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krovscastlerpg · 2 years

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Roleplay Advice: What to Do If You’re Feeling Ignored (2022 Version)

Have you ever felt ignored by other players in the group? Do you feel like your threads getting dropped left and right and your starters don’t have any replies? Does it seem like your character connections have dwindled down to a few select players and you’re terrified of reaching out to new potential partners in fear of rejection?

In the last few months, we’ve noticed a few players struggling with interactivity and possibly even activity in tandem. We get it. These slumps are bound to happen, especially for those of us who have been here with the same characters for years or since the beginning of the group and have barely made any traction with them development, connection, or plot-wise. It sucks. Even we admins have had moments where we’ve considered giving up on a beloved character because we felt they weren’t as desired or as popular with other players for a variety reasons over the others we have in our respective arsenals.

However, no matter how hard it truly sucks and how much it might disappoint when plots fall through or threads get rejected or dropped too soon, we feel that it shouldn’t stop anyone from continuing to try, try, and try again and again. Hopefully the tips we’ve come up with here help spark some confidence and inspiration back in our group of truly wonderful and respectable players.

WARNING: A heaping dose of tough love, zero sugarcoating, written below. It takes two to tango in a roleplay and we do believe that some of these issues stem from both sides. These scenarios and tips to combat them have been formulated from the admins’ personal experiences, what we’ve observed, what we’ve heard from other players, and various roleplay help blogs discussing the subject. This is NOT meant to call anyone out personally or offend anyone but merely offer some constructive criticism and hopefully helpful advice.

NOTE: We will be turning anon messages on for the week starting now (Monday, March 14th) as players read this post. We would love to hear any additional advice/suggestions, confessions, concerns/questions, etc. on this subject from our other players and these can be done either anonymously if you’re feeling shy or not. We will be publicly posting these from our inbox so everyone can see and participate in the conversation. If players would like to privately discuss anything with the admin team, please send messages through the chat system. Our OOC blog and Discord servers are also available for player on player discussion too.

More under the cut due to length.

Players, please LIKE this post so we know it has been read.

Tip #1: Avoid Taking Things Personally

“I’ve reached out to players personally but they’ve never responded/the conversation/plot never goes anywhere.”

“I’ve tried answering opens/starting threads with other players and they always get dropped.”

“I’ve tried interacting and getting plots going with players who inevitably disappear/drop the thread(s) before anything happens.”

These are some of the most used lines we’ve received from players when we discuss interactivity/activity issues. It is absolutely unfortunate when these things happen and we recognize that they do. We understand how frustrating and disappointing it can be to have something exciting lined up and then it falls through without any or much notice or explanation. It can feel like the equivalent of a first date that you think went great and you two talked about meeting up again and then the other person just ghosts us and blocks us on all dating apps, right? The questions pop up – is it me? Did I do something wrong? Do they not like me/my character? – and the self-doubt creeps in, building to crippling levels of anxiety and fear of approaching anyone that doesn’t exist within our comfort zone circles for anything.

Sound a little familiar? Let’s read on.

Do NOT take things like this personally. It’s definitely easier said than done, however, with practice and speaking from personal experiences, it does actually become easier. Yes, it’s tragic when things don’t work out that we’re excited for. Unfortunately, none of us have the power to necessarily control players/characters coming and going or partners dropping/losing threads that we enjoy. Let’s remember that we’re all adults and this is an online roleplay. This should be a source of fun, not a source of stress.

Try practicing this next time a player leaves you high and dry or a thread you loved gets dropped way too soon. Grab a pint of ice cream, a glass of wine, or whatever your preferred comfort food or alcoholic beverage might be, curl up in a chair with a blanket, cry about it for an hour or two if you need, take a break with your favorite TV show, movie, or video game, and then be like Elsa and let it go. Remind yourself that you are a great writer, it can’t always be helped, you’ll find someone new, and that you love your characters too much to give up. And then let’s give some of the other tips we have below a try – as many times as needed.

Tip #2: Communicate! (to the Point of Annoyance)

This is so important in a group roleplay. As mentioned, we are all adults over the age of 18. Most of us should know how to communicate our wants and needs effectively by now. And yes, we understand everyone has different levels of comfort when approaching a stranger on the internet where some are totally fine with it and others legitimately freeze in the middle of a highway like a deer in headlights at the idea. We can promise everyone in here that no one in the group bites (except the vampires and maybe the werewolves). While we can’t make anyone do anything they feel like they physically can’t or don’t want to, here are some of our advice points in this area that we feel help in a group:

Dropped threads? Feeling ignored by connections? Reach out to your partner! Another common question we always ask players when they mention threads getting dropped or plots with other characters falling through is “have you tried reaching out to them?” As admins, this is something we can’t exactly help you guys with, especially when it’s gotten to this point. It’s inevitable that threads dropping is going to happen at some point or another. If you don’t speak up to your partner about it, nothing will happen. If you’re enjoying the thread and want it to continue, say something to your partner. From our experience, most of the time when threads are dropped, it’s unintentional (tumblr never showed the notification, forgetfulness, etc.). If you don’t already practice this, get in the habit of it. Now, don’t immediately assume anything and jump on them right away if your partner just started their stack of replies for the first time on that character in a few days and yours wasn’t posted first or second. Wait a day or two to make sure; if the player is actively posting and your thread still isn’t coming, feel free to politely ask if they’ve seen your latest reply and remind them that you are interested in continuing things if they are. Based on their response, go from there. If you get a reply, great! If you’re still waiting, you’ve brought it up and left the ball in the other player’s court and you can choose to either remind them again or leave it be.

No response from players you’re reaching out to? If you are in the camp of reaching out about dropped threads or plots and you’re not getting a response from the player, don’t be afraid to reach out again. And again. Some of us go through busy days or weeks, most of us live in different timezones, sometimes replying to someone in a roleplay about a thread or plot idea is just completely forgotten. If you feel like you’re being ignored, wait a day or two, and then politely reach out asking if the player is interested in continuing the conversation. After all that, if you still haven’t received a response from them on tumblr messaging or discord yet the player has clearly been online, then either drop it and move on or feel free to bring it to the main so the admins are aware and can step in, if necessary. That said...

Be honest. On the other side of the screen, let’s practice these qualities. If someone asks you about continuing a thread, please SPEAK UP if you have no interest or intention in actually replying. If you’re no longer feeling muse for the thread for any reason, say so and TALK to your partner. Give them an explanation – it’s not working out for your character, you feel the thread’s gone stale (basically it’s been going on for a while with nothing of interest happening) and you’ve lost muse (or see if you two can discuss ways to shake it up if you feel there might be something salvageable or suggest an idea for something new), you feel the thread is pretty close to ending as you can’t think of anything else to happen, if you don’t think a plot or a connection is working out between your characters, etc. DO NOT avoid talking to someone because you’re afraid of hurting their feelings. We always feel that it’s better to have a direct answer and something to work with than making one up for ourselves. Everyone in the group has the right to say if something isn’t working out with another player, be it a plot, a connection, or a thread, and it allows the other player to move on and find something else with someone else instead of feeling like they’re wasting their time.

Follow through on your word. Also in the same vein as honesty, if you say you’re going to reply a thread or that you’re going to post a starter for someone, just do it. You’ve likely been told the starter is up or that it’s your turn to reply to a thread. You will come off as an unreliable partner when you inevitably don’t reply or don’t post the starter even after a reminder or two and you’ve promised to do it. Not many folks are interested in writing with someone considered unreliable. And if you have a legitimate reason for why you haven’t gotten the starter up in two weeks, tell your partner. Let them know what’s going on and ensure them you’ll get it up as soon as you can or see if they can take the job off your plate if you’ve been too busy to rp.

Tip #3: Interactions (Shove Your Characters Out There)

It doesn’t matter if your character has been in the group for five minutes or five years, keep pushing them out there for interactions. Nothing’s going to improve the “I’m feeling ignored” situation if you sit back on your hands and wait for someone to magically and suddenly realize that you and your character are so fun and wonderful to write with and approach you out of the blue. Spoiler alert: it’s not going to happen unless YOU make it happen. This is, in our experience, how cliques form by players choosing to write and plot with their closest friends and they refuse to reach out to anyone else once they’ve found their circle. This is also how bubbling and then drops in activity occur as these players then sit around and wait for their 2-4 best buddies who have gone on hiatus or aren’t active every single day so they have nothing to reply to.

This is not how a group roleplay works. Just like in life, all of our players need to put in some work and effort to get what they want.

Let’s do some quick and easy math. We currently have almost 30 different players in the group as of today. Our rules on interactivity state that everyone needs a minimum of ten (10) players per month. That’s a minimum of 1/3 of the group. If one person doesn’t want to write with you, there’s still 20+ more in here to work with.

No, players are not expected to befriend and chat about daily life events with every single member of the group. No, we will not force players to interact with someone they don’t feel comfortable with for any reason (this is in our rules). Yes, some players – especially the long-timers who have more chemistry writing together – are bound to get along better than others and will talk to each other about work, and ships, and plots, and threads all day every day. However, what is important is that each player remembers that there are more people in this group than just their friends and they should continue attempting to be inclusive of those players. If this is a difficult concept for you, then perhaps a group roleplay is not meant for you and you should consider moving your private “friends only” roleplays elsewhere.

For those who balk at the idea of privately approaching someone new, these tips are especially for you.

Never ignore an open starter (if you can). This is such a quick and easy way to get new threads going with characters without the stress of approaching someone and struggling to come up with a thread idea. If you see an open starter (regardless of how many responders there are) and your character vibes with it, reply to it! No one is going to say no to more replies on their open starter and both players ultimately benefit from it in the end. If you absolutely can NOT make it work for whatever reason, then that’s okay too – respond to another open starter or, if you’re feeling brave enough, reach out to the player and see if there is another way your character and theirs can interact.

Don’t see any new opens that you can reply to or that you haven’t already replied to? Make your own! We’ve seen a decrease in open starters per week lately and this is, again, another easy way to get threads going if you still need more. There’s no limit on posting open starters so post as many as you like to get more interactions coming in. If you feel like your open starters don’t get enough attention...

Try to make your open starters appealing and engaging. The best open starters we’ve seen are the ones that are easy to reply to and open for anything. It can be done with some action, perhaps a line of dialogue invoking a question for a deep discussion or asking another for help with something. Set the scene up nicely for others to respond and leave it open for varying responses. This is also somewhat true for closed starters. Here are some helpful links for improving starters:

Tips for Writing RP Starters

Writing Effective Starters: An Essay

Tips for Writing Closed Starters

Advertise your open starter like it’s your job. Once you post an open starter, don’t just rely on our starter blog or the admins advertising it. We will do what we can to ensure all opens get at least five responders per our rules. Players also have the right to pimp out their starter to get as many replies as they can. Throw that starter’s link out everywhere – in the OOC blog, in our Discord channel, harass your friends to get on it, pull shameless plugs on it with flashing neon arrows pointing at it if you want new interactions with new players but have no specific thread ideas. Do whatever you can to get people to notice your open starter!

Participate in anon hours and inbox games. Like open starters, this is a great way to get new threads and interactions going. Especially sending things off anon or sentence starters to characters that you usually don’t interact with – not just your friends – or haven’t threaded with before without the struggle of needing to come up with an idea beforehand. And trust us, we ALL love to be on the receiving end of inbox notifications and seeing something in there for us to reply to.

If you make a plot request or reach out for threads, please be prepared. So often we approach a player for a thread and there’s the painful back and forth of “well, what would you like to do?” “I don’t know, I’m game for anything” conversation that takes maybe five years off our lifespan. For the love of god, have something when you do this, especially if you’re the one going to the other player who’s likely unprepared for this interaction or you’re the one making a request for plots and threads. You don’t need to be a Houdini of plotting, pulling exciting angst or fluff or drama out of nothing before your characters even hit the dash (if you are and it works, more props to you!). Even just a “I could really use some friends for my character, let’s see if ours work together” is helpful and great and could potentially lead to bigger plots in the future.

Make yourself known in the OOC blog/OOC chat. Even if you’re not communicating one on one with other players, this is also important and an effective tool for gaining new rp partners. Showing that you’re an active member both OOC and on the dash is a great way of showing that you’re online and available. These are also excellent tools for communicating with everyone for multiple needs. Just came off a two month hiatus and want to drop all old threads and start fresh? Post it in the OOC. Been busy with work and real life and haven’t been around to do replies but want everyone to know the reason for silence and inactivity? Post it in the OOC. Bored with no replies to do or just want to shoot the shit? Post it in the OOC. Who knows? Maybe that conversation you started about the weather will turn into a private thread discussion with someone online at the same time as you.

Tip #4: Character Plots and Development

Let us be painfully honest here: if other people don’t find your character appealing to write with, it might be your own fault. Harsh truth. Sorry. It likely has nothing to do with the character’s faceclaim or the personality not meshing well with another character’s (although those can be factors too), it’s more likely that you yourself lack the knowledge of what to do and where you’re going with your character. Nobody knows your original character better than YOU do. You are the only person responsible for your character’s development progress. Not your ship or connection partner or anyone else in the group. You. And if you don’t put the effort into advancing your character’s story or thinking up ideas for what you’d like your character to experience and pushing them forward, then your character will end up stagnant with nothing interesting going on. And that, in turn, may be one of the sources of low interest in your character.

Regardless, if the insecurity in your character is something you think you can fix and isn’t essential to leave as is (such as their personality or background), take the time to work on it! There are plenty of ways to do some solo character development.

Do some personality tests. MBTI, enneagram, life numbers, zodiac signs, Hogwarts house, Ilvermorny house, patronus charm, spirit animal – literally whatever and everything you can find. Do a whole psychological analysis on your character, sometimes this helps spark some new life in a muse learning something new about them. We did a task with some fun personality tests linked HERE a while back.

Do some of our tasks – new or old! It doesn’t matter how much time has passed, you’re welcome to do them at any time. Check out some of the development tasks in the tag HERE.

Consider what YOU want for your character. Has there been something you’ve been dying to do with your character? Share it in the OOC or talk about the idea with another player one on one. Find a way to make it happen. And if it doesn’t? If it falls through because the other player drops the ball? Find another way. Surely someone in the group will love to keep this plot going with you in an enjoyable and fun way.

Think of some new connection ideas. This is probably and especially easier with characters who have lived over 100 years or even over 1,000 years. Is your character’s backstory pretty open for new connections they knew before coming to Krovs? Could they have untold stories or flings before the castle? Get in the habit of reading character bios (if you don’t already) before you go to the player for thread ideas. If you see an opportunity for trying an established connection, pitch it! The worst thing that could happen is the other player may say “no, I don’t think it’ll work.” And if it does work, great! Now you have a new partner and perhaps a doorway to some future and interesting plots with that connection. Here are some helpful links for development, connection, and plot ideas:

Character Connections Masterlist

Connections Masterlist

A Masterlist of Useful Ideas (including Connections & Plot Ideas)

How to Make Your Supernatural Characters More Interesting

Get your character involved with other plots! See someone else post a request for a plot idea they have? Does your character’s connection have a plot separate from yours going on? See if you can throw your character in there to participate! It may or may not open some new doors to more connections and plots for your own character and you’ll again show that you’re an inclusive member. From our experience, inclusive members typically get more volunteers returning the favor when it’s their time to push their own character’s plot.

Tip #5: NEVER Feel Guilty for Speaking Up

Same as tip #1 only in reverse but also a continuation of tip #2. There is always going to be something that another player might do that stresses, upsets, or absolutely infuriates us. It’s sometimes enough to even affect our muses, right? Fun fact: most of the time, it’s completely unintentional from the other side. Some example scenarios might include...

Don’t want to interact with a player any more because they’ve consistently dropped each and every one of your threads early on yet continues to ask you for more?

Have too many threads going across your characters and feeling too overwhelmed to take on another right now?

Other player’s starter or thread response not enough to work with and you’re struggling?

Lost muse for a character connected to another and need to drop them or need to leave the group?

Is the other player’s response guilty of god-modding or metagaming and you’re not a fan?

Feel like you’re no longer involved in a claim connection as your partner’s master threads more with his other slave than yours?

Just tell your partner and be honest. It’s always better to say something than nothing. And nothing will get resolved if we all complain to our friends instead of facing the issue head on. In fact, it’s only likely to fester into something worse over time as nothing’s said and the other player has no idea that their behavior is upsetting you.

Again, we’re all adults here. We’re a reasonable bunch. Let’s act like it. It’s important to communicate no matter how friendly you are with the other person you’re writing with because it’s considerate to keep them informed. Please do not let guilt and fear of hurting feelings or starting an issue get in the way of saying something. Actually talking civilly to the other person about a situation and how their actions have (unintentionally) made you feel is the best way to start a discussion and end the problem on a positive note. This is something, along with all the previously mentioned tips, that we admins as players will put into practice ourselves too. For anyone who might not feel comfortable or strong in this type of communication department, players are always welcome to reach out to an admin with a situation for advice and to have messages checked for tone before talking to another player.

