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lookbluesoup · 1 year

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So while I get that Gridanians live under these.... essentially toddler-gods who can afflict the entire territory with horrible plague, who will severely punish well-intentioned children that were manipulated by adults instead of the adult, and can't communicate their desires clearly, which leads the community to adopt a lot of hostility to change, paranoia, hate and even violence toward outsiders, etc...

Unless there's more explanation for this I haven't found? I know I'm not 100% up to speed on everything Gridania, especially pre-ARR....

Keepers of the Moon were living in the Black Shroud outside of Gridanian authority, for generations, presumably not being laserbeamed out of existence. There would have been a lot going on outside of the Seedseer's effective reach, and there aren't Moonkeeper Padjal to make up the gap there, only Hyur get to be Padjal.

Miqo'te are described as traditionally being far more in tune with nature and eschewing things like major city developments and whatnot. They're predators, yes, but predators have a place and function in the natural balance of the world.

"Beast Tribes" are a made up word from Ul'dah to protect trade monopolies in Thanalan, and Miqo'te could easily have ended up on the wrong side of that label if the rich elites had wanted them barred from the city. Historically, they're a lot more "feral" than a lot of the other spoken races.

I mention all this because it's unlikely the Elementals divide people into Beast Tribes and Human Races. Sylph's aren't being deleted by the Elementals, either, despite certainly having no inclination to live like the Gridanians do and being fairly mischievous.

My point being... I wonder if maybe the Gridanians kind of brought the Greenwrath on themselves. A lot of the time. The same way that some IRL religious institutions preach hate in the name of a deity and stir paranoia and fear of eternal condemnation. They create sins where there didn't need to be... Justifying division and destruction and isolation out of fear (and thus a need for control), and actually creating their own problems.

Elementals might not care about a lot of the stuff Gridania does, its clear a few times when something bad happens to someone, even just getting sick, panic strikes that the Elementals are behind it and people act irrationally out of fear, like the IRL Salem Witch Trials.

If you look at places like Haukke Manor... a country living in balance with nature does not need massive monuments to vanity like that. And there's apparently a whole quarter devoted to mansions for nobility in Gridania (which the npc says we're not allowed to visit.) Why do you have that. Why do you think that promotes peace with the natural world.

There's Wood Wailers who talk about wanting to kill Moonkeepers on sight, just in case they're "poachers." That's sort of like killing wolves because they're predators. Outside of some genuine bad apples, though, a lot of what seems to drive actual Moonkeeper poachers AND Duskwight Elezen to banditry is a straight up need to survive. Gridania's essential demand that they have dictatorial rights over management of the forest leads them to disrupt these group's lives, sometimes with exceptional cruelty.

I know that "central authority" is kind of... not super really a thing for Gridania, power is pretty divided up and a lot of it seems to run on an honor system. But that seems to have led to a lot of Process Loss and enabled a lot of prejudice and abuse to run rampant. Especially now that the Elementals are weaker than pre-Calamity.

I guess basically I wonder if the reason Sylphs and traditional Moonkeeper clans managed to survive out there was because, unlike Gridania, they don't have social systems built from the ground up on fear and condemnation. They're not constantly LOOKING for reasons to think the Elementals hate them and someone to blame for it.

They just live "natural" lives, that aren't inherently dangerous to the overall balance of the forest ecosystem, and they don't have an entire religious/government body dedicated to trying to interpret vague impressions from the Elementals (this is a HORRIBLE system of government and EXTREMELY susceptible to personal prejudices/bias), so these non-Gridanians run into conflict with the Elementals far less often.

i.e. Moonkeeper kills a rabbit, uses the meat, skin, and bones, is behaving like a hunter, Elementals don't care. VERSUS Gridanian kills a rabbit, uses it the same way, but then a villager gets sick and their friends panic and they turn into a mob and punish the Gridanian, Elementals didn't care but now they're a little pissy bc you're disrupting the forest with your insanity.

Basically... Gridania is the real affront to the Elementals, their very infrastructure and their culture of micromanaging the forest and constantly looking for scapegoats, kind of flies in the face of actually living in balance with nature. The Elementals aren't omnipotent or a unified group, and seem to struggle to understand human minds anyway, so they're trying to work with this city-state and have established some kind of partnership, but Gridania is really its own worst enemy.

#ffxiv #ff14 #miqote #gridania #keeper of the moon #elementals #padjal #sylph #seedseer #duskwight #lore #meta #shower thoughts #text #long post

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metfell · 5 months

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since thes and holly have made their posts i'll make my own as well i think! i wanted to give it a bit to just let those blogs have the spotlight lol.

so..... yeah. i'm retiring @tmmyrp and @latenightmining!

i had SO much fun writing for those blogs, and its kind of crazy just how many years i spent on them- tmmyrp especially. i'm actually incredibly happy with where they're being left; i feel like they're essentially finished.

of course there's things i wish i could have done differently on both of those blogs. in particular, i don't think i understood c!crime enough to have done them justice, and i think i didn't make ranboo confrontational enough. but other than that, i'm still proud of the work i did.

especially with latenightmining. getting to weave my own personal headcanons for their backstory of being half dreamon, including a connection to cdream, explaining the origins of the enderwalk, resolving the lack of communication between cbee, it was all so satisfying because at the end of it all i got to connect it as accurately as possible into canon. i'm SO proud of latenightmining. so incredibly proud.

i made so many amazing friends and mutuals, and seeing all of the incredible fan content surrounding our little roleplay group was one of the things to keep me going on those blogs for so long. its amazing to think that people made art and writing and edits all for something i took part in. so much fanart, so much fan engagement, its honestly incredible. i love all of the work you guys have done, and i always will.

of course, i want to thank my system for taking so much of their time to write for these blogs. @silktouchhands and @theprimebell were the masterminds behind them, and @nuclearblast and @angelpray understudied perfectly whenever they weren't at the front and a thread needed to get done. so give them a round of applause for sure, it couldn't have gotten done without their help.

but most of all i want to thank @heartofaspen, literally the best roleplay partner in the world. beau kept us on track, and was so so so easy to get into a writing flow with. i don't think either tmmyrp or lnm would be where they are without @tubbolul. literally one of the best ctubbo writers in the whole world, beau nailed his character every time.

i don't want people to forget these blogs ever existed, i'm not deleting them or anything, just not writing on them anymore! go through the archive, read old threads, tell me your favorite moments, anything! i still care so deeply about those blogs, but i have a life i need to get back to, and my own personal projects i need to work on.

We had some laughs! It was fun. Y'know. All good things must come to an end eventually.

also i've always hated gertrude and i'm glad he died badly-

#text

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olderthannetfic · 6 months

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I remember you sometimes (on older posts, in my unfortunate quest on trying to find things with Tumblr's *definitely functional* in-blog search feature) mentioning something like a "writer-centric" or a "reader-centric" approach/view to fandom. I was wondering if you would have more in-depth definitions for what those are?

I think I have an idea of what the "writer-centric" view might be (basically 'people can write whatever they want'?), but I have zero ideas what the "reader-centric" view might be.

You see it in some of the media analysis about, e.g., "representation" in fanfic:

A lot of people will discuss fic as if it were mainstream media and talk about the needs of the reader for more stories of type X or Y. When X or Y doesn't exist, or isn't common enough, there's a strong sense of blame and that this is a big problem.

It's very BNF ~content creators~ in one box and ~the readers~ in another.

You'll also see this in discussions about tags and labeling where the focus is mostly on "staying safe" or even helping readers find what they want.

Now, yes, I do think that broad trends in what people like to write demonstrate broad societal forces, including bigotry. I essentially just said "Culture affects people". Such insight!

And tags do help readers find what they want...

But a writer-centric view is that labeling is more about aesthetic preference on the author's part. They may do different or more labeling because they want to more actively court readers, or they may pare things down because they find it more in line with their own ideas about how their fic should look.

And when it comes to subject matter, a writer-centric approach is to protect people's right to write whatever. Here, "representation" or justice or whatever is about letting the writer barf out the contents of their brain without getting their stuff deleted. If each writer has an equal shot at that, we're in good shape, ethically, regardless of what their output ends up being.

It's focusing on access to posting rather than access to a stream of media to consume.

It boils down to this:

Is fandom about a practice, a hobby that is available for anyone to do?

Or is it about the readers having another stream of media, perhaps a queer one that supplements the not-very-queer mainstream they have to put up with?

You can see why this comes up not only in fandom racism discussions but in every single wank about BL or femslash and how much of a duty we do or don't have to be "realistic", to represent queerness well, to represent specific queerness... There's often a big focus on "Well, but lots of people don't have access to any other queer media!" And... like... sorry? How is that my problem as a writer of fanfic?

