doing a replay of botw and I'm at the part where I need to sneak through the yiga hideout, and my sibling starts walking around the house announcing "whump hurt comfort revalink oneshot where link tries to infiltrate the yiga but he really goes through it, so revali comes to rescue him and then they hug" AJDBAJDB but honestly they're so real for that and I would be so down to read that 😭

i left this ask in my inbox for a while because i was turning it over in my head like a rotisserie chicken and even tho ur sibling is on to something i cannot for the life of me figure out what sort of context this would make sense in i'm sawry ✋😭 i was really that meme with the confused blond woman and a bunch of math equations around her head bc like.......

i just have so many questions like is this taking place pre- or post-calamity? that's going to be the huge determiner for the reason why i'd write link infiltrating the yiga clan. for me it would make sense pre-calamity if the yiga stole the thunder helm or were just being shitheads, but then we'd have to figure out why revali got dragged along for the stealth mission (the other champions were already there or were they called? is he scouting? backup? recon?). post-calamity is more difficult to figure a logical reason why because the natural assumption would be the in-game yiga infiltration where link needs to get the thunder helm back OR post-botw champions revived au where maybe the yiga are acting up so the champions gotta go in and beat their asses. the first would be difficult to write because revali is dead at the moment LOL and is also a ghost who can't remain outside his divine beast for longer than a few seconds, and the latter idea i feel requires carefully thought-out pacing, build-up, and plot to execute well 😭 idk like do y'all really expect daruk to be good at a stealth mission in that environment u know his ass is gonna get pushed and he'll be rolling all the way down karusa valley back down into gerudo desert.

idk i'm also interested to see how this idea would play out but i'm picking it apart with my brain rn and my brain is gonna continue doing that for a while i think. we're going to dissect this a little more and let it sit outside in the sun to marinate for a bit before come back to it, unless you'd like to have ur sibling hit my line and tell me more about their fic idea bc i wanna dissect ur sibling's brain on this too

AITA for asking my boyfriend to stop watching porn?

This is pretty simple tbh. NSFW mentions of porn, sex, and masturbation.

🐣🐣

I am a transgender man and struggle a lot with sexual intimacy. I don’t think I’m on the ace spectrum, I just have a lot of insecurities and dysphoria that I’m working through. I still crave sexual intimacy, I just get very anxious about it. My boyfriend is understanding but a little pushy at times because he’s got a high sex drive. He doesn’t do it on purpose and backs off when I tell him to. Important to mention that my boyfriend is cis. So, because of this, my boyfriend usually takes care of himself. I help out whenever I feel comfortable.

Recently, we somehow started talking about porn and hentai (don’t remember the context of the conversation) and I asked him what he does when he takes care of himself. He said he watches porn, which I was surprised to hear but it makes sense because he has aphantasia. So, he can’t really imagine me or anything. Sometimes he uses my photos, but he said he needs some movement. At first I was fine with it, but then he mentioned that he only watches straight porn.

Now, I know my reaction was out of line, because I started crying and calling him an asshole for watching straight porn when he’s dating a trans guy. He’s pansexual, so he can really watch any kind of porn he wants, but I just started freaking out for some reason.

He kept telling me that there was no good gay stuff or ftm stuff, which is just straight up not true. There’s plenty of ftm nsfw content, but when I mentioned that, he said it felt weird and fetishistic.

I told him it hurts me when he watches straight porn, he said that’s stupid and he needs something to get off to. Fair enough but it still hurts me. There’s just something about me trying so hard to get past my anxiety and dysphoria so we can finally be intimate with each other and him blatantly disrespecting my gender identity that hurts like hell.

Plus, every time I suggested we do something that I’m into, he shot me down. I’m a bit of a kinkier guy and he’s very vanilla, despite insisting that he’s into the same stuff as me. I 100% respect his boundaries and never brought it up again. But I don’t think it’s fair that he won’t even try stuff with me that might make intimacy more enjoyable for me and then goes and watches straight porn. I keep trying to make our sex live work and he can’t even be bothered to figure out ftm bodies. Idk.

I talked to an online friend and they called me biphobic.

Am I out of line for trying to tell him what kind of porn to watch? Am I overreacting?

not the post I wanted to make today. (UPDATED!)

DISREGARD THE UPDATE, HE’S BACK.

MORE INFO IN MY REBLOGS (I think.)!!! PLEASE CHECK THOSE FOR MORE CONTEXT.

TL;DR dawg drew NSFW of someone’s character without their permission, was lowkey racist and sexist in my server, et. Etc. etc.