That said, if a conversation like this turns hostile, immediately stop responding and tell an admin on the main. Once things stop being civil over an online roleplay, then it’s most likely not worth the effort of continuing if the other player doesn’t want to engage appropriately and maturely.

If you’re ever approached by another player wanting to talk about something that’s been bothering them, have the decency to listen. No, you’re not being made out as a villain and no, you might not be wrong. However, your actions have still hurt your writing partner whether it was intentional or not. Hear them out, apologize, and feel free to explain your side as you two work to clear the air.

To summarize...

Yes, feelings of being ignored and left out in a group roleplay suck. However, they’re more common than everyone might think. Everyone, even those who’ve been here for years and the admins, have gone through these moments. It’s important to remember that inclusion is a two-way street. Get your characters out there, answer and post more open starters, generally keep better track of threads and avoid dropping too much (unless you have to), respond to more plot requests, talk to each other more. Hopefully these methods will help resolve those awful feelings of exclusion and revive those muses for some fresh threads and plots.

And if you’re still feeling left out after all this? Tell the group! Talk to an admin on the main, we’re always here to listen! Post it in the OOC so other players can see. We guarantee someone in the group will reach out or respond in hopes of helping out.

#krovscastleadmin #open forum

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dis--parity · 2 years

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——— BASICS !

(PEN)NAME: Aria!

PRONOUNS: she/her or they/them

ZODIAC SIGN: Aquarius sun, Cancer moon, Saggitarius rising (I don’t know what moon and rising signs actually mean but hey ho)

TAKEN OR SINGLE: taken but I’m poly (but I love my partner very very very much)

——— THREE FACTS !

I’ve started to get a little more in-touch with my spiritual side recently, and I’m looking into setting up an altar for Aphrodite! All this started after I received a table for free (it was sitting in the foyer with a note saying it was free so I thought hey, why not), so now I’m just looking for a nice table cloth for it and some decor to really amp up the feminine side of it! I’ve always wanted to do this, so I’m very excited for it!

Ever since I got into a D&D campaign recently, DM’d by a lovely, lovely person in Topaxi, I’ve honestly been hyperfixating on that wayyyyyyyyy more than I should have, to the point where I’ve even considered making a blog for one of my player characters! The only thing holding me back from it is the fact that the last time I tried that, it didn’t get any traction and eventually fell apart.

I have a new pitch for an in-character story arc before the real story of the blog is written out, but i just haven’t had the time or energy to focus on it as of yet! I promise I’ll get something out very soon after exams are done, though!

——— EXPERIENCE !

PLATFORMS USED: In chronological order, I think... Skype, Shamchat, Chatzy, Tumblr (duh), and Discord.

I first established a blog on tumblr in... I think 2016? And I remade into this blog in early 2020, so that leaves me with 6 years of experience on this platform.

——— MUSE PREFERENCE !

GENDER: [looks at my roster] ... yeah I might have a thing for female / femme muses HOWEVER male muses are also very fun to write! I don’t really have any preference honestly, the only thing I really critique myself on is their designs as they are right now. Like, I kinda headcanon Alex as being a bit more chubby than her ref sheet suggests, and I don’t put enough emphasis on Yeong-Hui’s scars, either. But, that’s a whole other rabbit hole.

LEAST FAVOURITE FACE(S): I uh. I’m honestly not sure what this question is asking??? Faceclaims are faceclaims, sure I’ve had one or two ruined for me but it’s kinda whatever at this point. The only thing I’m slightly iffy on is IRL faceclaims but unless they’re used to aid an RP blog for an Actual Real Person (I saw an RP blog for the dude from Flubber once and I’m still not over it) then it’s fine as a stylistic choice.

MULTI OR SINGLE: I’ve flipped and flopped between multimuse and single muse quite a lot - I even considered having Theo and Souji on their own separate blog, or even just giving Theo his very own blog, just to keep things consistent. But, honestly, having all of these options here suits me, especially seeing as they’re all in the same story. The thing that burned me out on my last blog was one muse getting more attention than others, and then me burning out on all of them, so I dunno.

——— FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT ! ♡

FLUFF: I love it! Platonic, romantic, slice-of-life threads that don’t necessarily go anywhere, let’s do it! It’s the easiest way to measure and develop the chemistry between two muses, and get them talking about what matters to them in life, and all that - if it’s romantic, or in the pining stage, mixing it up with some affectionate gestures is just SO GOOD LIKE. OOOUGH

ANGST: Oh, you mean my favourite form of revealing backstory! Whether it be through relating an experience that two muses are having with each other to something in their past that it reminds them of, or facing something that had happened to them, opening up about something from my. [coughs] very expansive lore. it’s the best way to trick me into talking backstory and lore!

SMUT: Fuck yeah bro I love to smut it up! With the introduction of Theo to the blog, I’ve seen a lot more friends-with-benefits relationships come in through his bonds, but that’s honestly still so good! At the very least, it gives me an outlet to actually write smut every now and again, which is always awesome... I just wish my other muses would get the same treatment. I do most of my more risqué threads (if I know it’ll be ongoing) over on my other blog, here.

PLOT / MEMES: Memes are better to break the ice and just get interactions going, but once I see a bit of chemistry unfold between two muses, I’m more than happy to plot! My only fear is that when I do plot, it’s not met with quite the same enthusiasm from the other side because I am. aheh. VERY much prone to the brainrot sometimes. More involved plots REALLY do get me going though, and I’d love to have more of them!

TAGGED BY: @causalitylinked (thank u livi ily) TAGGING: I don’t tend to tag people in these but if you wanna do it then go ahead!

#[The Voice From Beyond] OOC

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antiloreolympus · 2 years

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10 Anti LO Asks

1. I know it won't happen, but I do wish maybe around the fourth year anniversary of LO in March Rachel would put it on a mid-season hiatus and take a real, long break off. Maybe not a year, but definitely several months, maybe half a year at bare minimum. Going literal /years/ without a real break to just relax and recharge cannot be good physically, mentally, or emotionally, and she has enough of a dedicated fanbase that it won't hurt it's numbers. If not for the comic's sake, then for herself.

2. whats annoying to me about people being mad at "antis" is like none of these blogs or discords would even need to exist if these same people actually let real discussion and critique be allowed in the fan spaces without fear of doxxing, harassment, and threats? most of the critique isnt even particularity bad, but they act like you personally killed their mother right in front of them and force you out, then get mad people have to create blogs like this just to talk? you cant win with them.

3. Didn't realize Rachel was against fan edits of the comic. she must have gotten too jealous of how much better @nymphsupremacy is at their editing work 💀

From OP: I think RS is more against people editing/reposting any artwork she makes of the comic outside of webtoon (not all the time but most times from what I’ve seen). I can see why she’d be annoyed since some fans see her draw anything LO related and think it’s fine to edit/repost it.

Also, stan @nymphsupremacy!

4. IDK how RS has nearly 200k twitter followers yet most of her tweets a best only break about 5k likes. Same on instagram which has over 657k followers yet her posts only get about 50k likes. Like that's less than 10% of her followers on either app actually liking and engaging with her posts. Like LO fanart gets more traction than her own posts. That's just odd to me.

From OP: Tbf, that happens to a lot of artists (especially on insta). I can’t count the amount of times I’ve seen artists move accs because of the lack of engagement.

5. It might just be me but does it just seem RS seems really burned out/miserable in most of her social media posts now? Like you can just look at her old asks on this blog and see she was far more chipper in her older responses, but now recent stuff seems so blunt. Even her celebrating something good is just so devoid of joy. Episode announcements are also just like "ok go read it now" and that's about it? IDK, I just feel like she needs a serious break, especially in the New Year.

From OP: I think that has to do with the success of the comic. The bigger LO got, the more work RS has to do since she is no longer a small creator. But that’s just what I think.

6. I think the "Homer would love LO" comment is even dumber bc one) If he existed (A lot fo scholars don't think he did) he would hate every non-Greek retelling, much less LO, but more so two) Wasn't a big selling point to LO that it "reclaims mythology from the misogynistic men of ancient times" like? So why would you claim Homer, a misogynistic man from ancient times, would love it then? Isn't that exactly the person you WOULDN'T want to love your story? Shouldn't you want him to hate it instead?

7. deadass tho didnt rachel go to art school? one of the main things they do there (or tbh anny art class) is critique. its required for every project so you learn what you did wrong and to learn from it. did se seriously go her entire art education and not get critique? or was she just coddled by her teachers or something? bc it just doesnt line up.

8. girl i just read the last chapter and omg i can't believe they really did the whole "Hades baby look at me this isn't you uwu" thing 💀💀💀

9. do they want us to call out the guys too because i will. hades is easily the worst character in the whole series, he has only become worse and worse as time goes on, and his relationship to persephone is a disaster waiting to happen. thanatos was and still is abused by him. apollo is a terrible villain with zero drip. zeus isnt actually wrong. poseidon deserves better. hermes deserves better. ares looks like a rotten orange. hephaestus is not actual disability rep no matter what rachel says.

10. LO is really heading into the 200 episode range with no end in sight. The trial still isn't even done! They haven't even touched on Semele, Eros and Psyche, Leto trying to make Apollo take down Zeus, or Kronos! Or even the main myth with Demeter! Like is that another 2-4 years of content then, if not more? When is it ever supposed to end? How is any of this supposed to wrap up without it being rushed and/or most of these plots left with no conclusion? Even HxP isn't technically together by now!

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

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dulcetgames · 3 years

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About our Discord Server

Hello everyone!

It has come to our attention that we haven’t been clear enough with our community management vision. Therefore, I’m going to address the big talking points one by one.

1) The moderation team + Negative criticism claim

For all of our server’s existence, I have never seen a mod abuse of their power or shut down negative criticism. Ever. I’ve asked around plenty and have confirmed with our discord members that this is, in fact, a false claim. Nobody has been able to provide proof of this so far.

It’s important to note that mod team’s job has been and will continue to be the safety and well-being of this server’s members. These people have put themselves on the frontlines of so many things to keep you guys safe from doxxers, racists, and general unsavory people. They’re not perfect, but they’ve been doing their job spectacularly well so far.

On that note, this is why when a mod tells you to drop something, they have their reasons. But I know for a fact that you giving negative feedback is not one of them. In fact, multiple people have given us negative reviews here, and none of them have been reprimanded. Why? Because the one and only rule is to keep it civil and constructive. If you do that, then there’s no problem. If you’re being rude, then yes, of course, the mods are going to come after you.

That being said, if ever you spot an issue with a mod, you think they’re being too harsh, toxic or abusing perms, then please contact an Admin. Admins are here to deal with this behavior and stop it. We’re here for you.

2) The switch from Tumblr to Discord for interactivity

Our discord server has been created by fans to facilitate interactions with each other. Recently, it got given to me in order to make this server into an official community server. That being said, the purpose stays the same: this server is meant for fans to interact and engage with them in a more efficient manner, as well as for us, the devs to do so. The point of this is to grow the community.

Our social media accounts are the window by which the outside world sees us. They’re here to give announcements and get traction to our games. Those two platforms are extremely different, and it is nearly impossible to re-create the same vibe and environment of discord on our SM platforms (and vice-versa).

Furthermore, with Dulcet about to host three games made by three different creators with three different release schedules, conducting events on our Tumblr and Insta is pretty much a logistical nightmare. For now, it’s a lot more efficient to do so on Discord.

That being said, with the addition of our new community manager, all of our social media platforms should be a lot more active. In fact, I’m sure you guys saw this already with our launch campaign for Black Tarot. We’re not abandoning our outside social media guys. But if it happens that our get a lot more engagement here (and we do), you can’t blame our content creators for the next point…

3) Discord exclusives + Celebrity cult (???)

Let’s get something clear: If any, and I mean any (yes, that includes me) Dulcet creator involves themselves in this kinda celebrity worship cult behavior as claimed, I will be the first to nip it in the bud. But to be honest? I haven’t seen it happen so far. All I’ve seen is people uplifting each other, and that is regardless of whether they are devs or players. If you pay a little bit attention, you’ll see that people get complimented left and right on this server. That’s just the nature of this (incredible) community.

Furthermore, I know that @the-andy-world @zenothemanager and I gone out of our way to treat you guys like our friends and stay approachable to the fans. It’s important to us that everyone is treated equally.

On that note: None of our creators are obligated to give you exclusives. They’re human. They’re doing this out of the joy of their hearts, and they’re doing this for free. Literally all you need to do is be slightly active here in order to reach level 1, and you get access to exclusive stuff. I’d like to point out that other developers will literally only do this through Patreon… and even then. I understand that you guys want content, but please, let’s not get entitled towards to people who produce that content. Especially when they don’t have to do it.

4) Fandom content creators

Fandom content creators do not owe you anything. Fanartists and fanwriters do not need to post their content on Tumblr or any other platform. They don’t even need to post it on our discord. It’s their content, their time, their effort… and they’re sharing this from the heart. Please be thankful for that, because I know I am.

If they decide to be active here. That’s their choice. If they decide to only be active on social media? Also their choice. It’s in no way Dulcet Games’ responsibility as to where they post their stuff. Just like we don’t have the right to tell them what to do, please know that you don’t either.

Also, if a fan content maker decides to post here but not on social media… They most likely have good reasons for that. Please consider that.

Lastly, I want to re-iterate that everyone here is open to your opinion, as long as it is said respectfully. Feel free to DM me, the mods or the admins for further clarification.

Thank you all for reading and happy playing!

Love,

Serena

#dulcet games #sweet elite #black tarot #kortia #official update #fandom #discord

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stillness-in-green · 3 years

Note

I'm not really active in the MHA fandom or blog- but I agree a lot with your points on OH. To be fair though- I don't think weekly schedule in itself facilitate great writing imo b/c Mangaka's don't have the time to revise their drafts (they get usually max 6 hours of time to work on each page- everything from name to final touch ups- monthly authors get up to 2 days for each page), there's literally not enough time to think, reread or to adjust things. But I think Hori's reaching a point where it's not sustainable for him to keep at the pace he started MHA with. So he's cutting corners to move the plot faster- but compressed plotlines will come with executional pitfalls. That's just the limits of the medium when you don't have a dedicated writer/ don't have everything pre-planned. It's getting more apparant now, because we're in the final arc- and people are expecting pay offs to start happening. And in considering that the 'conversation' deku and OH had was supposed to be payoff on OH's character thread? It's a lotta waffling imo. I'm over it at this point- because If Hori is actually doing this because it's for his own health- then I'd rather he do that. regardless of whether I like his story or not- it's still his story- so the priority imo is so long as he's happy with his work- that's what should matter more. It doesn't mean it's above critque, or that we should all like it, not at all, ones reactions are one's own, and genuine in their emotions. There's nothing wrong with expressing such on ones own blog, and tagging it in the fanom. Critiques ultimately for those of us doing so, is moreso for ourselves, either those who want to work on creating our own IP, or just want some benchmarks to keep in mind in reading future stories and anticipating what actually appeals to one's own tastes. I just want to make a shoutout of all of that, cause I can tell some of the people reblogging your OH post don't get it at all and are too busy in the "I'm right, you're wrong mindset"- which is-realistically speaking nothing new when it comes to internet fandoms- but still missing the point of what you were saying. Unfortunatly- Tumblr's reply function is pretty much ass when it comes to anything of length on an actual post though. So hope you don't mind the rando tldr from a passer by.

Heya anon, I definitely don't mind the passer-by message. You're right about Hori's ridiculous work schedule. I complained during the war arc about all the breaks, but now I definitely wish he would take a few more than he has been. Not just for the story's sake, but also for his own--it's been AGES since he had one, it seems like. And in fairness, I can hardly expect him to make the time to do a bunch of research on e.g. the detrimental psychological impact of solitary confinement on his schedule.

In truth, the rant was mostly to get it off my chest. Normally, I save my most annoyed complaining for Discord, but sometimes when it feels like no one else is saying the things I want to see said (about Deku's motivations there, about the PLF arrests, about the MLA's views on quirk supremacy, etc), my motivation overflows.

Ultimately, I've been making my peace with the idea of jettisoning canon pretty much since Chapter 240 dropped and featured a Re-Destro whose characterization I liked considerably less than Chapter 239's Re-Destro,* so the idea of writing off the canon after a certain point and just writing the fic I want to write is something I'm very prepared to do.

Still, it'd be nice to be happy with the canon itself, and I really am hoping to be! There's so much good and interesting stuff going on in the series, really challenging material, and like many others, I hope that this arc is about really pushing Hero Society and its defenders to the breaking point so that they can see that the system they have does have to change--just to pick the obvious example, I don't want to see Hawks proven right that a system that could produce him and Lady Nagant is worth salvaging just because Deku is a good person.

Thanks for the message, anon! I grew out of the phase of being bothered by people who willfully miss my point or read me in bad faith many, many fandoms ago, so I'm not too concerned with the people in the comments doing that--I've gotten some very thoughtful responses and much more traction than I'd been expecting, so I'm glad the rant reached some like-feeling people! Here's to hoping Horikoshi gets some rest, and we all can find satisfaction in the story he's working so hard to bring us.

