclysm can be more likened to a poison of some sort. When the cataclysm happens, the course of the session will be irreparably altered, such that any major plans you had for "how the session will go" will be rendered irrelevant. Whatever is going to happen to your session will be a slow corruption. Nobody will see it coming until it's too late, it cannot be stopped, and people will be hurt by it. But it won't be your fault. This is just what happens when a Grace enters the session.

My advice for you in the short term, as a Grace of Light, is to put the cataclysm to the back of your mind. Any attempt at reducing or avoiding the harm is doomed to failure. It's going to happen, and once you shake things up just in time for the third act, the eyes of all your coplayers, and the game, will be on you. If you're concerned about the fallout, focus on either fixing the harm, or helping everyone work past it and complete the game before the "poison" gets worse.

My advice for you in the long term, as a replayer, is not to get overwhelmed. The myriad guides, FAQs, and so on are useful, but endless. If you try to take in too much information at once, you'll overload or be unable to sort through them when push comes to shove. Or you'll psych yourself out when you see concerning things like that last ask. Reference them when needed, but trust in your force. You beat the game once already. If you want to read through All The Guides (All Of Them) in a professional manner, save it for when you've got a couple of sessions tucked in your belt and have built up a skillset that gets you through most of the game, but want to know more about the weird glitches, obscure features, or other data you haven't personally witnessed yourself. The replayernet will not hold your hand going forward, but it will be at your back.

#sburb #replay value au #cataclysm #grace class #new replayer

[msommers]

artificer, fighter, and warlock for riya and iggy!!

i give u kees mwah // d&d character class asks

artificer: How good is your muse at picking up new tools/skills? Are they proficient with any tools? How are they at making things with their own hands?

RIYA — if she's interested in the tool/skill and it's a hands on activity, then she'll be a quick learner! otherwise it takes her a bit to pick things up either from lack of intrigue or the struggles she has with continual study of text. she's proficient with alchemist’s supplies and i have to assume that's from her fucking around and finding out through her years at the college lmao. i hate that i have to do it to her but riya's a weaponized incompetence girly and i've gotta call her out on it. she's never made anything with her own hands and she'd rather flirt her way into having literally anybody else do it before she gives it an actual try. give her proper instruction and a veeeery long period of practice, then she'd probably do an Okay job on something she has an excitement for doing, otherwise it's trash. don't waste the resources babes

IGGY — unfortunately i think iggy’s memory troubles would hinder her ability to pick up new things with ease, and contributes to the fact that she has zero tool proficiencies as of leaving vyrantium. that said she would be great at making things with her hands! as long as somebody’s there giving her instructions and occasional gentle reminders to stay on task if something else nabs her attention. she’ll be a great workhorse for the grey wardens tbh, just stick her on wall/reinforcement building when she’s not out there cutting down darkspawn and it’ll get done well enough to feel secure.

fighter: What's your muse's fighting style? Are there any weapons your muse is comfortable with, or a weapon they'd like to learn to use? What drives them to fight?

RIYA — she's a little all over the place when it comes to strategy (she'd swear there's a method to it but if you ask for the explanation you'd be there for like 15 minutes hearing the debrief on how chaotic her head is during combat), but the classic Glass Cannon is a nice default no matter what her prepared spells look like. has a little bit too much fun rushing the enemy if i'm being honest. she's best friends with staffs, a few types of blades, and technically she can handle a couple of other weapons but she doesn't particularly care for them. she's learning how to use herself as a conduit for magic instead of the bestie staff. she fights out of a desire to live, for the thrill of action, to protect her allies and those needing her aid, and to make her family proud. 

IGGY — when she’s in control of her faculties, her default is protection duty as that’s been her most frequent directive for so damn long. i, tabby the player, had it to where any activation of her lycan order hybrid transformation meant that she’d fully lost control of any logical thoughts and decision making. aka it’s her going full feral mode, only animal instinct (and rage, if that’s active) pushing her forward until it wears out, she’s knocked unconscious, or one of her runes is activated to rein her in. she’s capable of wielding whatever weapon is put into her hands because of the long decades she’s spent training and fighting, though she favors a sword or axe if given a choice. she’s driven now by a desire to do good with what time she has left, devoting her capabilities to ridding the world of however many darkspawn she can because surely it all makes a difference (she desperately needs it to make a difference, to maybe in time even slightly make up for all she’s done). tbh??? she’s probably made some kind of vow to herself to never harm another person again which motivates her efforts elsewhere.

warlock: Has your muse ever made a deal to get something they wanted? Is there anything your muse wants enough to broker for it? What would your muse sacrifice to get what they want?

RIYA — i imagine a joking thing between the clairmont kids came out of their mother being The business woman where they’d make silly nonsense deals with each other, either to have fun or be difficult depending on their mood (riya would constantly make deals to have her absence at boring events be covered by one of her brothers). she negotiated with warden recruiter rasha while in a whole ass prison cell to save bastian’s life, and would have given him anything to see it through. recently made a deal with warden commander satine and she puts that down to having experience requesting insane things from her own mother. unfortunately i think she'd sacrifice quite a lot for something/someone she cares deeply for, and she wouldn't think twice about it in the moment. IGGY — her only genuine deal would have been with the magister during the oneshot, because she was actually given something of real value in return for her efforts. any deals made with the family that had her enslaved would have been small things just to appease her or trick her into thinking they were giving more than they truly were, y’know all about furthering the control and dependence.

#ch: valeriya de clairmont #ch: ignota #me before my nap: i'm gonna wake up and double check everything here to see if it makes sense #me now: so anyway i hit the post button the moment i loaded the page