#sorted by emotion etc... lifesaver

[ceterisparibus116]

Hey! As far as I understand, in the US you guys have to do an undergraduate degree before doing law school. Do you have any opinion on what Matt would’ve taken at undergrad?

Also I just want to say that I really love your writing and your posts are genuinely making me consider a career path that I’d never thought about before! I’d always sort of dismissed being a lawyer because I’m quite shy about public speaking, so I never really thought about how much I like the law in itself. It’s so interesting!

EEEEEEEEE this is exciting! The world needs more lawyers - especially more lawyers going into it for the right reasons. So many lawyers just care about the money or the power (or their parents' approval), which means there's a dire need for lawyers who want to help people.

And I just wanna say: law doesn't require public speaking. Criminal law kinda does (you're pretty much always showing up for hearings and trials in criminal law), but civil law...not so much. Civil law has some hearings and depositions, but very few civil cases go to trial. The vast majority of it is sitting at a desk, writing and researching. Although you do have to be able to meet with victims and witnesses, and that makes some people nervous. (That still makes me nervous, actually.) But it's not public speaking, I think?

You could also try to be a full-time law clerk. Most judges hire clerks for only a year or two, but some take on clerks permanently. As a clerk, your job is 100% research and writing and preparing documents. You get all the fun of making brilliant legal points, but you can make those points safely on paper without having to stand up and present them.

However, I also do believe that public speaking is a skill, not just some natural talent. So I think it's always possible to get better. Here are my two absolute favorite resources on public speaking:

This amazing youtube channel (which isn't specifically for public speaking, but does address public speaking sometimes, and has a ton of general tips for building confidence, overcoming nervousness, turning awkwardness into charisma, etc.); and

This lifesaving book (which is the best book I've read on public speaking, hands-down, and I highly recommend it even for people who aren't lawyers because although it's written for lawyers, the content is overall about how you approach public speaking [how to both feel and appear more confident, etc.] rather than the content of what you're saying. I literally love this book so much!)

Oh, you also asked about Matt. XD

My undergrad was political science, so I like the idea of Matt doing the same just because #relatable. But I don't actually think of him as a poli-sci guy. Like, Karen is the one who's more concerned with broad social structures. Matt seems more interested with figuring out what he's supposed to do than he is with figuring out what society is supposed to do. Matt seems to say: "The system is broken, but I can help as a lawyer, and where I can't help as a lawyer, I can help as a vigilante." He's not the one invested in uncovering corruption or dismantling oppressive systems.

I think of him as more like a history guy. Partly because of the Thurgood Marshall thing. But I imagine him digging into the history books, finding people who inspire him, and modeling his life after them (when he's not angsting about whether he could live up to them).

That said, I secretly ADORE the idea of Matt as a math major. My mock trial coach in high school tried to convince me to be a math major myself, and although I didn't go that route (I'm more like Karen; I wanted to research social and political issues), there's a lot of wisdom to it. Math is logic, after all. And it's pure logic.

If I say "a + b = c," there's no emotion there. But if I say something like "police + poverty = ____" ...y'all already are having an emotional reaction, right? And you're filling in the blank with something. You're likely filling the blanks in based on emotion and anecdotes, since I think most of us have a strong opinion about this, but most of us probably haven't done a deep statistical study into the issues.

As a lawyer, if you care about truth, it's absolutely vital to be able to use logic both to make your arguments and to figure out which arguments you should be making in the first place. We can't completely ditch our personal biases, but I do believe studying math helps work those parts of your brain that can analyze a problem with logic and without using emotion and anecdotes as a shortcut.

So yeah, I love the idea of Matt being good at math.

#legal #matt murdock #daredevil #meta #asks #ask me things i'm friendly

[cityandking]

Stillness, armor, footwear, favorite, and change for Daichi! And Favorite for Eniko and Branwen as well!

thanks!! // oc asks: character design edition

EVERYONE

favorite: Does your OC have a favorite article of clothing or accessory? What is it? What's the meaning behind it? Do they wear it all the time or do they wear it sparingly to keep it safe?

DAI — honestly he really loves his tennis shoes. they're so nice! nothing like a good sturdy pair of sneakers, as it turns out. upside of being back in selto: he can get a new pair of shoes now that this pair have been through the fuckin wringer.

ENIKO — oh boy. eniko's entire schtick is not having anything to care about so much that losing it would hurt. he definitely has some favorite knives, but that's a practical sort of favoritism. I think he might get a little attached to his hairtie? it's literally just a scrap of fabric but. y'know how you feel naked when you're missing your hairtie? he'd have something like that.

BRAN — her HAT! it's a magic hat!! it's also just a Really good hat and a pirate should have a good hat. (she also has a signet ring from her mother that she always wears)

DAI

stillness: How does your OC act while still? Are they fidgety? Do they have any common gestures or tics? Does their clothing affect how they hold themselves while at rest?

Daichi tends to stand or sit upright when he's at rest. Even when he's nervous or angry or whatnot, he's not fidgety. He might clench his fist or his jaw, and he's got a face like an open book, but he's got good physical self control. The weight and bulk of his armor does make him tend to stand up or sit up straighter than he might without the extra weight, but years of accounting for his uniform and armor has ingrained that discipline in him even when he's out of armor.

armor: What kind of armor does your OC wear? Is it well kept? Bonus: where does it come from? Is there a story behind it?

Dai wears an adamantine breastplate that he bought while traveling. It doesn't have any real emotional connection since it's just gear he purchased, but it's definitely proven useful (shout out to that adamantine anti-crit mechanic)! He's good about taking care of his gear, but it's been a bit rough going lately, and it could probably use a good buff after the swamp monster and the mountain weather and the sulfurous cursed abyssal ocean shit. He also has a +3/4 shield he fished out of the guts of a colossal forest beast which is CRAZY helpful with a whole bunch of shit. He's got the Shield Master feat and the extra +3 to select Dex saves has been a lifesaver. Literally.

footwear: What does your OC wear on their feet?

Tennis shoes!! He discovered sneakers when he got to Selto and he's got a good sturdy pair with good arch support and a nice tread. Way more comfortable than the garrison-provided boots. Technology is great and all but if he could take one thing back to Airedon with him, it's his pumped-up kicks.

change: Has your OC ever drastically changed their appearance? Significant haircuts, big tattoos, complete wardrobe swap, etc? Why? How do they feel about the change?

When he died, he did a pretty hack job cutting all his hair off. He had locs up until that point but he shaved it down as close to the scalp as he could with a knife and a pack of drug-store razors. (He had a, uh, pretty rough talk with his god before he got resurrected and needed to make some Decisions about it.) It's grown back a bit by now—I think he might braid it. If he survives the next hour.

#daichi #eniko #branwen #memery #ty!!!!

[party-gilmore]

Okay so basic ghost!Eliot metaphysical mechanics would be like

After The Reveal or whatever like when we get the Leverage team for sure aware of him and actually interacting with and talking to him, and he wants to get involved on cons because he worries after them like he's ATTACHED now and doesn't like that he can only protect them at McRory's, right?

They're looking at his apparition after a blowout, like Quinn's good but shit happens, you know? Let's say at this point, it's been long enough to really get attached to them but also still fairly recent, so... OH HO HO HO, right after The Iceman Job. The fact that Hardison got taken. How scared Eliot was, overhearing on the comm frequency (because something something energy and electromagnetic waves, he can just pick up on the comms routing through the office). So he went full poltergeist a bit on the flat AND in the bar below, blowing lights, tossing shit around, fully manifesting, etc.

So looking at his full body apparition (for maybe even the first time? Maybe they'd got only glimpses of face or torso in mirrors or windows or watching protectively from half behind a doorframe) Nate sees whatever Eliot's 1400's equivalent of that guitar pick necklace is and suggests that if it was important enough to Eliot to manifest on his spirit, then he could attach himself to the physical chain too?

So they go on a mini treasure heart in the pub/basement/foundation to find the necklace that was torn from Eliots neck during the final scuffle with Moreau's men, and try having someone wear it on a con. Eliot learns to sort of "planeshift" his location between McRory's and to within a couple yards of the necklace, so now they've got a fucking poltergeist hitter on the crew.

Obviously there are limitations, being that he can only be within a certain amount of distance, only one person can have it on them at a time (for now - come Redemption era they actually have it smelted down and that's what Hardison and Parker's lock and key necklaces are made out of, so Eliot can watch over [and freely touch ;) ] both of them at once), and it takes a LOT of energy to manifest.

So he's typically just observing and murmuring advice over the comm frequency, until like The One Time per episode shit's real bad and he has to pop out for an emergency beatdown.

Bonus Points:

For EXTRA emotional/pivotal character growth episodes, there's the bonus plot point of Eliot having to struggle to manifest a second time, trying to pull extra energy out of desperation because he'd already popped his top earlier in the ep.

Like for instance, in this AU's version of The Big Bang Job, they're of COURSE gonna send him along with whoever's confronting Moreau (a descendent of the Moreau he used to work for maybe? Or since we're already in the realm of the supernatural, maybe Moreau committed some kind of fuckery to extend his life?).

So he manifests after Hardison gets kicked into the pool for some [handwavey magic explanation of the science] lifesaving but also sort of nervously romantic "first kiss but not really but kind of yeah really" ghost mouth-to-mouth underwater to keep him breathing as long as he needs for Quinn to finish negotiations.

But then later, he KNOWS Quinn can't handle this warehouse fight on his own, but a) he doesn't have enough energy left to take form and b) he's not really familiar enough with modern firearms even if he COULD, but he's desperate to not just take down this Moreau but also get these two members of his little family - the first people he's cared about in CENTURIES ‐ out of here safely.