DO NOT INTERACT WITH OP’s POST IF IT WORKS because I know they want no more to do with this situation, so please respect their wishes.

Y’all, DO NOT accept making art for, or interacting with @/jayden-davis-williams (this account has changed to @/jayden-for-now or something similar.) or however his name is spelled. He’s been outed for some gross shit, information post linked below. I’ve decided to finally speak up on this because he still seems to be getting into every artist’s boxes and idk if everyone knows.

He’s done some gross things to me and several other people in the community and I refuse to let him off scot-free. Please reblog. Get this to reach as many people in the community as possible. This is important.

I don’t like confrontation but I need to finally speak up on this. This cannot go on.

Stay safe out there, JSAB.

(Hi Sonic community! Sorry y’all gotta deal w this too)

I will never understand people insisting that it was Jaime's fault Elia and the children died and that he didn't do his job. I don't understand why people cannot acknowledge that the multitude and diversity of factors working simultaneously and opposite to each other is precisely what creates the tragedy of the event(s), these factors being slowly morphed into a mechanism functining on its own accord, beyond any power individual decisions could have. Every single individual in this tragedy (the sack and the rebellion in general) had entirely different motivations and aspirations, and no individual had the full picture at any occasion whatsoever, and this is precisely because of the broader mechanism that was in motion that I mentioned above. And there lies the whole point, the concept of not knowing, not being able to know in advance. The idea of actions, choices, decisions having unexpected consequences that a character could not be able to imagine in advance. Things could have been different if at any point any of the individuals implicated in this event(s) knew the whole picture, or at worst, if they were more careful, more diligent, if they had made a better assessment of the situation at hand. I don't believe what happened was technically inevitable of course. It could have been avoided, which is something that amplifies the tragedy. Of course the individual decisions of any of the factors involved shaped the result. But we need to take into account all these parameters that were at play leading to each and every decision, prior to the decision itself, in order to avoid a bad faith reading of the text. We know everything that happened. The individuals did not know what would happen prior to making the decisions they made.

Rhaegar running away with Lyanna seems suspicious in general and there is definitely a lot of info missing there (which has been confirmed by grrm, meaning there was probably a reason they run away together - and i'm NOT talking about the braindead fanon theory of rhaegar collecting dragon heads like pokemons). Aside from that big hole of info we don't have that would give a solid context for this otherwise pretty inexplicable action, R and L could not have expected in advance that the events would play out in the way they did, they could not know in advance that someone (Baelish?) would spread the news of a literal kidnapping, they could not know in advance what Brandon would do, what Aerys would do, and so forth, and we don't even know when exactly they found out that all these things happened since they were isolated. They for sure could absolutely not know that Tywin, who didn't even take part in the rebellion, would eventually think it would be a great idea to randomnly order the rape and murder of Elia and the murder of the children. Nobody could ever imagine that in their right minds, yes, not-even-jaime-hello, which is precisely why this is an act of TREASON (and treason is an understatement), which is precisely why that act has such an impact and such an aura of horror and shock surrounding it, because of how unexpected and inconceivable it was, and also, how unneccessary it was, at a moment where the war was already won.

The power Rhaegar had in changing these events in any way shape or form was minimal to none, faced with the mad king that could go off the rails at any moment, the treason, the unprecedented cruelty of his enemies that were supposed to be allies, and more than that, the general mechanism already in motion leading to this tragic outcome.

Which leads me to Jaime. Jaime feels guilty for what happeend to Elia and her children, of course he does. He was there, in KL, he was sitting on the iron throne (i think that's when it happened) while the events took place and he didn't prevent them. I would also feel guilty if I were him. Who wouldn't? He was there. If he had thought this through, if he was more diligent, smarter, quicker idk, more perceptive maybe he would have figured this out sooner, maybe he would have done something, maybe he would have been able to save them. That's undoubtedly what he tells himself. Rhaegar would undoubtedly feel extreme guilt if he was alive after the sack of KL (which is a mere hypothesis since the sack of KL wouldn't have taken place had he been alive). Hell, even Ned feelts guilty for what happened to Elia and her children. That doesn't mean these people (i'm talking mainly about R and J) are actually responsible for what happened. That it is their fault that it happened. That they willingly wanted it to happen, or expected it to happen and didn't care, or let it happen in Jaime's case. Jaime's guilt stems from an error of judgement at worst, the fact that had he known every single parameter at play, had he imagined the exact motivations and intentions of a multitude of people and how far they were willing to go, had he expected what would happen in detail, he would have acted differently and maybe, maybe the result would have been different. That's not even certain, given, again, the multitude of factors at play that were beyond Jaime's power. But Jaime of course cannot help but think about the what if. The result could have been different had Jaime acted differently but Jaime acted according to the specific situation he had at hand, according to the specific problem that he had to face. He did what he thought was right in that precise moment. He didn't and couldn't possibly know what was going on outside from his sphere and if he did, we do not know for sure that he could have actually prevented the worst from happenning.