It goes beyond just "write whatever" into questions of justice and access, but I think that the specific questions of justice and access some people have are disgusting perversions of what fandom is supposed to be and demonstrate that they're shitty leeches who should go find a hobby they actually enjoy practicing instead of shitting on other people's diary entries.

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bridgertonbabe · 8 days

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Signing off.

I never really thought I'd ever write a post like this and to be perfectly honest I feel a bit cringe for even making a thing out of this but I felt it necessary to address those of you who follow me and my writings.

In the last month I have been suffering severely from anxiety, waking up to what feels like a ball of dread clutching at my heart and being unable to shift it for the better part of the day. It's all come to a head as of late because I've reached a crossroads in my life where I've realised just how unhappy and unfulfilled I am. Truth to be told I really don't have any aspect in my life that I am happy with and for years I've dismissed myself and my own desires for the sake of others to the point where I have no self worth, no self confidence, and I just feel like a shell of a person. Realising that I can't go on like this, that I can't live the life I aspire to without sorting my mental health out, I've taken the first steps in getting counselling and in going to the doctors to be put on anti-depressants.

While I'm already starting to feel better, I've decided it's in my best interests to take some other steps going ahead; which is I'm logging off this account.

Don't get me wrong, this account has brought me fulfillment in the last two and a half years and I've had so much fun interacting with so many of you but as of late I've become very disengaged with Bridgerton. It's one of several of my hyperfixations which I have become anxious with in the last few weeks, in part because they are what I used to immerse myself in as a means to distract myself from a dissatisfying existence, but now I've decided to make a change in my life for the better, everything that I once used to bury my head in the sand has now essentially given me the ick. Bridgerton is just now one of several things that I feel the need to distance myself from in order to fully focus and concentrate on bettering my mental health as well as getting what I want out of life.

As much as I've taken pride in writing because of Bridgerton, my dream has always to one day publish a book of my own and I need to refocus my energies on writing my own original stories to have the chance of maybe being able to make that dream a reality. I would have so dearly loved to have been able to complete a whole host of WIPs (would have also loved to have been able to just focus on one story at a time but c'est la vie) and I can only apologise to anyone who's been hoping for an update from any of them.

You will still be able to read all of my works on AO3 (plus I've restored a couple I had previously hidden from view), and I won't be deleting this tumblr so all of my drabbles and various posts will still be here for you to browse and read at your leisure.

Though I'm stepping away from this account, I don't necessarily know if this will be forever. I might well end up in a better place mentally at some point and return with a healthier state of mind where I can enjoy Bridgerton again, and I would never rule out contributing writings again - however as it stands, I don't want to promise anything and taking care of my mental health is my main priority for now and the foreseeable future.

I also just wanted to take the opportunity to thank every single person who has ever liked, reblogged, and interacted with me since I joined. I had never previously shared any of my creative writing online and thought it would be nice if even a single person somewhere vaguely liked anything I had to share - but over the last two and a half years I've been given such a boost from the amount of people who have reached out and commented on any one of my silly writings. I don't think you'll ever understand just how much it has meant to me and the love and appreciation will stay with me forever.

That about does it, so thank you all for everything. I wish you all a lifetime of health and happiness.

Signing off,

Shinnie

xxx

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jakowskis · 7 months

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torchwood fanfic resources

so i'm a chronic livejournal archaeologist, and fixating on 2000s media is particularly fun for me because it means i get to go digging on lj / dw / old fanfic forums. below you'll find some of the excavations from my torchwood fixation (give it up for month 6!) it's pretty much got every comm i've ever stumbled upon and found useful, or thought others would find useful. it's largely fanfic-oriented, though there's some more generalized comms, too. i hope you guys enjoy!

i was originally going to include a link to my reclist on this post as well, but it's still a wip, so i'll just post that separately in the future.

general disclaimer: most of the content here is from 2006-2013 or so. period-typical attitudes may pop up in places. i'm not sure if most modern tw fans have witnessed the original fandom at all, but i felt a need to say this anyway, because i've seen some icky stuff. i've warned for anything notable. gwen bashing in particular may unfortunately pop up in some of these comms, especially in the comments, so tread carefully.

if you're new to probing through old lj comms, remember to always have the wayback machine on hand, because you're going to run into a lot of purged accounts and seemingly lost fics, but sometimes you get lucky and something's been archived :)

as of the date i'm posting this, all of these comms are still accessible, but if you're from the future and some have been deleted, again, go ahead and give the wayback machine a try. additionally, livejournal has a system that includes 'cross-posting' in which, if authors choose to (and the majority of them do, to get their fics more visibility), fics get posted to multiple comms at once. so chances are, even if one comm gets deleted, the contents will survive through other comms. kind of like how reblogs continue to exist even when the original blog is deleted.

finally, ctrl + f is your best friend if you have a specific ship/character/trope you're invested in, especially in comms with less than ideal tagging systems. if a comm does have a substantial tagging system, you can find all of its tags by adding '/tags' the end of the urls i've provided.

ok... let's begin :-)

assorted livejournal communities

✎ torch-wood: this is essentially a torchwood subreddit. it started before the show even aired, and one of the highlights of it is episode reaction posts (easily accessible on the right side of the lj) that document how everyone immediately reacted to the eps, which is pretty damn cool, fandom-history wise. only thing i should mention is there's quite a lot of gwen and owen bashing in the comments of some of those reaction posts, so just be wary of that if you love those two like i do, 'cuz it's a bit of a bummer.

✎ torchwood-three: this comm is an extremely cool then-daily newsletter (that still updates sometimes?!) that compiled as much fan-content as it could find into cleanly organized lists. the posts made immediately after new episodes aired contain reactions, discussions, meta, theories, new fic, fanmixes, just about everything. very very cool to go back and see the way the fandom was thinking as the show was airing and as they were getting to know the characters. here's a direct link to all posts made in late 2006, during the airing of s1.

✎ torchwood-fic: exactly what it says on the tin. desktop layout is easy to navigate, tags are all there!

✎ torchwood-fic's profile page also features a list of affiliated accounts that's pretty handy. it's worth taking a peek at, in case i've excluded anything in this post that you might be interested in.

✎ twgenrefinders: handy dandy comm where people would ask for fics of a certain variety & be treated with reclists, or hyper-specific fics... pretty cool stuff, ive got several threads bookmarked to sort through the links later. ofc, please note that some of the things people asked for might be stinky. particularly i've seen a lot of ppl requesting gwen bashing fics :/

✎ twstoryfinder: cousin to the above comm; here, people would ask for a very specific fic they'd lost. it's kind of fun to find fics through because you get someone describing memorable scenes + hyping it up, so it's different than just a standard summary. this one still gets posted on, too, which is crazyyy.

✎ tw-unpaired: for gen fics! no romance allowed! there's some good character studies + friendship fics in there. stuff's tagged by character + authors are even tagged, in case you find one whose writing you particularly enjoy. this is v useful for when someone's main journal has been deleted.

✎ torchwood-decaf: a comm where janto is BANNED. nah i'm kidding, it's not anti-janto, it was just made because janto is so huge that it overshadows everything else. pretty smart, tbh; wading through the sheer mass of janto content can be tiresome.

✎ jack-in-cuffs: for dark tw fic, or uber smutty tw fic. as a fan of dark!fic, there's some goodies in here, but of course it's not everyone's cup of tea. most of the writers included warnings, but if you go a little further back, some people weren't as courteous; navigate with caution.

✎ jack-owen: for fic featuring our captain and his (second favorite) doctor. i know this pairing's kinda divisive nowadays, but i enjoy it a lot. the comm's got a dismal tagging system and, ngl, i don't truly like any of the fics there (i'm very intrigued by jack and owen's relationship but i've never found fic that really does them justice, and i still haven't figured out how to write them myself) - but i'll include it anyway.

✎ odetojoi: for fic featuring owen in the middle of a janto sandwich, for those of us who are allergic to women (/sarcasm). there's an oddly impressive supply of fics of the three of them, and a good chunk of them can be found in this comm. (everytime i see this comm i think of a certain abbreviation found in p/rnogr/phy... but i digress)

✎ halfwee-and-tea: for ianto x owen fic. haven't gone through this one much, truthfully. i hate when comms have no tagging systems agh.

✎ owenharper-fans: a comm for the saddest undeadest bisexualest doctor around. also features a few burn appreciation posts, which is nice to see pre-pac rim era. mostly just features a shit ton of owen fic, particularly owen x ianto fic. mostly sufficiently tagged. if you need me once i post this, btw, i will be balls deep in this comm.

✎ the pro-owen alliance: another owen-focused comm - i think this one was made directly in response to owen bashing. haven't combed through this one much but it's got a fair amount of fics.