(*Regarding 239 vs. 240's Re-Destro, while I have my problems with how the MLA is being treated in general, the canon has given me more good RD material. I will probably never be over him calling Shigaraki "savior and liberator" and getting indignant about Shigaraki's safety GOOD SHIT GOOD SHIT. Also Clone!RD talking about the relief of only having to present one face to the world and wistfully reflecting on his group's sought-after Liberation as he falls into nothing I am still shook.)

#stillness answers #bnha

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bb8sworld · 4 years

Text

— litoreus, part i

pairing: god of the sea!obi-wan kenobi x reader

word count: 7k (*sweats nervously*)

a/n: greetings, and welcome to the first part of my new series! i don’t know how better to summarize this story than by saying that kara (@karasong) said “neptune is a dilf” then val (@milleniumvalcon) said a statue of poseidon looked like obi-wan, and it spiraled from there. so many thanks to the discord for the idea of this poseidon!obi au.

-- ☆ -- ☆ -- ☆ -- ☆ --

Destiny. Fate. Will. Luck. Fortune. Chance. Predestination.

Words Obi-Wan Kenobi was intimately familiar with in a multitude of different tongues, languages, dialects, and scripts. Words that have altered in connotation throughout history but have remained steadfast in their use. Words that he didn’t believe in but knew nonetheless. As someone who has been around as long as he has, and as someone who knows the inner workings of the universe and was created shortly after it’s conception, he’s aware that the ideas of Fate and Destiny were innately… human. Something clung onto by ordinary people who dwelled on the Earth and needed reassurance for an occurrence in their lives or ideas blamed for any wrongdoing that came their way.

No, Obi-Wan Kenobi didn’t believe in Fate, Destiny, Fortune, or whatever other terms may be used to describe these phenomena. Everything had an order, everything had a purpose, and things didn’t happen “by chance” or “just because.” They happened because they were supposed to, not because some outside force separate from the godly beings decided to intervene. As a godly being himself, he thinks he would know if there were outside forces beyond him and his fellow gods having any say in the universe.

One of the many perks of being a god, he supposed.

Being a god was tricky business, and it was a job that often didn’t pay in kind. From his very creation, Obi-Wan had struggled with this role of his, from who he was, who he was meant to be, and how he was supposed to act.

Despite being named Obi-Wan Kenobi upon “birth,” he has gone by a plethora of different names throughout his immortal life thus far—such as Olokun, Lir, Hapi, Poseidon, Neptune, Enbilulu, and Njord, just to name a few. So many names to describe one being who ruled, guarded, and protected the seas and oceans. Each one attuned to the civilization in which the name originated from, but all converging together to describe the same god. And from it came an outpouring of love and awe. It was flattering, to say the least, that humans at one point cared so much about him that they would craft pieces of artwork dedicated to him. Or how they would construct temples of worship for him so that they might have a place to pray for safe voyages, either for themselves or loved ones. It made him feel good and loved and appreciated and a whole litany of positive affirmations that humans use to describe this gooey feeling nestled within him.

Obi-Wan loved to help humanity and had always been infatuated with them—their cultures, lifestyles, relationships, emotions, everything. And any time he helped, he got to learn a little bit more about what made humans so human. Sometimes when he did intervene in their matters and was praised for it, he couldn’t help but wonder if that was what it felt like to be human. To be loved, appreciated, adored, wanted.

But being a god wasn’t always so pleasant and flattering.

Sometimes, if a storm churned in the ocean and caused a shipwreck, his name would be cursed at in such hatred and despair as grief overtook the humans. It stung and was incredibly painful to hear, but unfortunately, he didn’t always have control over those situations. Whenever this happened, he would wonder if the feelings he felt were the same ones humans did in response to these occurrences—unloved, hated, disgusted, guilty, remorseful.

Obi-Wan really, truly wanted to take suffering away from the very humans who had fascinated him for centuries, but that’s not the way the universe works. Matters of life and death were not his jurisdiction, even if either of these happened in the blue waves below. It fell to the god of the underworld who was the overseer of death, so therefore Obi-Wan’s hands were tied. He only had control over the voyage's journey, not the destination of the passengers, meaning he was often forced to watch as lives were taken at sea and his name was sworn against in wrath.

But like with all things brought to the attention of humanity, people move on. And unfortunately for Obi-Wan, as times changed and new beliefs gained traction, that meant humans moved on from their old ways and religions—from the other gods and from him.

Despite his presence once being well-known and called upon in times of need and worship and gratitude, his importance dwindled in the eyes of the humans until he was all but nonexistent. His very being and all his life’s work were boiled down to a name that was somehow both him yet not him, written offhandedly in a history textbook for children to be aware of for a test but to forget immediately afterward. His life became a story sometimes told in a mythology book or two, often censored and abridged for audiences to “understand better.” He became a name people were familiar with but knew little about.

And so humanity had moved on from him, but he hadn’t moved on from humanity.

He was still endlessly intrigued by everything they were about and everything they had to offer, but because of his godly status, he never dared to go down and explore for himself, despite other gods having done so for one reason or another. And every day he was a little more tempted to go down and see what was new and exciting. Every time he saw another god leave to head down, he got a little bit closer to asking if he could join.

That being said, he did stay connected where he could. Throughout all of human history, art had been made in his name, and sometimes he would clear his mind and connect to those works as he did back in the ancient days and listen in on what was being said. Sometimes he caught snippets of stories from those who stood nearby. Sometimes he heard tales of his own life being taught to a younger generation in museums. But it had been a long time since he heard anyone talk to him. And despite his lack of belief in Fate or Destiny or whatever you wanted to call it, he couldn’t help but wish for the times to change and for one person to talk to him instead of about him. He wished that someone would answer his pathetic call and just talk to him.

So imagine his surprise when one day someone picked up.

At first, he thought it to be an accident. No way had someone genuinely believed he was real and manifested the powers to protect them when they traveled at sea, nor had someone directly contacted him in years for any reason. With all the new methods of transportation and exploration in the seas and oceans, most people went on those devices willingly without saying a quick prayer to him for the waters to be safe. Which was fine, really. He knew his place. Doesn’t mean he didn’t feel a little pang of hurt every time he saw a cruise ship head out or people go boating or children learn how to canoe.

But no… this call was different. It wasn’t a history lesson, or someone singing to themselves near a statue of him, or just some background clutter. No, this one felt different. And so, Obi-Wan sat on the floor of his room, closed his eyes, and began to slip into a meditative state in order to hear the call better.

“—maybe… we hang the light a foot more to the right? And tilt it just a tiny bit backward… there. Perfect! Look at you, Poseidon—or do you prefer Neptune—whatever, it doesn’t matter. But look at you, all cleaned up, restored, illuminated, and ready to go on display when the exhibit opens tomorrow. Let’s hope the visitors appreciate you in your polished state. Are you ready?”

Ah, so a new exhibit was going up featuring, presumably, a statue of him made by one of the ancient Greeks or Romans he oversaw so many centuries ago. He was about to tune out the voice and slip out of his meditative state when the voice picked up again.

“—god I must sound crazy. Just look at me, talking to a statue of a god who doesn’t even exist.” A beat. “I wish you did though, you seem like you’d be better company than some of the other people around here. Wishful thinking, eh, Neptune? Or… Poseidon… ugh, this is what happens when it’s an ancient Greek and Roman exhibit, there are too many double names—”

And off the voice went on a tangent about finishing up illuminating each of the iconic pieces of artwork and organizing pamphlets about the new exhibit in the information stands. From the sounds of it, the person behind the voice presumably worked at some museum where a new exhibit of him and the other gods in his life was being put together.

Maybe… maybe he could go down and visit it sometime. At least to see the art he hadn’t seen in many years. And if he happened to stumble across the worker with the voice he just tuned into, then he’d consider that a happy accident despite that very claim going against his beliefs about Fate. But how could he head down from his home in the clouds without raising suspicion among the other gods? He was notorious for keeping his distance once humanity forgot him, instead preferring to observe from afar and rejecting any offers to head down to the land.

The answer came in the form of Anakin Skywalker—also known as Camulus, Svetovid, Teutates, Ares, Mars, Odin, and Montu, to name a few—the god of war and the manifestation of the spirit of battle. He was a frequent visitor of the land and was undoubtedly Obi-Wan’s best friend. Not to mention, he regularly asked Obi-Wan to join him in hopes of getting him “out of his hermit lifestyle and back to the land of the living,” to quote Anakin, but Obi-Wan had either made excuses or flat out rejected his offer. But maybe it was high time he said yes.

With his plan in mind, now all he had to do was wait for Anakin to approach him and ask. And sure enough, just a few earth days later, Anakin showed up outside of Obi-Wan’s room with a cheeky smile on his face and a “ready to be done with being a recluse?” comment as expected. And though Anakin wouldn’t ever admit it to Obi-Wan’s face, Obi-Wan could see the true concern reflecting in his eyes alongside the expectation of getting rejected. Typically, there would be a pain in his eyes following each rejection, likely stemming from the wedge that sat between them because, for all that they were best friends—brothers even—they didn’t always see eye-to-eye on godly matters. From this came the worry that always sat at the corner of every conversation because Obi-Wan (admittedly so) had been self-isolating from humanity and became a stickler for following the rules of the gods. Contrast that to Anakin who was laxer in his ways and open to embracing his feelings and attachments.

But that concern and pain would end today. Obi-Wan was tired of feeling sorry for himself and hiding away up here and being lonely despite never actually being alone.

He was ready for adventure again.

And so, it was with a resounding sigh and faked exasperation that he said, “Oh, alright.”

If he took a little pleasure in being able to cause such a shocked facial expression on Anakin’s face, then that was for him to know. Though, it was a moment later when Anakin’s face split into a wide grin that he felt any lingering doubts about going down to earth dissipate. Yes, this was the right choice. If not for himself, then for his relationship with Anakin.

The act of getting down to earth was a rather easy task consisting of exiting through a golden archway that teleported them to a location of their choosing. Obi-Wan hopped on Anakin’s coordinates and the two reappeared in a forest Obi-Wan was unfamiliar with, the lights and sounds of a nearby town being their guide on the trek.

Before stepping into the hustle and bustle of the town, Anakin and Obi-Wan had “normalized” themselves from their usual glowing, almost angelic appearance into something more humane and easily looked over, particularly nondescript and unassuming, using the powers they possessed. The less attention they brought to themselves, the better. It was safer not to risk the chance of revealing themselves. Back in historic and ancient times, it was more common for them to fall into crowds of people undercover and interact, getting to know and understand the circumstances humanity faced up close and personal instead of from a distance. But that had all changed once Obi-Wan, Anakin, and the fellow gods above all became characters in a history book.

Nonetheless, Obi-Wan treasured this one act of using his powers for fun instead of remaining dormant and simply controlling the seas in the same patterns and cycles. He looked over at Anakin, wanting to see if he was ready to head into the streets, when he was surprised to see Anakin’s eyes already looking his way, a smug smile tugging at his lips.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan sighed, exasperation smothering the very word, “What is it?”

“Finally decided on getting a haircut?” Anakin replied, laughter playing on the edge of the question. Obi-Wan rolled his eyes at the question. Yes, usually when he came down to earth he sported a longer hairstyle—a godly mullet, as Anakin oh so lovingly called it, business in the front and the only fun you know how to have in the back—but times had changed, and Obi-Wan had figured it was time for him to as well, at least a little bit. So he did. It was less of a haircut and more of the decision to manifest with shorter hair, unlike a certain someone standing next to him who had apparently decided the opposite.

“Strong words coming from someone who’s sporting a mullet themselves,” he quipped back, turning his attention forward and beginning the trek to the town. Affronted was the only word to describe how Anakin reacted, cemented in his shock, before he shook out of his state and rushed to catch up with his friend, secretly happy to see Obi-Wan engaging in their familiar back-and-forth.

“It is not a mullet, Obi-Wan,” Anakin refuted. “It’s stylish and helps me blend in.”

Obi-Wan gives a quiet hmm in acknowledgment before replying, “Whatever you say, Anakin.”

And so the trek continued until they found themselves in a bustling town with car horns honking, people shoving themselves through crowds, and bright lights illuminating around them. It was both entirely overwhelming yet hauntingly intriguing. For as much as he wanted to look away from the circus before him, Obi-Wan couldn’t stop admiring and absorbing all the information thrown at him. Of course he was aware of how the earth and humanity had progressed from his perch in the clouds, but while it’s one thing to hear and know of something, it’s another thing to witness and experience that which you had heard so much about.

Through his daze, he’s just barely able to keep up with Anakin as they take to the sidewalks, Anakin walking in an apparent familiar cadence as if he already knows where he’s heading and knows the trek well. Perhaps there’s a destination Anakin frequents on his jaunts down to earth? Maybe Obi-Wan should’ve asked what Anakin had in mind before he agreed to this excursion, but it’s too little too late for that now. But still, asking the destination of their slightly fast walking couldn’t hurt, right?

“You know, Anakin,” he starts, “You never told me where you were intending for us to go today.”

“Oh,” Anakin flounders for a moment, as if not expecting the question. Curious. “I, uh, well I figured we’d go to the local art museum.”

“Really?” Obi-Wan is unconvinced, but plays along anyway, only the slightest bit of suspicion seeping into his tone.

“Well… I know you love learning and appreciating the more—how do you phrase it?—refined and civilized things in life,” Anakin jokes, “So I figured we could go to an art museum together.”

Well wasn’t that just the shock of the century. Art museums were far from Anakin’s usual environment. Why? Anakin was loud, brash, and impulsive, constantly itching to go out and meet action head-on, act now think later, a complete contrast to the usually quiet, serene, and contemplative nature that art museums held dear. And for all that Obi-Wan loved Anakin, there were certain environments he would never dare to be with him, art museums being one of them. But, considering Obi-Wan had agreed to join and Anakin actually seemed somewhat eager to go, he figured he could indulge Anakin just this once.

Besides, Obi-Wan figured there must’ve been some ulterior motive at play here, and if he played his cards right, he could figure it out.

“An art museum?” he asks casually, hoping maybe he’ll get a hint of this mysterious motive.

But Anakin immediately picks up on the slight curiosity in his words. “Yeah, why? You don’t want to go?”

“No, I wouldn’t mind going, I just didn’t know you’d be interested in that.”

“Well, people change, Obi-Wan. Maybe I’ve taken a page from your book and learned how to be stuffy and grandfatherly.”

Rude, Obi-Wan muses, but an unlikely story. He leaves it at that and instead asks Anakin what else he had on the itinerary for the day as they walk toward the museum. Apparently, the art museum is the highlight of the day, though Anakin does promise that if Obi-Wan would be open to indulging in human food—something that honestly means nothing to them because they can’t be satisfied on non-godly food—there’s a cafe not too far from the museum that they can hang out and people watch at. All-in-all, not a bad day. Could’ve been way worse given how differently he and Anakin define “a fun day out.”

Eventually, they do make it to the art museum in one piece, and Obi-Wan immediately takes note of how quaint it looks against the glamour of the surrounding town. Less bright colors and flashes of light on the exterior but still a commanding presence with its masonry that almost demands you to look at it and compels you to go inside.

They stand in the queue to get tickets and go inside, but once they do, Anakin starts walking off before Obi-Wan can even grab a map of the museum. He manages to snag one and just barely finds Anakin in the crowd of the entry foyer, leaving Obi-Wan to trail behind a couple of feet once he catches up as Anakin guides him to the Medieval and Renaissance art exhibit. They’re only a few feet inside the exhibit when someone calls out “Ani!” and the two whip their heads around in-sync to the sound of the voice, a chorus of shushing surrounding them.

It’s a short woman who approaches the pair, a charming smile on her lips and a glint in her eyes. She immediately goes to embrace Anakin and Obi-Wan thinks: ah, ulterior motive discovered. He looks at her professional attire, the low but elegant bun her brown hair is in, and the name tag he just barely caught a glimpse of and easily deduces that she must be a staff member here. Maybe once the two finally release each other Obi-Wan can say his greetings and find out more.

Luckily, she seems to be the sensible one between the two and releases Anakin after making eye contact with Obi-Wan, as if just now realizing that Anakin came with company. She tries to be blasé about the overly friendly interaction with Anakin by plowing forward in her introduction, holding her hand out for a handshake. Very interesting, indeed.

“I’m Padmé Amidala, one of the curators for this exhibit in the museum. You must be one of Anakin’s friends,” she greets. Obi-Wan takes her hand and gives it a slight shake. Her grip is firm but not tight, giving just enough of her away for him to understand that she is a person to be respected and in awe of but not feared. It’s easy to begin understanding how her dynamic with Anakin works.

“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

“Oh, so you’re the famous Obi-Wan. Anakin has told me so much about you.” Obi-Wan gives a side-eyed glance to Anakin, noting the innocent expression he wears and wondering just how much he’s revealed to Padmé.

“Interesting, he hasn’t mentioned you at all,” Obi-Wan responds, giving them both a teasing smile in some semblance of reassurance that he isn’t offended by this fact.