So, in said fit of desperation, he's pushing so hard he accidently possesses Quinn (who's wearing the necklace ofc) and adds his supernatural skill and situational awareness to Quinn's own muscle memory and strategy.

And the result is brutal.

It does leave both hitters drained as fuck for the next few days though, which is why their role in the San Lorenzo job is so light.

#leverage #ghost!eliot spencer #sorry this au is living in my head rent free now but TRUST ME its not as sad as it seems and everyone eventually lives* happy ever after #eliot spencer

[disaster-ace-is-me]

what are your top 5 songwriting tips? i’d love to write more songs but i’m not that confident in my lyric writing

hi anon! thank you so much for asking!!!

1. keep a folder in your phone or someplace to write down either one-liner lyrics, song title ideas, song concept ideas, etc. when you start writing a song, you’ll be able to go back into that folder and pull out ideas you’ve had, even if you came across them years ago, and write them into a song. you can even later just go back and pull a bunch of one-liners you’ve had and compile it into one big song!

2. if you want to make your lyrics more eloquent and poetic, you can keep a list of words you like/think are beautiful and use them later in songs! i literally just went through the dictionary and found a whole bunch of fancy words to write down and put their definitions with it 💀 but i mean it worked, i used the words “petrichor” and “dalliance” in a song last night :)

3. if you get stuck on a line but want to keep writing, literally just go to rhymezone or another rhyming website it’s a lifesaver 😂 just look through pretty much every rhyme that pops up until you find something that gives you some sort of inspiration or gives your lyrics more flow.

4. use lyrical parallels and references!!! referencing literature, authors, artists, and other songs will really help with visualization and depth! another fun thing you can do is reference your own work in your lyrics!!!

5. for more confidence in your writing, i suggest trying your absolute best at writing a song about something that seems really simple and concrete, like an inanimate object. write about it as if it has a life and a personality. really pour a lot of emotion into it. it’s gonna sound really silly in the end, but when you go back and write your actual songs, keep in mind that you once wrote an emotional song about a chair or whatever you chose to write about, and if you can do that, you can write about whatever your new idea is.

#feel free to ask for more tips if needed! #mack's songwriting thoughts #ask answered #anon

[sparklyandchic]

🦋 MINI MIND MAKEOVER 🦋

okay i started the idea for this mini little mind makeover when i broke up with my boyfriend in like january. instead of being sad or angry, i wanted to be grateful for this time and take it as an opportunity to make life better for myself. then quarantine happened, so some of these are related to things i’ve learned since that started. either way, these aren’t all concrete things to do for your mind; some of them are just ways of thinking or pep talks. but if you can find one little piece of information or thought that makes you a little bit happier for a moment, that’s all i can hope for!

5-htp: okay first off- please ALWAYS consult your psychiatrist or medical professional before taking a supplement! taking 5-htp with, for example, serotonin-increasing medications can lead to a fatal illness called serotonin syndrome. personally, i started taking it because i had been on 10 mg prozac for a few months. it definitely dulled a lot of my anxiety and had a lot of positive aspects to it, but it dulled them almost too much to the point where i felt apathetic and detached from myself and the situations i was in. i was in a very unhealthy relationship and felt like i needed my mental clarity and “overthinking” processes back in order to identify what i was feeling and how to deal with it. i felt a lot more “sensitive” after coming off it, which was actually really welcome for me at first, but then it sort of dropped off into withdrawals. i was having constant panic attacks and crying very often. after a while, i was debating going back on prozac, but remembered i had taken 5-htp before. 5-htp is an amino acid that is a direct precursor to serotonin being produced in the brain. when u eat turkey, tryptophan is converted into 5-htp which leads to your brain producing serotonin, thus why you feel calm and happy afterwards. after taking 5-htp for just a few days, ranging between 200-300 mg per day (again, do your research, ask your doctor, and start small) i stopped crying constantly and really felt this sense of calmness and wellbeing but without the detachment and apathy i felt with prozac. i could still think clearly but didn’t feel overly sensitive to every emotion which arose. personally, it is really a lifesaver and really does make a noticeable difference.

cognitive behavioral therapy: ive tried therapy a million times. well okay, like 5 or 6 different therapists. at its worst, therapists told me i needed to use my sexual power as a woman in order to get what i wanted from men, told me i’m bad at socializing and should do group therapy, said my mom shouldn’t have encouraged me to “be myself” when i was younger because it made me less likeable than if i had conformed to normal societal standards of dressing. i had gone to “therapists” who claimed to be trained in CBT, but when i told them about my experiences with dissociation, the only feedback i got was to “take more baths.” while going through a few unpleasant experiences in my personal life, i decided i should try CBT once more, but like the real kind. i found an ivy-league educated licensed psychologist (NOT a “licensed clinical social worker” who doesn’t even have a psychology degree!!) who SPECIALIZED specifically in cognitive behavioral therapy. just after the first session, i was so elated with my experience. as opposed to just telling me that i needed to be more normal or more kind or a better person, she tried to identify WHAT was making me feel that way about myself in the first place. she pointed out the positive things i do and reassured me i was kind, good, and deserving of good things. she pointed out many aspects of my situation that would have taken me days or weeks to come to on my own. i’ve realized my hubris isn’t that i’m not socially acceptable or not perfect enough, but its just that i tend to THINK that i am these things despite having no evidence of it. so, over time with therapy, my positive self image about who i am as a person has grown and strengthened and i dont just randomly feel like a bad human being anymore lol. moral of the story, if you wanna do therapy but it keeps sucking, dont give up. go to a legit psychologist, find someone who specializes in the type of therapy you’re seeking, and also be vocal during your sessions. stand up to your psychologist when they continually push a narrative onto you, and explain why you don’t agree with it. sometimes it’s their job to try different narratives to see what fits, and if you just passively let them say what they want to, you’ll never find the truth of your experience! it’s a communal effort! therapy isn’t usually a magic cure-all where one session fixes everything that goes awry in your brain. but if you find someone who knows what they’re doing they can in fact really help your thought processes become less twisted up and more clear and healthy.

meditation and mindfulness: a few weeks ago i felt anxious and overly driven to get things done to the point where i spiraled into a space of guilt or a panic attack over not getting enough things done. meditation can be so so helpful here. it’s better to spend an hour sitting and doing nothing, but doing it peacefully and then calmly moving on to doing something else, than to spend 5 hours stressing yourself over every single thing you need to get done and how much time you’re wasting. the things that need to get done will get done. another thing that i’ve realized and say to myself a lot is: “focus not on doing all things perfectly, but on doing the small things well.” by this i mean, stop thinking about the 20 things you need to get done and how it all needs to be perfect, but instead take your time with the task that presents itself as most beneficial right now and focus on enjoying it and giving your whole self to the process. for example, stop thinking about how you need to clean your room, your closet, donate clothes, take a shower, take out the trash, read, workout, etc. think to yourself; “which task would bring me the most joy right now?” if the answer is taking a shower, then take that damn shower. bring your speaker into the bathroom, scrub every inch of your scalp with shampoo, scrub your feet and behind your ears and your neck with body wash, brush the conditioner through your hair fully. you may end your shower with 19 other things to do, but god damn if you can’t enjoy a single one of them and be present for it, what’s the fucking point! go light a candle and bask in its glow, go make your bed and huddle up in your neatly arranged covers, go take a long bath or a thorough shower, and be proud of and content with that today. 

relationships, with others and yourself: okay, if you missed the memo, my ex-boyfriend sucked. like genuinely was a bad person. he was a drug dealer, so that’s red flag number 1 (which i ignored of course), he hadn’t graduated high school (he was 18, i was 20, he was supposed to graduate the last semester but refused to do the work and ignored me and his mother when encouraged to do it, which is uhh definitely red flag number 2 which i also ignored), he habitually did not show up for dates on time or lied about what he was going to do or what he did (literally everything he did was a red flag and i rlly ignored all of it). the worst part was how he responded when i worked up the courage to speak to him about it. if we had agreed upon a time for our date but he showed up literally 8 hours late, he would blame it on me because i “could have called” him, or that i was “demanding too much of” him, or that i “should have said something earlier so now [i was] just dragging it out because it already happened.” basically, whatever narrative he pushed at me, i eventually gave into. i’ve dealt with gaslighting in a relationship before and a part of me knew what was happening to me, but a part of me also kept having hope for him, kept empathizing with him, kept wanting to believe in him. after a bit too much time, i finally realized you have to trust yourself, empathize with yourself, and believing in yourself over anyone else. at first i felt bad for him not being able to graduate because i had my own struggles with high school and getting work done. i thought he may have issues but he deserves someone to be there for him because i wanted someone to be there for me. despite the pain and stress he was causing me, i sat around crying over him because i cared about him and tend to over-empathize with people close to me, whether they deserve it or not. my therapist told me something that at first i did not understand, but over time came to grasp in its entirety: “some people do not deserve your love or kindness.” after our first session, my homework was to “consider when you are being kind and when you are being taken advantage of.” this made me realize that what feels like your instinctual nature to be nice to others, can in fact be a self-sabotaging unfair action, depending on the other person’s response. i might be dishing out a lot right now, but bear with me. think of it this way: you regard an action as a “kind action”. you might think “kind actions” include: forgiving someone for large mistakes, putting someone’s needs over yours, sparing them some change when they ask for it, listening to the problems they are dealing with every day. BUT when their actions include not forgiving you for minor mistakes, not giving a sh*t about your needs or considering them, not caring how much money they take from you and how much money you need to have around, or habitually glossing over your problems because it doesn’t benefit them to care, THEN those actions you performed are NOT “KIND ACTIONS” anymore. the act of continuing to give them leeway is now the act of being taken advantage of. the act of giving them money is now the act of being taken advantage of. the act of buying into their story at the expense of your sanity, is now the act of being taken advantage. basically, all i’m saying is START PUTTING YOURSELF FIRST AND TRUSTING YOURSELF WHEN YOU FEEL SOMEONE DOESN’T HAVE YOUR BEST INTERESTS IN MIND. 