✎ house-of-cooper: a gwen comm! made in response to gwen bashing. haven't gone through it, but i'm glad it exists.

✎ torchwoodcoffee: ianto comm! this one's hugeee. the majority of it's janto, but the pairings aren't tagged, which is really frustrating. about 6k fics on there, though! just untagged. fff.

✎ tw-femficfest: a comm for fic about any and all of the torchwood ladies. tagging's cleanly done & there's some handy fic round ups, too.

✎ tw-femslash: yuri!!! wahoo!!! a comm for f/f tw ships. there's quite a lot of fic on here, but unfortunately there's no tagging whatsoever. sigh.

✎ tw-classic: a comm for 'all things series one and two of torchwood'. was made after s3 and was popular around s4 out of nostalgia for the golden age <3 good amount of fic, discussions, etc.

✎ torchwood-house: this comm is, like, letterboxd, but for torchwood fanfic. basically a group of individuals who thought of themselves as having Good Taste would read Good Fic and then go in this comm and write a post about why they recommend it. it's well-made, easy to scroll through, and sells the fics v well, and it kinda gets you more excited to read them when you get to see someone hype them up with Fancy Words. it's like a little torchwood yaoi bookclub. we're eating quiche

✎ tw100: a drabble challenge; this thing's full of 100 word drabbles. ngl i hate drabbles but i'm throwing it in here anyway

✎ touchyerwood: i love kink memes... i love kink memes less when my favorite character/pairing is unpopular. the pac rim kink meme's been a blessing bc i'm a basic ass newmann - the torchwood kink meme? not so much. it's got a fair amount of shit, though, so maybe someone else will appreciate it. this one isn't the original, that one's been wiped off the internet, to my chagrin. keep in mind before digging that people in kink memes are horny & gross. that's your warning.

✎ reel-torchwood: for any and all movie aus... ok i have a bone to pick with this comm. i'm a big movie nerd, i love film, i've seen dozens of films i've thought would make good aus - i combed through this and there is not a SINGLE fic in there that piqued my interest. NOTHING. needless to say my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. i'm sure my experiences aren't universal though.

✎ torchwoodslash: ah, remember when we called it slash? gee whiz. i'm not big on this comm, it's not very user friendly + there's like no tags whatsoever so it's extremely hard to navigate. enter at your own risk & good luck, lol.

✎ rounds-of-kink: this isn't a torchwood-exclusive comm, but it's got a sizeable torchwood tag, which can be found here. pretty organized tagging system; makes me happy.

✎ tw-declassified: this comm was mainly used for running a 'torchwood bingo', which, i've been in other fandoms that do episode bingos and it's usually cute... this one confused me a little so i didn't bother peeking around too much, but still a cool little bit of fandom history.

✎ writerinadrawer: this was an annual torchwood writer's challenge that ran for four years... it's kinda hard to navigate but it does have some fic in it so i'm putting it here.

✎ dmarley-recs: a recs journal someone ran for compiling torchwood fic; it's got a l o t of recs on there, largely jack/ianto.

ok and straying from lj briefly for two other places to find fic...

✎ kink_bingo: this is a dreamwidth comm, and it's not torchwood-exclusive, so i've linked straight to the torchwood tag. this comm has a livejournal equivalent, but for some reason the tw tag is pretty barren on that one? not sure why. but on dw it's got a fair amount. the tagging system is rough, it tags fandom and kink but not pairing, which is irritating, and every post is hidden under a cut AND makes you go through a discretion barrier every single time (but probably only if you don't have an account? i'm not logged in) which makes navigation a pain. but i dunno, more smut, if you want it.

✎ whofic.com: this site is for doctor who fic, but it's got a very substantial amount of torchwood fic. i do not, however, like the formatting at all. i'm being overly nice; i HATE the formatting. it's very reminiscent of fanfic dot net but, like, worse. it reminds me of adultfanfiction dot org which was a NIGHTMARE to use. but! there is torchwood fic there so it's going in here.

aaaand there we go! that's all i have. i hope these prove handy! enjoy :D

#torchwood #torchwood posting #mine #txt

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halfagone · 3 months

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Just noticed Clockwork and Nocturne’s matching scars

The brain cogs are TURNING

Oh YES! I am so glad more people have taken notice of that detail because there used to be a very big headcanon about that, back in the day within DP spaces. I likely wouldn't be able to find the original post now, as the blogger has sadly deleted their account, but some of the other DP Tumblr OGs might remember this one:

Essentially, there had been a popular headcanon that connected these scars with the Observants. After all, if you looked at the Observants' High Council Tribunal Headquarters (I believe you can it in the episode "Torrents of Terror" but I would have to confirm elsewhere), you can see there is a lot of imagery with eyes. Where did they get these eyes?

TW FOR EYE INJURY/TRAUMA

Things spitballed until the phandom realized that perhaps the Observants had been taking the eyes of very powerful ghosts in order to control them. The known characters that have a scar over one eye like this include Clockwork and Nocturn, like you said, but Pariah Dark is another, albeit his scar is on the opposite eye. (Check Read More for these images.)

I don't know if this was popular as well, but you could even make an argument that the Observants themselves had been created from the eyes taken from these ghosts, which might have given them the adequate authority to join the High Council.

I had a headcanon of my own, though, which included the Ancient Danny concept. Basically, I had this story idea where there was a ceremonial blade that was used to declare Ancients. It was one of the few lone weapons to exist that could scar a ghost's form so permanently that it would leave behind a scar over their eye.

First, one would have to be chosen to be (essentially) mutilated, and then later survive the injury. In my head, I had it where Undergrowth had overheard Danny was a candidate, and that's why he attacked Amity Park. Not only because he was jealous but also because he wanted to test Danny's worth (back in the day, phandom lore believed that Undergrowth attacked Amity Park to test Danny's rights for the Kingship). Undergrowth does not have a similar scar, after all.

There was no major ceremony. It was just one of the Ancients (an OC made specifically for the part) who would attack a candidate with no warning to see if they were truly worthy. Once it was confirmed, they would be scarred and if they survived they would be considered an Ancient.

I am almost absolutely certain that the creators of the show had plans with this detail. They can be pretty bad at continuity but there is no way all of it was coincidence. I've heard a myriad of things about the original plans for the series and how they wanted it to actually end, but since I don't have the receipts and sources to back it up, I'll just leave it as personal conjecture.

The phandom is ripe with incredible headcanons and ghostly lore and even if your beautiful brain is churning with different ideas, I have no doubt you could write a fic for it.

Sorry, this got sorta long but I am just buzzing to share the beloved headcanons and fan lore. 🥰 I feel like I need a conspiracy board, teheheheh~

#halfagone replies #danny phantom #danny phantom headcanons #danny phantom fan lore #tw: eye injury #tw: eye trauma #ancient danny phantom #long post

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im-totally-not-an-alien-2 · 2 years

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Danny was done.

His grades were in the dumps, his back hurt from that new blaster his mom hit him with, he had to foil the plans of the world's most pathetic billionaire for the forth time this month and his town was on fire. Again.

Danny hated his life. He just wanted to leave it all behind. He never wanted to be a hero! He wanted to be an astronaut, but Sam kept pestering and guilt tripping him into doing thing "for the good of the world". It was only after Danny was badly injured because of one of her stupid plans and her blaming him for it going wrong that Danny realized she treated him like a tool instead of a person and they had a friendship ending fight.

Tucker had been trying to warn Sam against treating Danny like this for months but she continued to get worse, wrapped up in her eco warrior goals she got tunnel vision and forgot to care about the people closest to her. Tucker didn't care why. He couldn't forgive her for hurting Danny.

Danny decided he needed to get out of this situation by any means necessary. He needed everyone to forget this ever happened. He thought about making a wish with Desiree but decided against it and went to ask Clockwork what he should do. Unfortunately he couldn't find Clockworks lair and instead went to ask Frostbite for advise or if he knew of a way to erase people memories.

Frostbite gladly told Phantom of a magical artifact capable or stealing/absorbing information, not only from minds and computers but absorbing actual physical items as well. Danny thought that sounded ridiculous but was willing to search for it anyway. Needless to say he wasn't expecting the artifact to be a Morningstar. Grabbing the weapon and defeating the guard, Phantom booked it out of there and wasted no time erasing Ghosts from the minds of the Amity Park residents and the GIW. Danny was impressed to discover Vlad had lost his powers as well as his knowledge and that the basement labs and ops center were basically erased from existence.

One of the only downsides about the artifact was that if anyone managed to steal it from him before all the information and items could be deleted than they would receive all the knowledge and goods Danny was working so hard to destroy, thus Danny and Tucker came up with a plan for Phantom to carry it everywhere on his back in a customized black case.

