#but there are certainly situations where they are a risk to humans and in general most of these are best observed from a distance

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

I wish people weren’t so afraid of spiders and snakes to see them as inherently dangerous animals. As far as i can tell California doesn’t have any spider thats dangerous except to children (some recluses and widows including it seems the black widow and brown recluse. And yellow sac spiders which can have a nasty bite). Not to mention, a spider climbing on you in a flood is just trying to live. If you just stay calm and get to dryish land you can save them without much danger to yourselves.

California also doesn’t seem to have any venomous snakes except a sea snake and rattlers (ok there was a rear fanged colubrid but those cant even really envenomate unless its a feeding strike) None of which are species really known for going out of their way to hurt people.

Fleas are also not likely to be a major issue unless you have pets, except for potentially spreading illness. Human fleas aren’t all that common and the common species don’t actually like humans.

Anon I don’t know how to tell you this but fleas absolutely will bite humans if they’re hungry and low on their preferred host and a flood situation fits the bill for them to absolutely take more than a few opportunistic bites. And I hate to tell you this next part, but the Black Plague has been well documented as endemic to parts of california in the modern day. I’m sure it’s anywhere that fleas hang out really, but fleas are indeed a concern.

Also worth noting that in the case of phobias, the fear isn’t often rooted in a rational aspect or true presence of danger as much as it’s rooted in just psychological dread towards things that move different than humans and especially towards things that move different than humans very very quickly. Humans also tend to panic if any given animal is suddenly climbing on them. And humans make very poor decisions when panicked in an already stressful situation.

not to mention the fact that black widows and brown recluse spiders are absolutely capable of being threats to human health, and even if they’re really only fatal in children generally speaking, there are as a matter of fact statistically at least a few children in the flooded parts of california. And while your chances of encountering a flood rattlesnake or being bitten by a sea snake are low, they are never zero. Love and light.

#Listen anon I am a very big fan of all of these animals and removing stigma from them #but there are certainly situations where they are a risk to humans and in general most of these are best observed from a distance #rather than climbing you like a tree to take shelter in your hair

[bethanydelleman]

Okay, so this is the post where I defend first cousin marriage, which is featured in Mansfield Park, Sense & Sensibility, and also comes up in Pride & Prejudice (I mean Anne de Bourgh and Mr. Darcy, Mr. Collins is a distant cousin to Elizabeth, at least 2 degrees removed, Mr. Elliot in Persuasion is another second cousin, though his line about Anne not changing her name might be the most cringy pickup line in romance history).

Firstly, 1st cousin marriage, in general is a squick NOT genetically dangerous. Yes, the Hapsburgs did happen, but they were intermarrying like crazy and within a very small dating pool. For most people, the genetic danger is equal to a woman over 35 having a baby. Negligible.

You also have to consider why cousin marriage was a good idea. Yes, you want to maintain wealth within a family, but more than that, women are vulnerable in marriage. When divorce laws are strict, and even running away from abuse is heavily frowned upon (just see The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) it becomes very important to choose prudently. Now who should you trust not to be abusive? The man you met at six balls in heavily chaperoned settings or cousin Charles, who you've known since birth and who has always been kind to you? I'm going with Charles. And you have more allies (hopefully) in that situation. You can go to your uncle for help if something is going wrong. You have an established network.

You can see why the overly cautious and continually neglected and verbally abused Fanny Price doesn't want to chance it on the wider world! She knows Edmund about as well as a human can know another human.

Now I'm sure this didn't always work perfectly, it certainly didn't for Eliza Brandon, but I can really see the logic behind it especially in Regency England.

In most Western countries, first cousin marriage just seems weird, but it's probably because we have such large dating pools these days and much longer dating periods (usually). People don't marry in a matter of weeks, they often date for years. With the benefits of cousin marriage fairly incomprehensible, we tend to focus on the risks.

Also, we have to remember that these people were not raised being told it was wrong, it wouldn't be gross to them. In fact, in Mansfield Park the idea that it would be a real fear for Fanny to marry one of the sons comes up more than once (at the ball we are told onlookers might have thought Sir Thomas was raising Fanny as a wife for his second son). In Frankenstein, Victor's parents specifically call Elizabeth his cousin instead of sister, assumably because they shipped those two crazy kids at five years old.

Anyway, many cultures still today prefer or practice first cousin marriage. The genetic risk increase is very small (it raises from about 2% to 4%) and we now have genetic testing as well. While it may be gross to you, it is not wrong or immoral, it is a difference. I can see why women might consider it a safer and desirable option.

I'm bringing this up not just because I read way too many posts about how gross the ending of Mansfield Park is to people, but because many people alive today are married to their first cousins and if you meet one, please be civil.

#jane austen #mansfield park #pride and prejudice #sense and sensibility #fanny price #first cousin marriage #cultural differences #yes it was often just about money #its a squick not an ick #actual issue that should be addressed #people today suffer discrimination

[saintsenara]

Weird question but do you think the centaurs SAd umbridge in ootp? It kinda feels like it’s written that way and it’s pretty disturbing tbh

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

the spoiler alert is that i don't - i think the series' approach to sexual violence leaves a great deal to be desired, but i don't think this is one of those cases - but obviously this discussion does come with a trigger warning for rape and is under the cut.

i know where this interpretation comes from - since a huge amount of the classical greek mythology surrounding centaurs is based in the idea that they rape human women - and i also know that the series' general view that any violence which happens to someone who "deserves" it is fine means that readers consider it plausible that jkr would have thought it acceptable for umbridge to be subjected to such a "punishment"...

and the text certainly can be read as showing the aftermath of a sexual assault:

All six of them looked around. Professor Umbridge was lying in a bed opposite them, gazing up at the ceiling. Dumbledore had strode alone into the forest to rescue her from the centaurs. How he had done it - how he had emerged from the trees supporting Professor Umbridge without so much as a scratch on him - nobody knew, and Umbridge was certainly not telling. Since she had returned to the castle she had not, as far as any of them knew, uttered a single word. Nobody really knew what was wrong with her either. Her usually neat mousy hair was very untidy and there were bits of twig and leaf in it, but otherwise she seemed to be quite unscathed. “Madam Pomfrey says she’s just in shock,” whispered Hermione. “Sulking, more like,” said Ginny. “Yeah, she shows signs of life if you do this,” said Ron, and with his tongue he made soft clip-clopping noises. Umbridge sat bolt upright, looking wildly around. “Anything wrong, Professor?” called Madam Pomfrey, poking her head around her office door. “No... no...” said Umbridge, sinking back into her pillows, “no, I must have been dreaming...” Hermione and Ginny muffled their laughter in the bedclothes.

but i think its actual intention is for us to take ginny's reading of the situation as the correct one.

the series likes to punish its bad characters for their bad deeds with a punishment connected to their defining flaw. lockhart - the epitome of grasping narcissism is felled when he believes that he'll be able to perfectly cast a memory charm, too convinced of his own brilliance to notice that ron's wand is broken and the spell will backfire. fudge - a coward who's obsessed with his own public image - is forced from office when his year-long burying his head in the sand is revealed and the public turn on him. marietta edgecombe - a traitor, and a character jkr is on the record as loathing - is punished for wanting to remove the risk of negative attention falling on her and her family by having her crimes, quite literally, written on her face.

bellatrix is taken out by her arrogance, wormtail is taken out by his moral insubstantiality, and - of course - voldemort is taken out by his attempts to outrun both love and death.