ending thoughts: i know quarantine is difficult right now. the desire to grow contrasted with the inability to move. maybe try and follow that old 2008~ quote; “bloom where you are planted”. you might not be able to reach the goals you thought you would during this time. you might not be able to run a marathon or make a bunch of new friends or wake up at 6 AM to workout or redo your bedroom or get a rhinoplasty or join a gym or get an internship. working towards productivity might be unrealistic right now. but you can work everyday towards becoming the woman you want to be, mentally. you can work on learning to be content, learning to make the best with what you have, learning to appreciate the little things, learning to slow down. these are all qualities that i for one want to have just as much as i want to be attractive or successful. if you can’t enjoy success, what’s the fucking point! life is on pause right now, take this moment as a gift and consider your internal world and what parts of your mind need a makeover. there are horrible things happening in the world right now, do what you can to help, but if you’re safe and healthy then be grateful for the things you can learn from this difficult time. take it slow, but keep moving forward! 

#happyandchic #happy and chic

[thisgirlhastales]

“Wayward Son” — Is There Peace When You Are Done?

What we have here is an essay of sorts: a loosely organized mishmash of thoughts and opinions. Disclaimer that this is highly subjective, as it is based on my own experiences and expectations going into this novel :)

And, naturally, many Wayward Son spoilers below the cut! If you haven’t read it yet and are planning to do so, please do not proceed further. If you’ve already read it or don’t care about spoilers, c’mon in! Ain’t nobody here but me!

First Thing: I thought the plot was cool — I loved seeing the characters again, loved seeing the different magical culture within the United States as compared to the UK; all the geographical variety and how that impacted magical abilities and politics, the creatures and the nature of magic as it applied to people who aren’t mages, the syntax, and Shepard. All of that was fascinating. It felt organic and real, even though our main dude, Shepard, did drop a few exposition bombs. I loved it all.

The magical creatures touch on something that I think all the main characters learn and re-learn (and may be symbolic of their issues as a whole): there is no one way to do or be magic. The word magician can apply to any creature who is or practices magic. The UK’s mages have an expansive but selective history. They do not acknowledge people like Lamb (see Nicodemus), even though they are technically part of their world. I wonder if the UK vampires have something like what the Las Vegas vampires do — i.e. ways to feed without killing, ways of living without standing out so much, a hierarchal structure, their own historical narrative, etc. 

Agatha coming into her own was fabulous, driving the plot with the vampires on her end; she wasn’t a character I enjoyed in the last book too much (I thought she was very real, even practical, she just didn’t appeal to me as a person), but in this? Loved her. And she figured out her own way to be, though there’s still a ways to go for her, I think …

There is no one way to be anything, and that’s a lesson everyone in this book needs to learn (and talk about with each other, please, please, please).

Second Thing: Dealing with Trauma — I do think this was what resonated most with me, as someone who likes it when things are not perfectly hunky-dory after severely traumatic events.

Simon is Not Dealing. He stopped going to his psychologist. He thinks about the Mage, but doesn’t fully process the impact of having killed him. He’s in mourning over his magic and the Mage and all of it, but he’s choosing to not digest it fully — every time he was happy on this road trip, I, like Baz, was thrilled, but I also knew that it was fleeting because he hadn’t really dealt with anything. The underlying cause of his depression and listlessness wasn’t being addressed. His bursts of anger, his heartbreak, his inability to let go of the wings … He goes back and forth a lot, as well, tormenting himself.

Baz is Not Dealing. Baz was suicidal in Carry On. Baz barely knows anything about vampires. He lives in fear of being a monster, and of being executed as one regardless of his actions. As much as I detest Lamb, he had knowledge: How to feed without killing your prey. How to live amongst people and blend in better. He looked physically healthier. Baz’s grey complexion is actually a sign that he is starving more often than not. Remember how powerful he is now, and imagine how powerful he could be if he took better care of himself. And how much more comfortable in his own skin he’d be, which would help with so many of his bitter self-recriminations.

Penny is Not Dealing. Wow, that break-up with Micah was rough. She has a few more moments of self-realization than Simon and Baz do, but she’s also completely caught up in her own magical world, culture, and plans for the future; she has trouble reconciling what Shepard tells her, and is still processing (accepting? Healing?) from not only that breakup, but everything else that has ever happened to her and Simon. Penny copes better, but still not necessarily well. Her can-do, will-do attitude is a huge boon, but when it fails? Yikes. I rather feel like she had overly-rationalized (maybe even over-simplified) every trauma she went through with Simon, and … the world isn’t rational or simple at the best of times. I really, really hope she can come to terms with that (and that we get to see it).

Simon and Baz Together Are Not Dealing. It goes without saying that these two NEED to talk. But their separate issues are a huge roadblock — I feel like the chances of misunderstandings occurring are high. Each is convinced that they are bad for the other. Baz is slightly better about it, but he’s so afraid of the consequences of broaching the subject, he simply won’t. And the thing is? His instincts aren’t wrong. Simon does want to break up with him. It’s based on the whole you deserve better than me assumption, but Baz is actually sensing correctly that Simon is on the verge of leaving him. They need to deal with their own, separate traumas, and they can do that together or apart, but they need to start healing in some capacity. I fully believe that they can be together, even with a break, but that break needs to come with communication? Point being, we all go through healthy and unhealthy periods, as individuals, as part of a family, as part of a couple. They are right smack dab in the middle of a rough, not-so-healthy part — however they cope with it, (TALKING AND LISTENING ARE MUSTS), we at least know that they love each other. Love alone is not enough, but it is a powerful, wonderful force in their corner.

The expansion on magic implies legion of ways in which to exist, and such is the case for coping with pain, sadness, regret, and all the other fun aspects of being humans who experience trauma in innumerable ways. Sometimes we choose things that are unhealthy as a stopgap, because we’re not ready for the work and pain that is healing. Y’all, healing sometimes is on par with the issues that made it necessary — in simpler terms, it can really, really suck at the start. Again, some of you may come from different perspectives, but this struck a chord with me. 

I definitely went in with the expectation that all the issues would be laid out, and then addressed … We got the first half in spades … Did not get the second, nope.

Third Thing: The structure of this book implied right from the start that things may be unresolved, but, er, it was still a bit hard to deal with — having an epilogue at the beginning and a prologue at the end implies to me that this second book is a launch point. The prologue at the end is the start for the next (hopefully larger) narrative. That makes Wayward Son something like a sprawling behind-the-scenes look into these characters before we launch into their following, more detailed story. 

But I didn’t feel too great about having been plunged so deeply into this ‘verse, only to not have a lifesaver tossed my way … Which is to say, it kept me breathless, and knowing that people survived allowed me a reprieve, but the core of this novel — the overall mental well-being of Simon, Baz, Penny, and Agatha — had me tight in its grip from the beginning and then just … kept right on squeezing at the end. Even tighter. 

I don’t mind a plot-based cliff-hanger, but the fact that all the emotional and character arcs were left hanging as well? I felt like I got a decent resolution, or partial conclusion, on a few plot points, but next to no resolution for the emotional and/or psychological arcs. That I have a lot more trouble accepting. Particularly when I’ve spent an entire book with characters forced to live in each other’s space, in close quarters, and still not communicating. I wanted to rip out every beautiful thought Simon and Baz had about each other and throw it in the other’s face. Because they were gorgeous and wonderful, and for all that they are currently fractured and bleeding, they so clearly want what is best for each other. They are (mostly) selfless in their love (with a few selfish foibles, but they made sense to me).

I was also rather … not happy with the fact we got no mention of Lucy, of Davy, of them being Simon’s parents. I’m really, desperately hoping we get that in the next chapter of this series.

The positive thing I can take away from this point is that when we get to the next book (and I know there will be one — my copy literally has a number 2 on the spine, which heavily implies series to me), we will be firmly grounded in what is facing these characters both internally and externally.

The biggest issue that lies ahead is COMMUNICATION. I know (I hope like hell) this will be addressed in the next book, but I craved it so, so badly in this. Not just for Simon and Baz but PENNY. They are all sitting on shifting sand foundations now — their worlds have been completely overturned, over and over again in the past year or so, and they haven’t found firm footing yet. When Micah broke up with Penny, I very much thought that was the kick off for a road trip filled with introspection and epiphanies and finally, lots of talking about said introspections and epiphanies — I got half my wish. The latter half, I suppose, will have to wait until the next novel. I didn’t expect all the character/emotional beats to be acknowledged and resolved, but at least some of them, with room for others to be resolved in the next story, so we would have more (and more room) to explore in that novel.

As a result, Wayward Son, for the many things I loved about it, didn’t feel like a complete story for me. It doesn’t stand on its own quite as well as Carry On did. Maybe when the third book comes out, I will retroactively love it more, but for now I’m just sort of … floating along, waiting for that lifesaver. It did, honestly, feel a bit like half of a story. Half a good story, fantastic even, but still … Half.

In addition to these thoughts I’ve shared, here’s where I’m coming from, as a reader — we all come at these books from different places, different life experiences and wants and expectations. 