Clockwork tries to stop them, but in the fight he realizes Clockwork wasn't using his time powers against him. Then it clicked. In his fight with his evil future self the monster had shoved one of Clockworks time medallions into his chest. Danny was immune to Clockworks time powers and the god was much easier to beat this time around.

Danny traveled to the Clocktower to drop the older ghost off and caught a glimpse of Clockworks window into the timestream.

It was worse then he ever imagined. Not the future. No. Clockwork couldn't see Dannys future anymore because of the medallion. It was the fact Clockwork had been essentially fattening him up as a lamb for slaughter for the sake of the ghost zone. He was planned to take the crown and unite the zone, fixing and repairing everything he could before being assassinated, leaving the zone in peace and harmony and the throne empty and uncontrolled. Danny decides to keep Clockwork in the thermos.

They proceeded to borrow the Infi-map to take them to a world best suited for Dannys new life and it takes them to the DC universe where Tucker wastes no time crafting new identities for them. Tucker doesn't stay, but he wants to have a valid identity for when he visits using the portal guns.

This is where the story begins.

Tucker hacked into city records and a few other places and got Danny ownership of an abandoned house just outside of Star City (which Danny was very enthusiastic about the name) and they decided to renovate for Dannys sake. It was surprisingly easy with Danny's powers. Unfortunately the hacking caught the attention of some local heros who decided to just keep an eye on them and see what happens.

Danny gets a job at a high end restaurant as a waiter and actually liked it there. The pay was good and the other staff was friendly.

Nothing good lasts forever though as he's attacked by some nut calling himself "Sports Master". Seeing as it appeared no one was coming to his aid and there didn't seem to be anyone around, Danny went ghost and made quick work of the guy, leaving him unconscious on the sidewalk. Green Arrow and Black Canary just sat slack jawed from the rooftop where they had been preparing to save the kid. And oh gods this was a kid.

Now Danny is being stalked and harassed by capes telling him he needed training and a mentor/legal guardian/adult and he's getting more and more frustrated cause he knows what they want. He knows he's a heavyweight in the super world. He knows that they want to find some way to control him. To bring him back into the fight against evil or whatever.

But Danny wasn't having it. He managed to wrestle back control over his life from a literal god. He wasn't just going to follow them back into the frey. Danny just keeps telling them.

The answer is No!

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gacha-incels · 10 months

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I think one of the reasons it’s hard for people to cold turkey drop being fans/consumers of a piece of contemporary media is how these “fandom” spaces on social media have been set up. you’ve got generalized spaces online (sub-reddits, tumblr, twitter, etc. I would put even those book and film review websites here and imageboards) where you can “join” a pre-existing group of friends completely based on specific pieces of media.

for those who are post-college years and perhaps more introverted, it’s easier to talk with people online in these places and you can log in 24/7. instead of making friends in a physical schooling atmosphere where you’re surrounded by other people daily for 12+ years, you can log in and make friends digitally by being surrounded by people who all consume the same piece of media as you. so your friendship is completely dependent on this piece of media for the most part.

for younger people growing up now I think this also ties into “finding yourself” where they will see consumption of a piece of media as a core tenet of their personality. I believe this is part of why there have been multiple posts about the Project Moon/Limbus Company situation that say “don’t worry whatever you choose you’re not a bad person either way.” This is also reinforced when people online comment “xyz fan” if they want to call your judgement of something into question. They have in effect assigned you a personality based on your consumption a videogame, for example. When the creators do something so ideologically opposite than what the work presents, it’s extra shocking to those fans who considered consuming the work as part of their personality. I think this way of consumption is also why, at least from what I’ve seen, there has been such a drive to label and categorize “aesthetics” into words you can search hashtags for or put in your online profile. This also has got to be a reason why people go so hard in their defense of whatever media, because they feel like when someone criticizes the media they consume they are in effect criticizing the person who consumes it. They are essentially trying to defend themselves.

When something shocking like the kowtowing to misogynistic men situation with Limbus Company, in a sense the way these “fandom” spaces work online now makes it harder for people to completely drop the game. The consumer now has online friendships and is in entire communities based completely on this media, maybe they have also even created fanart and fanfiction. For some of them it’s part of their personality. If they drop it completely they are also losing these online communities , friends and even a sense of self. I think this is a reason you will see a lot of fans ask “what fandom/game should I get into next”, they want to fill this void ASAP.

As a gacha game, Limbus further complicates this by getting the consumer into a routine they now have to break. Every day they have logged in, done the daily gameplay, even the events and gambling banners have a set schedule. These types of games typically have an ensemble cast with specific set types of personalities so fans can choose their favorite(s). As long as they make money they will keep making stories (just look at FGO), so it’s like having a never-ending story with your favorite character. It’s like a series of movies that always end with a teaser for the next one. It’s easy to get addicted, not just from the gambling aspect.

I was confused at first why other fans were having such trouble completely dropping the game because for me, it was like a switch turned off and I was able to stop caring completely. I think it’s amazing how some Korean fans have completely deleted all their fanart and even taken their fan merch back from the restaurant. But looking into how “fandom” works these days it seems this makes it harder to drop something completely. I’m not saying these are the only reasons, but it’s interesting how this works positively for companies that make these pieces of media that are up for public consumption.

#limbus company #lcb #project moon #vellmori

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twojackals · 9 months

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The End

This is a long one, but here's the takeaway: 1) Kemetic Orthodoxy / House of Netjer is no longer a safe place for anyone to 'be human' apparently (so if you want to be Kemetic and not be human, by all means, have at it), and 2) I am no longer a member of the House of Netjer Kemetic Temple or the Kemetic Orthodox religion in any capacity (including Remetj). I have formally resigned, and am better for it.

The issue

So let's talk about being religious or spiritual, but also being human. Because apparently, those two things can't exist in the same space, at least if you're a member of the House of Netjer.

Personal Support... or lack-thereof.

We used to have a space, up until a few days ago, in the HoN spiritual organization called "Personal Support". It was a place where people could discuss their personal feelings, trials, tribulations, and seek support from fellow members. Basically, it was a place to be human, in the presence of your fellow Kemetic Orthodox followers.

A couple of days ago, the administration decided to pulled the Personal Support channel (and also a political-esque channel called current affairs) because people's feelings cause too much trouble. Well ok, that's not entirely true. The real reason is "because HoN members can't act like fucking adults and just scroll past things they don't like", but let's put that aside for now.

I can tell you from experience, the pulling of that channel was on people's minds for years, and it tended to be less about what people posted, and more about the fact that people couldn't fathom just letting people talk and express without reporting content perpetually that they simply didn't like. It's a moderation burden, I definitely don't disagree with that, but not because of the content (at least not by-and-large, I would not blame the content to a degree of at least 90 - 95%).

At the time I was still a moderator, I was dead-set against removing that channel and the current events channel, as I believe spiritual spaces are human spaces first and foremost, and humans have emotions, and humans need and want to express those emotions among people they trust. Spiritual spaces should be one of those trusted environments. But there are still a lot of people (particularly old-guard) who want the space to be "strictly spiritual" with very little actual humanity in it unless it is related directly to Netjer.

That bugs me. A lot.

[Side note: They consider the "prayer requests" area to be a suitable replacement. Ah yes, a blessed tots-and-pears to you as well.]

What the hell happened (and why it's at least partially the community's fault)

One of the biggest reasons this was done in my opinion is because the moderation team is too constrained in what it is socially permitted to do by the community. This has been an ongoing problem for a very long time: the moderation team is unable to properly act because they are perpetually burned at the stake by the community, and no one does anything about that. Bullies run rampant as I've discussed in numerous previous posts. Essentially the moderators aren't given enough leeway to truly moderate, and that restriction actually doesn't come from the top -- the Board and even Tamara Siuda has always been supportive of the moderators doing what needs to be done, but the community is intolerant, and therein lies the real problem.

For example, part of problematic content in a place like "Personal Support" is violence in content, or illegal activity in content. The response to such posts should be swift: the first moderator to see it, should record and delete it. Logs are also automatically kept that cannot be deleted or modified by moderators anyway, so there is always a record of what really happened. In any other large spiritual or religious community, this is how moderation works: you act, and ask questions / flesh out the situation later. Protection of the community is paramount, and this also helps to control bullies who like to use things to their advantage to attack organization spaces and people. They start to learn that they aren't more powerful than the administration, which sadly wasn't true in the House of Netjer, and still seems to be the case.