what the series hates about umbridge is that she is the encapsulation of bureaucratic bigotry - she's someone who is obsessed with maintaining control and order by subjecting everything in her life to elaborate rules, she values the rigidity of social convention, and she is completely intolerant of anything which contradicts this rule-system. her ruthless discrimination against "half-breeds" is because she wants to confine things she fears or doesn't understand into rigid boxes - she doesn't want to risk discovering that a colleague she likes is a werewolf, because that would undermine the belief system she upholds, and so she removes that threat to herself by passing legislation which prevents werewolves from working alongside her.

her punishment for these crimes - in the series' world-view - must therefore directly relate to her prejudices, and - specifically - to her prejudices being wrong. it wouldn't do for her to be raped by creatures she considers subhuman, because this would justify her belief that centaurs [and werewolves, mermaids, goblins etc.] are savage beasts who will violate wizarding norms at every opportunity, and who, therefore, need to be subjected to violent wizarding control.

it makes more sense to suppose that she is subjected to something she would find it impossible to deny was "civilised" - i imagine, for example, that centaurs have their own legal system, and that she is dragged off to stand before the assembled community and have something which she can meaningfully recognise as a trial - and that her shock and disorientation is because her conviction that she'd be brutally attacked by a group she considers incapable of restraining or governing themselves did not turn out to be true.

and she is also, i think, supposed to be read as affected by the fact that dumbledore - whose authority she has been trying to eradicate from the school - is the person who rescues her, and who achieves through his commitment to [ostensibly] respecting centaur autonomy, far more authority over them than the ministry does.

her humiliation, then, comes - in the text's eyes - from the fact that her hypocrisy has been utterly exposed. and so ginny is right to say that she's "sulking" as a way of trying to save face.

#asks answered #asenora meta #dolores umbridge

[stardate44002point3]

Shaw's Quint speech

Shaw's Quint speech was exactly what we needed to understand where he's been coming from all season. The man was deeply traumatized by the Battle of Wolf 359; not just the terror of all that death and destruction but also the guilt at the sheer capriciousness (and, in his mind, injustice) of his own survival.

It's clear from the comments in the first episode, that he's had a successful career since, he might be a little more conservative in his captaincy style than Picard or Riker would be, but he's obviously a good Captain. He's been in command of the Titan for five years, he has a lot of successful missions under his belt. He has obviously worked hard to put his trauma behind him and move on with his life.

He even selected an ex-Borg XO; recognizing that she has strengths to bring to his command, that he doesn't have. He might have to compartmentalize a little by referring to Seven by her human, not Borg name, but that's a) possibly because that's the name on file for her with Starfleet and b) if she truly had a problem with it (I've seen it described as "abuse" on reddit) then she could request, and almost certainly get, a transfer. There is no indication anywhere that Starfleet would permit a hostile work environment if the victim protested.

All that being said, Shaw has probably spent the last 34 years secretly praying to whatever gods he has that he would never come across Picard in person. If anything qualifies as a trauma trigger, seeing Locutus in the flesh, hearing that voice in person, would qualify.

And, with Picard retired, probably thought he'd succeeded.

And then the fucker shows up on his ship, unannounced, with some bullshit story to get him to ignore his actual orders and head off to the edge of Federation space.

Can you even imagine the kind of trauma response that would generate? No matter how well he has recovered from Wolf 359; no matter how much work he has done on himself - that has to be massively triggering. Hearing that voice, seeing that persona, walking and talking on his ship, even 34 years later.

And does he get time to work through it? Does he fuck.

He gets thrown into a life or death situation, for him and his crew, that he clearly tries very hard to protect; gets injured, drugged and then has to wait for his ship and everyone on it to die.

No wonder he goes off on Picard. And it's not relevant at this point that Picard was a victim too, trauma triggers aren't rational, they are visceral. And Picard is the direct cause of his current predicament (and the incipient death of his crew of 500).

I liked Shaw when we first saw him because he was right; Riker and Picard tried to bullshit him into risking his crew, and he wasn't having any of it (just as they wouldn't have if a retired Admiral and paid-off captain had shown up on the Enterprise 30 years earlier and pulled the same shit on them).

I'm not a fan of protagonist-centered morality (which is something that has always been far too common in ST) and I really liked seeing Picard up against someone who wasn't going to be intimidated by the legend.

The Quint speech just makes him all the more sympathetic.

#captain liam shaw #liam shaw #the quint speech #picard s3 #todd stashwick

[river-in-the-woods]

What are some guidelines you follow when you choose to work with a deity? With me, I don't involve myself with those from closed practices or I'd risk retaliation by the people or by the entity themselves. There are beings that sound like they could give me bang for my buck but I'd have to consider if I needed their assistance for a ONE time thing rather than sought out a deeper relationship. Weee there cases where you needed help for a one time scenario and ended it there?

Hi there, apologies it's been so long. I was moving house just as you sent in this question! Now that I'm more settled, let's see if I can tell you something helpful :)

Personally, I've always gone for the deeper relationship. I've not been in a situation where I needed to ask a particular spirit/deity who I didn't know for particular things. But that's just my preference. I value the trust, and invested time and energy I've built up with a being, over what their 'official' expertise is. A spirit or god always has unadvertised skills or other allies they can call on, after all.

That's not to say I've always been successful with it. I've chosen gods I was interested in, made good faith gestures through offerings and prayers, and plenty of times I didn't get the response I was looking for. In which case I would just move on, keep looking, and deal with problems by myself. I've had hard times like anyone else, but I've not been in dire enough situations to feel the need to ask help from a deity I've never worked with before.

Even if you have not settled on a pantheon or tradition, there are still your ancestors and spirit neighbours who live in the same locale as you. Those beings will impact your day to day life more directly, so it's always being friendly to them, giving an offering now and then. At the very least, so they don't hinder you, but in the best case they may like you enough to actively help your endeavours.

If you are looking for a patron deity, one you want to be serious about, there are some things I could recommend. But bear in mind this is based on my own principles; I choose my gods like I choose a significant other. I tend to walk the Path of the Devotee. This is the norm in East Asian magic, so it may be a cultural thing for me as well. It is certainly an exercise in patience.

You might prefer to do things differently, so feel free to ignore if that's not your style.

If the deity is part of an established tradition or unbroken lineage, this is much easier. If the tradition is large enough, they will usually provide laypeople practices you can get started with. You don't have to initiate for this. Otherwise, you'll need to speak to a verified shaman or priest of that tradition and ask them for advice.

Basically, if a tradition has survived hundreds or thousands of years, you can have faith that there is at least something to it – i.e. the deity has already been vetted by that lineage as being capable of supporting several generations. Therefore instead you would evaluate the (human) teachers of that tradition to see if you are happy to receive their guidance. Of course, the teachers have the right to evaluate you too.

If the deity of interest is not currently a patron of an unbroken lineage: you'll have your work cut out for you.

First, study the deity's reputation. I've always looked for virtue in the deities I venerate. Namely, I look for evidence of their compassion, a sense of responsibility for other beings. I choose them as I choose my friends and teachers. The beings you surround yourself with, are the ones you will become more like. Needless to say, don't choose a patron based on just their aesthetic appeal.