However, Obi-Wan can feel the lingering hesitation and slight nerves radiating off of Anakin, which is an unsurprising development. Gods aren’t meant to have deep bonds with humans. Loose friendships are typically accepted with only slight frowns, but once it strays into a tight-knit bond and attachments form, especially romantic ones, they’re frowned upon greatly. And between the two of them, Anakin is less of a stickler for the rules, instead preferring to live by his own interpretations and caveats to the rules—which means Obi-Wan knows that Anakin fears this friendship of his with Padmé will be scrutinized and berated.

Which… okay, is a valid concern considering Obi-Wan’s devotion to the rules, but Obi-Wan hates to be a snitch on his best friend. And as long as he doesn’t witness any actions that would confirm a more serious relationship, particularly romantic, Obi-Wan is willing to turn his eye to the obvious heart eyes and lingering touches the two share. Can’t tattle if there’s room for doubt and question.

He just hopes Anakin knows this himself. And he especially hopes that Anakin hasn’t told Padmé that he’s a god.

He decides to shake off these thoughts and turn the conversation to safer territory to try and ease Anakin some. “So, Padmé, I take it you work here. What is it that you do?”

Immense relief hits him like a tidal wave from Anakin with happiness trailing behind like seafoam as the wave recedes. Not wanting to make any open comments about Anakin’s feelings and potentially clue Padmé into their more than human nature, he settles for a quick moment of eye contact before focusing back on Padmé.

“I’m one of the museum curators here,” she confirms, “I mainly specialize with art in the Medieval and Renaissance exhibit as well as our Impressionist pieces.” She pauses to size him up, silently scrutinizing him and his reactions. Whatever it is she finds must satisfy her, because she continues as if nothing happened, “Have you been here before, Obi-Wan? We recently got some new pieces on loan from some collectors and other museums that are worth checking out.”

“This is my first time, actually,” Obi-Wan starts before Anakin jumps in, quick on his verbal heels, “Right! And I was going to show him around. Make sure he visits the highlights at least.”

Instantly Padmé’s face drops ever so slightly at the idea of this conversation ending and her parting from Anakin, but she composes herself well. But Obi-Wan would be blind not to notice Anakin’s disappointment too, so he decides to take matters into his own hands and says, “Though I’m more than capable of wandering on my own if you’d rather stay and chat with Padmé, Anakin.”

“Are you sure, Obi-Wan? I was the one who invited you out after all—”

“Nonsense, I’ll be more than fine on my own. Maybe then I’ll actually get to appreciate the art and read the descriptions like the grandfather you think I am,” he jokes. “I’ll meet you back by the entrance in a couple hours. Pleasure meeting you, Padmé, I hope we meet again soon.”

And just like that, Obi-Wan is off and he no longer has to be surrounded by the obvious desire for something more between the two that was only stifled from being acted on by his presence. When he’s a good distance away, he decides to stop for a moment and actually look at the map in his hand, and he’s pleasantly surprised by just how many exhibits, art movements, and cultural regions are housed in this art museum. With the knowledge that he may not be able to knock out every exhibit in one visit, he decides to make his rounds to the ones that intrigue him the most.

He starts in the African Art section, admiring the ceramics and textiles created in various regions of Africa, before moving onto the Chinese bronzes, ceramics, and jades exhibition and it’s next-door Japanese screens and paintings exhibit. He’s thinking of swinging to modern and contemporary works when he looks at the map in his hands and eyes the Ancient Greek and Roman Art exhibit, reluctance setting in. Obi-Wan always feels a bit of hesitancy whenever admiring ancient creations because he remembers who the artists were and that fact makes him feel old and worn down in ways he never expected gods to feel like. Besides, wouldn’t it be narcissistic of himself to go and admire the times of old and perhaps even stumble upon a work of him?

Caution thrown to the wind, Obi-Wan decides to make his way to the Ancient Greek and Roman Art exhibit. With his head held high, he spots the tall glass doors to the exhibit and opens them slowly before stepping inside and almost immediately being hit by a whirlpool of nostalgia. Just seeing the vases, plates, coins, cups, relics, and statues on display make him nearly stumble on his feet. The faces staring back at him on the head busts by the entrance are so eerily similar to those of his friends that he feels his breathing stutter for a moment. It’s true that back in those times the gods were more… open to visiting earth. Back then they were more willing and able to interact with humanity and be treated kindly in return. Though, the stories of their escapades and interactions always seemed to be skewed and embellished among all civilizations.

But one thing that transpires over almost every civilization who ever believed in the gods and goddess that Obi-Wan is connected to is that they managed to nail one key feature of the gods in their stories: their extremities. Because at the end of the day, that’s what the gods all were—the best and worst of humanity, but maximized.

Obi-Wan prefers not to think about that fact and how, subsequently, he feels more than humans do and also has an awareness for the feelings of the other gods.

No, best not to dwell on that.

He decides that perhaps it’s best to move beyond the entryway and stop clogging up the doorway with his presence, so he begins to move through the exhibit, stopping every now and then to admire a certain work of art. By the time he’s gone through about half the exhibit, the sting of seeing those he knows etched onto bronze or marble is hurting less; he’s thinking he can finally start to appreciate the art more when he hears a voice.

But it’s not just any voice, it’s a voice he recognizes. And it’s not Anakin, nor is it Padmé. It’s a voice he’s heard before but he doesn’t know the person it belongs to. It’s familiar enough that he clings to it, scrambling through past and recent memories until finally it clicks:

The voice he’s hearing is the voice that recently talked to him via one of the statues commemorated in his honor.

And just like that, he turns his head around and begins to look around for the source. It’s like he’s a ship lost at sea and this voice is his guiding light home, if only he could find it. It takes a couple more seconds before finally his gaze settles on you, and it’s as if sunlight just burst into the room. He notices your eyes first and the way they shimmer with happiness as you wander through the exhibit, admiring the artworks yourself. But then he catches your smile as you turn to talk to one of the nearby patrons and the very sight of it makes him feel as if the world has just opened wide, opportunities he’s never considered laying out on many paths before him.

He takes a moment to shake himself out of his daze to properly take in your appearance. Judging on your outfit and the name tag that he just barely can’t make out and read, you are obviously a worker here, perhaps a curator like Padmé. You’re wandering the exhibit with an air of pride surrounding you, as if you’re happy that so many people are taking the time to come and appreciate the art before them. Everything about you is intriguing and he wants to introduce himself to you before this high feeling surrounding him comes crashing down and he goes back up to the clouds to spend out his immortal days alone and separated again from humanity.

Just as he’s about to take a few steps in your direction, he feels a harsh force of another body hit him in the side, nearly sending him toppling over onto a head bust next to him. He’s bracing for impact, praying that this piece of art somehow is a counterfeit and doesn’t cost more than he can even fathom (seriously, exactly how bad is inflation right now?) when he feels hands on his shoulders that push him back onto his feet. His hands immediately latch onto the ones grabbing him as he steadies himself. One he’s back on solid ground, he looks up to go thank whoever caught him when his heart leaps to his throat and he momentarily stops breathing because who else would be his savior than his guiding light?

He barely has time to even admire your speed and strength before you’re talking to him.

“Are you okay?” you ask and oh how he wants to hear more and more and more of your angelic voice. It’s as if you’re a siren, tempting him closer and closer to you until finally he is caught in your eyes and dancing among the many stars that twinkle in them. But suddenly he flushes with the realization that he’s been staring way too long and oh dear this is quite a messy first impression he really needs to redeem himself with something coherent and get this boat sailing back on course—

“Uh, y-yeah. Yeah. Fine. I’m fine. Never better, truly.” Shipwreck. What an utter shipwreck this is for him. Maker, he’s making a fool of himself. Amid his internal despair, he hears you giggle at his fumbling and his heart starts beating faster.

“Poseidon right?”

And suddenly his heart stops, his mouth drops every so slightly, and his face whitens. How have you possibly figured him out so quickly?

“What?” Is about all he can muster in response.

“Or Neptune, I guess, depending on which you prefer.” He’s silent. Awestruck. But you must pick up on the confusion and awe on his face because you elaborate, “You know… the sculpture right over there? The big marble one with a man holding a trident? The one you were staring at before you nearly crashed into this poor head bust of Zeus and broke this priceless piece of historic artwork? Really, what did the poor guy ever do to you? Surely he doesn’t deserve his head getting cracked open a second time.”

Oh thank the Maker, you were just referring to the art in the room. Which perhaps he should’ve accounted for instead of internally freaking out because he did willingly enter the Ancient Greek and Roman Art exhibit of the museum.

But you take his silent relief as continued confusion because you are suddenly rambling, “You know, because Zeus already had his head cracked open once by Hephaestus after Zeus swallowed a pregnant Metis and gave birth to Athena through his forehead?” You laugh awkwardly before plowing on, “Maybe I should stop talking now, sorry, sometimes I just go off about all these old myths, I just think they’re fascinating and—sorry, I’m doing it again aren’t I?”

He laughs in response to your weak joke and hearty explanation, and he starts to feel a little less wound up and nervous when he notices that you’re feeling the same way.

“No, no, it’s alright! It was very clever. Funny too,” he comments. The two of you share a smile and simply stare into each others’ eyes for a couple moments. But then he begins to worry that he’s making you uncomfortable by maintaining eye contact for longer than normal—except what is “normal”? How much has human etiquette changed since he’d last been on earth? Is this conversation already doomed? He decides to take the gamble anyway and clears his throat as his eyes flicker around the exhibit, trying to think of what else to say to you, before he lands on your name tag (what a pretty name you have) and he says the first thought that comes to mind.

“So, you work here then?” Not the best conversation starter, but it’s something, he supposes. Maker, what is wrong with him? He’s never been so nervous in his entire immortal life, but one conversation with you and suddenly he’s falling victim to all the nerves and anxieties of humans, but dialed up beyond a 10. Gods really are the maximization of humanity’s best and worst. What an awful time to be living this fact. Thankfully, you respond and break him out of his spiraling worries.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been working here for the past couple of years as one of the curators. I actually worked on this exhibit. I helped organize and select all the pieces in the exhibit, arrange restorations and displays, and record all the art you see here. I’ll admit it’s rather hard selecting which art pieces would fit best with the message we’re trying to convey, not to mention the availability of many pieces of art also plays a difficult role, but I like to think it paid off in the end. There’s something special about all the pieces of art here,” you suddenly pause in your speech before walking over to the very Poseidon statue you thought Obi-Wan had been looking at earlier, and he follows, quick on your heels.

You continue, “Like, this statue of Poseidon, for example. It traveled through an ocean of time, across several continents, through several restorations, all to be right here, right now, in this very moment for you and I to admire.” You let out a sigh that Obi-Wan can only describe as wistful. “I can only wonder how it looked when the artist was creating it and when it was first unveiled.”

He wishes how he could tell you about when he first laid eyes on this statue of himself he had nearly burst into tears, sending a light rain over the agora from the intensity of his emotions. But he suppresses the urge. He wasn’t supposed to reveal himself to humanity, and even if he did let something slip, what are the odds that you’d ever believe him? The two of you are not close, and you never will be. His livelihood as a god forbids it.

Still…

There’s something about the sparkle in your eye as you wistfully look at the art, as if looking at it for the first time despite having seen it countless times before, and your passion for the ancient classics that he finds compelling. Initial literal-sweeping-off-his-feet encounter aside, there’s something about you that draws him to you.

You’re entirely intriguing to him, and he can’t quite pinpoint why. Not entirely, at least. It doesn’t hurt that he finds your ramblings of history and art to be adorable. Not that he’s admitting to anything more than simple infatuation at first sight. He wishes he had the chance to get to know you better beyond the confines of this Ancient Greek and Roman exhibit. But the two of you lead entirely different lives and he has to let this go.

But, he can allow himself this one instance of normal human interaction.

“I’m sure it must have been a sight to behold given how important the gods were to the Ancient Greeks and Romans,” he comments.

“Exactly!” Despite being a curator here and knowing the rules of the exhibits like the back of your hand, you are shushed by a nearby patron at your happy exclamation. Obi-Wan laughs softly at the embarrassed look on your face.

“Guess that’s my cue to switch topics,” you joke. Obi-Wan smiles kindly at you before you continue, “Basics then. I didn’t catch your name.”

“I didn’t throw it,” he winks at your unimpressed look. Luckily for him though, it cracks and transforms into a brilliant smile as the two of you share a laugh. No harm done.

“Okay, smartass, I’ll rephrase: what’s your name?” you ask. “Not all of us are lucky enough to talk with people who wear name tags.”

“Alright then, since you asked so nicely, I’m Obi-Wan. And it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He holds out a hand for you, which you easily take and give a shake. A slight zing runs through his body at the slight contact, his hand still buzzing even after you two let go.

“Pleasure to meet you as well. Is this your first time here?” you inquire.

“Ah, yes, my friend decided to take me,” Obi-Wan starts, but he can’t help but grumble out, “I think he’s a frequent visitor.”

You let out a giggle at his grumpy tone. “You make it seem as if that’s a bad thing. Surely it’s not that god-awful here?”

“The company sure makes it better,” slips out before he can catch the words, but he’s not blind to the pleased look on your face. Huh. Interesting. “I never thought he was interested in art museums but—”

“Obi-Wan!” Cuts through the air, loud and brash and diluted with the slightest hint of concern, immediately followed by shushing by other patrons. Obi-Wan sighs as he recognizes the voice of Anakin.

“—it would appear that he still hasn’t picked up on museum etiquette despite all those visits.”

You rub his arm gently, a look of playful sympathy on your face as you tell him, “How awful it must be to have a friend that cares about your whereabouts.”

But he’s suddenly finding it very hard to even pretend to be annoyed when you’re touching him with such care. All too soon, your hand is off his arm as Anakin makes himself known, sidling up right to Obi-Wan and immediately grasping his elbow.

“Where on earth were you? We were supposed to meet half an hour ago. I waited for you! And here I was thinking you were the responsible one—” Anakin is cut off by you attempting to diffuse the situation.

“I believe that’s my fault. I kept him here talking to me and I held him up,” you turn back to Obi-Wan, a bright smile on your lips and the stars twinkling once more in your eyes. Maker, if he didn’t know any better he really would think he was looking at the sun, his beacon of light. “It was lovely talking to you, Obi-Wan. Maybe you could come again soon and we can continue this conversation?”

“Of course.” It’s his automatic response, no thoughts, questions, or worries in mind. You just look so hopeful and he’s once again a ship in the night, setting out to sail the high seas but hoping to return to again safely, guided by your light. He can only hope Anakin doesn’t pick up on his infatuation with you.

“Great! I’ll let you two go then. Nice meeting you!” And just like the wind, you’re gone, moving on to other patrons and other works of art, sharing your knowledge and stories and passion with other lucky souls. Maybe he will come back.

“They seemed nice,” Anakin remarks with absolutely no subtly.

“I’m not sure what you think happened between us, but whatever it is, you’re wrong,” and with that Obi-Wan turns and begins walking out of the exhibit before Anakin can refute or comment on Obi-Wan’s building anxiety, giving him no choice but to follow.

The walk out of the museum, their time sitting and people watching at a nearby cafe, and the walk back to the forested area follow a similar pattern: Anakin trying to do some digging with heavy insinuations, Obi-Wan denying vehemently any theories and offering scant details, and neither one willing to back down from their stance. It’s an old familiar rhythm, and despite it being grating at times, it’s nice to feel a sense of normalcy with Anakin once more.

Eventually, they make it back up to their hidden sanctuary in the sky and part ways for the day. Once back in his dwelling, Obi-Wan sits down on a cushioned chair and mulls over his day. While going to the museum was fun and enlightening, his mind wanders back to a certain museum curator. The dark horse of the day. The unexpected detail. His beacon of light.

There’s something more to you, something he wants so desperately to know. He practically itches to go back to the museum and keep talking with you. You’re intelligent, beautiful, and humorous. You’re the sun, moon, and stars. He knows he can’t pursue a romantic relationship with you, and he knows friendships with humans are frowned upon if they get too close, but he reasons to himself that one more visit down to earth to speak with you wouldn’t hurt anyone. With this in mind, he closes his eyes and begins to reach out to see if he can hear you once again, but as he’s doing so, a realization dawns on him.

Meeting you is the closest he’s come to believing in Fate, and despite this going against his beliefs, he’s ready to set sail on this unknown voyage and see where your next meeting takes him.

#so that was a doozy... good grief but i hope it's worth it #i usually don't do taglists but lemme know if you want to be tagged in future parts #because i don't have a schedule soooo #obi-wan kenobi x reader #obi-wan kenobi #obi wan kenobi x reader #obi wan x reader #obi wan kenobi imagine #star wars #star wars x reader #star wars one shots #obi wan kenobi #my writing #userkarina #yes a lot of the godly traits were inspired by disney's hercules bc i am basic

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innuendostudios · 5 years

Video

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Here’s How to Radicalize a Normie, a video essay on how the Alt-Right and their fellow travelers recruit. Clocking in at 41 minutes, 6756 words, 633 individual drawings, and 27 sources (including three full books), it is by far the longest and most heavily-researched video in The Alt-Right Playbook. I am very tired.