And I'm being exceptionally strict here by attributing an error of judgement to Jaime because I could have just said he was entirely innocent for what happened to Elia and the children, and it wouldn't be false. Again, error of judgement doesn't equal responsibility for what happened, it doesn't equal "moral flaw". An error of judgement does not give the reader a reason to morally judge a character. It is an entirely different thing.

I got this from Britannica :

I don't get how people can be so dense when reading anything related to the sack of KL and/or Robert's Rebellion in general. "Jaime didn't do his job", "Rhaegar led Elia and their children to their deaths" like, can you actually read? I was unnecessarily thorough here for something that is not all that complicated. It is pretty straightforward actually. It's sad that people do not get it. Like, I see BNFs being all deep and analytical about Jaime's moral struggles and dilemmas and overall tragedy and how he was in a situation that exceeded him and then they're like "rhaegar is the reason elia and the children died". From the other side I see people saying that Rhaegar couldn't have known what would happen and then they're like "Jaime didn't do his job!!!", guys. Guys. I'm begging you. I IMPLORE YOU : correcting a mischaracterization (Rhaegar was stupid/selfish for leaving """""all that responsibility""""" to Jaime) with another mischaracterization (Jaime "didn't do his job" because he's a moral coward) is not the way to go, it is done in bad faith, it erases the entire point of Robert's Rebellion along with a bunch of very important themes in asoiaf (the impossibility of choice, the fact that moral codes are actually a construct and don't always apply/sometimes contradict, and the feeling of powerlessness of an individual when faced with a monstrous mechanism, a system that is beyond their control).

I posted this in an art discord & they said it should be a post so others (both non-artists & artists) could see it too, so I'm pasting it here with a just few edits to add context:

Having feelings about capitalism and art.

Like, got an unexpected Redbubble sale today. Unexpected because I genuinely never expected to see another after I took some advice and did the whole "raise your margins to 50% in protest so people will use Redbubble less because 'prices are too high'" (For those unaware, Redbubble is introducing a tier structure for artist accounts, where Redbubble will now be taking up to 50% of an artist's monthly earnings as an "account fee" if they end up in the "Standard" tier. Artists are upset about this and are finding various ways to protest the change.)

And it got me thinking about margins, and what it takes to run the company, and how much CEO's take home and just-

Ok so say base price for a product is $10. If your margin is 20% it sells for $12 and you take home $2. Redbubble takes 80%, and uses that to buy materials/print/pay workers. Ok, no argument. I want workers to be fairly compensated.

But you look it up, and the highest paid Redbubble executive makes $950,000 a year. Average executive salary is around $235,000 a year. You can't really find the info for the positions of workers (meaning those who labor to print the products) only that "the lowest compensated makes $34,000" -aka roughly $16 an hour at 40hrs a week. And good on them for paying the workers a decent wage if this info is correct. Hope they keep it up. Or pay them more even.

But then I keep coming back to the fact that the company needs the artists' work to even exist. So why, if the CEO is making nearly a million dollars a year and the company obviously isn't hurting for any money to compensate it's workers or run itself, why does everyone make artists feel greedy just for asking to not have our cut eaten into with added fees? Why are we made to feel bad if we express any disappointment that a CEO makes so much money off the designs of so many artists in comparison to the artists' cut?

Idk how to say it right. It's like we're just expected to collectively fork over our work, let someone else get obscenely rich off it while we make barely anything from it (or in the case of many social media platforms, make literally nothing from it), then then smile about it. Anything else is seen as artists being entitled or 'lazy' or idk what else.

Or we're told to "just raise your margins" like competitive pricing isn't a thing that exists. Not to mention that fact that whenever prices do go up, especially with art, those same people complain that the prices went up and look for something cheaper.

I always see people saying that artists are just jealous that they don't make more sales, or saying "well maybe you'd make more if your art was better" but they're completely missing the whole point that is: Maybe if a company literally depends on the creative 'content' of individuals to exist/profit, maybe don't treat them all as disposable?