I do research on their lore and look for other devotee's experiences of them. You want to pay attention to devotees who have been actively venerating that deity for 10 years or more. How have they grown throughout the time of that relationship? Have they come out of major life obstacles wiser, stronger, more at peace? Can they honestly say that they feel supported and empowered by their deity?

Sometimes a person's life is just a result of their own poor choices and not the deity's lack of responsibility for their followers. But you get plenty of people who claim they are a 'priest/ess' of their deity, that they have been blessed or chosen, or have ecstatic experiences – and yet they can barely manage a shred of humility or a kind word, or they constantly complain about their life being terrible, or they've been stuck in the same negative cycles for years on end. "The proof is in the pudding", as they say.

In any case, there is no point in devoting yourself to a god that will not elevate you and help you become a better version of yourself. Godhood, power and influence, is by itself not a worthy enough reason for veneration. There are many, many gods. Little gods, bigger gods. Not all of them are truly transcendent. And many you will simply not have an affinity for. Don't place your life into the hands of one who will drop you.

Making contact After you've verified the deity's reputation, look for the best ways to contact them formally. Traditional prayers, invocations, mantras, offerings and so on. Make a good impression, express your interest, tell them about yourself, tell them what you admire about them, and so on.

At this point, you could go all out, do a big ritual and ask for their help on something, see what the outcome is. As I said, I don't normally do this, because I think it requires a strong magical and spiritual skill set (which I don't have). But that would be a good way to evaluate the deity as well.

Either way, continue to make regular attempts to contact the deity, always with an offering, however small it might be. Meditate on them and their symbols. This is building your own reputation with the deity and carving a channel of communication with them.

When it comes to assessing the value of a relationship with a deity, I always try to give it at least 6 months to a year. It sounds like a long time, but I personally do not have very strong psychic senses so I need plenty of hindsight to see if my efforts are having the desired effect. And besides, if one is looking for a life-long patron, 1 year is really not that long.

In that time, I make a lot of notes on if/how my requests were answered, if/how my life has improved in that time, any visions or knowledge I've received on the deity, how successful my divinations were, and in general if there is a growing sense of closeness between myself and the deity. It is well worth doing a few big rituals here and there because this is the best way to assess the accumulation of one's efforts.

So, this is how I would get started. I hope it helps, let me know if you have anymore questions on the matter 🙂

#inbox #anonymous #resources #deity work

[baatarthefirst]

you asked for it

🙈 Accidental walk in

you know who

nsfw under the cut

Amaya and Janai were at the point in their relationship where they both just kinda came and went as they pleased. There were sleepovers, when sadness, stress, or loneliness creeped in leaving one (or both) of them in serious need of cuddles. That was Amaya tonight. It was unexplainable really, she wasn't stressed, she wasn't sad, she'd spent most of the day with Janai between work, workouts, and cross-training military exercises so she wasn't lonely either. She just wanted to be in Janai's strong arms, so she quietly went across the camp intending to sneak into her girlfriend's bed and curl up.

She was met with a good news/bad news situation. Bad news was, she would not be getting to sleep in Janai's warm embrace tonight. Good news was, Amaya caught the end of an AMAZING show. There was Janai, looking beautiful as always; her eyes closed, biting her lips with a hint of a smile...naked and three fingers in knuckle deep. She caught the woman as she hit her climax.

Sadly, Amaya wasn't a heroine in the smut-peddler's novellas, where voyeurs would be rewarded with sex as long as there was an attraction between the leads. She had a standing invitation to sleep in Janai's arms, not watch her pleasure herself. Now Amaya certainly wouldn’t mind if Janai walked in without warning to finish what she’d started alone, but it would be wrong to assume Janai’s boundaries matched her own. So with a brief image of Janai's orgasm burned into her memory, Amaya backed away slowly and left the elf alone. And she thought she was having problems sleeping before...

.....

Janai had been far too engrossed in her fantasy to notice the accidental intrusion of her privacy. The image of a shirtless human general had been plaguing her all afternoon and into the night, so when the thought 'yes, I would like to sleep in Amaya's tent tonight' went through her head... she thought better of it. She'd been...antzy for awhile now, and it wouldn't help to put her arms around the woman.

But... maybe she could make that easier, if she were to give herself some relief before heading over. It didn't take much internal deliberation to follow through with the plan. Janai envisioned a scenario were they were alone together after their workout and fucked herself while picturing Amaya against the wall. It did the trick, the orgasm barely even felt hollow without the human to hold afterwards. Of course, she did this so she could hold the human; Amaya just wouldn't know it was a post climax cuddle. She washed up, dressed and looked fairly normal by the time she reached the general’s tent.

Amaya had told her more than once to act like she owned the place, and it was getting rather late, so Janai’s plan was to just slip into the tent and Amaya’s bed without much fuss. The plan went sideways the moment she laid her eyes on her human. The woman was in bed, unclothed. She sat on her knees, back upright, riding her own fingers and covering her mouth to muffle her moans. Oh…fuck.

She was stunned for a moment, then her mind caught up to her eyes and told her to LOOK AWAY! Suddenly feeling like an unwelcome guest, Janai spun around to make a quick exit, not realizing that the flutter of her cape would attract Amaya’s attention.

CLAP

Damn, she’d been seen. Janai froze in her retreat and slowly turned. At first she tried to look at the floor as she heard rustling on the bed. A snap forced her to look up. Janai had assumed the noise she heard was Amaya moving to cover herself, her jaw dropped when she saw the woman still naked, now facing her; sitting on the edge of her bed and refusing to break eye contact.

“Care to lend a hand? Or tongue?” Amaya signed with a devilish grin.

“...” What could Janai possibly say to that…by the light, was Amaya flexing?!

“No pressure!” Amaya was quick to add, not willing to risk the chance that Janai’s stunned silence was actually uncertainty, “If you want, you can go back home, and I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early for our morning workout. But if you want me like I want you, I would love some help over here.”  

“Yes!” she cleared her throat, “Yes, I’d be happy to help you out. If you really want me like I want you.”

“Fuck yes! Amaya got up, closed the distance between them, signed “You’re a little over dressed for the job, though.” and began to peel off Janai’s clothes. In return, Janai captured her lips for a kiss, swept her off her feet and carried her back to bed. 

#tdp #the dragon prince #amaya #janai #janaya

[rnisa]

Hello! I hope youre doing well. Can I please request Wammy boys + Light on how likely you are to trust them to watch your drink at the bar Thank you

I - N-NANI?! Also thank you, I am doing very well, yes! This request threw me for a loop LOL, took me a second to compose myself, very funny. I hope I answered this correctly! If you meant something else and I misunderstood, I apologize! Please feel free to let me know if I did this wrong asdfhjk;;;;

a/n: all memes aside, in my city there have legitimately been a lot of druggings lately, specifically at bars. please don't leave your drink unattended for even a second - if you look away from your drink, just chuck it.

˖ ⁺ .︶꒷꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶︶꒷꒦˖ ⁺ .

How Trustworthy Wammy Boys and Light Are to Watch Your Drink at the Bar

Mello - very trustworthy ★ Despite being an actual gangster, Mello drinks respecting women juice first thing in the morning.

★ He would be the one vigilantly keeping an eye on you, staring down any person giving you unwanted glances, and draping his arm around you - even if you aren't romantically involved - just as a warning to anyone who might have ill intentions.

★ Would straight up just shoot a bitch in the skull if they attempted to spike your drink.