It took so long to put this behemoth together that my Patreon started to dip. So, maybe a little more than usual, if you want to keep seeing videos like these, please consider backing me on Patreon.

Transcript below the cut.

Say, for the sake of argument, your friend Gabe is starting to worry you.

Gabe’s always been just, you know, a regular guy. Not very political. He likes video games, sci-fi, comics, Star Wars, and anime. White guy shit. The only offbeat thing about him is you suspect there’s like a 20% chance he’s a furry. For all intents and purposes, Gabe is a normie.

But recently Gabe’s been spending a lot of time on some radically conservative forums, and listening to radically conservative podcasts, and picking some radically conservative arguments with you and your friends. You never would have expected this, not from Gabe, and, given the speed it’s happened, it’s worrying to think where it might be headed.

How have the Alt-Right gotten their hooks into your friend?

If you’ve ever known a Gabe, this video is for you. Here’s How to Radicalize a Normie.

Step 1: Identify the Audience

What you need to know before we begin is: around 2013, the Nazis went online.

Hate groups in the US, as tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center, had been growing in number since the noughts, but, between 2012 and 2014, they dropped by almost a quarter. Patriot groups dropped by over a third. However, hate crimes stayed about the same. Radical conservatism was not shrinking, but decentralizing. Still radical, still often violent, but now full of white nationalist nomads unlikely to join a formal organization.

This didn’t make them harmless. What it did was protect their asses from the typical hate group cycle: getting the public’s attention, making allies in conservative media, swelling their numbers, and then eventually disgracing themselves with failures, infighting, and, often enough, members committing horrific acts of violence, which come with social and sometimes legal consequences for all the other members.

So the Alt-Right and their fellow travelers these days don’t so much have members. They have hashtags, followers, viewers, and subscribers. This insulates them from their own audience. If Gabe, as a member of that audience, were to go out and commit a crime on their behalf, there’d be little doubt they had a hand in radicalizing him, but it’d be very hard to claim they told him to do it. On some of these sites, where Gabe spends hours and hours of his day, he’s never created an account or left a comment; the people radicalizing him don’t even know he’s there.

This distributed nature is what makes the Alt-Right, and the movements connected to it, unique. (You may remember a notable proof-of-concept for this strategy.) Doing almost everything online has, as compared with traditional hate movements, dramatically increased their reach and inoculated them from consequence. The trade-off, as we will see, is a lack of control.

And so we come to Gabe.

Gabe exists at the intersection of the kinds of people the Alt-Right is looking for - straight white cis men who feel emasculated by modern society, primarily, though they do make exceptions - and the kinds of people who are vulnerable to recruitment. Gabe fits the first profile in that he got bullied in high school, and often feels he has to hide his nerdy side for fear of getting ridiculed. The Alt-Right also has success with men who can’t get laid or recently got divorced or feel anxious about an influx of non-white people in their community. These things can make one feel like less than the confident white man they’re “supposed” to be. And it’s the closest they will ever come to being minoritized.

Regarding the second profile, it’s important to know that Gabe is not categorically different from you or me. He’s a cishet white dude - his problems are not unique. There isn’t a ton of research into the demography of the Alt-Right, but there may be a higher-than-average chance Gabe has a history of being abused or comes from a broken home. You don’t know if it’s true of Gabe, he’s never said. But most abuse survivors don’t become Nazis. The things that make people like Gabe recruitable tend to be situational: it happens often during periods of transition, as dramatic as the death of a loved or as benign as moving to a new city. Things that make people ask big life questions. Gabe has concerns like economic precarity, not knowing his place in a changing world, stressful working conditions. In other words, Gabe is suffering under late capitalism, same as everyone, and it’s entirely plausible he could have gone down the path to becoming a Leftist.

This is not to make an “economic anxiety” argument: the animating force of the Far Right is and always has been bigotry. But the Alt-Right targets Gabe by treating his “economic anxiety” as one of many things bigotry can be sold as a solution to. It is their aim that, when dissatisfied white men go looking for answers, they find the Alt-Right before they find us.

Step Two: Establish a Community

Were Gabe pledging an old-school hate movement, there would probably be a recruiter to usher him into an existing community. But that’s the kind of formalized interaction modern extremists try to avoid. Online extremism has many points of entry, and everybody’s journey is unique, so rather than be comprehensive we will focus on what are, in my estimation, the two most common pathways: the Far Right creates a community Gabe is likely to stumble into, or infiltrates a community Gabe is already in.

The stumble-upon method has two main branches, one of which is just “Gabe ends up on a chan board,” which we’ve already done a video about. The other is kind of the polar opposite of 4chan’s cult of anonymity: Gabe ends up in the fandom of a Far Right thought leader.

These folks are charismatic media personalities (that’s charismatic according to Gabe’s tastes, not ours; I don’t understand it, either). These personalities may gain traction on any number of platforms, from podcasts to reportage to blogging, though the most effective platform for redpilling is, and yes I am biting the hand that feeds me, YouTube. They may get Gabe’s attention through fairly standard means, like talking about or even generating controversy to get themselves trending, while some of the more committed will employ dubious SEO tactics like clickbait, google bombing, and data voids (just pause for definitions, we don’t have time).

What they tend to have in common, especially the most accessible ones, is that they don’t present themselves as entry points to the radical Right. In fact, many did not set out to be Far Right thought leaders, and may not think of themselves as such (though they are often selling products, of which the Alt-Right are among their biggest purchasers, and it’s not like they’re turning the money away). How they present is the same way anyone presents who wants to be successful on social media: accessible, approachable, authentic. The face-to-face relationship a budding extremist forms with their recruiter or the leader of their hate group’s local chapter are here folded into one parasocial relationship with a complete stranger.

Why this person appeals to Gabe is they’re not selling politics as politics, but conservatism as a kind of lifestyle brand. They rely heavily on criticizing or ridiculing the Left: feminists are oversensitive, Black people unintelligent, queer folks doomed to loneliness, and trans people insane; I dunno if it’s a coincidence that these are all things Gabe thinks about himself in his low moments. By contrast, they don’t sell conservatism as having sounder policies or a more coherent moral framework, but that abandoning progressive principles and embracing conservative ones will make Gabe happier. Remember, Gabe isn’t looking for white nationalism or misogyny, what he wants is the cure to soul-sickness, and these friendly micro-celebs are here to offer a shot of life advice with politics as the chaser. It is extremely important that politics be presented as a set of affects, not a set of beliefs.

The second pathway is infiltration, which is its own beast. Media personalities sometimes become gateways to the Right almost by accident: they do something edgy, a part of their audience reacts positively, and, facing no real consequence, they do it more; this leads to further positive reinforcement from conservative fans, the rest of the audience acclimates, and the cycle repeats, the personality pushing the envelope further and further based on what flies with their increasingly conservative audience. In this way, they become a right-wing figure by both radicalizing and being radicalized by their audience.

Infiltration is deliberate.

The Far Right will reliably target any community that has 1) a large, white, male population, 2) whose niche interests allow them to feel vaguely marginalized, and 3) who are not used to progressive critique of said interests. This isn’t to say progressive critique doesn’t exist, or hasn’t been baked into the property from the beginning, but that it has been, so far, easy for white guys to ignore. As such, progressives within that community probably don’t talk politics much, and women and minorities are perfectly welcome to post, same as anyone, but just, you know, don’t, don’t make identity politics, you know, like, a thing.

Given Gabe’s proclivities, he’s probably already in a number of fan communities where he can geek out and not get teased. And this is where the Far Right will go looking for him

Communities are at their most vulnerable to infiltration at times of political discord. This can happen naturally - say, a new property in the fandom has a Black protagonist - or it can be provoked - say, a bunch of channers join the forum and say provocative things about race to get people arguing - or both. Left to its own devices, the community might sort out its differences and maybe even come out more progressive than they started. But, with the right pressure applied in the right moment, these communities can devolve into arguments about the need to remove a nebulously-defined “politics” from the conversation.

The adage about bros on the internet is “‘political’ means anything I disagree with,” but it’d be more accurate to say, here, “‘political’ means anything on which the community disagrees.” For instance, “Nazis are bad” is an apolitical statement because everyone in the community agrees. It’s common sense, and therefore neutral. But, paradoxically, “Nazis are good” is also apolitical; because “Nazis are bad” is the consensus, “Nazis are good” must be just an edgy joke, and, even if not, the community already believes the opposite, so the statement is harmless. Tolerable. However, “feminism is good” is a political statement, because the community hasn’t reached consensus. It is debatable, and therefore political, and you should stop talking about it. And making political arguments, no matter how rational, is having an agenda, and having an agenda is ruining the community.

(Now, it is curious how the things that provoke the most disagreement tend to be whichever ones make white dudes uncomfortable. One of life’s great, unanswerable mysteries.)

You can gather where this is going: a community that doesn’t tolerate progressivism but does tolerate Nazism is going to start collecting Nazis, Nazis whose goal is to drive a wedge between the community and the Left. Once the Left acknowledges, “Hey, your community’s developing a Nazi problem,” the Nazis - who are, remember, trusted, apolitical members of the community who might just be kidding about all the Nazi shit - say, “Did you hear that, guys?! Those cultural Marxists just called all of us Nazis!” Wedge. Similarly, any community members who say, “but Nazis though” are framed as infiltrators pushing an agenda, even if they’ve been there longer than the Nazis have. They get the wedge, too.

This is how fandoms radicalize. They are built as - yeah, I’ll say it - safe spaces for nerds, weebs, and furries, and are told that the Left is a threat to their safety. Given a choice between leaving a community that has mattered to him for years and simply adjusting to the community’s shifting politics, the assumption is that Gabe will stay. This assumption is right often enough that a lot of fandoms have been colonized.

What is true of both of these methods - Gabe finding the Right or the Right finding him - is that Gabe does not come nor stay for the ideology. He’s here for the community, the sense of belonging, of being with his people, of having his fears validated and his enjoyment shared. The ideology is simply the price of admission.

Step Three: Isolate

There is a vast, interconnected network of Far Right communities out there, and Gabe is, at this point, only on the periphery. In order to keep him in, they need to disrupt his relationships to other communities, and become, more and more, his primary online social space. Having made this space hostile to the Left, they now seek to break his connections to progressives elsewhere in his life.

This is hard to do online. The whole appeal of moving radicalism to the internet is that your away-from-keyboard life doesn’t have to change. You are crypto the moment you log off. Some thought leaders will encourage their audience to cut ties with Family of Origin, or “deFOO,” but, even then, they can’t monitor whether the audience has actually done it the way an in-person movement could. And so alienating Gabe from the Left is less controlled, and, consequently, may be less total. How much Gabe isolates is up to him.

But the vast majority of Far Right media presumes an alienation from the Left. Part of conservative bloggers and YouTubers making the Left look pathetic is doing a lot take-downs and responses. This is a constant repetition of the Left’s arguments for the purpose of mockery, and, for Gabe, it starts to replace any engagement with progressive media directly. He soon knows the Left only through caricature. It also trains him, if he does directly engage, to approach the Left with the same combative stance as his role models. (For reference, see my comment section.) And this is only if he doesn’t partake in one of the many active boycotts of “SJW media.”

In addition to mocking the Left’s arguments, they also, curiously, appropriate them. This is one part sanitization: liberal centrism is more socially acceptable; indeed, many figures on the outer layers think of themselves as moderates, even as they serve as gateways to radicalism. But, also, many of Gabe’s problems could be addressed by progressive leftism, so they sell him racist, sexist versions of it. Yes, there is a problem with workers being underpaid and overextended, but the solution isn’t unions, it’s deporting immigrants; yes, there is a chronic loneliness and anger to being a man in the modern age, but it’s not because of the toxic masculine expectations placed on you by the patriarchy, it’s women being slutty; yes, wealth disparity does mean a tiny percentage of elites have more influence over culture and politics than the rest of us combined, but the problem isn’t capitalism, it’s the Jews. And it’s hard for Gabe to reject these ideas without, in the process, rejecting the progressive ideas they’re copied from; the Right’s “take the red pill” is, to the untrained eye, similar to the Left’s “get woke.” (Or, at least, the bowdlerized version of “get woke” that is no longer specifically about race which came to fashion when white people started saying it, grumble grumble.)

Take the red pill or reject them both; either is a step to the right.

As this rhetoric slips into his day-to-day conversation, even as seemingly harmless “irreverence,” it may strain relationships with people who are not entertained by this shit. Off-color comments about race and gender can certainly be wearying for female and non-white friends, which can lead to a passive distance or an eventual confrontation [“why is everyone but me so sensitive?!”], which only seem to confirm what his reactionary community says about liberal snowflakes. If he says these things on social media, he may get his account suspended, and, if he comes back under an alt, you can bet his new reactionary friends will be the first to reconnect, applaud the behavior that got him banned, and repeat should he get banned again. A few cycles of this and he’s lost touch with everyone else.

Also, his adoption of the insular, meme-laden terminology of this community makes him less and less comprehensible to outsiders.

Over time, sources of information get replaced with community-approved ones: conservative news, conservative YouTube, conservative Wikipedia if he’s really committed. The Algorithm soon takes note and stops recommending media from the Left. He stops watching shows with a “liberal agenda,” which usually means shows starring women and people of color. Now, there is evidence that the human mind responds to fictional characters similarly to real people, and that consuming diverse media can decrease bigotry in ways roughly analogous to having a diverse group of friends, which is one of many reasons we say representation matters. By consuming a homogenous media diet, Gabe stymies his ability to have even parasocial relationships with anyone who isn’t a cishet conservative white dude or one of their approved exceptions.

To the extent that any of this happens, it happens at Gabe’s discretion and at his own chosen pace. It has not been forced on him, only encouraged and rewarded. But the fact that it hasn’t been forced can make him all the more willing to accept it, because it seems safe to consider; even though his life and social circle are changing to accommodate, he does not feel committed. But many Gabes have walked these halls, and, if they close the door behind them, there’s nowhere left to go but down.

Step Four: Raise their Power Level

(...and they say we ruined anime.)

Consider the ecosystem of the Alt-Right as layers of an onion, with Gabe sitting at the edge and ready to traverse towards the center. (No, I’m not just going to reiterate the PewDiePipeline, though, if you haven’t seen it, go do that.)

The outer layer of the onion is extremism at its most plausibly deniable. Without careful scrutiny, the public-facing figureheads could pass as dispassionate, and the websites as merely problematic rather than softly fascist. It is valuable if Gabe believes this as well; that, at this stage, he believe the bigotry is simply trolling, the extremists an insignificant minority, and any report of harassment faked. That he believe where he is is as deep as the rabbit hole goes. And that he continue to believe this at each successive layer.

People in the deepest crevices of the Alt-Right self-report getting redpilled on multiple issues at different times in their journey to the center of the onion. If Gabe’s first red pill is about the SJWs coming for his free speech, he’ll think that’s all anyone in his community believes; there’s no racism here, people are just making a point about their right to use slurs. Then, when he gets redpilled on the white genocide, he’ll laugh at those Alt-Lite cucks who tried to sweep the race realists under the rug, and at himself for having once been one, but acknowledge that those channels and websites are still useful for onboarding people, so he won’t denounce them. At the same time, nobody takes those manosphere betas seriously.

And this process is reiterated with every pill swallowed: gender essentialism, autogynephilia, birtherism, Sandy Hook truth, pizzagate, QAnon if he’s really out there. The heart of the onion is typically the Jewish Question, but these can happen in any order, and in any number. But each layer sells itself as being, finally, the ultimate truth. Each denies the validity of the others; the layers ahead don’t exist, they’re made up my liberals, while the people behind are asleep where you are now awake. That’s why they chose “the red pill” as their metaphor: take it, and everything will be revealed. That’s why it cozies up with conspiracism. But what’s supposed to follow is that this knowledge help Gabe in some way, and it doesn’t. Blaming immigrants doesn’t actually fix the economy, and hating women doesn’t make men less lonely. But, having been alienated from everything outside the onion, once that sinks in, the only recourse on offer is to seek out the next pill.

And pills are easy to find. Those within the network have laissez-faire relationships, even as they, on paper, disavow one another. When they need a source or a guest host, they aren’t going to go to the Left; they’re going to feature each other. The Left is the enemy; their ideas are beneath consideration, and the only reason to engage them is for public humiliation. [Shapiro’s book.] But you can interview “western chauvinists” and that doesn’t mean you’re endorsing them, just, you know, it’s fine to hear ‘em out, nothing should be off-limits in the marketplace of ideas. Besides, Nazis are apolitical.

And because these folks keep showing up in each others’ metadata, regardless of what they say, Google thinks there is definitely a relationship between the guy “just asking questions” and the guy denying the Holocaust. Gabe is softly exposed to many flavors of conservatism just slightly more radical than he is now, and is expected, at the very least, to not question their presence. This is an environment where deradicalizing - listening to the Left - would be sleeping with the enemy, but radicalizing further? You do you, buddy.