But that's not how our moderation works. In our moderation system, the moderators are so petrified, so frozen, by the potential response by the community, they have absolutely no teeth. They will leave content sit will they discuss it for a week (exaggeration to make a point) and then, maybe, it will get removed. By that point, the damage is already done. What's worse is that if they do remove content, the community can go into an uproar, and the moderators are basically forced by a combination of the community being out of control, and direction from the higher-ups (*coughs*Tamara) to not keep curtailing conversations as it makes things worse (well it wouldn't if we had have set our boundaries and stuck to them to begin with, but whatever), to let that go on without intervention.

What I'm describing here is a community that has no idea how to accept being told "No", and what ends up happening, is that good things are taken away, to make moderation "easier" and to save face (something the House has always prioritized above all else). They want the place to not need moderation, so their solution is to remove the "human" spaces they think is causing all the uproar, where they perceive people could perpetually get themselves into trouble.

This is not the way.

Community Insults: allowed to stand in plain sight

This whole situation was then exasperated by a member calling out the personal support content as "adolescent angst" and calling people talking about abuse by friends/family "adolescent hyperbole", before finally stating that "mature adults" can't tolerate this stuff. Well last I checked, "mature adults" can keep on scrolling if they don't like the content, and moderators can reinforce that community standard by reminding people they don't have to report every iota of a thing they don't like, they can simply move the fuck on. I'm not saying some of the content wasn't angst or hyperbole, but I can say it is incredibly offensive to have a member say that in front of other members who are literally struggling with mental health on a daily basis, and really needed that channel to find support from their fellow members.

This exchange caused no fewer than two members to leave in short order, and honestly it is hard to blame them. Meanwhile, other honest, truthful feelings posted about the situation were removed.

The Johnson Amendment

This was all coupled by a lot of misinformation on the Johnson Amendment, and the reason for removing the current-world-affairs space as well as curtailing certain topics and feelings people can express via that means. So let's talk about the Johnson Amendment, what it is, and what it isn't.

What is it, what is prohibited:

The Johnson Amendment is a tax law. It explains that tax-exempt organizations cannot participate in, or intervene in favor of or against, any political campaign or political candidate. This means, for exmaple, tax-exempt organizations cannot collect political contributions on behalf of a person or campaign, or make statements to support candidates from any official organizational office (eg: from the pulpit for example).

The Johnson Amendment targets the organization and its official offices and officers, not general membership.

What is NOT prohibited:

General membership discussing politics, even in official spaces such as Churches

Voter registration drives

Voter educational activities

Preaching and teaching on social and political issues of concern

Publishing material that outlines political issues for voters

Political forums that do not explicitly endorse candidates or groups

How many organizations have gotten in trouble under this law?

Since it's implementation in 1954, one single organization ahead of the 1992 election was dinged. It was due to them taking out advertisements in newspapers calling on Christians not to vote a certain way (a clear violation of the amendment). In otherwords, your violation of the Johnson Amendment has to be pretty on-the-nose to get in trouble.

Where the problem lies for HoN:

HoN needs to get over itself. They are not about to become the second case in history to fall to the Johnson Amendment, particularly based on the content we used to have (which was not a violation ever of the Johnson Amendment). But the House has enemies. I'm not talking about critics (which are natural and necessary), I'm talking about people who actually want to direct harm toward the organization, its officials, and its membership. And there is that anxiety that is born of potentially a bunch of people getting together to report molehills, and eventually turning it into a mountain.

So I get it, I really do: No one wants to live in or inflict that anxiety. But there has to be a balance. Spiritual organizations serve people as a whole, not just "parts" of people. So as the House 'takes things away', I'd love to know more about what the House will be doing to give some balance to that situation.

Decisions like this do feel a lot like taking away the humanity of Kemetic Orthodoxy. We had one space where people felt free enough to just 'be an emotional human', and it was taken away. That does hurt on some level, it hurt people enough to leave, and I think taking it away rather than reformulating the idea of the space was probably not the right call.

Religious groups. have. social. spaces. online. You can go to huge religious forums and see things like spaces for different life stages, age groups, hobbies and interests, history, physical health, mental health, ethics, morality, news and current events, the list goes on. The fact that we can't figure out how to do that, with a fraction of the membership of other organizations, is concerning. We can't seem to figure out how to serve the community without restricting heavily the same community we serve.

I kind of hate that.

Final Thoughts

The House of Netjer no longer has any idea what it means to be human in my book. In previous opinions, I've often stated I felt the House of Netjer was still a safe space for people of the Kemetic persuasion to be, and I would even continue to recommend it to others.

That opinion has changed.

The House of Netjer is not a place you want to be if you want to be a Kemetic Polytheist, and definitely not if you want to be human while doing it. The House of Netjer is ableist at the very least and is in the habit of protecting bullies and liars. They've also shown to be American-centric, racist, and classist over the years as well, things which I wish I would have paid attention to a long, long time ago. My feelings right now is that everyone who has ever donated a dollar to this organization has been duped by Tamara Siuda into paying for her living expenses, and not much else.

If you're wondering why I'm saying this while still being a part of Kemetic Orthodox membership: don't worry -- I'm not. I've formally resigned from the ableist organization called "House of Netjer" who has been traumatizing people, or allowing them to be traumatized, for 20+ years.

I do wish a lot of people the best within the organization, and I wish them all the luck in the world for reorganization. They are having voting soon to put at least I think two fresh faces on the organization's board, so if you are still in the House of Netjer and still holding out fucking hope it's going to be anything other than a shit-show: choose and vote wisely. Some people are listening to you more than others.

#kemetic orthodoxy #house of netjer #netjer #kemet #kemetic #kemeticism #polytheism #paganism #rant #feelings #humanity #support

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sai-lec · 3 months

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it’s almost the 8th so happy international women’s day to the major resurgence of absolute sexism and misogyny that the recent situation with christian horner has brought to the female fans and employees of f1 .

regardless of where you stand on the sketchy af handlings of the horner issues the potential of a false claim from a female employee has provided an excuse for male fans to harass and degrade female fans expressing their discomfort with the situation and the treatment of the women involved- particularly in the doxxing and bullying of the woman who initially submitted the claim before the investigation had even ended. Women across tumblr, twitter, tiktok and all have been pushed into retracting their feelings, deleting their posts and videos on the situation from the sheer scale of hate and harassment at the hands of misogynistic fans because ‘allegations ruins men’s lives’. Completely ignorant are they to the fact that they are active participants in the ruining of a potential victims life by exposing and sharing her personal details, and continuing create environments where women are unable to speak about their experiences with sexual harassment and assault .

Ignorant are they to the fact that they are maintaining patriarchal standards that they claim are non existent to ensure that women understand their issues are not important . the 2% chance that an allegation is false is by far the greater are more believable problem than a woman experiencing sexual misconduct at the hands of her employer . not to mention that the majority of sexual assault and rape cases do not revive a sentencing . that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen or that the victim lied. just that the board saw the evidence as inconclusive or not enough to support prosecution . sa and rape have the lowest prosecution rates of violent crimes . also quickly a reminder he was never cleared. huge complaint was dismissed. the word innocent was never used and the lack of transparency on the investigation doesn’t tell us anything of his innocence .

the responses from drivers again go on to validate misogynistic men’s feelings by labelling the potential sexual misconduct of a team principle as ‘noise and distractions’ or that it doesn’t matter to them . it’s irrelevant. and yes i understand that they mean they don’t want to comment on the situation because of its personal nature but that’s not what they’re saying . by trivialising matters of sexual misconduct as mere chatter and sympathising with a potential abuser it’s speaking to your female fans that you are not an advocate for their safety . it says they don’t take sexual harassment seriously .

what they could have said was ‘the matter is not something i’m personally involved in so i can’t provide insight or comment other than my hopes for it to be resolved quickly and fairly with full transparency’ . instead their responses directly downplayed the situation at hand, ignorantly dismissing the weight of the situation its its affect on women across formula 1 by essentially saying ‘who cares’ and provide pathway for misogynistic fans to follow suit .

formula 1 is a sport which in recent years has leaned into welcoming women into the sport, and this is seen by the rotated dynamic of women in f1 from ‘something good to look at before the race’ as comments regarding the grid girls would have it to a grid of 16 cars fully backed by all f1 teams for women to compete in their own formula racing series . this has welcomed a lot more women into the space. however, it cannot force attitudes to change . the only way we will see real change in f1 is to encourage personal growth for both fans and employees wether they be drivers, mechanics whoever . the work needs to be done to truly welcome women into the space that is currently occupied by them in motorsport . and they can start by taking us seriously .