L Lawliet - no 'cause he's gonna add weird shit to my drink ★ L is the one to actually spike your drink ... with sugar.

★ Think of Buddy the Elf.

★ He's adding tons of sugar to your already fruity drink, honey, syrup...you name it.

★ The only thing you're at risk for here is getting a sugar high and then crashing. Or throwing up. Or just being really, really mad at him for ruining your $14 drink.

★ As for watching your drink in general from others, expect him to intimidate the fuck and make a fool out of whatever sorry idiot tried.

★ Wouldn't want to stir a scene, but if it got physical he would kick the hell out of'em and get the both of you out of there as soon as possible.

Near - relatively useless in this situation but does his best ★ Let's face it, Near wouldn't be far without Rester or Lidner in the first place.

★ So that's three (3) tough p-

★ I mean two (2) tough people watching over you, and protecting you. And there's also Near but physically he's pretty useless.

★ However, if there were an instance of someone even thinking of spiking your drink, he would know. He is already concocting a plan of how to get them arrested.

★ Will catch their ass in 4k and likely trick the perpetrator into giving it away, then happily watch as the cops come to arrest'em.

Light - absolutely not ★ Okay sorry not sorry but Kira!Light would probably actually spike your drink himself. But not in this context? ★ He wouldn't hurt you but if you were close to finding out who he was and he liked you, he'd drug you so you're knocked out and then play off whatever conversation was happening prior to this as you having a dream, or being irresponsible and drinking too much.

★ Aka, gatekeep, girlboss, gaslighting you.

★ HOWEVER, as far as watching your drink at the bar, I can honestly say it depends on how he feels about you.

★ If he doesn't give the slightest care about you, or if he finds you annoying or worthless in some way, he doesn't care what happens to you - but he still would not let anything happen to you in his presence, and he most certainly would not let the criminal get away.

★ I can see him being sick enough to actually allow you to become drugged for his own amusement, but after witnessing that he would make sure to find a way to get their name and write their name in his death note.

★ Afterwards - if Light actually likes you, he would take you home and make sure you're alright. Again, I do think he's pretty fucked up and over time as Kira, as more and more of his humanity is lost, he would kind of be amused by this.

★ However, if Light loved you (where very few people of course fit into this category, and being "loved" by Light really isn't a whole lot) he would be absolutely pissed if somebody tried this. He wouldn't let it slide, of course - consider that person dead. However, Light's toxic in that he would be mad at you for "putting yourself in that situation". He would be even more protective, and constantly remind you of what could have happened, if he wasn't there, and guilt trip you into not going out to bars further.

★ If Light doesn't really care for you, I can see him doing the bare minimum and contacting someone who actually cares about you explaining the situation so they could go and get you. Still, he wouldn't allow a crime to take place so aside from being drugged, you would remain unharmed, and the person who tried to hurt you would die regardless. Either way, you're safe.

Sorry these were a bit short except for Light's! I don't force myself to write a certain amount for each, I kind of just go with the flow. Overall, none of them would let anything happen to you - aside from Light - but you would come out of this unharmed. All are trustworthy because, their differences aside, all abhor crime in some way.

#death note #death note x reader #mello #dn mello #dn light #light death note #l lawliet #l death note #l dn #near #near death note #near x reader #mello x reader #l x reader #light x reader #light yagami #ask #request

[twst-hanaya]

Silver's Tragedy

Some of my thoughts on Silver and his situation.

Note: There will be spoilers, and no, I'm not paying attention to what kind, so read at your own risk. Also I dive into a LOT a lot of speculation about Silver's possible thoughts and feelings, so again, disclaimer: this is all just my opinion lol please don't get mad at me. This is chock-full of assumptions based on not a lot of evidence so and I'm willing to live with that lolol.

That being said, let's get into it!

I made sure to read through all of Silver's Vignettes before writing this all down, and it did make me restructure some of my ideas into something based more on what we've seen of Silver in the story.

Here's the thing about the Diasomnia quartet right? They're a family, really family in a way that no other dorm is. There are childhood friends and people who have known each other all their lives, but Diasomnia is different because it wasn't a group of peers growing up together. They're more close to the nuclear family structure of having a parents, an adult that is meant to be a caretaker and children who were guided under that paternal role. While Malleus is obviously not quite as guardian-like as Lilia he's basically the doting Uncle in this scenario.

The reason I mention this is because although this is their dynamic, there's an inversion of expectations here that is unfortunate and unavoidable and not normal. Whereas most people would expect the parent to be the first to die, and the child to forge ahead without them, it's the opposite here. Silver is a human, in a society full of fairies and ancient creatures, and Lilia raised him knowing that it was all the more likely that his son in all but blood would turn to dust before he even saw a wrinkle appear anywhere on his own face.

Silver expresses in his Scary Dress Personal Story that having Lilia and Malleus disappear like that was incredibly rattling, because it had never even occurred to him that they would never be in his life. He's fully steeped in the expectation that he'll be the one leaving everyone else behind, and the experience of having them stand before him as an enemy, someone he could no longer stand beside, was a moment that woke him up to the reality that this may not always be the case.

(While it seems like there was a hell of a lot of foreshadowing for the events of Chapter 7 in this particular Vignette, I'm not really gonna get into that here since I'm focusing on analyzing Silver as a character rather that the events of TWST as a whole. )

While this episode focuses on Silver waking up to the possibility of loss on his own part where it never existed before, I want to focus on the other side of this coin. I can only imagine the kind of mentality you end up having growing up as a mortal in a world of practically immortal beings. Indeed, he seems unbothered and unflappable for the most part, with a tendency towards obliviousness. He doesn't seem to have much negative emotion in general, and is fairly straightforward and honest with both himself and others. And you know what? I'm sure he is fine.

The thing about people though, is that we're capable of being "fine" with a lot of fucked up things. We get used to it, we compartmentalize - we can't keep functioning if we let it bother us. There are things that are "just the way they are" that are absolutely fucked up. While Lilia and Malleus's tragedies are the burden of time and the inevitability of it, and everything that's swept away by it, Silver's tragedy is that ever present understanding that he will be the one abandoning everything he loves. It's one thing to grow old with your loved ones - it's a whole other beast to feel time slipping by you as they remain unchanging and ever the same, on a completely different plane of existence.

Can you imagine how lonely that must be?

He isn't a dog - he's a person and he's aware. And that's all Silver has known really. He's befriended fellow humans during his time at NRC certainly, but they aren't family. He's constantly focused on what he can give back to them for loving him, and he's constantly fighting to give them something of worth while he still has the chance. What can he leave them? He talks a lot about returning Lilia's debt of kindness with everything he can, and I can't help but feel it isn't just gratitude that drives him, even if he isn't aware of it himself.

I think we focus a lot on how the ones being left behind are hurt, but it's worth acknowledging the burden that comes with being the one that leaves.

(On a sidenote, I think Sebek has a very interesting role to play in all of this, but with the level of information we have on him, I hesitate to make any speculations. He's half-fae, half-human, and I'm sure that comes with its own baggage that deserves its own post. The reason I can't make a more meaningful analysis is because we don't really have a grasp on how half-human half-fae lifespans work in comparison to full humans and faeries, and even different types of fairies, though it's pretty clear (to me at least) from what he's said that his mom is some kind of Vampire, or Baobhan Sith type of fae.)