Gabe’s emotional journey, however, is somewhat more complex. If you’ve spent any time reading or watching reactionary media you’ve probably noticed it’s really. fucking. repetitive. It’s a few thousand phrasings of the same handful of arguments. Like, there’s only so many jokes about attack helicopters! But these people just crank out content, and most of it’s derivative; the reason to pick one personality over another isn’t because they say something different, but because they say it differently. Gabe just picks the affect it’s delivered in.

Repetition dulls the shock of the most egregious statements, making them appear normal and prepping him for more extreme ideas. Meanwhile, the arguments themselves? They’re not good. (BreadTube will never run out of shit to debunk.) They are repetitive because they’re not good. They’re mantric. A good argument you only need to hear one time; if you can follow it, internalize it, and explain it to someone else, you know you’ve understood it. But a bad argument can’t convince you on its own merits, so it will often rely on affect. This can be the snappy, thought-terminating cliche, or the long, winding diatribe that sounds really sensible while you’re hearing it but when someone asks you for the gist you can only say “go watch these 17 videos and it’ll all make sense.” Both these approaches are largely devoid of content, but, gosh, if they don’t sound sure of themselves.

And that mode can be very persuasive, but it doesn’t stick the way a coherent argument does. It needs to be repeated, the affect replenished, because the words matter less than the delivery. There needs to be a steady stream of confident voices saying “we’ve got this figured out and everyone else is stupid” or Gabe’s gonna notice the flaws. They are not well-hidden.

And the catch-22 of returning to that stream over and over is that these communities are stressful even as they are calming. People afraid they will die virgins go to forums with people who share and validate that fear, and also say, “Yes, you will die a virgin.” People afraid Syrians are coming to kill us all watch videos by people who share and validate that fear, and also say, “Yes, Syrians are coming to kill us all.” Others have already pointed out that rubbing your face in your worst anxieties is a form of digital self-harm, but I need to you understand the toxic recursion of it: Gabe is going to these communities to get upset. Every emotion is converted into anger, because sadness, fear, and despair are paralyzing but anger is motivating; Gabe feels less helpless when he’s pissed off. And so, while he’s topping up on reassuring nonsense, he’s also topping up on stress. And, being cut off from everything outside the network, the only place he knows to go to release that stress is back to the place that gives it to him. It’s a feedback loop, pulling him deeper and deeper on the promise that, at some point, relief will come.

It is a similar dynamic that keeps people in abusive relationships.

When someone in Gabe’s community makes a racist joke, they are presenting Gabe with a choice between the human interaction of laughing with his friends and his societal responsibility not to be a fuckin’ racist. And not laughing seems ridiculous; everybody’s friends here; no one’s getting hurt; this is harmless. And so the irreverent race joke draws a line between the personal and the political, and suggests that one can be safely prioritized over the other. One way to look at radicalization is being asked to stick with that seemingly innocuous decision as the stakes are raised incrementally: first with edgier humor, and then comments that are funny because they’re shocking but you couldn’t really call them jokes, and then “funny” comments that are also sincerely angry, but, in each instance, since he laughed with his bros last time, it stands to reason he should keep favoring the personal over some abstracted notion of “politics.”

This is why the progressive adage “the personal is political” is among the most threatening things you can say in these spaces.

I’m not trying to make a slippery slope argument. Most of us who laughed at edgy jokes when we were teenagers didn’t grow up to be Nazis. It is a slippery slope in the specific context of being in community with people trying to radicalize you. Gabe is a lonely white boy in need of friends, and laughing at a racist joke is personal, while not laughing is political. Staying in a community that has Nazis in it is personal, and leaving is political. The personal is what brings people together and the political drives them apart. (The “only if some of them are bigots” part of that sentence is usually lopped off). There’s this joke on the internet that nerds perceive only two races: white and political. Following that logic, what could be more apolitical than an ethnostate?

They are banking on his willingness to adapt his beliefs to suit an environment that meets a need. That same need can be satisfied by white nationalism. There are few things more seductive to people who doubt their own worth than being told you are valuable simply for being white. And you can sub in male, cis, straight, allosexual, or able-bodied. It just takes priming: by the time Gabe officially embraces bigotry, he’s already been acting like a bigot for months. The red pill is simply the moment he says it out loud.

Change Gabe’s surroundings, and you change Gabe.

Step Five: ???

The final step in a traditional extremist group would be getting a mission. But that is one thing the Alt-Right can’t do. Once you start giving clear directives, you can’t play yourselves off as a bunch of unaffiliated hashtags and think tanks; you are now a formalized movement accountable to its followers, and can be judged and policed as such.

To my mind, Charlottesville was an attempt to become such a movement, taking things offline and getting all the different groups working collectively. And, as so often happens when these people get in the same space - especially with no official leaders or means of control over their members - it backfired. Their true colors came out before they were ready and a counter-protester lost her life.

This would be the point where, historically, an extremist group starts to disintegrate. Their veneer of respectability gone, they’re now hated by the public, the media wants nothing more to do with them, and everyone not in jail turns on each other or goes underground. This is also the point where the liberal establishment says, “My job here is done,” and utterly fails to retake control of the narrative, allowing the next batch of radicals to pick up more or less where the last one left off.

But to an already-decentralized group like the Alt-Right, Charlottesville was bad but eminently survivable. People retreated back to the internet, with its code words and anonymous forums, but that’s where much of the work was already done anyway. The platforms where they organized kept tolerating them, the authorities still didn’t classify them as terrorists, and any disgraced figureheads were replaced with up-and-comers.

The major change in strategy is that it doesn’t seem anyone has tried to formalize the Alt-Right since.

So where does that leave Gabe? He’s gone through this whole process of largely hands-off indoctrination - and I should stress his journey may look like what we’ve outlined or it may look different in places, this video is not comprehensive - but now he’s swallowed every pill he cares to, he blames half a dozen minorities for everything he sees as wrong with the world, and no one will give him anything to do. You’ve got this ad hoc movement frothing young men into a militant fervor and then just leaving them to stew in their own hate. Should we really be surprised at how many commit mass shootings?

This is a machine for producing lone wolves.

Leaving men to take up arms of their own volition is a way of enacting terror while being just outside the popular conception of a terror cell. There are also, of course, more classic militias that will offer Gabe clear directives - they’re recruiting from the same pool. And Gabe may stop short of this step, settling in a middle layer that suits him or finding the inner layers too extreme. But violence is the logical conclusion of an ideology of hate, and, should Gabe take this step, he can approach violence in the same incremental fashion he approached conservatism.

He can start with yelling at people on Twitter, and then maybe collective brigading, DDoS attacks, sharing dox, leaking nudes, calling their phone numbers, texting them pictures of their houses from the sidewalk. These acts of cruelty become games of oneupmanship within his community. All this can start as far back as Step 2, and get more intense the deeper he goes. Some people join explicitly partake in harassment and violence the way Gabe joined to talk about anime.

But this behavior can serve as a kind of buy-in. The Left and the feminists and the LGBTQs and the Muslims and the immigrants are all, within his community, subhuman. You’ve maybe heard the conservative catchphrase “feminism is cancer”; well don’t treat cancer by having a respectful exchange of ideas with it, but by eradicating it down to the last cell. Cruelty against the Left is framed as righteous.

From any other perspective, posting someone’s bank information is something you might feel ashamed of. Which creates a psychological imperative not to consider other perspectives. A thing that keeps people in is staving off the guilt they will reckon with the moment they step out. Gabe is also aware that anything he’s done to the Left could be done to him if he leaves; some communities even keep dox on their members as insurance. And the things he’s been encouraged to do to the Left will likely make him feel that the Left would never take him now; the radical Right is the only home he’s got. Harassment becomes another tool of isolation.

Steadily, options for Gabe are whittled down to being a vigilante or a nihilist. There are periods of elation: moments the Alt-Right feels it’s winning - or, more accurately, the people they hate are losing - are like cocaine. They are authoritarians, after all. But the times in between are mean and angry. They are antisocial, starved of emotional connection, consuming incompatible conspiracies that may at any point run them afoul of one another, devoted to figureheads who cater to but cannot risk leading them, and living under constant threat of being outed to the Left or turned on by the Right for stepping out of line. Gabe took this journey for the sense of community and purpose, and, but for the rare moments everything goes their way, the Alt-Right can’t maintain either. They can only keep promising his day will come, a story he could get from a $5 palm reading.

The feeling there’s nothing left but to kill yourself or someone else is so common it’s a meme.

But there is always a third option: Gabe can leave.

Pre-Conclusion: For Fuck’s Sake Do Not Make Gabe Your Whole-Ass Praxis

Before we continue, I want to state plainly that Gabe went off the deep end because he found a community willing to tell him that, because he is a cishet white man, the world revolves around him. Do not treat him like this is true.

If a fraction of the energy spent having debates with America’s Gabes were spent instead on voter re-enfranchisement, prisoner’s rights, protections for immigrants, statehood for DC and Puerto Rico, and redistricting, Gabe’s opinions, in the societal sense, wouldn’t matter. Reactionary conservatism is a small and largely unpopular ideology that is only so represented in our culture and politics because they’ve learned how to game the system.

And I get it. Those are huge problems that are going to take years to address, where, if you know a Gabe, that’s a conversation you could have today. And, if you think you can get through to him, it is worthwhile to try. This is a fight on many fronts and deradicalization is one of them. But it is only one, so please keep it in perspective. It sends an awful message when we spend more time trying to get bigots back on our side than we do the people they are bigoted against.

Your value as a lefty does not hinge on whether you can change Gabe’s mind.

Conclusion: How Gabe Gets Out

He may just grow out of it. These communities skew young, and some folks hit a point where hanging with edgy teens doesn’t feel cool anymore.

He may become disillusioned after the movement fails to deliver on its promises.

He may become disillusioned if something goes wrong in his life and his community isn’t there for him, if he feels they like his race and his gender but don’t actually care about him.

He may be shocked if he sees the Alt-Right at its worst before being appropriately conditioned. Charlottesville was a step too far for a lot of people.

His community may turn on him for any perceived unorthodoxy, and he may leave out of necessity.

He may be separated by circumstance from the community - a trip with no internet, hospitalization, arrest - and not be able to top up on the rhetoric. This may lead him to question his beliefs.

His community may disappear, either tearing itself apart or getting shut down by authorities.

He may have incidental contact with populations he’s supposed to hate, and have trouble reconciling who they are in person with what he’s been told about them. In his community, people bond over shared intolerance, but, suddenly, being tolerant helps him make friends. (This is one reason the Alt-Right has made a battleground of the college campus.)

He may form or revisit relationships outside the network, people who can offer him the connection he’s been looking for. This may reintroduce outside perspectives. More importantly, it rekindles his ability to have healthy relationships at all, something the Alt-Right has estranged him from.

As with recruiters, it seems these “escape hatch” relationships can sometimes be parasocial; coming to respect a public figure who is on the Left, or is critical of the Alt-Right.

Someone he is close to may compel him to choose, “me or the movement.” A lot of young men leave to save a romantic relationship.

Hearing stories from people who’ve already jumped may help; there aren’t a lot of public formers, and some raise suspicions as to their sincerity, but it is getting more common, and may be the closest we get to exit counseling for the Alt-Right.

He may become aware of the ways he’s being manipulated, or have them revealed to him, maybe because he stumbled into BreadTube, I dunno. Knowledge that you are being indoctrinated is no guarantee it won’t work - you are not immune to propaganda - but it can help one resist.

And he may revisit a core belief system that used to guide him, be it religion or social justice or a really wholesome fandom, and be reminded of the identity he used to have.

Moments like these, in isolation or in aggregate, can inspire Gabe to jump. They are also good times for friends to intervene. The reach and the impunity that comes with the internet means it has never been easier to fall into reactionary extremism. It has also never been easier to get out. People who exit skinhead gangs often fear for their lives; for Gabe, there’s a chance getting out is as simple as going to a different website. Much of his community does not know his name or his face and he may not important enough to dox.

What doesn’t get Gabe out - not reliably, not that I have seen - is an argument with a stranger who proves all his facts wrong and his ideology bunk. Facts don’t always work because facts don’t care about his feelings. This was about staying in a community, and holding onto an identity, that mattered to him. It was about belonging, and that is something a rando from the other side of the culture war can’t give him and probably shouldn’t be responsible for.

The theme here is human connection. Before he can do the work of disentangling himself, and facing the guilt of what he’s believed and maybe done, he has to know there’s somewhere for him on the other end of it. That the Right hasn’t ruined him. They’ve told him all of history is groups fighting each other over status, and, without his clan, he’ll be an exile. He needs a better story.

I don’t know that lefty spaces are ideal for this, in no small part because bringing someone who’s a bit of a Nazi but working on it into diverse communities is… questionable. And it probably wouldn’t be good for him, either; having just gotten out of a toxic belief system, he’s going to be deeply skeptical of all ideologies. In a perfect world, people who care about Gabe could build for him - to use a therapy term - a holding space. Someplace private - physical or digital - where Gabe can work out his feelings, where he is both encouraged and expected to be better but is not, in the moment, judged. That comes later. It is delicate and time-consuming work that should not be done in public, but we find these beliefs, built up over the course of months or years, tend to fall away very quickly with a shift of environment. Change Gabe’s surroundings and you change Gabe.

But, instead, a lot of people who jump are functionally deprogramming themselves, which is working for a lot of them, but it’s haphazard, and there are recidivists.

If you don’t personally know a Gabe, or have training as a counselor, you may not be in a position to help him. Possibly there are things you can do to disrupt the recruitment process or prevent infiltration of spaces you’re in - I’m looking into it, but talk to your mods - but, elephant in the room: meaningful change will require reform on the part of platform holders. Tools to disrupt this process already exist and are being used on groups like ISIS, but they’re not being used on the Alt-Right because they try oh so very hard not to get classified as terrorists (and also any functioning anti-radicalization policy would require banning a lot of conservative politicians, so there’s that...).

But what makes our story better than theirs is that the fight for social and economic justice, though it is long, and difficult, and frustrating, when it works, it fulfills the promise the Right can’t keep: it materially make people’s lives better. I am not prone to sentimentality, or to giving these videos happy endings. But one thing we have that the Alt-Right doesn’t is hope.

#video essay

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terrascookiejar-archive · 4 years

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Terra has a Chat with a REAL Moderator this Time

In lieu of my original post that gained a lot of traction, and me talking about being “contacted” by someone claiming to be a mod.

An ACTUAL mod from the Official Cookie Run discord managed to contact me and set the record straight on a few things, as well as discuss a few things regarding what happened. So it seems that this whole situation has indeed caught the attention of the mods of the Cookie Run Official Discord, and even MicMac himself. So what’s been done?

I do wanna talk about it in greater detail, so I’m gonna put everything in a cut, starting now. If you want the TL;DR version, skip to the second picture of Chestnut with Walnut at the end.

First things First, the person who I talked on the moderation team was someone by the name of Zayder, who contacted me on anon with their details. Using some help from friends We were able to background check and confirm, yes this person is actually legit. So I was reassured I wasn’t walking into some kind of trap.

(The photo given to me to prove authenticity by a friend. I blurred out their Discord number myself just for the courtesy of privacy)

What’s Being Done to Protect Artists on the Discord, Moving Forward?

I think this is the big question on everyone’s mind since I made my original post and all eyes are on the moderators and MicMac to make the change.

There seems to be a genuine admittance to the fact that the previous way fanart was moderated was ineffective and caused issues such as the theft and reposting to happen.

So they’ve gone ahead and added stricter measures to prevent this from happening again. Including preventing new members from posting until they get the “Cookie” role, a cooldown on the channel to allow for easier moderation and viewing of said artwork, and heavier infractions laid down for art theft.

I mentioned that the cooldown also allows for time for people to appreciate genuine artwork posted. So considering the magnitude of its members I’d say that’s a great first step in moving forward towards protecting community fanartists. I got confirmation from members in my own discord that the cooldown IS indeed already enacted and even increased from 10 to 30 minutes, so I have reassurance that what’s being told to me is true.

They DO have a report system on their bot, but it seems most people prefer just messaging mods so that system in itself is rather flawed, but only so much you can do there.

(^ This one’s my own artwork, btw!! ^) Zayder also asked me for my own feedback on what could be done to help protect artists, since I am an artist myself. It seems most of the moderation team are not artists and this probably lent itself to making moderation there so weak.

In summary my main suggestions that were noticed were being mindful of traced art, and a dedicated section or post explaining art theft and how it harms artists and the importance of crediting artists. As not everyone understands how it hurts us, some people genuinely are uninformed. Which Zayder stated he would forward to Mic Mac. (Not sure how I feel about my own suggestions going directly to MicMac himself, but you know!!)

Fawn’s Situation happened so Long Ago that most of it is Lost (or worst case scenario, was deleted by a member of the moderation team)

While the general consensus now is indeed “Yes, Fawn created Nutmeg Cookie,” there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of evidence towards who the perpetrator was (We had their username, hazbinalastor666, but not their ID and they’ve since changed it to cover their tracks) and the moderators involved with Fawn’s “Ban” to be found on the Official Cookie Run Discord. At least not anymore.