New au just droped lol

Bit of info about the au

Its an scp superhero au for lack of a better name, basically everyone becomes or a superhero or a supervillan depending on how much drama it can couse lol >:)

Like the ambassador/701 is a bad guy because they deserve to be mean and free, they are a model in Europe and they basically are the hanged king evil sugar baby(not to say that the hanged king isnt evil in this au since he is both a mobster and a cult leard but now he is bound to a wheelchair both because of a illness and also because someone beat the shit out him when he was younger), the hanged king lend some of his power to the ambassador and lord so they could continue his legacy while he watched over them, so now the ambassador has a fraction of the hanged king mind breaking powers :)

For a bit of context of what the hanged king powers are basically is a very very powerful form of telepathy for example he can make you feel stuff that isnt there like a smell, a taste or even pain from a stab wound ect. He can control your nervers to make your boby follows his will but he can do this only with a limited number of people at a time and obviously read your mind from a limeted range, so basically the lords and ambassador have a weaker version of this thanks to the king knowing that sharing is caring lol

049 is a good guy even if he is more on the grey area, like he trys to do good and help people but his methods can be a bit questionable sometimes for this reason the foundation force him in a sort of retirement he no longer does hero work, like the classic fighting bad guys, but he now work has a teacher for new heros/foundation personal; he still has his death touch but it can be regulated to just stun people but he needs to be carefull with it still because his death touch is very emoition based(a bit cheesy i know but i think it fits idk) so the more intense emotion he feels the more deadly his sink becomes. 049 can still create zombies since he learned how to after a mission gone wrong and some more agsty stuff that has to do with the handed king and his cult lol

682, 999 and 053 are all siblings, they are all children of the scarlet king whice he too has a cult of his own lol, 999 and 053 are in the foundation care thanks to 682 bringing them to the foundation in hopes to give them a better life but thanks to this they is now force to work for the foundation as a hero whice they are not so fond of but he would do anything for their little sisters. 999 and 053 are now in traing at the foundation to in future become heros they do this both because they want to do what their big sibling is doing and both because the foundation said so. 682 powers are basically the same as in the articol lol, they are very lizard like, have a very strong regeneration and can adapt to anything, 999 is pretty much the same she is made out of slime and if touched can make you feel happy and all that stuff but the thing js she can sort of eat negative emotions whice can create more slime whice in turn she can shape and use as a weapon or throw it at people lol whatever she feels like tbh but this can be very straining if done to much or if the emotion is to overwhelming, 053 is more complicated since i dont think her powers would be fully developed at her age but in short her powers are that she can project emotion on to people, at the moment only one person at the time, but since she groow up in a dhit place whice is her father’s cult this emotion often maje individuals near her become aggressive and violent especially towards her but she recently with the traing from the foundation and being in a better place has learned how to temporarily turn off this ability

THE ILIAD: FOR DUMMIES ☀️ MASTERPOST

just kidding you're not a dummy, you're some hot stuff right there! i will be going through the entire iliad and giving you a general overview, some interesting plot points, additional context, and some other analysis tools to better help you understand the epic!

This post will serve as a table of contents (at the end) to my Iliad posts and a general overview that I will be constantly updating! I am using the Richmond Lattimore translation of the Iliad, alongside my companion book by Malcom M. Wilcock

Before we get into analyzing the actual Iliad, we need to get into some essential questions and context about the book

WHAT IS THE ILIAD:

The Iliad was written by Homer (this is actually debated but we can get into that later) around 750 and 550 B.C.E.

At its core, the story is about heros and humans. It's an Iron Age poem about an event, the Trojan War, that was supposed to have taken place in the Bronze age. The Iliad is considered to be a poem comprised of multiple books, 24 to be exact

This story is only a few days of the tenth and final year of the Greek siege against the city of Troy- this means it relies on the audience already knowing most of the basic details about the Trojan war and the gods themselves (don't sorry, I will provide this for you as we go along)

WHO IS HOMER:

The age old question: who the fuck is Homer?

Literally nothing is known about this dude except that he wrote (or was credited with writing) the Odyssey and the Iliad

People have referenced his writings for EONS. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, Callinus, and even Sappho have referenced the poems of Homer in their own works. These also were popular in fine art in the late 7th century B.C.E.

There is a general consensus that Homer was from Ionia- a territory in western Anatolia or modern day Turkey that was populated by Greeks who spoke the Ionian dialect, aka the birthplace of Greek philosophy. Want more info on Ionia? Click Here!