#my twst analysis #twisted wonderland #twst #silver #diasomnia #twst silver #lilia vanrouge #malleus draconia #twst sebek #sebek zigvolt

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hello, I hope this question is okay to ask, but how do I write a romantic subplot that readers don’t feel is unnecessary? What can the characters and readers learn from romance in general?

Avoiding Unnecessary Romantic Subplot

What can characters and readers learn from romance in general? That depends on the story's general purpose…

Stories can have one of three general purposes:

1 - Purely for entertainment 2 - Exploration of the essentials of human existence 3 - A little bit of both

Stories that are purely for entertainment tend to be plot-driven, meaning that the story is more about what's happening than who it's happening to. (However, character-driven stories can be purely for entertainment, too, especially in fan-fiction... Fluff stories certainly fit the bill.)

Stories that explore the essentials of human existence (aka "the human condition") are more about who is in the story than what's happening around them. These tend to be character-driven stories since we're exploring those essentials of human existence through the experiences of the characters.

Stories that are written to be both entertaining AND explore the essentials of human existence are about what's happening and who it's happening to, pretty much equally. These stories are driven both by plot elements and by character decisions/change, exploring those essentials of human existence (via situation, theme, commentary) as the plot unfolds. (Examples: A Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, The Hate U Give...)

Romance in Plot-Driven/Entertainment-Based Stories

In these types of stories, any romance is just there to make things more exciting by way of how it affects the plot. For example, James Bond might be tricked out of an important document while he canoodles with a beautiful double-agent. Or, he might make a choice that risks the whole mission because he wants to rescue the pretty cashmere sweater wearing lady from the ski chalet. This romance isn't here to explore the ups and downs of romance. It's there to affect choices, create stakes, and just make things more interesting. Since you're not diving into the human essentials here, and since it performs specific roles within the plot, there shouldn't be much danger of it distracting from the main plot.

Romance in Character-Driven/Humanity Exploration Stories

In these types of stories, the romance needs to either be part of the character development (in other words, it has to affect the change arc), or it needs to contribute to the exploration of the story's main situations, themes, and commentary. And, ideally you'd want it to do all of the above. If you want to keep it as a subplot, just make sure its contribution to situation, theme, and commentary are less important than those made by the characters individually (specifically the protagonist or the main characters), outside of the romance.

Romance in Character-Driven/Plot-Driven Stories

This is where things get tricky, because you need to strike a balance between a romance that serves the plot in some way, while also helping to explore character change, situations, themes, and commentary, while not distracting too much from the romance-independent growth of the protagonist/main characters, and leaving room to explore character change, situations, themes, and commentary via the individuals (independent of the romance.)

If you can follow these guidelines, depending on the type of story you're writing, you can ensure that your story's romance does what it needs to do in order to be necessary, while at the same time making sure it doesn't outshine the plot and/or individual character development.

Have fun with your story!

#writeblr #writing community #writers of tumblr #writing tips #writing help #writing advice #wqaadvice

[digitaldiscipline]

Trump knows a lot of state secrets. An angry Trump in prison has risks. If he were found guilty, what does incarceration look like for him?

Durkin: I can tell you what it would mean to anyone else. They’d be put in a hole in the wall in maximum security at Florence, Colorado, and they would apply what’s called “Special Administrative Measures.” Several of my terrorism clients have had those imposed on them. There’s a microphone outside their solitary confinement to monitor anything that they say, even between prisoners. Their mail is extremely limited. Their telephone contact is extremely limited. And that’s what would happen to anyone else similarly situated.

Ferguson: Trump’s insistence on keeping talking about this creates a record that would justify isolation in maximum security on the basis that “We can’t trust this man not to continue to talk. We can’t trust him not to further share these secrets with people who may wish to do harm with them. The only way to avoid that is to put him in isolation in supermax where he doesn’t get to talk with people, except under these extremely closely monitored circumstances, certainly isn’t in a general population situation, gets to take a walk in a courtyard for one hour out of the 24 hours of the day, and the other 23 hours, leaving him mostly without human contact.”

Is there a specific line he could cross that would force the government to seek to detain him prior to trial?

Durkin: I predict that if he keeps it up, and especially if he keeps suggesting or threatening violence, that the government will be put in a position where they don’t have a choice but to try to move to detain him. In the real world, that’s what would happen if it was anybody but him. Normally, you can’t be threatening this type of stuff without being put in detention.

[landwriter]

Sooo I wrote this while half-asleep like a week ago and wanted to read it over in the morning before sending (to see if it, you know, made any sense), and then I forgot about it until coming across it on my notes today, so here it is now:

Remembered another thing: having two different verbs for "to be" ("ser" and "estar"). This isn’t exclusive to Portuguese (I know it exists in Spanish, at least), but it's something that English doesn't have and that can give trouble to English speakers learning Portuguese (partly because we suck at coming up with simple general rules for when to use which that cover every last usage of "to be" and why in many cases only one is acceptable. I’ve explained it as “ser” is for things that are permanent, that are part of the subject’s essence – only for someone to promptly point out that you must use “ser” for professions, and people change profession all the time and someone’s work is hardly part of their essence. So Idk, if anyone’s read a really good explanation please send me a link so I have something to refer people to).

The lack of this distinction doesn’t seem, to me, to make English more ambiguous. At least I’m hard pressed to come up with an example where despite the context I couldn't tell if an "is" meant "é" or "está".

Out of context though.

"It's cold here where I live." Well is it cold now in particular, or is it a generally cold place?

"I'm happy." Is this a general statement about the overall condition of your life, or are you experiencing the feeling of happiness at this moment?

But while in context it's not ambiguous, I feel like it's a distinction that English speakers don't really make inside their minds. Like, they’re using the same word, not two different verbs which just happen to sound the same and have the same spelling. I certainly don't think about it when speaking English. But when speaking Portuguese, it's inscribed into the language.

Anyway, I just thought it’s a neat difference you might like to know about. I don't really have a way to work this into a fic. Maybe a situation where Hob wants to underline that something "não é", it merely "está"? Or the opposite? Eu estou triste, mas eu sou feliz? Mais do que estar feliz com você, eu sou feliz com você?

Or some wordplay? Ele está sonhando, em um certo sentido, mas, mais do que isso, ele é o próprio sonhar. He is (está) dreaming, in a sense, but more than that, he is (é) the dreaming itself. (fun fact, we use the infinitive, not the gerund, when we want to use a verb as a noun).

There's potential in the breaking of the rules, I suppose. Like, species is a "ser" case. Always. I am (sou) human. Buuut Dream being Dream, he isn't (não é) human. But maybe he can be (estar) human, in the time he spends with Hob. (Now I've entered playing with language territory. I wouldn't risk something like this in, say, a college admission essay or a Portuguese test).

Unrelated to any of the above, Flower King!!! Thank you for writing it. It is utterly breathtaking and so inspiring I spent an entire afternoon working on a new fairy tale WIP instead of working on the WIP I meant to work on. Like, I wrote two paragraphs of it and then opened a new document and spent hours just doing a new thing instead.

!!!! This is incredible, and I love love love your examples. There are SO many beautiful possibilities in breaking the rules and wordplay in a given language - that's one of my favourite sort of uses of language, is using grammar or any other form of linguistic, like, expectations and structure to say something. What a great case of something that (to me) is so elegant in the source language and can only be translated with tonal emphasis or extra words in English. I innately understand your example of Dream's relation to being human - I remember debating over capitalization for the same ends: his waking body vs his Waking body. Is love (He is in love, I am in love with you, It is love, etc.) a case that can use both? Can you use ser vs estar to distinguish between, say, an act of seduction versus a permanent state of being seduced by someone? Can you write shit like 'I was seduced; I was seduced.' or analogs? Because that's SO fucking sexy.