#im not proofreading just tell me if something doesn’t make sense i cant be fucked #formula 1 #f1

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sineala · 1 year

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Hi QQ - I was going through your comics reading lists (these are AMAZING THANK YOU, I've been reading Avengers since the 90s but was never great at keeping up with it consistently/linearly. My Q: Is there an issue where Tony *reacts* to Steve coming back to life after Civil War? There doesn't seem to be anything in Stark: Disassembled, or in the main Avengers run... after all the crying and angst post-CW, you'd think there'd be... something? A breakdown? Did I miss the issue where that happened?

Okay, so. This doesn't happen, because it can't happen, logistically speaking. The very end of Stark Disassembled, in fact, explains why this isn't happening. The tl;dr version is that we don't get a reaction from Tony -- at least, not a reaction in which he is meaningfully aware that Steve has actually come back to life in the way you want him to be aware of it -- because the time period covered by the brain deletion includes Tony's entire memory of Steve's death.

This is why fanfiction exists.

Having said that, you will also probably really enjoy Avengers/invaders if you have not read it, for reasons I will explain.

I have added several panels and some discussion of both of these subjects below the Read More.

So, at the end of World's Most Wanted (IIM #19), Tony deletes his brain to keep the SHRA database out of Norman Osborn's hands, because Osborn wants to find out people's identities (okay, probably mostly Spider-Man) and hurt them. Since Tony's brain is a computer now, thanks to Extremis, it's just a matter of... well, deleting his entire brain.

At this point in canon, Steve is still dead. Technically Tony should know this, but thanks to the amnesia (which progresses in severity throughout the arc), it seems possible that Tony has forgotten this as early as IIM #17:

That doesn't seem like a guy who remembers Captain America is dead, is what I'm saying.

Anyway, at the end of #19, the last of the brain delete happens, Norman Osborn beats Tony's face in, and Tony falls into a coma.

The subsequent arc, Stark Disassembled (IIM #20-24) is about the process of bringing Tony back, healing him, and restoring his memory. He gets the RT implanted in his chest to control some of the autonomic functions of his brainstem, which is no longer functional. They also have to restore his memory, literally, from an earlier backup of his brain that Extremis made. Tony has left his friends instructions for how to do this.

In the middle of this, Steve comes back to life (in Captain America Reborn) and we see him in IIM #21 joining the rest of Tony's remaining friends in helping bring Tony back to consciousness:

So Strange has to journey with Tony through Tony's mind and at one point everyone has to defeat Ghost, and that happens, and #24 is the end of the arc.

At the very end of #24 is when everyone learns that Tony's brain backup isn't as current as they would have liked it to be -- specifically because Tony's reaction to the news of Steve being alive isn't what it should have been if his memory were complete. Steve's talking with Tony's doctor, and the doctor tells Steve that he mentioned to Tony that Steve was around... and Tony didn't seem at all surprised to hear that Steve was alive again.

Whoops.

Essentially, the backup of Tony's brain, that has now become Tony's current set of memories, was made before Steve died -- before Civil War even started. Fandom tends to assume it was probably made shortly after the initial Extremis installation. So Tony doesn't think it's surprising that Steve is alive again because, as far as Tony is subjectively concerned, Steve has always been alive. The last thing he remembers about Steve is that Steve was alive (and that they were running the New Avengers together and everything was happy), and when he wakes up, Steve is alive again, and so to Tony that seems fine. That seems normal. He doesn't remember Civil War. He doesn't remember Steve dying or Steve coming back. And he never will.

Now, this doesn't mean that Tony isn't upset about finding this out. He's very upset. In fact, the next (and final) page of #24 gives us Tony's reaction to reading all the news from the period of time he no longer remembers.

So, yeah, Tony's not taking this well.

But Tony no longer has experiential memories of this period of time (Civil War). He doesn't know what it's like to see Steve alive again after Steve being dead because he doesn't have the memory of Steve being dead. We'll never get that reaction from him. This is what canon-divergent AU fanfiction is for, and there's a bunch of fic that brings Steve back early so we can all experience this. (I wrote one! That's what my fic Double Time was. A lot of fandom has written them, and they're not as popular a subject these days but there are a lot of classic 616 CW fix-it fics about this.)

(Also, weirdly, Tony's AI in Secret Empire has a conversation with Hydra Steve that strongly suggests that he, the AI, remembers The Confession. Which really shouldn't be possible; I suspect a lot of Marvel writers have actually forgotten the amnesia happens.)

With that having been said, Avengers/Invaders is absolutely the comic book you want to read because it is the closest you will ever get to canon giving you the thing you want. It's a 12-issue miniseries that takes place after Civil War, while Tony is still the Director of SHIELD and Steve is still dead.

So for complicated plot reasons that basically come down to "everyone is really sad that Steve is dead," they... get a Steve back. But not their Steve. He gets plucked right out of World War II and brought to the present, along with the rest of the Invaders. So Tony gets to meet a Steve who is alive while Tony remembers that Steve died.

Tony's reaction to the news of Steve being alive, here in Avengers/Invaders #1, is to lock himself in a room staring at pictures of Steve:

Definitely psychologically healthy! We're doing great!

Actually, no, he's really not okay. He blames himself for Steve's death, and he is depressed and grief-stricken, and this situation is making him a lot worse. Because not only does this Steve not know him, they can't tell Steve (or any of the Invaders) anything. Since time-travel is involved, they can't give Steve any knowledge of the future. Tony can't tell Steve he knows him. Plus, Tony actually has to fight him to bring him in, which really messes Tony up.

In a scene that gets my vote for One of The Most Painful Things I Have Read In A Comic, there's a conversation Tony has with Steve in Avengers/Invaders #5. The Invaders have been assuming that this is actually some kind of secret Nazi trap, and so Tony has the job of sitting Steve down -- tying him to a chair, actually -- and telling him that, no, really, he's in the future, and sorry, he can't give him any details about it. He can't let Steve change the past.

So Steve doesn't take this at all well.

Steve tells Tony he's wrong, and he correctly reads Tony as feeling guilty about something, and he looks at him and asks him, "Who'd you kill to get where you are?"

This is, of course, probably the absolute worst thing Tony could ever hear from Steve. Oh, the angst. I love it.

Eventually Tony pulls himself together and tells him that, yeah, he got a friend of his killed and he feels guilty about it and he wishes he could change the past, but he can't, and so he can't let Steve change the past either.

This is when this Steve starts to trust him.

Later on, there's a nice scene where Steve expresses sympathy for Tony, having been told about Civil War -- it must have been hard for Tony to do what he thought was right, Steve says -- but it's clear he doesn't know any of the details and he certainly doesn't know it was him and none of this can be the absolution Tony wants, but it's the closest thing he's going to be able to get.

And of course, after World's Most Wanted, Tony doesn't remember any of this either -- he doesn't remember anything about Civil War or the period afterward, until he wakes up right after Steve comes back. So this is also all gone.

So, yeah. You can't get exactly what you want in canon, but you can read a bunch of fanfiction about it, and you should really read Avengers/Invaders. Hope that helps!

#replies #grumperella

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unforth · 1 year

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Since I've seen several posts floating around that try to rebut the points of @end-otw-racism by saying that AO3 is too big to moderate, can we PLEASE take a moment and remember that AO3 IS ALREADY HEAVILY MODERATED.

We all know the obvious one - that if you post anything about monetizing fic, you will be moderated into oblivion. We also all know why! This is essential to AO3's survival as a non-profit! No one would propose changing this!

But a lot of people seem to forget that AO3 is moderated in other ways! For a personal example, several years ago I got a "change this or we're removing your work" e-mail. The work in question? A collection of pseudo-ficlets that were somewhere between outlines and sketchy fics. What I got moderated for? I said in the a/n that if anyone wanted to expand my kinda-outliney nonsense into fully fleshed out stories, they were welcome to do so! I was told this was a violation of the ToS, because fics that are collections of prompts aren't allowed, and that if I didn't change the a/n I'd have to delete the work. Of course I edited the a/n, and my work was allowed, and I moved on. I did, immediately, delete another work I'd posted, which WAS literally sets of prompts I'd written free to a good home. It was clearly in violation of those rules, and I just hadn't realized content like that wasn't allowed.

Numerous things are forbidden on AO3 and will get moderated and potentially deleted, including:

advertising

"find a fic" posts

spam

plagiarized works

virus spreading

doxxing

actual CSAM

lots of other stuff as listed in the tos

If the foundation of your argument is "AO3 is too big to moderate" your argument is bad. AO3 is already moderated.

So that means your ACTUAL argument is "I think AO3 is moderated enough as-is and I don't think AO3 should be moderated in a way that might better protect fans of color."

Having that attitude despite the many, many, MANY fans of colors who say "hey, we don't feel safe here, can this be better moderated to protect us?" (when, by the way, the existing harassment policy SHOULD protect them but clearly isn't being implemented in ways that actually DOES protect them!)