His descendants were called the Homerids/Homeridae

There is scholarly debate on if he even wrote both the Iliad and the Odyssey, or if he only wrote one, etc etc etc. This is due to some very specific differences in the structure of the words used (like the use of short vowels, and the seemingly unimportant semivowel of the digamma being missing from the epics...yeah it's a lot)

The poems were reproduced ORALLY. This means that the poems were passed down by word of mouth, which if I were to sit and listen to this entire book via a guy singing at me...idk man I think I would leave

All of this to say, we really don't know who Homer is. There's a lot more information about what he could have looked like, if he really did write the Iliad, and a million other things, but I've already talked your ear off and we haven't even gotten into the book yet. If you want more information about Homer, check out my sources at the end of the post!

WAS THE CITY OF TROY REAL:

Yeah. There were nine layers exposed at the site of where Troy was expected to be, and nearly fifty sublayers at the mound of Hisarlik

Troy was a vassal state: meaning it had an obligation to a superior state, which happened to be the Hittite Empire

Troy had a lot more allies than original fighters in the city, meaning they had many language barriers- making the army harder to control than the unified Greek enemy.

THE STYLE OF THE ILIAD:

Cause - Effect - Solution

The poem is concluded with a mirror image of its beginning: an old man ventures to the camp of his enemy in order to ransom his child

The poem foreshadows the death of Achilles in MULTIPLE passages! He knows he is destined to die young if he fights at Troy, and the demise of his lover (don't fight me on this) Patroclus gives us an even more extended foreshadowing of the grief that is to come

When Achilles dies, Thetis (his mom) takes his body from the pyre and takes him to a place called the White Island. It's not clear whether he is immortalized BUT the reference to Achilles funeral in the Odyssey states that Achilles is cremated and his bones are placed in a golden urn along those of Patroclus, and the urn is entombed under a prominent mound (tsoa fans...you're welcome)

This isn't really necessary knowledge but moreso something I think is cool: the backstory from the Iliad of an abducted bride also appears in the Sanskirt epic Ramayana (circa 4th century B.C.E.)

okay now here is the ACTUAL important stuff

Humanity is the center of the universe in the Iliad. Humans motivations and concerns generate action in the poem, while the gods are often reduced to the role of enablers or spectators

The style of the poem collaborates with the vision that the speciousness of this epic means that every thought and gesture, spear cast and threat, intimate conversation and lament CAN be recorded. It gives a consciousness behind the demands of the iliad that these interactions MUST be recorded, this attention to detail is another way of showing centrality and the worth of the human experience (Greek OR Trojan)

The Iliad is ultimately a poem about death, the chief elements that distinguish the mortals from gods are: Death shadows every action, and death is neither abhorred nor celebrated. Instead it crystalizes by means of this one theme, death in battle, the essence of what it means to be human (Life is a struggle each person will always lose, the question is how one acts with that knowledge)

Modern readers and analysis blogs will state that one's inner spirit is somehow the "real" self, however the Iliad assumes the opposite: The psykhai (soul, spirits) of dying heroes fly off to Hades while their autous ("selves") are left behind in the form of dead bodies

Glory is INCREDIBLY important in the iliad, why? If mortals could live forever (like gods) then glory would be useless. It's a commodity to be exchanged, and because of this it has an economic and symbolic reality

Companionship is incredibly important

Pity is also very important, it's the concluding note of the poem. Even the gods feel pity

THE GODS AND THE ILIAD:

The Iliad gains depth by the divine dimension shedding glory on the humans at Troy. The gods are so intensely concerned with warriors and their fates which elevates the mortals to a special plane

Mortals are only separated from gods because they grow old and die

The symbiotic bond of gods and mortals is always see-sawing between adoration and antagonism

Humans who get too close to the gods risk being struck down, case in point, Achilles. He's young, well-made, he's a warrior but also a singer/musician (the only hero to be seen doing such a thing), he looks and acts like Apollo. THEREFORE...it's no coincidence that Apollo is ultimately the god who slays Achilles, just as he did Patroclus

Poetry supplemented or even guided ancient Greek religious interpretation much more than the activity of priests due to the lack of any official religious text. This gave ancient Hellenism a very fluid nature

This was a long post, and it's only the first of many! I will continuously update this with more sources about the Iliad and answer any FAQs that come up! I love classic literature, and as a STEM student I need to entertain my passion somehow lol. There is a table of contents at the top of the post, as well as right here. This will be updated for each book of the Iliad I write about, as well as any supplemental posts I make about certain topics and themes as I go along. I am putting a LOT of work into this series of posts, so let me know your thoughts or anything you'd like me to change/add/etc! Happy reading!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

(This is empty because this is the only post...more posts coming soon)

Sources/Citations/Additional Material

Homer- Britannica

Homerids- Britannica

Who Is Homer- The British Museum (fuck the British Museum)

Ionia Information- World Encyclopedia

The Hittites- Britannica

Ramayana Overview- British Library

Overview of Greek Mythology- Theoi

The Iliad- Overview via Britannica

Thetis- World Encyclopedia

I finished Disventure Camp Season 1!