I feel like it's a distinction that English speakers don't really make inside their minds. Like, they’re using the same word, not two different verbs which just happen to sound the same and have the same spelling.

For me, at least - one representative of 400 million native speakers, and ppl's minds most certainly work differently around language, caveat, caveat, etc - I do sometimes feel a distinction between a specific & general state of being. Especially re: feelings. It comes out in tone, but I also think we use a lot of things that might not seem like obvious context in low context situations. These are probably super regional too (See how Canadians say yes by saying "No, yeah" and no by saying "Yeah, no", but also say yes by saying "Yeah, no, [yeah]" or any other positive marker. "Yeah, no, for sure." and "No, yeah, totally" are both agreements. Very intuitive!!) But take "I'm happy." - the context there is usually in the grammatical form used in the question - if you ask how's it going?, it's a now-in-particular answer. If you use present perfect or whatever the fuck it's called, you know, the auxiliary verb nonsense, and ask how's it been going? it's an in-general answer. It's also in the answers: I'm good is something you say when you've just fallen over and people are concerned, vs. I've been good when you've just seen friends for the first time in months and they're concerned. But that only comes up to the present and doesn't necessarily imply a future of good-being - I'm not sure if ser is different in that respect.

Are the two verbs used liberally to distinguish between temporary versus non-temporary emotional states like in your first example? Is it a common mode of expression to use both in one sentence? Can you use language like and instead of but? Is it seen as inherently contradictory like a transliteration would be in English? Because I'm absolutely feral for this. I love how effectively it holds meaning - to be able to say 'I'm shitty (right now) but I'm happy (in general) with nothing more than a different verb instead of having to add context. I wonder if it affects or enables a different mode of emotional expression?

Here, when people ask how you are and things are temporarily crap - in a banal way, like job stress or home repairs or exams - you instead generally make these insane understatements that serve to provide implicit subtext (things are actually shit), and also underscore the perspective that your emotional state now is not the same as your outlook on life (but you're still chugging along). i.e. "Oh, it's been [intentional pause]...busy."; "Not six feet under!"; "Things have been a little tough!". If you just said "I'm not happy," that would actually stop people dead in their tracks. Often we sub out the subject (I) when mentioning the less positive emotion and then stick it back in for the positive one we're couching it in. It softens things: "It's been stressful, but I'm stoked for winter break." We're trying to navigate the good and the bad in a linguistically and culturally acceptable way. What's it like in Portuguese? I would sort of love it to be both linguistically elegant and culturally normal in English to just communicate the complexities of our lives within the scope of a short exchange. We're not a country with loads of "It's bad and it's good and I'm here" idioms. But I know they're out there! Somewhere!

As someone who is generally Hob-levels of delighted (by life, my community, my friends, the mountains, a good tea or a bird, etc.,) but recently totalled my car which genuinely fucken bites, this bizarre little dance has been coming up a LOT at holiday get-togethers these past couple weeks hahaha. How have I been? I am* stressed to the tits, I am** happy. Happy to see you, happy to be here, happy. It is a part of the subject's essence! I WANT TWO VERBS! Please!!! *estar **ser

I'm so in love with the power of this - even if they've got rules that baffle Anglos - the way you've at least generally explained it is SO cool to me. I love the examples!! It's SUCH a neat difference. Am constantly delighted and humbled by the knowledge you guys bring to my ask box. Thank you for this rad Christmas Eve gift, dude. <3

Also thank you so much re: Flower King - that's exactly how I wrote it too so I'm glad it's contagious hahaha! Thank you so much for reading it. It's my pleasure to write and share stuff <3<3<3 I look forward to your fairy tale (and would love to hear more about it!)

#asks #language i love thee so #portuguese #an essay #I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS DUDE #estar and ser

[rozyrne]

deep dive character sheet

stolen from: reeathan tagging: breathes down ur neck

NAME: ROSADO

BODY

height: 5'7" / 170cm

strength ★★★☆☆ (damagingly below average str and bld bases for his class but high str growth makes for a whack situation narratively)

dexterity ★★★★☆ (can't be butterfingers designing ur own fit)

health ★★★★★ (canonically kind of ridiculous. shining hair, shining skin, never gains weight, eats and sleeps however he wants. life just isn't fair huh)

energy ★★★★☆ (lively naturally while also being prone to an indulgent kind of laziness. the vibe of energetically deciding to spend the day napping)

beauty ★★★★★ (tfw the resident dancer stalks you for your beauty regimen)

style ★★★★★ (whether it's to everyone's tastes or not is different, but he certainly makes statements wherever he goes)

hygiene ★★★☆☆ (a weird situation because he canonically does very little actual styling / upkeep. he actually just wakes up like that)

SKILLS

perception ★★★★☆ (surprisingly)

communication ★★★☆☆ (a bit broad to ascribe a ranking. he's fantastic at natural charisma and conversation. a whiff of conflict though and he'd sooner ghost)

persuasion ★★★★★ (incredibly charming naturally. has a way of kind of being charming about it even when he's being dogmatic or manipulative that still makes it hard to say no)

mediation ★★☆☆☆ (would much rather try to console separate parties after the fact. doesn't want to be in the middle of a disagreement)

literacy ★★☆☆☆ (rosado: when's the paper due. someone: it's on the syllabus. rosado: yeah but i don't want to read, i want you to tell me)

creativity ★★★☆☆ (again kinda depends in what sense but eh)

cooking ★★★☆☆ (it's not something he does, but he'd be decent if he put in the effort to learn. perfectly passable.)

tech savvy ★★★★★ (you can't tell me he wouldn't be a tiktok celebrity in modern au)

combat ★★★☆☆ (it's fine. he's canonically a pretty good fighter per ike bond conversation, but given his dislike of it i can't see him ever be better than ' good enough to do his job ')

survival ★★★☆☆ (honestly he knows when he's in over his head and needs to get tf outta dodge and that's like 60% of surviving)

stealth ★★☆☆☆ (i mean have u seen him)

street smarts ★★★☆☆ (another weird one because his haggling and ' knowing which hole in the wall shop has the best merch and the best deals ' is second to none but that's probably that only type of street smarts where he knows anything)

seduction ★★★★☆ (all i'm saying is he's descended from a race of faefolk who are known for ensnaring hapless highborn humans throughout history for a reason)

luck ★★★☆☆

handling animals ★★★☆☆ (he likes them more than he's good at handling them, generally speaking)

pacifying children ★★★☆☆ (eh. no better or worse than the next guy)

MIND

intelligence ★★★☆☆ (what... kind... hahaha. vastly different answers depending)

happiness ★★★★★ (optimism is his middle name)

spirituality ★☆☆☆☆ (... i mean... he sure thinks the divine dragon is neat!)