One of my most formative reading experiences was Harry Potter. I read Harry Potter practically as it came out. I had to wait years between some of the books. By the time the last book arrived, the characters had matured about as much as I had. Because the middle books were so chunky and dense (and I loved them for it!), I was a little thrown off by how slim Deathly Hallows was in comparison, and that ultimately was reflected in my reading — it went by so quickly. While I loved it and sobbed all over the damn place, when I hit that epilogue … that’s the first time while reading that I did a full stop. All the pain and agony of that book, as quick as it had been, had been amazing, and it felt like it demanded some kind of … reflection and communication between the characters, and I thought after ten years of these books, we had a definite basis for an epilogue that could’ve added another third to this novel — maybe one that jumped through the years, showed us different characters at various stages of healing? Something involved and detailed to a degree.

Wayward Son had that rushed element to it … and I think part of that feeling was enhanced due to the lack of resolution to those character/emotional arcs — we were tumbling, running forward into a free fall and then were frozen right at that point before falling.

However, Wayward Son gives me more positive feelings than that epilogue in HP. Yes, it still feels incomplete, like half a story. But Wayward Son isn’t an end. Unlike Deathly Hallows, there is more to come, and that’s what I’m looking forward to most. It definitely has its flaws in my view, but I can reconcile them somewhat, as you’ve seen.

(There is also a whole thing involving the way these sorts of arcs would resolve in fanfiction versus the medium of a book intended for a broader audience, but that would be a whole other post, methinks. Let me know if you want me to discuss that, because I do have some thoughts on it, though they’re a little haphazard at the moment. Um. Assuming all this rambling isn’t wildly boring and/or awful for you.)

Final Thoughts: At the end of the day? I loved reading this book, even for all that I wanted to reach into the pages and knock the character’s heads together. I said, “Oh no!” out loud when I reached the end, but it was because I desperately wanted more right then and there. The fact that I want more means that, despite any flaws, I’m still on board for this universe and its characters — I still love all this magic, and this dragon boy and his vampire boyfriend :)

And now, 2000 plus words later, I am done, holy crap. If anyone actually made it to the bottom of this, thank you? Not too sure how coherent I was, but I hope some of this was of value to someone :) *many hugs*

Edit: Apparently I still had some things to say, so here is a sequel to this ramble — Simon and Baz Carrying On Like Wayward Sons.

#wayward son #wayward son spoilers #snowbaz #simon snow #rainbow rowell #tyrannus basilton grimm pitch #penelope bunce #agatha wellbelove #rants and ramblings

[strictlymyownheart]

The Reality of “Being Real”...

It's funny, you know....how life sends you on a "goose chase"? No, an adventure? No....I've never been on a ship but I would assume it feels a little like this. When did life become a raging sea, filled with anger and malice? When did I start feeling like the waves had more say in which direction I was shifted than I did? When did I lose it? That ability to swim....that ability to breathe? I tumble upon waves, "Man overboard".....but no lifesaver comes to my aid. As though a crowd of people watches to see if I fail, so the sea of faces in life wait to see if I drown among the vast expectations and perception....I'm only human like you....I can't possibly keep you all afloat. I love finding ways to save others. I love being a safe haven or someone who hears the fears, who places smiles atop the frown worn on our masks. I graffiti a new reality on peoples souls and it makes a difference....but what is it called when you do not understand it yourself? I don't know what I do that creates laughter....merely me? Merely the purity inside? Merely the concept of survival in the pit of my stomach that makes me run from any kind of cliff jump because danger wasn't on the menu....I'm all for risks until it means losing all the control I have and leaving it all up to fate. Don't tell fate, but it's a bitch. Shhhh, you didn't hear it from me. I didn't sign up for the life I lived. The life I would've signed up for would've been boring and typical. The basic bitch package, Starbucks gift card included. But this is it. I have a whirlwind of emotion and a tornado of possibility that clears a path for me, yet destroys necessity and routine. I twirl into the dance floor of these peoples lives only for them to lose me when the lights go down. I don't think I was meant to be a piece in the chess game of life, I'm merely a voice in your ear whispering, "Check mate", and waiting for you to see your opening. I have no place, yet I room in many lives. In many a story I am heard of. A wives tale of sorts that drifts with the wind, the breath in a wolf's howl. Don't try to catch me or you'll find that the façade was in your own mind. I do not call anywhere home, yet I place each resting place in a special place in my heart, with good intentions on revisiting. I don't know who I am.....yet I see me for who I am. I'm broken in the most beautiful way possible. I laugh when shit happens, because I expect nothing less from the universe as it has already dubbed me worthy of persecution. No, I don't l mean that I am damned, I mean that I know much pain and it is not nearly what I am to face in the future. I have been dubbed a light....and you know what we do with light, we use it. No, I don't mean used like you think. I mean, we need it. We need it for everything. We need it to light our way in the dark, to pierce the fog, to reflect the rain, etc. Even light is needed to see the stars on the other side of heaven where my son rests his head and looks down on me as I lay on the pavement, an outstretched arm to the heavens as I feel him reach back. I didn't ask for this....hell if I could change it, there are so many things that I wouldn't change, but you, my little one, by my side....how I wish for that everyday. I know you know what I mean. I know you know what it means to feel deeply. I know you know what it means to mean more to others that you do to yourself. How you are depended on yet your soul is never fed. Scraps, you search for scraps. You eat your own words hoping that they would fill the pits of your stomach yet you cannot stop wandering. As if in a desert you crawl on your knees, mirage on the horizon....but who's to say if it real or fake. We can't stop, you know...we can't stop being who they need us to be. That's our dealing of the cards. And while I love the obligation, 9 times out of 10.....today I just want to be me. I love this life that I live, do not get me wrong. I couldn't be happier knowing that I get to make a difference everyday of my existence, but how lonely it is when you realize that those the universe dubs worthy...are very few. It gets a little lonely having the world on my shoulders....I just hope I don't fall. Don't let me let you down. 

-I. Calais

#poem #poetry #love #hate #universe #cards #fail #light #dark #you #me #myson #future #life #coincidence #real #fake #sadness #why #seaofpeople #ocean #riptide

[nokikissa]

Whooooooooo did it, beat the story of borderlands 3 now. It took me 42 hours but I think I got still like some of those fight wave of enemies arena things I could do but I’ll look into that later, I did all the crew challenges and side mission outside of those type of things.

Story and character wise it was a bit of a mixed bag, there were a lot of things I like and couple things I really didn’t like, but all in all I had fun, the gameplay was excellent, and most likely I will play it again, to co-op with buddies or to try out different vault hunters.

Putting more in-depth thoughts about some story and character things under the cut, extreme major spoiler warning as I’ll be talking about like big plot moments and such.

I quite like most of the new characters they introduced in this, I’ve only played Fl4k and loved them, but from everything I’ve seen I feel like I’ll love the other new vault hunters as well. The Calypso twins were delightful villains, very entertaining but also like I couldn’t wait to get to kill them lmao. And then there’s like Ava, I loved her and her relationship with Maya that was good stuff. And Wainwright I quite liked as well, and I was very happy that Hammerlock finally has a boyfriend and is in a good relationship. And also Lorelei and Clay were both good too, tho I probably like Lorelei more of those haha.

How it handled some old characters tho.... That’s a bit mixed. Like I liked a lot of them: Lilith, Eliie, Tannis, Maya, Zer0, Sir Hammerlock.... Even Rhys! They got Rhys down surprisingly well in my opinion! Obviously he was bit more comedic and doofy but like it was still reminiscent of how Rhys acted in like comedic moments of tales, I could recognize where they got his personality from and so on, it was fine!

...Which makes it even more baffling that they fucked up Vaughn so completely that with Vaughn it feels like the writer maybe got a super vague description of the character at best which had been passed down through multiple people twisting it around like a game of broken telephone. I just don’t understand where they pulled some character traits for him at all.... During the game I tried my best to ignore his existence, which worked well for a long while until the game made you go back to pandora and made him story relevant again, god every time he spoke my reaction was like “please shut up...”

But. I knew that was coming. The Commander Lilith DLC and promotional pics and so on made it clear ahead of time that I would not like Borderlands 3 Vaughn. I had had time to go through the stages of grief and resign to being all well I’m gonna be one of those salty tales fans and keep on drawing content of like tales Vaughn and ignore the rest of the canon for him.

So anyway I was really liking the story during like the Promethea Atlas Vs. Maliwan Arc actually, Rhys and Zer0 and their interactions were fun, Katagawa was an enjoyable villain as well, I just hope the fandom don’t make him annoying to me... So yeah that arc was good and fun.... and then the Promethea Vault happened. I am still a bit on the fence about how I feel about Maya getting killed off. On one hand, I did not see that coming and it did get an emotional “Nooo D:” reaction out of me, which well I’ve seen games with similar character getting killed off scenes that are supposed to be a big deal but my reaction is just like “ok”, like Borderlands 2 with Roland for example. But like yeah I didn’t want her to die, and it feels like kind of a waste cos let’s face it in 2 she didn’t have that much personality since the game didn’t do voice lines for the vault hunters reacting to the story etc. So now she was finally getting to be her own character I feel like aaaand then she dies. :/

And then we moved on to the Eden 6 arc and initially I was excited all Oh get to meet Hammerlock’s Boyfriend! But soon my excitement soured............