Here are my thoughts. Okay so first off elephant in the room. I don't like that Miriam won. I was completely fine with her winning up until she faked a heart attack, because jeez I thought she was actually dying, and then Ellie went back for her. In my predictions for the final two, I was thinking it would be Ellie versus one of the other two, because I'm still stuck on the TD mindset of finalists being Important. And from my perspective, a Fiore v Miriam finale looked... gimmicky, and I had more faith in the shows writing than that. I've since changed my mind because it wasn't really oldest person vs youngest person final two with big marketing and everything, it was just that Fiore was in the race a bit longer than Ellie. They made it work. (Oh forgot to add that I also thought Fiore or Miriam looks more balanced vs Ellie because she's like baseline almost and makes their weirdness more stand out in a good way, and then that would reflect back onto Ellie to point out her relative weirdness and reasons why you should root for her as well.) Kinda really respect the show for pulling off a finale of the last two people you would expect to win this competition, the two people who were targets on the very first day. However. I was fucking rooting for Ellie. She needed the money and Miriam didn't. I don't like that Fiore just. Lost because she couldn't count on other people and then the show laughed at her. Hello. She was in a flipping car crash?? I'm kind of upset that Alec called her a mistake when he was voted off. He was supposed to be.. idk, different from her parents, capable of learning from his mistakes and valuing the people in his life correctly. Damn. Found family loses. (When Fiore's car blew up, I was really hoping that she'd somehow pull a victory out of nowhere) Aside from Miriam losing my sympathy at the last second, the finale and show as a whole was really well written! Disventure camp only having aproxx two spots that were poorly written/not fun to watch is HUGE compared to the average total drama season, or heck, average tv show! This show was entertaining the whole way, and I'm not going to forget the characters from it any time soon. (Except maybe Dan. Was it just me or did that guy have so few defining traits to his name?) What else... the plot going on in the background of the whole season with Jensen and Tom trying to stop it was pretty cool. Love that they just have that and developed it slowly, and as an added bonus Gabby got to help out! =D There's a bunch of mystery surrounding the two hosts and Jensen, as well as this new 'Kristal' character. We never did get the full backstory of what Tom was doing here, but I kind of like that. Makes me feel like one of the contestants when plot is happening around me and I have no context for it. I hope we get more info next season though! GabbyEllie real... They mean a lot to me. Their relationship was so subtly developed and well woven into the narrative and I just- gah! It's so good <3 I love that scene where Gabby says "The city cried out for a hero, so I swooped in to save Ellie!" and then Ellie backs her up by smiling and saying that's exactly what happened. God I could write a whole analysis on how they complement each othe,r and I probably will.

Evil team is so good. Shout out to Fiore and Alec and Grett, who have all been left out of their own homes (specifically the family issues, jeez) but then they almost accidentally help each other through their issues. Mostly. It was Fiore who straight up told Alec and Grett, and then they didn't return the favor to Fiore. (What she needs is someone who a) is guaranteed safe b) treats her as an equal and c) is down to hatch schemes with her. Alec failed the first one, Grett failed the second.) Oof, it sucks that Fiore was left alone at the end. Oh well, at least we have the good times of them ruining everybody else's day to look back on.

I liked the Jake and Miriam bonding subplot, it was sweet.

The challenges were really good this season! They were complicated at times, but I could always follow what was happening and track progress closer to the goal. Same goes for the eliminations, I always knew about what I should for them and was always invested.

Overall? Disventure Camp Season One is a very good, 10/10, show that stands on it's own. I'm glad it gets the best of both worlds of being obviously total drama inspired, while also having it's own clear identity and not carrying a lot of the bigotry total drama also has. All the contestants are unique and interesting, the setting original and well implemented, and the pacing quite honestly phenomenal. Tv Host Voice: This is one show... you don't want to miss.

rachel !!!!!! 2, 5, 14, and 18 please :)

2. What’s next on your ‘to-read’ list? (Fan fiction or otherwise)

Idk if it counts as “next” if I’ve already started it but I’m working my way through “things have gotten worse since we last spoke and other misfortunes” by Eric Larocca, and I have 3 weeks to finish reading “a memory called empire” by Arkady Martine. I know I have fanfics I need to/want to read but I don’t have a running list off the top of my head, I think I’ve already read all the dame content out there 😂 does whatever pip is going to post when she completes her newest draft count?