confidence ★★★★★ (a bit delusionally at times)

humor ★★★☆☆

anxiety ☆☆☆☆☆ (this guy wouldn't know social anxiety if it hit him in the face. doesn't generally tend to get hung up about stuff on the whole)

patience ★★☆☆☆ (physically speaking, average. will fall for a ' oooh what is it what is it? ' ' i'm not tellinggg ' bait every time tho)

passion ★★★★★ (it's his other middle name)

nice         ★☆☆☆☆ mean (most of the time genuine! most of the time)

brave       ☆☆★☆☆ cowardly (he wouldn't consider himself braver than his job demands, but also both his hortensia a and fell ending have him risking / giving his life for hortensia. and the whole stealth emblem ring steal was ballsy af)

pacifist     ★☆☆☆☆ violent

thoughtful ☆☆★☆☆ impulsive (again, depends about what)

agreeable ☆☆★☆☆ contrary (very agreeable and accommodating of others, until he's Not skjglskdl)

idealistic   ☆★☆☆☆ pragmatic (he's not reckless but that's about the only thing keeping him from a full 5)

frugal        ☆☆☆★☆ big spender (it's just a very good thing he wasn't born into high society)

extrovert   ☆★☆☆☆ introvert (prefers to be around others if there's an opportunity, but doesn't get restless being on his own)

collected   ☆☆☆★☆ wild (again, context. but generally being effusive and energetic tips it)

ambitious / possessive / stubborn / jealous / decisive / perfectionist

SOCIAL

charisma ★★★★★

empathy ★★★☆☆ (in a strange position of being compassionate and genuinely wanting to be / good at being there for others while also being more self-centered on the whole than not)

generosity ★★★☆☆ (sort of in the same vein as empathy)

wealth ★★★★☆ (i mean he's a royal retainer so. plenty of disposable income generally)

honest  ☆★☆☆☆ deceptive (ahahahaha..... a can of worms for rosado. honestly deceptive? unintentionally deceptive? master of ' the truth but not All Of It '? at the very least he doesn't usually intend to deceive)

leader   ☆☆☆★☆ follower (i think in the right scenarios he wouldn't make a bad leader because he does have a way of influencing and inspiring others. but he's too much of a free spirit / swayed by whatever or whoever he likes)

polite    ☆★☆☆☆  rude (kind of Much / presumptuous sometimes? but in a way where you can tell it doesn't come from a bad place)

political ☆☆☆☆★ indifferent (he could not be less bothered)

BELIEFS

higher power ★★☆☆☆ (the reason it's not a 0 or 1 is because he factually knows they exist thanks to the lake of mystery / dragons, etc. that's as far as it goes tho)

fate/destiny ★★☆☆☆ (it's fun to joke around about, but the real thing? never thought much about it)

magic ★★★★★ (it's fire emblem)

soulmates ★★☆☆☆ (same as fate/destiny)

good and evil ★★☆☆☆ (also similar to fate/destiny. thinks it can be a useful binary, but deep down recognizes that it's mostly just that: useful in certain situations)

luck ★★★★☆ (weirdly, given his ambivalence about the other above metaphysical things)

PRIORITIES

family ★★☆☆☆ (mostly shrug emoji because family is handled deliberately in a kind of alienating way in the village of the fair folk. stay tuned)

friends ★★★★★ (arguably one of the the most important things to rosado outside of staying true to himself)

love ★★★☆☆ (values connections to others but also naturally independent and unanchored)

home ★★☆☆☆ (like. it's nice! but it's cool, he can also bounce)

health ★★★☆☆ (not literally health so much as whatever he needs to do or maintain in order to stay cute and appealing)

praise ★★★★★ (oh my god)

justice ★★☆☆☆ (sure, that always sounds like something good)

truth ★★★☆☆ (complicated because he doesn't care/consider/pursue it actively as an ideal, but his approach to visual art seems to drain down at its heart to a desire to capture truth)

power ☆☆☆☆☆

fame ★★☆☆☆ (not an active pursuit, but wouldn't mind it if he stumbled into it along the way)

wealth ★☆☆☆☆ (same as fame, but less)

others' opinions ★☆☆☆☆ (has learned to ignore what most people think, except for those he really respects. currently only hortensia and to a lesser extent goldmary)

#◟ ❝ FAE LORE! ━━ ｡ ⊹ ᵒᶰᵉ ᵐᵃʳᵇˡᵉ˒ ᵗᵉᶰ ᶜᵒˡᵒʳˢ #whooo this was fun #always a massive fan of dash games

[aeondeug]

Something Fear and Hunger has had me thinking about is the concept of fairness. Fairness and difficulty tend to go hand in hand. Dark Souls is heavily praised for being fair, for example. And when difficult games are criticized, one of the common things to come up is that the game isn't being fair. That it's bullshit.

I've seen Fear and Hunger be deemed "unfair" and I do think that's a fair assessment. To a degree. In regards to the coin flips there is, always, a degree of unfairness there. You will never have enough coins to deal with all the coin flips. And even then those will never guarantee you succeed. They just make success more likely. And you are always subject to the whims of rng where loot is concerned.

I feel like one might point out that there's things like the enemies and their one hit kill attacks. Or things like the traps. I'm not entirely sure I'd call these unfair. I do think you end up eating so much shit in the beginning that it feels that way. But this shit eating is, I think, a teaching tool. And I do think that it is, overall, generally effective.

The floorboard with the nail in it stands out in this regard. It has a fairly minor consequence. You just get bleed in an area replete with cloth. The significance of the floorboard isn't to waste your resources, though it certainly can if you spend an hour accidentally stepping on it. The significance of that floorboard is to teach you, in a relatively gentle fashion, that you need to pay attention to your surroundings. The arrow trap you can stick your arm into is similar. It teaches you that interacting with things won't necessarily be safe. That you do need to think about just interacting with things. Not that you shouldn't interact, as the boxes and bookshelves are teaching you that you should interact. But that you need to weigh your decisions. That risk needs to be considered.

I think this may also be why the Human Hydra is located so close to a bed, at least in the layouts of that room I've received. It happens early enough in that you are taught that interacting might not be great. But, more importantly, it teaches you that you can reload saves. And the willingness to abuse yourself and throw yourself into situations that you know likely will go poorly is an important lesson. Because the game's difficulty largely relies upon lack of knowledge.

And once you have knowledge it starts to feel less bullshit, at least in my experience. Granted, some of that knowledge is gained via trial and error. I've only survived the prison guard's mad rush attack once. Just a single time. But again I think that's what things like the Human Hydra are for. To teach you that you're not really just playing one save continuously. But that you are more...working with divergent streams of time, I suppose? With loops of time. Carefulness goes a long way and you do need to be cautious, I feel. But I think that one of the big things I've learned which has helped me is that I shouldn't really think of my characters are like The Run. That I should be willing to treat them like a stolen car. Because if I do that and accept the losses, I can get at what I actually need to win. And what I actually need to win isn't getting lucky on a coin flip. It's knowing things.

And that I think is what I find most addicting about how its difficulty works. That I am being presented with such a hostile and unfair seeming thing and that I need to figure out how to make it "fair". Or hell why just make it fair? Why not make it unfair for the enemies? Fuck being fair.

#fear and hunger #i do have Thoughts on some of the figuring out of things #where it regards how opaque some things are #though i wonder if they're not so much that there are no hints #and that i simply haven't found them

[thevagueambition]

I worry this might come off as self congratulatory but it's truly not meant that way at all, I'm just thinking through some things

I don't believe in feeling guilty or ashamed of history – not in anything but the most rhetorical way, anyway – chiefly because I don't think its useful or productive, but probably also for cultural, post-ww2 reasons.