So Aurelia’s evil now huh.... And like cartoonishly evil...... Man I hate what they did with Aurelia in this game, it really smashed my good mood coming from the promethea arc to this.... Like in pre-sequel sure she kept claiming herself to be evil and a bitch and so on, but yet when Jack did like actually horrible shit she did not agree with those, she felt bad about Felicity’s fate and didn’t agree with Jack killing the scientist, she even objected when Jack was killing off all claptraps! But nah here’s she’s evil, murdering people left and right and also fucked Troy Calypso cos idk she evil now  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Like god............ I really didn’t expect Aurelia of all the characters whose portrayal I’d be having this much issues but here we are... I guess I’m more pissed about it atm cos as I said with Vaughn I knew what was coming, but with Aurelia I kinda feel Bait and switched by the promotional material cos in all of those that I saw they showed like both the Hammerlocks and Wainwright standing next to each other so you know I was expecting her to be an ally, like maybe she and Alistair had started to tolerate each other and so on but NOPE! Go kill this character you like! Thanks a lot gearbox...

That’s the major issues I had with characters I suppose, Tho it is a bit disappointed Maya and Zer0 were only vault hunters from 2 that showed up. Would’ve been fun to get more personality for more of them. I did find some echo logs involving Krieg at one point which were interesting, aaaand according to like the sort of background filler assets Axton does porn now lmao. Also hmm where were Athena and Janey? Fiona and Sasha? So many characters missing... I know they’ve said probably more characters show up in dlcs, but still. Story wise kinda funny tho, like did Lilith contact the vault hunters from 2 for help at all? Were all of them like “sry I’m busy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ “??

Also one weird bit about the Eden 6 arc, it felt kiiinda out of place for borderlands that there were npcs being all “Oh man I sure love the Jakobs family they treat me well”, borderlands has sorta been all “the gun corporation suck” beforehand... I suppose the Promethea arc was bit too pro corporation in some way, but with that at least mostly the npc I saw were like “Rhys says he’s trying to do good with atlas... hm we shall see how that’ll pan out...” suspicion, but with the Jakob there were characters being all oh Jakobs is so great such good corporation :)

At the end side of the game you could get sooo much lore about like sirens which I loved, translating the eridian artifact things like clarified on like how sirens come to be and all which is great! According to that siren in her life can choose who specifically inherits her powers after she dies, or “release her powers into the unknown” which when described kinda gave me the impression that it’ll pass those onto some baby that’s born at some point, which yay clarification on the whole are sirens born as sirens or do they get their powers later: answer is both!

And it appears that Angel decided to pass her powers onto Tannis before she died? Which is interesting. And aw Maya chose Ava to inherit her powers.

That ending tho..... uhhh isn’t Elpis an inhabited place? How did that whole thing affect the people living on elpis lmao....?

And god that ending credits song, it is fitting but I just can’t take it seriously asfsfdggs...

i guess I’ll now move onto talking about the gameplay....

The gameplay was great. Same old Borderlands gameplay except with some improvements making it better, and that is exactly what I wanted from the game.

I especially love the way the guns are now and how much variety there is between the manufacturers, and even within them! Like previously I rarely liked to use shotguns in borderlands games, but in this one I fell in love specifically with the Maliwan Shockwave shotguns, and when one I had started to be too low leveled I desperately tried looking for new one everywhere lol.

And also Atlas gun’s smart bullet gimmick is so good especially now that I played on console, I know I joked about that before the game came out I’m sorry Rhys lol.

I really enjoyed the environments in the game, the planets looked cool and unique, and the maps were interesting. And god some of them are so huge! Which does cause some issue tho... They are weirdly stingy with ammo vending machines. In previous games they usually had ammo vending machines before like boss fight rooms, but in this one nope! Most of the time they only have those in like beginning of the map or like where fast travel points are? That’s annoying... And another issue is that the maps are big and sorta maze-like at times, so even though you have the mission marker in the mini map, I still needed to constantly open the map to see how to get to it, you can’t just go straight in the direction of the mission marker.

Gotta say, I was bit disappointed that we only visited Athenas to get Maya, I was hoping we’d return there cos the planet was very pretty but nope....

Fl4k’s gameplay was really fun, I got the skill that lets fl4ks pet heal you and man that skill is a lifesaver, there were some boss fights I survived purely because of Mr Chew keeping me alive by reviving me lol.

I did encounter few glitched that caused me to have to restart the game cos some mission objective got stuck somewhere and I couldn’t advance, that was a bit annoying. But it was only very few and like well into the game, compared to the hours I played it feels like a pretty good track record for playing a game right on it’s release haha.

So uh yeah. In summary again: Extremely fun gameplay, mixed bag story and characters. Had fun, will play again.

#lol enjoy my +1700 word thoughts on the game #pointless text post is pointless #bl3 spoilers #i really mean the spoilers thing for real yo #borderlands 3

[notyourmothersspellbook]

Hi, this is a two part question: I'm looking for a spell or curse of some sort to cause remorse. I've tried looking up a couple and all the ones I've found cause real life results or harm to the subject. I don't want that, I just want them to regret what they did and maybe force them to do some heavy self reflection. So part 1 is do you have a spell rec? And part 2 is if there is a reason spells don't typically deal strictly with emotions? Thanks for any help, your blog is a lifesaver. Ily

This is a complicated ask so I’ll try to do my best (and thank you for your sweet words!). Firstly, a spell to cause remorse might look something like this reflection spell, or this insomnia hex. I suppose you could also write down their misdeeds and, along with a taglock and whatever ingredients you think best for this work, burn the whole bundle and cast it to the wind to carry them back to them for reflection. As for a curse you could build a poppet of the person and slip a list of their wrongdoings into the poppets head (along with some nightcrawlers if you really want to be nasty) and let the memories of what they’ve done eat away at them. I am a little confused by the “real life results or harm” part of this ask. Not wanting to hurt someone is fine of course (although in that case you’re certainly not looking for a curse), but magic that you perform on someone else is always going to be based in you forcing them to do something because you’ve deemed it appropriate, not them (unless you’ve gotten their permission in which case they obviously already feel bad about what they’ve done). In this case, they’ve done something which you think is wrong and which you think that they need to reflect on so you’re using magic to force them to do that. While that may not fall under “harm” it certainly falls under real life, physical effects - forcing them to remember something, to relive something, to think about it until they realize they’ve done wrong.

There are certainly spells that deal purely with emotions (spells for letting go of grief or heartbreak, spells for feeling relief or closure, spells for repressing certain feelings, etc.), and so you may find a spell like that which uses a gentler or different approach. It’s worth searching for or trying to create that if that’s something you’re interested in. But I suppose magic is mostly used for physical results - for bringing you money and lovers and opportunities, for punishing those that you deem need punishment, and for physically changing and addressing the wrongs that you see beyond just talking it out or hoping it gets better - and in the case of a spell to cause remorse I think that probably looks like forcing them to obsess over and rethink the moment until they realize what they did, or, in some cases, forcing them to feel bad because they don’t see anything wrong with what they did. If any of that makes sense

[slutaktion]

y'all have kind already answered this in other posts but any advice on initiating? any advice on initiating when you're well into a relationship but still fear rejection/getting over past rejection from when your partner wasn't in the mood? btw much appreciation to this blog y'all are lifesavers xxx

Okay, so, this is a complicated one. First of all, it’s good to remember that nobody should be having any type of sexual interaction they don’t want to have, ever, and that there’s no way of initiating or suggesting sex that will make your partner want to have sex with you unless they were already open to it before you brought it up. More often than not, whatever factors lead your partner to not be in the mood are totally external from your relationship, and if they’re not, if your sexual connection is being impacted by relationship issues, it’s time to implement a system of communication for discussing them but still be able to have some sense of intimacy.

The thing is, if your partner not being in the mood in the past has affected you so much that to this day you’re struggling to initiate, it feels to me like there might be some underlying issues. but I don’t really know whether it’s a lack of self esteem on your part, or just extreme shyness, or your emotional needs for, like, affirmation and security not exactly being met in this relationship. Or a bit of each!

If you’re really insecure and scared of rejection, a good strategy to have in your arsenal is just to explain to them that you don’t really feel comfortable always initiating, so you’re going to stop doing that for a pre-determined amount of time, and instead they can come to you whenever they’re in the mood. You’re going to have to masturbate a lot more often, but hey! this could be a good occasion to practice some new techniques and re-discover having fun by yourself. Whenever that pre-determined amount of time is over, check in with yourself first and with them afterwards. Did it feel right? If so, why, and if not, what would you have liked more of or less of? This sort of eliminates the rejection from the equation, and you can just look at your sex life by itself - is it something you’re satisfied with, why or why not, are your libidos just so incompatible that you’re going to have to break up, etc.

Try to think about what sex in this relationship means to you. Is it a way to connect emotionally? If so, would you like your partner to make more efforts to reach out to you for non-sexual intimacy, however that looks like in your relationship, and have you communicated this to them? If you never had sex again, would you still feel loved by this person? Because if the answer to that is no, then the problem is not that you’re not having enough sex, but that you’re only using sex to express your love for each other, and that’s not super healthy at all.

Now, if nothing of what I’ve written above applies, if everything about your relationship is wonderful, you just have a hard time making the first move, what you need to do is work on internalizing the fact that even if your partner doesn’t want to sleep with you, it’s not about you or about your connection to each other. Because once you’ve truly absorbed that, then you’ll feel that “initiating sex” is only about checking in with your partner about whether or not they’re in the mood, so the answer they give you is information about them, not their opinion on you or on your relationship. And this check in can happen in a million of different ways, from sending them a text with a string of emojis and a question mark, to parading around them in lingerie, but there’s no emotional risk to it, because you’re not asking them “do you find me attractive? do you love me? do you want to break up with me?”, but just “hey, are you in the mood right now?”.