5. What’s a crackship you love

Honestly idk I feel like most of my ships are kinda mainstream atm? Or if they aren’t mainstream they are at least one of the predictable ships for said person. That being said, I had altogether too much fun writing Anetra x Sugar, and I think I was onto something when I made Sasha x Kylie

14. (For authors) Post a line of dialogue from one of your WIPs without context.

“Well aren’t you just an absolute doll.”

18. Do you have a fic reading/writing routine

Hmmm not really I am kinda messy about it 😅 generally for shorter unedited fics I write a sentence or two of idea at the top of the page and then just dive in (usually on my work computer don’t come for me they have way stronger WiFi). Honestly for longer fics I do similar I just might have more info written out either on the top, or on my notes app with a few bigger points I want to hit. Sometimes I try to do a real outline but those can give me anxiety because I like to see where the characters lead me and not feel boxed in. For reading? Open up a fic on my phone, devour it as quickly as possible, enjoy, almost always try to leave a comment if I have the energy, repeat with next fic when something comes out I’m excited about.

(AU/Fan character) [CW: Implied manipulation]

AITA for using my powers?

Hey, uh. For some much-needed context, I used to be just some average guy. But one day I was killed while live streaming myself playing this video game (which is a story for another day), and now I think my soul is trapped in the game. It sounds crazy, but one of the NPCs who I’ll call K (transfem, adult) told me that she also happened to die and got stuck in the game. Now I’m not saying that I doubted her…but I certainly believe her a lot more now that it happened to me.

Anyways, I wake up in the game and am understandably freaked out, especially because while I was playing, this weird virus thing called O (nonbinary, idk) antagonized everyone, and probably really dislikes me after I helped the characters kill them. If they had somehow survived, then I knew I was done for.

But they never showed up. And everything was going so well until I grew horns. And wings. And a tail….

I don’t know how it happened, but I think that I may have overridden O by accident, as I now bear a striking resemblance to them. I also have their powers, too. And as soon as I learnt this, I decided to use them for good and to improve the game world. I changed up some things, rewrote some code, you know. The works. But my NPC friends started looking more and more tense when I’m around. Some of them straight-up avoid me.

Wanting to get to the bottom of this, I track down K and ask her why everyone is acting so weird. She proceeds to yell at me, saying that “I’m making things worse” and “I’m just like O.” And I’m like, what the heck? I tried to explain to her that I was making the game a better place for everyone, and that I’m nothing like O, but K refused to listen to me.

She ran off and I understandably chased after her. I eventually lose K, and to make matters worse, that’s when I start hearing O’s voice in my head. But they didn’t sound malicious, nor condescending like they used to. They actually listened to me, and told me that K was acting irrationally.

They encouraged me to just ignore her and to continue changing the game, and they made some good points. How dare K say those things about me, and how dare everyone treat me like a monster? I helped her. I helped them all! And this is the thanks I get?

I think I’m going to listen to O. I mean, these are my powers now. I’d say I have the right to use them. I think everyone sees me as TA now. But what about you, internet? AITA?

My experience with Duncan Burden (Puppiez0)

(WARNING: What you're about to read contains sensitive subjects such as grooming, CP, and... IDK, "coomer" stuff IG?)

...I think it's time I come out and say this

I was a victim of grooming (and as you could probably tell that's not fun. At all)

You're probably wondering "who did this, and what did they do?"

You ask, I'll tell: The person in question goes by the username "Puppiez0", or his real name "Duncan Burden" (or "McNinja", whatever the hell you wanna call him), who has recently been caught in 4K for drawing NSFW out of a 15 year old (but I'm not gonna bore you to death with that info)

It all started back in 2015 when I was invited to a Skype group chat with him (don't remember alot), but we didn't really get close until I'd eventually join some online community known as the Powerhouse of Entertainment

But by 2017... That's when real shit dropped, he'd go on to start some shit called "POE After Dark" and, lo and behold, he went on to draw, let's see, uhhhh... Lucoa (from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid) with her breasts out and added me "playing with myself" in the background

Which, at first, I kinda didn't mind nor think it'd be bad at first. But eventually when time went on, and he got cancelled... I was not ok with this. And you're wondering "how old was Duncan at the time he drew this?"