I vaguely remember as a child, upon learning about Nazism and the occupation of Denmark, asking whether "we" still disliked Germans and being told that no, of course not. And I think that attitude, that equating the sins of the father with the son or grandson, is a dangerous thing, is a widespread cultural value in my country. I also think it's where certain rhetoric fails phenomenally in a Danish context – some pushback antiracism and decolonisation efforts is met with obviously just stems from racism and nationalism, but there are certainly instances where I think the rhetoric hinders the message rather than aids it.

Anyway, what I actually was thinking about is this: I don't believe in shame, but I do believe in responsibility and being a socially conscious member of one's society. By which I mean that the groups the state I live in was build on exploiting and the groups that live in oppression within my country today are groups I have a responsibility to educate myself on.

I've recently started listening to radio program that reports Greenlandic news in Danish. I've seen/listened to a fair few documentaries about Danish colonialism in Greenland at this point, but I want to find more material from a Greenlandic perspective.

I need to educate myself further on the US Virgin Islands. Unlike with Greenland, we actually did discuss that history during my schooling, although as I remember it, it was more about the transatlantic slave trade in general than about the Danish West Indies in particular. I also think it's important to look at the current situation and not just the history – there's a risk of imaging former colonies as forever stuck in the past.

Similarly, it's also important to seek out the perspectives of marginalised groups living in my country today, whether or not there's any particular historical exploitation bound up in it. It's everyone's responsibility to try to cultivate an understanding of the people you share a home with.

BTW, when I say I don't believe in shame or guilt regarding history, I mean on an individual level. States are not individuals and are in many cases entirely contiguous with the entities that committed these crimes against humanity. States should apologies if the recipients of said apologies find such declarations useful and should monetarily compensate the peoples they exploited.

Anyway, I guess the point here also is that I sometimes get frustrated with progressive Danes with an overly Americanised outlook. Knowing about American racism and colonialism is important, but as a Dane, it is more important for you to cultivate an understanding of the racism and colonialism happening around you and to the people you share a home with!

[monsterfloofs]

Twirls wire, hiii so robots,

Jokes and my absolute love for Castor5 aside, you have another story about a robot having the reader help them after being damaged by reader’s apparent friends. Called reader songbird I think? Do you have anymore info about them? I’m curious about their situation and deeper reasons in the story. And just them in general! If not that’s a-ok! I like them anyways

8O !!!!! YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT V1C3!!! OOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!

Oh yeah! I can totally yammer about the behind the stuff for this one!

Before this account I had the idea for a distopian story that ran along the cliche of humans were seen as obselete and robot folk pretty much took over the role as the higher more important life forms.

Not to say humans didn't have a say or jobs, but the high importance ones like bankers, politicians, ceos anything with a huge amount of authority and power where controlled by mechanics.

Humans were unreliable, humans are too prideful, emotional, biased, immoral, ect. That kind of thinking, was what propelled to having Ai put into these ranks to begin with.

Also the fact that humans can pass away and stop working, while mechinical kind can just, keep getting new parts and upgrading.

So Vice, is one of those top dog mechanicals. They have a big umbrella company that controls quite a chunk of things. They gets what they want, essentially.

So they take a fancy in something, or someone, they get what they want.

The offers they can make are simply too good to refuse. Live in a lavish lifestyle your probably wouldn't be able to ever see? Your family is secured, your life is secured. They are security.

Now there is a group of humans that have gone rouge and trying to get a hand back into having a say and making important decisions.

And if someone was in trouble or held in one of their devil binds, the group would try their damndest to get you out of their deals.

Those were probably the friends.

Now Vice is very, aaaah they definately think highly of themself. And knowing KNOWING they didn't reciprocate in kind at being assulted, means that the role the character plays, (you as the protag in the story) means you have more power over them then they even knows.

Vice does not put up with stuff like that normally. They will try and stamp out any resistence under their heel.

So knowing they didn't mess, and they are a bot of their word. Means that them knowing you probably saved them from his wrath. SKSKSKSKSK

The thing I like about Vice is you are definately the shape of what would be their squishy heart. You can sway their choices and decisions if you don't like something that they do. They would absolutely pamper you within what they feels reasonable. Or what they feels won't put you at risk.

And, hang on, this next bit underneathe is a more nsfw topic. So I added a read more.

👁👁

When I mentioned spoiling and things, that also includes items for intimacy. 👀👀👀 Vice would, absolutely buy the top of the line adult extensions and add-ons give you the absolute best they can afford and offer.

All you need to do is ask. :3c

If that's what their songbird wants, their songbird gets the best.

I don't think they would have cared for that kind of thing before, possibly also seen it as somewhat disguisting because their mightier than thou complexe. 🙄 But they would certainly change their tune being romantic with someone they feels very close and protective of. Like I said, you're their heart! You are the squishy soft part of them, that gives their sleek steel and cold exterior life. Actual life.

And also they would rip that city apart if something happened to you. They're kinda intense. ://)c

[liskantope]

This is one of those things I probably shouldn't be talking about at all and certainly can't in many real-life social situations, but it's persistently enough on my mind nowadays that I kind of want to get it in writing.

[As is purely very personal, I'm inspired to put it below a cut as I notice others often doing. Content warning for whining in a way that I'm sure some will find insensitive.]

While I'm grateful not to have female biology while being in the second half of my 30's, partnerless, and still holding out hopes of having children, even without satisfying that first condition I am still getting quite caught up in worrying about how I'm going to both wind up with someone and wind up having children with that someone. It's getting to feel a lot more complicated, so that as much of a miracle it'll seem just to find a long-term partner, finding one that I can have kids with seems even more remote.

And it puts me in a position where I could potentially find myself in a very tricky dilemma, where I may very well have to choose a partner over the chance of ever becoming a parent, because there may be someone who crosses my path and is a wonderful person for me in almost every important way except for not wanting to have kids or (as is becoming more likely by the year) being too old to have kids. And I might find myself having to make a decision based on the fact that (1) kids can't realistically happen without a partner; (2) my desire for a life partner is much more immediate and raw than my desire to have children; (3) realistically speaking, I'll be incredibly lucky at this point to find someone who fulfills enough of the qualities I'm looking for in a partner to feel confident that we'd have a happy marriage even modulo the kids thing; and (4) at the same time I'm absolutely terrified of not being able to keep up with life stuff as a parent anyway. I really don't know how to evaluate a (very plausible) hypothetical choice of deliberately sacrificing one major goal like that to avoid the risk of sacrificing two; it's a particular case of the more general conundrum of how to deal with mixing rational, pragmatic decision-making with life choices that are supposed to be guided by deeply-felt emotions and the way I value another human being.

(I'm choosing here to assume that if I should become a father, it would be through the typical biological means with a female partner, because I don't think I'm likely to be attracted to someone who isn't a woman; meanwhile, adoption brings a whole host of complications with it so that I really don't feel inclined to consider it even though it's arguably ethically obligatory.)

This affects how I approach dating even now: at this point, my dating pool kind of has to include women in their late 30's or even around 40, and I hate ruling out someone for their age alone if they're otherwise great, and I wouldn't know how to bring it up with a woman I don't know very well yet. It's all really awkward, and openly talking about it at all almost feels like obnoxiously flaunting my biological advantage.

#personal #having children #adoption #yes i know it's the only option for tons of people #maybe i shouldn't be venting about this on tumblr of all places