-lilacs

#sex and communication #answered #lilacs #anonymous #ask #initiating sex

[clearlypositive]

i don’t have any knowledge of the world and it’s so ridiculous/sad. and i feel like doing activities or traveling makes anyone happier. traveling feeds the soul

2/2. yes, absolutely. we, as humans, NEED stimulation. doing all these sorts of things like traveling, adventures, and even every day activities makes us feel a range of emotions which are vital for regulating our emotional health. emotional health and mental health are JUST as important as physical health!! 

you can do stuff on your own and it’s so freeing. learn to go to movies by yourself, to take yourself out to eat. to walk through nature on your own and just reflect. alone time is important for everyone! but there’s also tons of free or low-cost things you can do with your friends. for example, i know the mall nearest to me has laser tag and on one day of the week, it’s literally $3/game. the movie theater near me also has a cheap day ($5 movies all day) which is a lifesaver cause movies are wayyyy too overpriced!! you can also do stuff that’s FREE like going to the park and throwing around a frisbee, board game nights, sleepovers, paint each others nails, etc. 

if you want knowledge of the world, start by reading about areas you’re unfamiliar with but want to learn more about. look at art, cook the food, read translations of the books/poetry/other literature. listen to the music. learn the language (duolingo is a free app!!). and save your money so that you can TRAVEL to these places and experience it all firsthand. 

your life is what you make it, and the grass is greener where you water it

#answered

[sharktankdietpills-blog]

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[stonestridernerd]

All the RP positivity tell usss

♥ What’s the absolute best experience you’ve had in RP?

Back in January, I held a little guild event called the Dance of Mu’sha. Basically, we gathered together to tell the story of Cenarius’ birth through body movement. We all drew lots (/roll 20) for roles, ranging from stars and hunters to Apa’ro and Mu’sha. Although it was great fun with coordinating everyone, it was my first time doing an event like it. Hence I wanted to plan another one. 

The chance came last weekend, when I held its sister event, the Dance of An’she.  It was a bit tricky, since there’s less stories about the sun than the moon. So instead of using a tale most knew, I made up one about An’she and Tortolla (because the turtle wild god needed more love too) and went over it during the usual story circle and dance before having others draw lots. 

The actual Dance was one of, if not the, best event I’ve hosted. There were almost a dozen characters, mechanically just spinning and running around each other. It has a lighthearted atmosphere as well, where OoC we were all laughing about getting dizzy and some of the parts characters played (such as the Sin’dorei warlock being the Earthmother). 

♚ Have you ever made any lasting friends through RP?

I don’t think I’ve been roleplaying long enough to say anyone I’ve befriended in RP is a lasting friend. However, the last year I’ve roleplayed has been the most social for me in game. I find myself constantly going back and forth between guild chat, whispers, IC discussions, teamspeak, and btag pokes, which has been tiring but delightful. 

☄ Has roleplay positively affected your life in some ways?

Yeppers! I’m figuring out some of the social skills I’ve struggled with for years, ranging from connecting facial expressions to thoughts (descriptive emotes connecting both are lifesavers) and appropriate responses to maintaining small talk and talking with all sort of people. 

Besides in game purposes, it’s also helped with my education. The first thing was to connect with fellow RP nerds at my school, as many of them roleplay in different universes that we can talk about. I weaved this subject through a few college assignments as well, with one of my required speeches being focused on the social benefits on roleplay (such as research finding roleplayers have better empathy and communication skills). 

☼ Have you learned any new skills from being involved in RP (coding, editing, making GIFs, etc)? 

Well, I’ve found talking with others in real life has become a bit easier. When I was first starting out with walk-ups, I would make more of an effort to talk with the cashiers and janitors, beyond the usual “Hello. Oh, I’m good. How about you? Good, good.” In many cases, they ended up being living people to brighten up my day and brought a different perspective to light. 

In addition, I’ve previously mentioned making better speeches. Funny enough, I took a introductory public speaking course so that I could get my characters to speak up better. However, I ended up taking inspiration from my muses when speaking whenever I got up to the podium. By the end of the semester, the class had nominated me to their representative in a campus wide competition. Although I didn’t far in it (oh, the terror of competing against business and communication majors over a decade older than I!), I was proud of myself for getting into it in the first place without turning into a pile of goo. 

☀ Have you ever joined a new fandom that you only discovered through RP?

No, but I have joined other fandoms because of fanart and fanfiction. 

♨ What unlikely, ‘only possible in RP’ ships have you enjoyed writing with your muses?

While I admit that I’m a big shipper in every other fandom I’m in, I’m rather cautious about doing ships with my WoW characters. 

Currently, there are two types of romantic relationships any of my muses have been in. The first is an actual, happy relationship that ends up with one of them dying before I started roleplaying the other toon (Winoa and Jafern, as well as Yainah and Nuan are good examples). The other is a horrible, abusive relationship that we rarely roleplay due to how extreme it gets.

The later is also the only one that it’s just between my characters, as it deals with my Inethial and sister’s Sealda. I suppose I could say that only in RP could two people infused with demon blood and slowly going insane manage to go around the world in pursuit of blood and release from some deep seeded issues, all while not only keeping each other alive, but staying together romantically. 

All the other questions have been answered elsewhere. Thanks for the ask @kelzthalassunwhisper!

[oumakokichi]

You mentioned you couldn’t remember it it in another post so here’s the moment in Case 3 where Momo calls Ouma “pure”! 

Thank you so much for providing the caps! I definitely don’t remember every single word or line in the school trials (I’ve watched many of them for hours straight until about 4 in the morning and my sleeping habits haven’t been the best lately), so having screencaps and/or transcriptions always helps a lot!

Now that you’ve provided the caps, I do remember this scene again! Even this early into the game, Ouma loves dropping plenty of hints that he’s not nearly as bad as he’d like people to think.

I think this is a wonderful, prime example of the fact that Ouma tends to put his act on hold and let his true intentions slip whenever he goes blank. His sprites are super good, probably some of the best in the game, I love all of them from the cute ones to the fantastic, terrifying ones—but the blank ones are my favorite, and it’s because it’s the closest I think we really get to seeing the “real” Ouma. Or at least, the most serious side of him that’s very forthright about wanting to stop the mastermind, and about hating killing and death.

Whenever he goes blank, it’s a clear sign that he’s either been genuinely caught off guard by something or someone, or else it means that he needs a moment to think and plan which façade to show the group next, which emotion to switch to, etc.

In this case, I think it’s a very clear example of the former. For all that Momota really, straight-up just does not like Ouma, I think it’s also true that Momota has the best emotional sense about things. And even when Ouma’s lies and knack for getting under the skin and hitting just the right buttons pisses him off to no end, he still can tell, in the end, that Ouma has an air about him that’s very…well, innocent, for all that it’s contradictory (but then literally everything about Ouma is a big, glaring contradiction). “Innocent” might be the best translation for the word pure here, since even when dealing with katakana there are nuances to words in Japanese, and this is the best word I can think of to fit what Momota means.

And he’s right, really. Ouma will lie and manipulate and cheat in order to get by if he needs to, and he will strike back in self-defense if outright provoked, but the heart of his character, of his entire personality, is that he’s a mischievous prankster who likes teasing people and has an immense distaste for violence and suffering. For all that he will still do awful, horrible things if that’s what absolutely needs to be done, for all that he’s been imbued with despair and had his memories and his personality twisted for sheer entertainment value, that’s still who he is at his heart.

Even trying to make him SHSL Despair couldn’t get him to truly develop a taste for killing or hurting others, and there’s plenty of evidence to support this. And there’s a definite kind of innocence in that.

Momota, who thinks Ouma is infuriating and can’t figure him out for the life of him because they have so many disagreements on a much more fundamental level, can also see it. He doesn’t get why Ouma seems innocent, but he still sees it nonetheless. And as someone who is constantly seeking out the best in people and trying to inspire them towards self-betterment, he of course mentions it, because that’s his role in the game.

Ouma goes blank because I think he really doesn’t know how to take it. He’d probably think Momota was being purely sarcastic, except Momota doesn’t really do sarcasm (he’s not exactly the quick-witted type), so he can’t even brush it off as a joke. Even while staying firm on his own moral code, he’s aware of the fact that lying and manipulating and saying horrible things to people are all pretty terrible things to do. It’s not a coincidence that he mentions several times in his FTEs with Saihara that he “absolutely hates lies.”

He really does think of himself as a horrible person. It’s just that he’s willing to become a horrible person if that’s what it takes, and probably accounts at least half of it to what was expected of him from his role in the game as someone who was supposed to “inflict despair.” That someone would look at him, see the awful things he’s saying, and have it in them to say that he’s “pure” or “innocent”—he really, truly doesn’t understand how anyone could think that about him.

Because while Ouma wants them all, and wants Saihara in particular, to see the truth of his underlying motives and that he’s not the mastermind and not out to kill any of them, he doesn’t think them capable of it. He’s too cynical to think they’d ever really reach the right answer. And even if they realize about that much at least, he figures that it still wouldn’t undo all the other awful things he’s done, and he just can’t think of himself in those terms at all. It’s really, really sad.

Thank you so, so much once again for sending these in, because this was incredibly fun to write about, and these caps are, in my opinion at least, really excellent proof that Ouma’s certainly not a villain. This scene doesn’t really have much to do with anything regarding Himiko and Ouma like in the other ask—it’s instead very much about Ouma’s personality as a whole, and the fact that someone with a knack for noticing the good points in others like Momota can notice that there’s this undeniably innocent quality about him is something that really shouldn’t be overlooked. This is a sign even relatively early into the game, that even if the characters or the players can’t believe everything out of Ouma’s mouth, maybe they should believe something coming from Momota instead.