Zayder has confirmed that Fawn “left” the server in December of 2019, which lines up with Fawn’s own statements on the situation. However Zayder stated that whoever kicked her didn’t actually put her on the banlist. So either they kicked her manually, or they used the bot and then used it to erase all evidence of it and pretend nothing happened (which he certainly HOPES is not the case, and I do as well). It did not help that Trial Mods were not a thing yet by this time (They were not introduced until February of 2020), according to what Zayder told me. So things on that Discord were essentially pretty gun-ho. It’s not as simple as looking up a term and going to “Oldest” to track down stuff from the time. Plus a good chunk of it seemed to have happened through DMs so... Good Luck getting that evidence.

Zayder informed me that Fawn is welcome to come back at any time. Though speaking with her she’s chosen not to, and considering her situation I don’t think anyone can blame her. I would like to believe that the version of the Discord that Fawn had to go through is not the same as the one we have now but something like isn’t essentially going to wash away what happened.

As for evidence that Fawn created Nutmeg first? Yes I do have it. The original incident, hazbinalastor666 claimed that they created Nutmeg in November of 2019, However there’s evidence in our own discord showing Fawn creating Nutmeg as early as September of 2019.

As well as the day Fawn came forward on our discord about the situation after keeping quiet out of fear of backlash, ignited by seeing the thief get a commission of Nutmeg. However, I don’t plan to post that publicly unless I have Fawn’s okay.

Yes. The First “Mod” That tried to Contact Me was Pretty Undeniably Someone Posing as a Mod From the Official Discord

“I'm also really curious on what you found false on what the "moderator" said to you. Nobody on the mod team ever told us they were gonna contact you, so I wouldnt know who that is.”

So that was my first sign that clearly the original person who contacted me at least wasn’t doing so without the consensus of the other mods, and neither did they consult the mods afterwards... So very, very likely they were a fake from the start. Some of the things that were off that I told to Zayder, and that we found through conversation were as follows:

The first person contacted me on a throwaway and refused to disclose who they were. Zayder gave me the ID of his personal discord and we could verify who they were easily.

The first person blew off my own suggestions for helping improve the fanart channels with statements like “We’re already cracking down on it.” Zayder asked me for my own suggestions as an artist without even being asked.

The first person kept trying to get me to get Fawn to use a VPN in order to get back into the Official Cookie Run Discord. Despite being told repeatedly that’s not how a VPN works. That’s just fucking weird.

The first person couldn’t track anything down regarding Fawn’s situation years ago, Zayder was at least able to actually pinpoint the date in which Fawn was kicked, and rather quickly too I might add.

Zayder had pretty proficient knowledge on the bot the Discord uses for moderation and how it works. Which he explained to me a few times. The first person said to me at one point, and I quote, “For all I know the bot gives messages when infractions are laid.”

So seeing how talking with a real Moderator like Zayder was, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that someone was trying to dupe me here for some reason. Was it revenge? Did they want some sort of blackmail? Did they want me to proverbially “back off?” And if they ARE a mod why wouldn’t they give the info and such that I gave them to the other mods? Who knows.

TL;DR:

Long Story short, it does appear as if the Moderation Team and Mic Mac have heard the artists of the fandom and are going to be working hard to lay down stricture rules regarding posting and doing their best to make sure credit goes where credit is due.

Fawn’s incident happened so long ago there’s not much evidence to be found on the Official discord, but we DO have proof that Nutmeg Cookie belongs to UpsetFawn!

The First Person who claimed to be a Mod was a fake and talking with Zayder proved it.

Overall, my talk with Zayder was very pleasant and enlightening and I believe Zayder would say about the same! I never meant to cause such an uproar, but I’d like to think things will change for the better now that we’ve all spoken up on behalf of our fellow artist.

What we need to do now is watch how the Cookie Run Official Discord moves forward and if they’ll stick to their word towards protecting fandom content creators from theft and uncredited reposts. Though after my talk I’m certainly optimistic they will.

Always have your back for your fellow fandom artist, TerraTerraCotta

#Mun Updates #Mun Posts #Cookie Run #Cookie Run Official Discord #Cookie Run Ovenbreak #PSA #Signal Boost #Be sure to pass this along!!

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bawkrya · 3 years

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Ok i’m answering all the questions from that one ask meme bc i was basically sent all of them from discord friends

🌳How does your clan use the landscape of their territory to their benefit. Do they alter it?

To give background on what Phrauge’s territory actually looks like, a LOT of it is actually desert. The sand is a deep red, and despite being a desert, dig a shallow hole and it’ll be filled with a toxic liquid that the scientists in the clan are still trying to figure out. Anura, the main city, kind of sits at the beginning of the desert, but is surrounded by trees in kind of a U shape. Then the Malignant Redwood, a super toxic jungle, sits along the border of Shadow

BUT! The main thing Phrauge has done is found a way to solidify the sand in a dragon-friendly way in order to make homes. A lot of homes are directly connected to the ground, so sloped homes are a common occurrence. It wasn’t until recent years that Phrauge started using balanced concrete pads to start building houses/other buildings. The one HUGE altercation they’ve made above ground was when Bawkrya started expanding their territory into the Redwood, where he built his home

The trees, plants, and animals found at the location his home is in was sent off to mages, scientists, etc. to be studied-- he actually didn’t plan to build a house there until it was offered to him

UNDER Phrauge is a dragon-made cave system for the most part that was expanded into an underground city, and the houses/buildings there share a similar look in that they’re built from the stones and all that. A good portion of the “Higher Mall” is carved into the walls of the cavern.

🏠What are the housing accommodations? Any architectural influences?

There’s housing in basically every part of Phrauge. Due to how old Phrauge is as a Clan, the majority of this housing are tall apartment like buildings where families have lived for several generations. These apartments tend to be PRETTY large as they accommodated Imperials and other large species for the most part

While the majority of the house will be made out of sand/concrete, wooden decor, supports, etc. are implemented throughout it, but like especially for decoration. Bone is also a common decoration, with both wood and bone being carved with smooth and stupid intricate designs.

For the wooden and bone decor like that, for apartments that had several generations in them, some of the decor may tell stories of those who lived there, or list position in the clan, or have a family tree. If the family ever moves from these houses, the decoration is either taken with them or sent to historians in order to preserve them

Also Phrauge really loves some tiling. Tiled floors with wooden walls is pretty common, esp with how customizable it can be. Despite the popularity, there’s not too many dragons in the clan who actually make tile-- so there’s maybe three or four dragons really well known for the tiles they’ve made.

As for influences, there’s a LOT. If you can think of a style, it’s most likely sitting somewhere in Phrauge. the housing described above is moreso the style that belongs to the clan, but since a LOT of dragons are moving in from various flights, housing of different looks tend to drop in all the time

❤️How are hatchlings raised? By the clan? Just the parents? Just one parent? Is there a nursery for eggs? How is that set up if so?

It really depends on the area. In Anura, it’s generally only the parents raising the kids, given how many different dragons run through the major city from different flights, but there are plenty of childcare options for parents who may be in the higher ranks of the clan. There’s mostly daycares, but teens can make a living off of babysitting!

In Gabbro, a smaller city based near the Earth border, it’s more communal based. Less tourists go through that area, so everyone knows just about everyone, and with how much security is in place, parents are generally at ease letting their kids run around doing more simple errands.

As for underground, it’s almost strictly just the parents. While Bawkrya is trying to make it a more safe city, dragons still try to do shady business there, and it’s an overall much more strict setting. Most families don’t live there unless they have to-- for ex; the home has belonged to a family for a long time. Still, for those on the richer side, they mostly keep security in place for that home in favor of buying a new one aboveground.

For members of the clan who are Officials, children are usually taken care of by other officials, or by specifically hired babysitters/tutors. For example if Xentheryn and Akeldama, the two official Blood Mages/Scholars of the clan, were to have children, Bawkrya (leader), Fortinbras & Valencia (Head of Trade/Supreme General), etc. would be some of the few who may keep an eye on the kid(s).

🌧How do they lay their dead to rest? Is it a cemetery? A hall of the dead? An item crafted to remember them by?

Due to the nature of the sand in Phrauge, most if not all are cremated. This is mostly so dragons may keep their family with them, as there really isn’t anywhere to bury someone. On top of that, Imperials used to make up the majority of the clan, so bodies couldn’t be buried even if the family wanted them to be.

Some families may build temple-like concrete buildings in order to store the urns of their deceased. These buildings are generally small, and located near the woods. They’re also able to be moved from where they’re placed if needed-- which is why Bawkrya, with the permission of the families, relocated a lot of these temples to a specific area thats under more security.

These temples are protected by a magic talisman that’s fueled by the living family. So, unless you’re blood related or otherwise bound to the talisman, you won’t be able to go in or move these temples. If a family no longer has a surviving member, it is usually bound to the clans Immortal (TBA Dragon), who will continue fueling it so long as their loyalty lies in Phrauge.

For Dragons of higher rank, with the families permission, their urn may be placed in the Capital Building. Urns in this building are protected by two talismans, one fueled by the family, and the overarching one fueled by the Immortal.

In the temples, important items that belonged to the dragon may be set next to the urn. For ex: Bridal Boas, small weapons, journals, etc. As for items families may keep, since jewelry is super popular in the clan, Rings, Necklaces, and other forms of jewelry are typically worn by the dragons Heir, or whoever they may have left it to. Bawkryas pendants are a well known example-- it’s rumored they belonged to his mother, but they only thing known for sure is that it was passed onto him when he was young.

⚔️How do they get along with beastclans? Is there tension even if they get along well?

Honestly, pretty well. The most trouble Beastclan folk might face in Phrauge is from tourists who aren’t familiar with the laws set in place protecting them against dragons. So, many tend to live in the Gabbro instead of Anura.

Dragons also still have beastclan familiars, like Bawkrya does! Familiars in this sense are treated equally, and are more of a partnership between dragons, whether it’s familial, platonic, or romantic. Familiar is just the universal title most end up using

🍽Any culinary inspirations or specialties?

There’s several Phrauge specific specialties, and every single one is a meat based dish. I don’t have names yet for them, but the most well known is a soup made from bone broth with lots of meat in it. Grouse is the most common choice of meat, with different sorts of seasoning, sauces, etc. depending on the region/who cooks it. Veggies and the like are mixed in too-- but again it’s all dependent on where you have it made

A special kind of beef jerky is super popular too, with magic based ingredients!

But, also, since plenty of dragons move into Anura every day, specialties from other clans or flights gain traction as well. Though-- nature specialties don’t really last long

🔑If your clan is land locked or lacks bodies of water how do you feed pescatarians? If its dry or frozen how do they feed herbivores? Does this area limit what dragons have joined your clan due to unstable dietary supplies?

A LOT of food is imported! Like a lot. Phrauge does a lot of trading among other clans/flights, so there’s rarely ever a shortage, especially since Bawkrya and Fortinbras have teamed up on trade. So, dragons aren’t really limited.

🎀Does certain clothing mean anything in your clan? Colors or items signal a rank or status like marriage, warrior, healer?

Bridal Boas are a super common, Phrauge specific thing. It’s something all partners in marriage wear, and something they make for each other. Bridal Boas are made from fur, decorative metals, and jewels. They don’t specifically have to be boas, just made out of fur! As for colors, white is the most common, but Reds, Dark Greens, and Dark Purples are other colors associated with marriage.

For Mages, they tend to wear metal masks with heavily jewelry. Xentheryn and Akeldama have the most prominent masks as they’re the Official mages, but all Mage related masks are decorated depending on what they specialize in. For those two specifically, being Blood mages, Red jewels, copper metal, etc. is used for their masks with more flowy designs

Bawkrya has a specific uniform he has to wear when doing Clan Ceremonies. The majority of this uniform is made from bone-- with the bones being from past enemies that Phrauge has defeated. The fabric used is from specific beasts too, all which past Leaders have killed themselves. Also, passed down jewelry and the like.

⭐️Is your clan healing magic based? Apothecary based? Surgical? A strange combination?

It’s more of a combination, with how many dragons there are. And, it really depends on the injury or illness a dragon may have. But, the most popular form is magic based, with most if not all mages in the clan basing their studies in healing.

✏️What are real world influences that have been implemented into your clan’s design or culture?

For fashion, a lot is inspired by the 1930s fashion from various countries! For a specific source, the fashion in Winter Begonia is a huge influence. I just tend to make the clothing sluttier LMFAO

so just really nice and layered tuxes and semi form fitting dresses. but in Phrauge theres boob windows somehow implemented. + STUPID heavy jewelry + LOTS of fur and potentially bones

#this is so much #Phrauge Lore

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ramonadecember · 4 years

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👀👀👀 for the angst list: 31. “Is being high all the time worth losing everything?”, cullrian. And for the otp list: 45. “If I kiss you right now, I won’t be able to stop.”, also cullrian. :)

HELLO. I swear I neither died nor gave up on these prompts. I know i’ve said ‘this got long’ before, but THIS GOT LONG. this is technically part one of two, which covers the first prompt (with the second part with prompt two in the works.

READ FULL ON AO3!

college roommate au (actually inspired by a convo off the cullrian discord from way way back). obvious tw for drug (prescription pill) abuse. I now have very strong opinions on what sports and positions inquisition members would play.

Dorian had always been resistant to getting a roommate, even making sure he secured a single room when he’d been subjected to the dorms his Freshman year, but when one’s father cuts them off financially after certain… ‘lifestyle disagreements,’ as Halward liked to refer to them as, and picking up more tutoring only brought in so much extra cash, a man has to make do.

Cassandra, the terse woman from his degree program—even if biochemistry was taking her down the path of forensics instead of healthcare—who’s bluntness he’d admittedly grown fond of, was the first one to suggest a viable options. During one of their study sessions, something that’d become increasingly frequent once they realized how many classes they had together and how little they cared for many others in them, Dorian was bemoaning his roommate predicament as much as he was their workload when Cassandra mentioned she knew someone looking for a place. Dorian was hesitant about what type of equally surly individual would earn Cassandra’s title of ‘best friend,’ but with few other leads and none of them gaining traction, and the initial meeting going well enough that Dorian fear he was welcoming some sort of secret axe murderer into his apartment, Dorian begrudgingly found himself cleaning out the second bedroom of his junk to make room for one Cullen Rutherford.

If Dorian bothered to pay attention to inane things like college sports or the drivel put out by the school newspaper, he might have realized just who he’d taken on as a roommate. The sports memorabilia that ended up decorating Cullen’s room wasn’t the tip off it could have been either, with Dorian only supposing that he couldn’t begrudge someone having a little bit of school spirit, knowing full well he was the odd one out when it came to his lack of interest in the goings on of the football team.

As it was, what Dorian knew about Cullen after a few weeks of living together was that Cullen mostly kept to himself, he almost always had his nose to a textbook, be it spread out at the little kitchen table or at the desk in his room, and he made a damn fine cup of coffee. The last part is what made him ‘decide’ Cullen could stay. Waking up to the rich smell of the roasted beans and Cullen’s shrug of, “There’s some for you, if you’d like,” as he sipped from his own mug made it easier to forgive things like Cullen’s not so subtle reminders and sticky notes requesting Dorian pick up after himself or grab something from the store, or the looks that Cullen would throw his way when Dorian decided his friends and him needed to open another bottle of wine on a Tuesday night, despite all of them, Cullen included, having class in the morning.

It took Josephine clutching her metaphorical pearls when Cullen happened to run into her and Dorian out on a coffee date for Dorian to learn that his roommate was not just some random meat head, but a very specific one.

“I’ve never seen you get flustered over someone like that,” Dorian remarked after quick introductions were given and Cullen went on his way. Josephine was still trying to hide her flush behind an overlarge cappuccino mug. “Over a well-organized closet or excellent use of binder tabs, sure. But over some guy?” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder in the general direct that Cullen left.

“Some guy?” Josephine sounded almost offended. “That’s Cullen Rutherford.”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me? I know my roommates name.”

“Number Forty-Two?” Josephine threw up her hands when Dorian only arched an even higher eyebrow at her. “You must be joking, Dorian. His statistics are incredible.”

“Oh, his ‘statistics?’ Is that what we’re calling it?”

“That’s not to say he doesn’t have other remarkable features…”

“Please don’t, I have to live with him.”

“As if you haven’t already noticed.”

Rather than admit that Josephine was right—and how could she not be? A person would have to be blind not to notice gorgeous, muscly Cullen in his tight t-shirts and with his pretty blonde curls and the charming smile Dorian would like to see turn his way a little more often—Dorian tried to get them back on track. “So, ‘Number Forty-Two,’ hm? Are you telling me he plays what… football? I’ve never seen him go to practice.”

Josephine let out an exasperated sigh. “He used to. You really don’t remember our first year here?” When Dorian only shrugged she went on to say, “He was a Freshman too, but they had him starting for the team anyway. His interceptions alone… Not to mention no fullback should score that much.”

She tutted at Dorian’s snort of a laugh to that, and seeing that glazed look on his face indicating she was saying a lot of words that meant nothing to him, Josephine moved on to tell him about how Cullen had taken a bad hit near the end of last season and broke his leg. “It was… not pretty,” she grimaced. “And now...”