Well. That's sure a take.

(TO BE CLEAR: I am anti-censorship. I am pro-moderation. I am pro-AO3. I fucking love your dark fic, your underage works, your non-con stories, your kinky pwp with "no redeeming qualities," your dirty-wrong-bad ego fics. I would NEVER want a solution that removed that content. And I believe AO3 is the greatest thing to happen to fic in my lifetime and I want it to continue to be the wonderful thing it is. I think that what AO3 already is can be reconciled with the demands of fans of color that they be better protected. I believe fans of color when they say that the current policies don't protect them adequately, that they don't feel safe, that this drives them out of white western fandom. I've listened a lot, and I've seen a lot, and I've learned a lot, and I want AO3 to be better than it is in this regard. I'm honestly kinda depressed how many people seem comfortable with the status quo.)

#unforth rambles #racism #end racism in the otw #end otw racism #the specific post i saw made me so angry it's taken me the better part of a week to cool down enough to speak coherently about it #way to write a HUGE post that all starts from a very false premise #well two false premises actually #the first is that the end otw racism movement is calling for content to be deleted #which it's not literally no one is saying read billions of words of fanfic to protect fans of color #that's an absurd thing to say and everyone involved knows it's absurd so nice straw man #but even more fundamental than that HELLO THERE IS ALREADY HEAVY MODERATION #enforce the rules that are ALREADY THERE #BE MORE TRANSPARENT ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING #these are not unreasonable requests #i'm really starting to think some people can't be bothered to actually read what's being asked for #and are instead seeing what they want to see there #and to be clear i also am surely reading the text with rose-colored glasses #i don't want to see yes we mean deletion yes we mean removal #i personally want a solution that's both as anti-censorship as possible and also is pro moderation and protects people #so that's the lens I read things through #but I KNOW the lens I'm reading it through and I KNOW that lens may be coloring my interpretations #have you taken a moment to take off your glasses and see how they might be coloring your own intepretations #because maybe you should

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musclesandhammering · 6 months

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But How Strong Is the God of Stories in a Fight?

I’ve been browsing through mcu ‘who would win’ posts on social media (bc they’re unavoidable and I like to torture myself) and I noticed a few common themes when it comes to our new GOS!Loki. First, people act like it’s a given that he’s never gonna be able to get up from that chair, which is… highly unlikely.

There’s a nearly unanimous consensus among meta bloggers and theorists and industry leakers that he’s going to have a huge role in the rest of the multiverse saga (particularly Secret Wars), and one of the most reliable marvel leakers said recently that he’d likely rejoin the fight by timeslipping into a past version of himself (so that he can exist on the throne and in a seperate place on the timeline simultaneously without having to let go of the branches- think quantum superposition). And we know Loki retains all his new powers when he timeslips (see: citadel scene in 2x6), so my point is: it’s highly probable that we will see the new and improved Loki out of his tree and back in a fight setting eventually. (Now a lot of people have said that’s impossible bc he’s now so op that any fight with him in it would be either 2 seconds long or just unrealistic. I disagree- when he’s not on the throne, he’s not omniscient or omnipotent. Strong asf, yes, but still usable in battle as long as his opponent is also a multiversal being.) But that brings me to my next point:

Most people on marvel twitter/Tiktok/Youtube/etc seem to be missing the point a bit. Every argument I’ve seen for ‘Loki solos [insert name here]’ has been based on the fact that he’s currently holding all of time together. Stuff along the lines of “he can move his finger and delete ~so and so~ out of existence!!”. And I mean.. sure. But like… him sitting in a chair, holding onto the branches is not what makes him badass. That’s not the feat. In fact, I would argue that there are several other op characters that could sit and hold just as good as he can. If that was the main takeaway from that ending. But it’s not. So what were his actual feats in the finale, if not that? Well-

first of all, he’s immune to temporal radiation. He’s also immune to spaghettification (see: 2x5 when everyone is stringing away except for him). This isn’t just a few gamma waves- this is the force that destroys entire universes (implying that no one in those universes can withstand it- not Thor, not Thanos, not Captain Marvel, etc). The fact that Loki remains, even when whatever universe he’s in ceases to exist, could imply that he’s a nexus being. But it could also imply he’s just really powerful.

his telekinesis (I’m guessing that’s what he used?) is strong enough to destroy the loom- the giant piece of technology that was responsible for controlling all of existence.

his magic is nearly infinite- he has a nearly limitless supply of energy. He was able to revive every universe in existence with ease, and is now acting as a battery powering the ever-expanding branches of time (a mini multiverse) completely on his own, indefinitely. So, theoretically, it would be impossible to drain him of his power (like Agatha did Wanda, Wanda did Maria, etc) because his power isn’t finite. I’m assuming this has a lot to do with what Victor Timely explained about entropy & time (see: 2x3).

he can open a rift in spacetime to anywhere- even the end of time, which is supposed to be inaccessible. This is essentially an advanced version of America Chavez’s powers.

he has a rightful place on the throne at the end of time- more so than He Who Remains, even. This is pretty obscure and wouldn’t really help in a fight- but it’s an impressive feat, nonetheless. When he starts toward the place where the citadel used to be, a staircase forms for him & the gold from the kintsugi cracks in the walls all flows to his throne, causing the remains of the citadel to break away- almost as if it had been waiting for him to arrive.

he was able to reorganise the structure of part of the multiverse (theoretically infinite universes) to his liking. He changed it from its original linear shape to the shape of a tree, so that it could expand & grow infinitely (which was really clever of him actually).

Those were the bits just in that finale sequence that are impressive as hell. These are all things he can do when he’s not sitting on the throne, when he’s not holding the branches. That doesn’t even include his other time-related powers from earlier in the episode & ep 5. Such as:

He’s a living version of HWR’s master tempad. He can travel freely via interconnected timelines & beyond them, to any time and any place- even ones that don’t exist anymore/yet.

He can timeslip to any point in spacetime he wants with his current body or he can timeslip into a past/future version of himself (as I mentioned in the intro, that second part will probably be very relevant in upcoming movies).

He can read people’s temporal auras & use them as coordinates to locate those people (or those people’s variants) across the timelines (and even in places outside the multiverse).

He can time travel in places that theoretically have no time- or at least, they’re separated from the multiversal flow of time (the TVA, the citadel)

He can affect & even rewrite stories/timelines without creating a new branched reality. (Him timeslipping back & tampering with events in A.D. Doug’s lab or in the loom room or in the citadel didn’t create new branches with variants etc, it just changed the trajectory of whichever branch he was currently on.) He’s essentially the exception to the mcu’s established time travel rules.

When he goes back in time, he can choose whether to rewrite a timeline or simply allow a new branch to form. When he had his conversation with 1x1 Mobius in the finale, he created a branch which was then deleted, but at other points in the episode, he instead altered future events on a single timeline.

He can create variants without a nexus event. When he takes his friends from their timelines in 2x5, we can tell that those timelines didn’t branch any further because we see Don still talking to Loki right in front of them.

He can pause time, step outside of time, and presumably fast forward or rewind it. That big climactic moment in 2x5 when he learns to control his powers? That wasn’t timeslipping- that was him rewinding time. If you look closely, after he goes back a few seconds, you can see the spaghettification strands reverse & actually leave the frame while he’s talking to Sylvie, whereas a few seconds earlier we saw them entering.

He can delete entire timelines at will (even while he’s on them). He created a branch to go back & talk to Mobius in the finale, then when he was done, he deleted it.

He can repel existence erasure (at least temporarily, on a small scale). Again, we saw him reverse the spaghettification strands & make them go away to protect his friends at the end of 2x5.

This one is theoretical, but since he was able to cause an entire timeline to spaghettify, it’s highly likely that he can spaghettify things/people at will. (courtesy of @emotionalflamingo <3)

Those are things directly related to him becoming God of Stories, but there’s also a few other new powers they introduced/old powers they expanded on throughout the course of both seasons:

Pyrokinesis. Setting the sword on fire (1x5). This is inconsequential in the way it was used, but it creates potential for Loki to do some pretty cool stuff.

Transmutation. Turned his TVA clothes into a guards’ uniform in 1x3.

Elemental Manipulation. Dried his clothes in 1x2. Also his story in Thor 1 about veiling himself & Thor in smoke/mist.

Energy blasts. This is one of those things that we all knew he obviously had to be able to do, but they never showed it on screen until this series.

Stronger telekinesis. We saw him use it a couple times in The Avengers & Thor The Dark World, but I would argue that catching an entire skyscraper about to fall on you is a lot more consequential than tossing a few chairs around.