Ouma really does try to twist himself further and further the longer the game goes on, because he’s more desperate than ever to end it all and strike back at the mastermind. But no matter how much of an act he puts on, there’s always this really genuine streak of childish playfulness where he just wants to have fun and get on people’s nerves, but only to the point where no one really gets hurt. In a character who is as devious and cunning and near-genius as Ouma is, I feel like having that childish streak really humanizes him, and makes it all the sadder that he had to pretend to really, truly enjoy others’ suffering that much.

I’ve probably gone on for long enough about this, but thank you once again! Having caps for this sort of thing is a lifesaver!

#ndrv3 #drv3 #new danganronpa v3 #kokichi ouma #ouma kokichi #ndrv3 spoilers // #my meta #okay to reblog #writing this ask pretty much destroyed me because i'm upset all over again #ouma is such a good character and no matter how much meta i write i'll never do him justice #submission #devicing

[informative-feminist]

Here are some “pro life” questions posed by Priests for Life. I took it upon myself to answer these, since on their website they got a little sassy and seemed to think that these would be super hard to answer. 

(1)    "Pro-abortionists say that outlawing abortion would restrict a woman’s right to privacy. Is that right absolute? Does somebody’s right to privacy exceed another’s right to live?"

a.     It’s not only about the pregnant person’s privacy. It’s about bodily autonomy, which is a basic human right, and in all other legal matters, it supersedes the right to life.

(2)    "If what you say is true and the issue isn’t really abortion but a woman’s right to control her own body, why doesn’t your agenda include drugs and prostitution? Aren’t laws against those just as restrictive to a woman’s right to choose what she will and will not do with her own body, as laws against abortion are?"

a.     Many pro-choicers do advocate for recreational drugs, because they tend to be liberal in politics. My personal “agenda” does not include hardcore drugs because they are harmful to a person’s body 100% of the time. Drugs incite violence, and they do not allow/help users to contribute to society. Drug users end up costing a lot of money to insurance companies, as they almost always end up hospitalized. Drugs such as opiates have no real benefits to them and countless drawbacks. That’s not a fair comparison. 

b.     I am absolutely in favor of sex work, as long as the sex worker is fully able to consent and not being forced or trafficked. 

(3)    "Why is it that the very people who say the government should stay out of abortion are the same ones who want the government to pay for them?"

a.     Because of the Hyde Amendment, federal tax dollars actually do not go towards abortion. (The fact that Republicans want to defund PP even though the Hyde Amendment is still in place shows that they really want to attack healthcare and people they percieve to be women. The act of repealing PP when tax dollars only pay for health services is an act of indirect violence and complete misdirected misogyny.)

b.     I do believe tax dollars should fund abortion as well, because abortion is a medical procedure, simple as that. We pay for people to have access to all other sorts of healthcare; abortion is no different.

(4)    "Abortion advocates say they are in business to help women. Other than offering to kill their children for them, what are you doing?"

a.     First of all, I’d like to point out that I am not an abortion advocate. I am a choice advocate. I advocate for pregnant people to have complete control over their own bodies and futures. 

b.     I’d also like to point out the misuse of the word “child”. If you are going to engage in a debate, please use the correct medical terminology. A fetus does not become a child until birth. 

c.    Abortion allows for pregnant people who do not wish to be pregnant, to terminate that pregnancy. It really is that simple. 

(5)    "Pro-abortionists say that the unborn child is part of the mother’s body. If that is so, why does it have a completely different genetic code and often a different blood type? How do you explain the fact that it has it’s own immune system? Why is it male about half the time?"

a.     Again, pro-choice, not pro-abortion. The fetus is technically part of the carrying parent (CP)’s body, in that it is physically connected to them and lives inside of them. 

b.     That aside, let’s assume that it is another “person”. The fetus is still using the CP’s body, and it only has the right to do so with the pregnant person’s full, enthusiastic, ongoing consent. This is exactly why a person cannot be forced to donate organs or blood, even if it would prove lifesaving for another person. We as a society recognize that it is not one person’s job to give up their bodily rights to keep another person alive, if they do not consent to do so. 

We don’t even grant said rights to born people. Why grant superhuman rights to a fetus whose personhood is debatable? 

(6)    "If we use the absence of brain waves to determine that a person’s life has ended, why shouldn’t we use the presence of brain waves to determine that someone’s life has begun?"

a.     The fetus is alive, medically speaking, from conception (even unfertilized eggs are “alive”. All live cells are “alive”). A fetus becomes a human life when brain waves are detected, at between 21 and 24 weeks. Even so, its newly earned “human status” in your mind, still does not give it rights to use another person’s body without their consent. 

(7)    "Since you say that your interest is in protecting women, what is your position on these at home, do-it-yourself, abortion kits now being offered by many abortion advocates? Also, do you feel it’s ethical for them to advise women to avoid the gynecologist’s office for not only these procedures, but regular check-ups as well?"

a.     I have never heard of these so-called abortion kits, and I sure hope they don’t exist. If a person is considering an abortion, I would most definitely advise them to visit a certified gynecologist to perform the procedure.

(8)    "We are now seeing the unborn being treated for disease, given blood transfusions and even operated on. When a doctor does one of these procedures, who is the patient?"

a.    In this case, the patients would be both the fetus and the carrying parent. Like I said, the fetus is a life, but it is imposing upon another person’s body, which it can only do with their consent.

(9)    "Pro-abortionists try to justify their actions by saying that, while the unborn may be human, it’s not a ‘person’. Can you give a detailed description of the differences?"

a.     I referred to this above. It cannot think. It cannot live on its own, outside the womb, which is the main difference. It does not have fully developed organs. These are both medical, and mental/emotional/psychological differences.

(10) "Pro-abortionists base a significant part of their argument on the concept of viability. Can you give me a description of what it means for someone to be viable?"

a.     Viable would be capable of living alone outside the womb; essentially, being able to survive with only external care (administering of food and drink, etc). Naturally, a fetus is not viable up until the point of about 24 weeks - long past the time frame in which abortion is legal in most states. 

(11) "Does it bother you that abortion is legal after the point where medical science has evidence that the unborn child feels pain?"

          Researchers and doctors are still very unclear as to when fetal pain begins. Despite the fact that the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act listed the pain marker at 20 weeks, more research is showing that the threshold is likely 29-30 weeks. 

In any case, no, it does not bother me. Abortions past 21 weeks account for 1.1% of all abortions. They are necessary, often sad for the parents, and always the pregnant person’s choice. 

(12) "Why is it that abortion advocates say they want women to have all their options, but they then fight so hard against laws requiring totally informed consent?"

I am all for informed consent. It’s actually the Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) that misinform pregnant people and spout out false statistics. I’m unclear as to where you heard that pro-choicers wanted to misinform pregnant people. 

(13) "What rights do you feel a father should have in an abortion decision?"

Unless he’s the person who is pregnant, absolutely none. Nobody should have any rights regarding the pregnant person’s body, except the pregnant person themselves. 

(14) "Why is it that pro-abortionists fight so viciously to keep parents from having a say in whether their minor daughter has an abortion or not?"

           Again, because it is the pregnant person’s decision, not anybody else’s. It would be completely illegal and unethical to force a minor (or anybody) to remain pregnant OR have an abortion against their will. Minors still have bodily autonomy just like everybody else. 

Does it not disgust you to think of a 14 or 15 year old, practically a child, being forced to keep their pregnancy, trapped in an ever changing body against their will, forced into childbirth by their parents, the people that were supposed to support and protect them? Because it should. It really should. 

(15) "If pro-abortionists are mainly concerned with the health and safety of women, why do they fight so hard against medical standards as legitimate out-patient surgery clinics?”

We are fighting to have abortion clinics meet the same medical standards as any other healthcare clinics, but not more. Anti-choice legislators are putting more stringent requirements on women’s clinics because they want to shut down these clinics, not because they actually care about the health of the people accessing them. 

(16) "Let’s look at a hypothetical situation: two women become pregnant on the same day; six and a half months later woman A has a premature, yet healthy, baby; woman B is still pregnant; a week later each decides she doesn’t want her baby. Why should woman B be allowed to kill hers and not woman A?"

           Because Baby A is already born. At this point, the parent has already gone through the act of childbirth, and if they do not want the baby, they can give it up for adoption. However, Person B might be considering abortion because they doesn’t want to physically be pregnant anymore. Once a baby is born, it can be transferred into the care of other people, but that doesn’t solve the problem of a pregnant person who no longer wants to be pregnant or give birth. 

(17) "If it became absolutely clear to you that the unborn child is a living human being, would you then favor outlawing abortion?"

            Absolutely not. As I’ve said, human or not, it is still imposing on someone else’s body. Abortion is not about wanting to kill the fetus, rather about giving a pregnant person their full human rights (first and foremost, bodily autonomy). 

(18) "Why don’t we each look at the downside of our respective positions? Have you ever thought about what the ramifications are if you are wrong?"

It doesn’t appear that you have done the same. Also, what is there to be “wrong” about in giving someone their human rights?

(19) "When it was first discovered that the brain cells of aborted babies were a potential treatment for Parkinson’s Disease, the ABC NEWS program, NIGHTLINE, carried a story about a woman who’s father suffered with this malady. She wanted to be impregnated with the sperm of her father, for the purpose of creating a child, which would then be aborted, and it’s parts used to treat him. Do you see anything wrong with this?"