And now, he was no longer that star athlete, having never returned to the team. Now he was just some guy, as Dorian insisted. Just some, according to Josephine, engineering major of all things. Now he was just Dorian’s roommate, one who had horrible taste in movies but good taste when it came to his go-to Antivan takeout order, who’s quiet humming as he moved about the apartment wasn’t nearly as annoying as Dorian made it out to be, and one who Dorian would certainly be looking at differently after that day.

Now that Dorian knew, he wanted desperately to say something to Cullen. He understood not wanting to play anymore after a bad injury, but Dorian figured Cullen would still cling to the glory days and the celebrity that came even to a ‘retired’ player. Instead, while Cullen could likely still sail through college, and with a woman on each arm to boot, he chose to spend his time behind a mountain of textbooks, or even more curiously, in Dorian’s company. Josephine insisted he should let it lie, clearly it was something Cullen didn’t wish to talk about, but as was the case with a fresh cut or a dark bruise, Dorian had a tendency to pick and prod beyond the point of comfort.

It took longer than Dorian would have liked to find an opportunity to do just that. He breezed in the door one evening, and after the tedium of tutoring and his last class running late, he was ready for the weekend that was to come. Usually him heaving a huge sigh and the thud of his bag hitting the floor as soon as he walked in would have Cullen calling ‘Long day?’ from the other room, but the apartment was silent. As Dorian walked deeper into the apartment, he saw why.

Cullen was snoozing on the couch, an arm thrown over his eyes against the rays of the setting sun slanting in through the blinds, and the sight had a smile tugging at the corner of Dorian’s lips. He perched himself on the sliver of couch at Cullen’s hip, and was about to wake him when something else caught his eye. A pill bottle sat on the coffee table, and while better judgement and respect for privacy told him not to, Dorian still found himself plucking it up. The future med student in him—and not his penchant for nosiness—demanded it, he told himself.

Painkillers.

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#thank you for bearing with me now bear with me a little longer for chapter 2 #cullrian #cullen rutherford #dorian pavus #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #my writing #prompt fills #fic: you've got a second chance #jellysharkbat

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theholycovenantrpg · 3 years

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CONGRATULATIONS, KIERSTEN! YOU’VE BEEN ACCEPTED FOR THE ROLE OF EPHEMERA.

Admin Rosey: There is something incredibly arresting about Ephemera that I thought would be difficult for someone to capture. There’s something powerful and pivotal that surrounds her - it’s why so many had fallen to their feet in order to worship her. Kiersten, you captured that perfectly. Absolutely perfectly. There line that stuck with me, throughout the application, was this: Ephemera is, quite simply, a terrible beauty. That is what I always saw Ephemera as - terrible and beautiful. The kind that defines the divinity of angels. I am so incredibly excited to welcome Ephemera to the dash, and you to the group! Please create and send in your account, review the information on our CHECKLIST, and follow everyone on the FOLLOW LIST. Welcome to the Holy Land!

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias | Kiersten

Age | 22

Preferred Pronouns | she/her/hers

Activity Level | I’m entering my final year of university with the lightest credit load I’ve had since sophomore year, but I’m also in the process of applying to post-grad programs ( :/ ) and co-editing an anthology for one of the departments here on campus. With that being said, I hope to get a reply out every other day, or once every two days. However, I’m chaotic and oftentimes mean to hold and/or queue replies, but end up flooding the dash. If I could give you a number, it’d be 6/10, realistically, but I’m pretty much always around on Discord to plot and/or chat!

Timezone | EST

Triggers | REMOVED.

How did you find the group? | #thctalk :*

Current/Past RP Accounts | LINK, LINK, LINK

IN CHARACTER

Character | Ephemera - The Virtue of Prudence (with a FC change to Levy Tran, if you please? uwu)

What drew you to this character? | Ephemera is, quite simply, a terrible beauty. I’ve always been enthralled by angels and their place in different aspects of existence--as messengers, saviors, harbingers of punishment, and more--but I never quite thought of there being an angel like Ephemera and I love her all the more for it. She is a true free spirit, she is the best and worst of God; she is the first mortal to be granted wings and instead of crumbling under the weight of the honor, she rose to the occasion and exceeded expectations. She’s a glorious being deserving of adulation… How could I not be drawn to her?

What future plots do you have in mind for the character? |

i. Just as it was God’s folly to give His beguiling creation wings, it was His folly to dictate that she be named Ephemera. There is power in a name, and Ephemera’s literally translates to “something that is enjoyed for only a short amount of time.” How, then, is it her fault that longstanding peace knows no home in her celestial frame? Because of this, I can easily see the Virtue as a near vulture of sorts, just waiting to capitalize upon the misfortune of those beneath her. I don’t think it would be out of character for the conqueror of an angel to pick at the fraying tendrils of peace throughout the lands while Michael and his advisors are none the wiser, instigating discord whenever she deemed it politically smart—for herself, that is.

ii. It is not often that a deity such as herself sees what could be considered an equal in someone else, but such is the fate of Ephemera and DMITRI. He is the Horseman of Conquest and she is conquest’s keeper—she, who’s known nothing but adulation for her victories as both a mortal and an angel; she, who bested her own Creator at the end… And wouldn’t be opposed to besting the Horsemen, either. I would love to explore the dynamic between these two on a micro-level (with Ephemera trying to strategically mold Dmitri into the harbinger of Death that she believes they are to be, for example), but also the dynamic between them on a macro-level that is inclusive as the HORSEMEN as a unit, as well. One of the oldest tactics of war is to divide and conquer, and the idea crosses the strategist’s mind every time she sees the Pale Horseman. What would it take to force one entity into four, all just ripe for her taking? What would Ephemera give to have such power at her fingertips? Further still, what would she do with that sort of power?

iii. She could have sworn she was careful enough--she disposed of plucked feathers by fire, she made sure to appear wounded when necessary, and more--and still, she was brought to stand trial for her sins against her Creator. Ephemera certainly did not out herself to God, so who did? With this plot, I would love for Ephemera to search for whoever told her Creator (a CHERUBIM, perhaps?) about her stints as a god in her own right. She is haunted by the mistake even though things have turned out well for her because she doesn’t know what she did wrong--and how could she refrain from repeating her mistake if she knows nothing about it?

iv. Ephemera is all-too aware of BASTIEN’s obsession with her--her battle stories, her military presence, her sharp mind--and is often annoyed by his incessant behavior, as she finds it difficult to believe that the mortal hasn’t yet realized her disinterest in him stems from the fact that she’s deemed him unworthy of her undivided attention. The angel knows that the Avalos man greedily laps at whatever scraps she deigns to toss his way, and, sometimes, the information she tosses his way is rotten; sometimes, she gives half-truths and embellished accounts of her encyclopedic war accounts, or gives withering comments about his militaristic plans even if she agrees with them for two reasons. The first is that she hopes it negatively impacts the whelp of a mortal enough to leave her alone, and the second is that she hopes it also negatively impacts the mortals’ military forces--especially as times become more and more strenuous between demons, angels, and mortals.

v. Eternity is a long time to exist without amusement and she is so grateful for CADE BEKKER and his utter disdain for everything, for he is her favorite plaything. She knows he sees her as a beast waiting to be befelled, but does he not know that the Virtue evaded and had a hand in the death of God and has no qualms about doing the same to him? She is content to watch him seethe, but she wants more. I love the idea of Ephemera taunting Cade so much that it eventually does end in a fight--but one that he started, one that she can justify to herself and the others. A Virtue versus a Gifted… What a bellicose event that would be!

vi. The GIFTED are the mortals that catch Ephemera’s attention with begrudging ease (even more so than the REINCARNATED), and of the Gifted, she takes most caution around REVNA VOLK. The Virtue’s mind is her prized possession, and Revna’s very existence serves as a threat to it; as such, Ephemera is keen on keeping an eye on the mortal to ensure that she’s not blindsided by anything she does; when she looks at Revna, she feels feelings of bitterness--not because she thinks she’ll ever fall victim to the Daughter of Lies’ tricks, but because God’s divinity makes a mockery out of her as it settles in Revna’s bones. (Even in death, it seems that God intends to taunt her and keep her chained to Him in some way). This one is really open-ended and it can go a couple of ways: with the angel trying to take Revna under her wing in order to keep herself safe (similar to the way in which God brought her closer to Him despite her transgressions against Him), or she could work to make Revna’s life difficult in the Holy Land by advocating for things that would negatively impact her or keep her from gaining any more traction in the political realm.

vii. They say that like calls to like and that both angels and demons are but two halves of the same coin—and, perhaps, in the rawest of terms, they are correct. Like the demon that she is, SALOME pulls a viciousness from Ephemera that reminds the angel of the Old Testament God—of a God that was divinely terrible and possessed a haughtiness that so often informed the deliverance of punishments to those who couldn’t help but fall short of the expectations placed on their incapable shoulders. God found it easy to lose Himself in His throes of battle and glory and passion, and there’s a part of Ephemera that clings to His likeness despite her repeated successes at besting Him; she, too, finds herself susceptible to His same weakness.

Most mistakes made by the Virtue of Prudence are never capitalized on, as they’re so few and far between and tend not to be egregious enough to exploit; however, time is as merciless as she, and it exposes what few chinks do exist in Ephemera’s armor while also giving Salome time to start to understand. I’m really excited to play out the relationship between these two beings, especially as Ephemera simultaneously believes she’s better than Salome, but knows Salome can capitalize on her mistakes--and oh, how she detests the way the demon smiles when she knows the angel has made an error!

viii. Ephemera feels as though she chose MICHAEL as much as he chose her, which is why she feels comfortable enough to lord her part in Caelum’s creation over his head, should he begin to forget that it was her military brainchild that led to God being tossed from Heaven and her battalions that stifled the even the strongest of Heretic strikes. For now, she is content to remain by his side because he affords her freedoms that God was too cowardly to, but ephemera are not meant to be enjoyed for eternity. What would it take to turn the mind against the body, the Virtue against the one who bequeathed her such an honor? How would the King of Caelum react to being extorted, in a sense, by his own military advisor?

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | Yea! It be like that sometimes but so long as it makes sense, serves the plot, and befits the glorious conqueror that is Ephemera I am down to clown uwu

IN DEPTH

Driving Character Motivation |

(Ephemera has always been divine, but she’s not always been an angel; as such, her driving motivation has changed with her!)

As a MORTAL, Ephemera was driven by SUCCESS. Her life was hard-won and something she snatched without so much of a second thought; she wanted to be brilliant, and so she was. She was the first woman to rally her people to prestige and glory and led them to prosperity with her wisdom and iron-clad fist; she made a lover out of Death time and time again, but always evaded both it and God because she is bigger than them both and her successes attest to this.

As an ANGEL, however, she quickly realized that successes (even awe-inspiring ones like her own) were dimes a dozen and was left wanting more, wanting something of substance in an eternal life rather than worshipping God without end. She found solace in her own FREE WILL and never looked back—but who can blame her, as she is only adhering to God’s wish for His beloved creations? Ephemera values herself and her freedom above all else, but even she knows that the strongest of generals need legions behind them; she stays aligned with Michael and his kingdom because she wants to, not because she must.

In-Character Para Sample |

“What do you have to say for yourself, my child?”

She expects nothing less from God, who loves her so that He wishes to give her a chance to explain herself. Fool, she defiantly thinks as she stands at the throne of her Creator, head unbowed and expression unfazed. The angel waits to respond, forcing an uncomfortable silence upon them both--and God, enraptured with His own work, allows her to do so and again bring attention to His folly. He is steadfast in His love and grace with her especially, as she is closer to his truest loves--his mortals--than any of the other celestial beings that gather to watch the sentencing of the woman whom they believed never truly deserved her place among beings as divine as themselves.

Ephemera knows what is expected of her: utter repentance, a grand show of regret and sorrow, and a promise to never again commit such an offense against her wondrous Maker again. She has seen it before and it only further stoked her ire against the selfish God that holds her here in a farce of a trial in an attempt to break her will and reinstate His place as both the Alpha and Omega. She will now bow nor will she beg for forgiveness; if anything, He should be prostrate at her throne, begging for her forgiveness as it is His wretched desire to keep his favorite mortal in his dominion like she is a pet. She is unapologetic as she responds, voice unwavering: “I have done no different than You have done Yourself.”

The silence of the throne room shatters. Cherubim cry out in disgust at such blasphemy; Seraphim gasp and whisper, eyes wide with disgust that someone they called a comrade would do something so heinous. God raises a hand and the outcries stop; He looks to his masterpiece expectantly, and Ephemera continues, “In the presence of Your own omniscience, I spent centuries disguising myself as a mortal to once again feel more than loathing.”

The pain that flashes across His face is genuine and full of agony; it’s an expression Ephemera knows because she’s seen it flit across the visages of others she’s conquered throughout her lifetimes as Athena and Nike, Minerva and Freya. And still, she does not bend at her knees and profess her love; she remains upright and earnest--and how could she not, when she’s done nothing wrong?

“My creation,” God says, “you know the cost of such transgressions.”

She does. She’s heard tales of Moloch and Chemosh and Dagon; she knows the penalty of disobedience is the stripping of wings from bodies. She’s been told of the excruciating pain, of the near demonic screams that spilled from the angels’ lips as God punished them enough to traumatize them with pain, but not enough to offer the sweet outlet of ceasing to exist--and yet, she is more bothered by His language. Ephemera can’t help but bristle as He, even when threatening her with a wingless existence, lays claim to her as though she did not mold herself into the wonder that she is.

“Rip my wings off.” It’s a bold challenge that once again riles the watching masses. They call her a heretic, a foolhardy mortal who deserves to return from the same dust from which she came--and God does nothing but drink in the sight of the beguiling creature at His throne that refuses to pledge her loyalty to Him and not herself.

How can He condemn her to such a painful existence? She is one of his finest creations.

He lifts a mighty hand and she braces herself for pain, but does not balk or cower. His fingertips run down her ivory plumage, paying careful attention to the places she plucked to masquerade as a mortal. Ephemera clenches her jaw and it remains locked even as His touch leaves her wings.

“How could I, my Ephemera?” And so, He decides to draw her closer to Him still in spite of her blatant sins against him. She is a Seraphim--His Seraphim--and He all but chains her to Him by revoking her privilege to traverse alongside mortals and ordering that she stay close to His side via pretentious titles such as general, His strategist, His masterpiece, and more.

Ephemera loathes Him all the more for it.

Extras |

headcanons.

The Virtue’s wings seem to mimic her sword, in the sense that they, too, glisten as though they were cut from unforgiving ice. Ephemera’s lush, ivory plumage is, upon close inspection, flecked with gold; however, the silver tips of her feathers are far more noticeable, allowing for a more ice-like appearance. When she used to parade as a mortal, she would pluck her own feathers to make her wings less full and easier to conceal. It must be God’s favor, then, that still shines on her, as there is no evidence--save for the phantom sensations prickling against her skin--of her past actions.

Ephemera’s companions throughout her eternal existence have varied, and they are often depicted at her side by the devoted mortals that dubbed her their goddesses--Nike, Athena, Freya, and Minerva--and etched her glorious likeliness into word, gold, and marble. Her companions, too, came from those devoted mortals, and Ephemera strategically chose which animals to accept as gifts and keep at her side. These animals, kept by the angel throughout her stints as different mortal deities, include: a barn owl, a white King Cobra, a wild boar, and a silver dapple Arabian horse.

No longer needing an animal to symbolize herself to the mortals of the Old World, Ephemera made the decision to stop keeping companions and instead chose to focus on plans to overthrow God. Since then, however, the angel has acquired a red fox companion--but if you ask her, she would assert that the fox chose her, as the animal followed her home from the forest one night. Ephemera ignored the vixen at first, but soon found herself amused by her wit and overall penchant for chaos. Ephemera named the fox Gloria--a nod to the Latin word ‘gloriae’ that is synonymous with immortal glory, fame, renown, praise, and honor.

The Virtue of Prudence keeps no written records of her strategies, aside from the plans she gave Michael in response to and as a show of her allegiance to the dissatisfaction that led to the usurping of God.

Ephemera is, in some capacity, always prepared for battle. Conquest and the desire for victory run rampantly through her veins, and growing comfortable in her surroundings is tantamount to accepting defeat and complacency--both of which, of course, are absolutely unacceptable for this divine conqueror. Because of this, the angel is incredibly observant and never leaves without her sword, even though she has rarely used it since the quelling of the God and, subsequently, Heretics.

personality inventory.

Nine Moral Alignments: Chaotic Neutral - The Free Spirit

+ | opportunistic, adaptable, innovative - | self-serving, bellicose, disharmonious

MBTI: INTJ - The Architect + | independent, jane-of-all-trades, driven - | judgemental, blunt, secretive

Four Temperaments: Choleric

+ | practical, passionate, ambitious - | cruel, proud, offensive

additional extras.

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MOCK BLOG: here

#accepted #accepted: ephemera

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