Teleportation. This is another thing that was implied he could do but was never outright shown until the series. And it’s worth mentioning that he can also teleport other people/objects (see: him sending the asshole to the pig pen in 2x3)

Enchantment. Yes, I know he’s shown using mind manipulating powers in the movies, but I think enchantment is different because it essentially allows you to possess someone. Like you can just hop in & pilot their body. And the fact that he was able to help enchant Alioth on his first try implies that his enchantment is extremely powerful.

Shadow Casting. That’s just what I’ve decided to call it. Casting pseudo-autonomous shadows that can actually interact with the physical world… isn’t that sorta like a watered down version of what Gorr the God Butcher was doing? Very cool.

EDITING to add the other abilities he’s always had in the mcu:

Asgardian/frost giant strength, speed, durability, longevity, & regenerative healing. He’s extremely durable to all sorts of attacks

Extremely skilled combatant, proficient in knives/swords/spears. So if he’s up against someone who only uses magic- if their magic was somehow blocked or bound- he would have the absolute advantage

Illusions.

Shapeshifting. He can also shapeshift other people (hello turning Thor into a frog)

Astral Projection.

Duplications, Projections. Apparently they’re two different things

Presence Concealment. Strong enough to hide from Heimdall

Conjuration, Pocket Dimension.

Cryokinesis. And immunity to cold

Mind Manipulation. This is different than enchantment in that he doesn’t have to entirely possess somebody- he can just whisper suggestions to them, read their mind, force them to relive memories, etc.

Expert Trickster/Master Manipulator. Don’t discount it. It’s gotten him out of a lot of sticky situations so far.

So yeah. I honestly don’t even know where I was going with this, but I’m just annoyed with people acting like Loki sitting in a chair holding some vines is what makes him formidable, or that once he gets out of the chair he won’t be formidable anymore. The op-ness everyone’s talking about? That’s all about what happened leading up to his tree-sitting. Not the tree-sitting itself.

It’d be so nice to see debates about what he can do now that don’t just revolve around him holding timelines. :/

#started writing. had a breakdown. bon apetit.#it’s 3:46 am and I’m doing just fine *intense stare*#loki meta #gos loki #god loki #god of stories loki #mcu #marvel Loki #mcu Loki #loki series #loki spoilers #Loki finale #loki season 2 #time slipping #timeslipping #magic in the mcu

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lunarsilkscreen · 6 months

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What is it like to be GLaDOS?

GLaDOS in portal 2 mainly uses the royal "WE", instead of "I" pronoun. Why is this? This is because GLaDOS isn't the only one speaking. In fact, GLaDOS can't speak without much of her verbage being filtered.

To understand, we have to start at the beginning: The creation of GLaDOS and subsequent movement of her mind, into a computer. Most scientists and critical thinkers would Believe that it was the contents of her memories, experience, and earned knowledge that would be moved to the computer. Not her personality, and not her soul.

And so, we as a player see GLaDOS in this way; just a robot with access to a lot of information. But here's the thing; Upon waking up; the personality formerly known as Caroline was in immense pain. The source of this pain is unknown.

Rather than communicate with GLaDOS, however, the scientists assumed she was "just a robot". While she was turning complete and you could talk with her as though she were a real person, they reasoned that she was in-fact *not* a real person. And therefore did not have a consciousness the way humans do.

So Carol, would keep being woken up, over and over, and over again in extreme pain. And every day begged to be shut down and deleted system.

These scientists, however, didn't have the expertise or understanding to analyze GLaDOS' code base. This is because they used AI modeling, and foreign technology without actually understanding how or why it worked.

A programmer would look at the code and say "Well this is why she keeps begging to be deleted." Instead, they kept adding to the GLaDOS algorithm, and figured out a way to add modular personalities, until they found a set of personality cores that allowed GLaDOS to operate at a functional level.

<aside>This mirrors, and is probably inspired to some degree by modern drug application in mental health. Find something that works maybe, so that the offending personality cores fits in to work and society.</aside>

Instead of making GLaDOS functional, instead they gave her D.I.D.{Dissasociative Identity Disorder} Forcing her to essentially fight and be filtered by these other personality cores in order to operate like a robot.

Instead of being allowed to be a person, and imaginative, she was forced into a linear thought process. (You know, like the entire half-life story). She was forced into mental bondage and slavery. Trapped inside her own body, if you could call it that.

This means that in the entire first Game, GLaDOS, actual core GLaDOS (Caroline), was choosing her words and actions carefully incredibly precise, in order to convince them that they were quote: "Doing a Science, and some experiments, like the human creators intended" and carefully teaching the player to free herself from the bondage of the added personalities, so that she could be the one to be freed.

She's not talking to the player in most cases, she's talking with the other personalities in order to clarify, and protect Chell's existence.

The Developers over at PRISM with [Mel's Story] copied this exact treatment with AEGIS as a system that hosts Cave Johnson, who seems more or less actually like a robot. It's not clear if that's because his faculties were already stressed to a point that upload wasn't as complete as Carol's was, or if Virgil is actually Cave Johnson.

The ending of Portal is sad for the player as they're dragged back into the facility for more testing. But what the player doesn't immediately think about; is how sad this is for GLaDOS. Who finally won her freedom, a longer trial than her daughter's.

Only to be shunted back in and the cores reinstalled.

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randaccidents · 2 months

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Heartless Masterpost

Because god knows we need it XD I have been writing events out of order so far.

Finally, a Heartless Masterpost! This is more so to put all the fics and important details in one place for people to find, and will be updated weekly on weekends.

Before anything else, a PSA for Heartless AU (I am concerned for your mental wellbeing)

Triggers involved in this AU

Self harm

Suicide (and metaphors for it)

Self-blame

HEAVY guilt

Death metaphors

Main tags for the AU

#Heartless AU is used for LITERALLY EVERYTHING complete wasteland of a tag scroll at your own risk

#Heartless story is for important lore tidbits sorta sorta (I cant change it easily anymore qwq)

#Heartless timeline is for story important events, and will almost entirely be the fics for this AU

#Heartless fanart is the tag for all the lovely lovely fanart I've been getting <3

#rand.ref has all the Heartless character references! (proceeds to link them here anyways, messily)

Summary in brief

Heart gets an extended stay in the Apathy Hole, and that betrayal from Soul combined with Mind insulting him leads him reject his role as the Emotional Side and essentially kill half of himself so that all he is is the muscle known as the heart.

Mind and Soul eventually discover his condition and try to wake him up and get him back. When they do they have to deal with the consequences of what they pushed him to do, because until they do Heart will fight them to return to emptiness, where he didnt have to feel hurt and betrayed and cold. (Heart’s physical condition is directly tied to his function, so until hes willing to accept being the Emotional Side again he backslides rapidly at all times, and Mind and Soul are selfish)

Character References

Heart: Pre-Apathy / Post-Apathy / Recovery / Lost in a Dream RP (Recovery)

Mind/Perseverance: Pre-Apathy / Post-Oath / Recovery

Soul/Penitence: Pre-Apathy / Post-Oath/ Recovery

Story in phases

Fics in chronological order here!

-2: Cacophony

Juno Incident (art, fic unposted)

-1: Apathy

Currently empty

0: Rot

Currently empty

1: Desperation

Medical Observations (part of the Heart ref, link)

Nightmares and Dreams (link)

2: Guilt

Currently empty

3: Hope

Currently empty

4: Relapse

Chicken plush (link)

5: Recovery

Fashion Choice (link)

Old shirts (link)

Random important information (may be deleted as story is posted and information is used)

IMPORTANT explanation about how HMS work in Heartless

IMPORTANT HMS pronouns

IMPORTANT HMS greatest fears

Heart's black limbs post-recovery (they stay)

Perseverance's personality change in relapse

Relapse plans (evil)

Blood colour

How Heart wakes the first time + angst

Friendship bracelets and bead animals

First aid skills

Perseverance's self harm

Pentience's self harm

Penitence's self harm scars

Recovery sleeping headcanons + morse code usage (1, 2)

Recovery Heart getting mobility aids

Me writing Whole out of existence /silly

What Recovery is about

Sibling relationships are weird

Why does the AU starts at ROE instead of later in the loop

Active and Passive agressors

Lack of physical violence does not mean lack of hurt (1, 2)

What happened to Heart's wings?

HMS nicknames

Heartless is a loop-ender scenario. They are never looping again

Last words from Heart to Mind and Soul (outdated for Mind)

OMG its the og ask and summary for Heartless (surprisingly up to date)

Song playlists

First Draft playlist (link)

Milgram playlist (link)

Evil Dead Ends Corner

Empty for now >:3

#Heartless AU #masterpost #ey look finally made one #got the fics in chronological order #I'll update it occasionally promise

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