I do. However, to think that this is the reason why abortions occur on a daily basis is absurd and laughable.

- Just because you find something morally objectionable does not mean it isn’t or should not be a right. 

- Simply because people abuse their rights (keep in mind that she did want to do it for a good cause, in her eyes) does not mean those rights should be taken away. For example, should we take away first amendment rights due to the rise of internet trolls? 

No, because even what they are doing is morally objectionable, it is still their right and censorship of rights is a very, very dangerous thing. 

(20) "Should a woman be allowed to have an abortion for absolutely any reason, such as sex selection, selective reduction, or job promotion? If not, when not?"

          Absolutely. The circumstance behind an abortion does not matter in the slightest. If it matters to you, then maybe you should consider whether or not you’re anti-choice for the sake of the fetus, or because you want to police people’s sex lives. 

Abortion needs to be safe, legal, affordable, and available on demand with no questions asked. 

(21) "I am going to take the liberty of characterizing your position, and then I want you to tell me where I’m wrong. You want abortion to be legal right up to the moment of birth, in other words for all nine months of pregnancy; for any reason whatsoever, for no reason whatsoever; for a minor girl of any age, without parental consent, without even parental knowledge; and if she can’t pay for it, you think the taxpayer ought to. Is there anything inaccurate about that statement?"

           Yes. Keep in mind that less than 1.1% of abortions occur after 21 weeks, and I can guarantee that the people who are getting those abortions are not doing it for shits and giggles. Those are people who wanted to be parents, and either because of a fetal abnormality or for fear of the life of the pregnant person, had to abort. 

           For the other ones, too - yes, you are correct. Any reason, any age, with or without parental consent or knowledge. And yes, I think taxpayers should pay for abortion. Your tax money is not yours, and you don’t get to direct it away from things you find morally objectionable. Abortion is a healthcare procedure just like any surgery, and should be treated as such. 

#pro life #pro choice #abortion #anti choice #priests for life #feminism #feminist

[lunar-root]

What is a street medic and what do you do?

Street medics provide first aid and basic emotional support at protests and other activist convergences, as well as running health and safety trainings for activists. This covers different settings – street medics operate within marches, rallies, and so on, run pop-up first aid clinics or wellness centers at protest camps and large protest sites. Often, we are part of teams that sit outside of jails waiting for arrestees to get out, so that we can provide help to any who are hurt, dehydrated, traumatized, and so on. The contemporary North American street medic movement came out of doctors and nurses from the Medical Committee for Human Rights providing first aid for Civil Rights Movement protesters, and eventually training others to provide first aid in activist settings. Street medics have been present at (partial listing) the Civil Rights Movement, the Occupation of Wounded Knee, the anti-Vietnam-War movement, the anti-nuclear movement, the environmentalist, anti-fossil-fuel, and climate justice movements, the anti-Afghanistan-War, anti-Iraq-War, and other anti-war movements, the anti-globalization movement, Occupy, Black Lives Matter, Quebec’s 2012 student protests, and the protests of various Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Some street medics have traveled internationally and done protest first aid work together with locals, for example in Palestine, or during the anti-austerity protests a few years ago in France. There were street medics at the recent neo-Nazis vs anti-fascists protest/counterprotest in Sacramento that ended with several people being stabbed.

Street medics have also been active in disaster relief and community response efforts. Street medics worked in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, providing door-to-door aid and founding Common Ground Clinic, which still operates there. Street medics provided door-to-door aid and pop-up first aid clinics in New York City after Hurricane Sandy. Other community and post-disaster settings where I know that North American street medics have worked include:

– Community vigils after the Boston Marathon bombing – Lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks – Rural areas amongst migrant farmworkers – Haiti post-earthquake – Southeast Asia post-tsunami – Greece, with Syrian refugees

Why are you needed? Isn’t this what emergency medical services are for?

Emergency medical services are usually not right there on the spot for the level of immediate response that we can do. They’re not allowed to enter a scene to help if the police say that it’s not stable or safe and tell them that they can’t. Occasionally they’re hostile to protesters (one of my street medic friends once tried to pass a patient off to EMS in the relevant city, only to be told that EMS was only there to help the police). There are some things that we have experience with that aren’t really part of usual EMS work and training, like dealing with pepper spray, tear gas, or handcuff injuries. And there are some activists who aren’t comfortable interacting with them, either at protests (“I’m afraid of being arrested if I go to the hospital”) or in general (“I have Medicaid in a different state and I’m worried that it won’t pay if I go to the hospital for my sprained ankle, even if it’s supposed to,” “I’m trans and I’ve been discriminated against by EMS in the past”).

All that said, it’s not like we’re not opposed to EMS or hospitals. We’re filling in a gap. At big planned summit protests, like national conventions or trade summits, we often build a working relationship with EMS beforehand, and may end up transferring sick or injured people to EMS or driving them to the hospital.

How will I know who you are?

At least in the US, we commonly wear duct tape red crosses (not to be confused with the Red Cross symbol, which is specifically a square red cross on a white background) and carry first aid kits, as seen in this photo from Flood Wall Street (I hear that Canadian street medics often wear green crosses instead). Big collectives may have a patch with the logo of their collective, such as this logo from Chicago Action Medical. At large actions, we may also have an action-specific patch or insignia, that will also be something obvious and first-aid-y.

Are you protesters?

If we’re running marked as medics, we aren’t protesting. Two different roles. We’re on the ground protecting the health and safety and rights of the protesters, as the National Lawyers Guild’s legal observers do from a legal angle. That doesn’t mean, though, that we don’t identify with the movements whose actions we’re medicking. I very much saw/see myself as part of Occupy, for instance, or the LGBTQ+ movements, or Black Lives Matter, or feminism (all of which are movements whose actions I’ve medicked).

Sometimes people who are trained as or often act as street medics want to be protesters at a particular action and still be able to provide first aid. In that case, they run unmarked, with no street medic insignia – in other words, a protester who happens to have some training and be carrying a first aid kit.

What kind of training do street medics have?

The basic street medic training is 20 hours (in times of need, people with existing medical qualifications can get a 4-hour “bridge training,” but the intention is that they will still get the full 20-hour training when they have a chance). It covers advanced first aid (i.e. something more extensive than the Red Cross’ basic first aid training but less extensive than an Emergency First Responder or Wilderness First Responder training), including being able to spot possible life/ability threats. It also covers consent culture, situational awareness/working as a pair in a potentially volatile environment, basic emotional and community support practices, basic prevention (e.g. of heat-related or cold-related illness), and some things you’re not likely to find in other first aid or medical trainings, like how to help people who have been pepper sprayed or tear gassed and how to assess handcuff injuries.

All street medics have that baseline level of training. Many have more. Some street medics are present or past doctors, nurses, EMTs/paramedics, ancillary care professionals, WFRs or WFAs, CNAs, former military medics or Combat Lifesavers. Some have special training or qualification on the mental or social health side – psychologists, rape crisis counselors and domestic violence advocates, social workers, licensed counselors, trained peer counselors. Some have Masters of Public Health degrees and/or work in related fields like epidemiology. Some are volunteers or professionals in some health-related field or setting other than street medicking. Some have volunteered or worked as other kinds of responders – in firefighting, search & rescue, etc.

Street medics are not necessarily offering every form of health-related care that they have ever learned how to do, though, because that could be dangerous and not practical. To go with an obvious illustrative example, a street medic who is an active, board-certified professional neurosurgeon is still not going to be doing brain surgery in the street.

How do I find you if I need you?

Some actions have their own process, but in general, in case of injury or illness, shouting “Medic!” and getting the people around you to do so as well is the right idea. Please do not shout “Medic!” because you want a cough drop. Just seek us out in the crowd for that.

What are your political beliefs? Do I have to agree with them to get help?

There is no ideological litmus test for getting help. There are many examples of street medics providing care for counterprotesters or people who were in the group being protested. We do look out for our own safety, which means that if it looks like your buddies are going to beat us up if we approach, we’re not going to approach.

All the street medics that I’ve met are broadly on the left – it’s a phenomenon with its roots in left protest after all – but there’s plenty of diversity. I’m somewhere in the social democrat/democratic socialist realm. Quite a large number of the street medics that I’ve met are some flavor of left-anarchist or mutualist (and next time you hear someone demonize anarchists, you might reflect on that). Some are socialists of various flavors. Some are plain old liberals. Some reject any sort of label for their ideology, or have complicated descriptors for it. There’s also a wide range of viewpoints about priority issues, tactics and strategies, and so on. I wish the left as a whole worked as well together as street medics with different viewpoints do.

Do street medics ever get attacked or arrested?

Yes. And there’s stuff that I could have put in that post, and didn’t, including street medics being shot with rubber bullets and jailed for days in Baltimore, street medics having an arm broken or being clubbed in the head and arrested at the NATO summit protests. Not to mention my own arrest experience.

Wait, really? What about the Geneva Conventions?

The Geneva Conventions are treaties that set down rules for humanitarian treatment of prisoners, the wounded and sick, and noncombatants, in war. They don’t apply to domestic handling of protests. You might think it’s wrong that street medics get attacked and arrested, but the Geneva Conventions don’t say anything about that wrongness.

That also means that stealing our red duct tape (or buying your own) and sticking a street medic cross on yourself when you aren’t a street medic, so that you can protest however you want to with impunity under the Geneva Conventions, is not going to work, and will get the medics pretty irritated with you besides. You might wonder why I bothered to say that. Let’s just say that it’s not a product of my fevered imagination.

#street medic #anarchy #anarchism #anarchist #first aid #antifa #resistance #resist 45 #herbalism #politics