He was 17, and I was like 13-going-on-14 when he did this, so... I was a minor (and THAT'S technically grooming)

At first, I thought it wouldn't be THAT bad when he drew it, but as time went on and eventually he'd get cancelled, it just... eugh, disgusts me. To think how this shit just slipped through my fingers all those years, and nobody speaks up about this until now

Not to mention, he'd also ask for money from some of my friends (and some others) for pictures that they didn't even commission for... Just because he lost his job

...Really??? Are you THAT lazy to do a job search on Indeed? Whatever job you get, I'm sure they'd pay much more hourly than everyone else, you could've been spending all that time looking for a job, working and getting paid and all that stuff, as long as your bills are paid and as long as food is in your fridge, but NOOOO, you spend it BEGGING

...I think that's all I have to say, in the meantime, I recommend reading this for further context:

I know this post was rather... long, or however to put it, but I needed to be more open and let this all out of my system. Apologies if this came off as rather half assed, tried to explain this out of memory or sumn like that. Thanks for reading this

Creating my writing wips list so I don't forget:

Kavetham nsfw (humor related, based off a few tweets I found. No spoilers for now but let's say sometimes inspiration comes when least expected)

Kavetham nsfw (context: titties, related to some art i saw online)

Haikaveh (wholesome, related to Kaveh's birthday mail.)

Tears of Themis x Genshin Impact AU crossover with friend (trust us, it's epic.)

Wriolette (wholesome, context: tea & music)

Neuvithesley (dragon fucking related stuff. nsfw)

something with Ayato (I wanna write about him, something related to work. Hurt/comfort maybe?)

Ayato x Thoma smut (don't ask about positions/roles. That's for me to think).

Argenti related writings (idk I just want to write Argenti related stuff)

Aventio (Dr Ratio x Aventurine. I'll start this when Penacony or Dr Ratio voicelines about Aventurine drop)

Something related to Dr. Ratio (I also want to write him more when he is playable so I can get more info on him.)

JingLuo or Jingyuan x Luocha (maybe smut. need to do some digging around)

Artem Wing x Rosa/TOT MC (idk exactly but i wanna write Artem)

Aita for kissing my best friend, even without having feelings for her

So I (19m) kissed my best friend (19f) a few years ago and it’s still a major cause of conflict within our friends, anytime it gets mentioned.

For context: when I was 16 I met this girl (who even now I have to admit) I fell head over heels for. We came from two completely different backgrounds and were polar opposites on the outside but idk something about us just clicked. However we were 16 and stupid and really still kids. As much as we cared about each other we fought ALOT. She had this need to be perfect (her parents are the worst and put wayyyyyy too much on her) and I was undiagnosed with adhd which in the past has lead me to do some pretty stupid things impulsively . This included.

I constantly was fighting for this girls attention, even after we had started dating. It seemed like to me back then she cared about everything more then me, so I’d do stupid things to get her attention because I thought that fighting with her at least meant I had her attention. Dumb I know, I can see how stupid that was.

Anyways we had a bigger fight then normal but there was a class trip going on (my gf and best friend went I didn’t) so it gave us enough time to cool off. When I saw them next, my gf ran up to me and hugged me saying she’d missed me. I had missed her too, but then she instantly went back to obsessing over school work and shit. Ignoring me.

That’s when I did something stupid. I kissed my best friend. I knew she’d started to develop feelings for me sometime around after her and her bf had broken up (they broke up because he was insanely jealous of our friendship) and I kinda took advantage of that and when she tried to kiss when we were alone. I didn’t stop her . See I knew my gf and her NEVER got along, like hated each other. And I for a split second I thought to myself how this would get her attention on me again. I pulled away once my brain actually caught up to what was happening and I made her keep it a secret.

Nether the less a boy in our class had spotted us and a few days later told my gf in front of EVERYONE.

She was broken hearted and I felt shit. It was like a part of me died seeing her face when she heard. I had completely betrayed her and we were both devastated. But that’s not even the worst part. (Unknown by me) her and my best friend had been assigned to the same group on the class trip, and had become friends.

She kissed me right after becoming friends with my gf.

Anyways we broke up. Which I completely understand, she deserves better then me, I always knew that. Her dad always knew that and I just don’t understand how’s she ever loved me to begin with. I’ll never stop regretting what happened.

But even know 3 YEARS later it’s tearing up our friend group anytime someone mentions it. I’m still friends with this girl ( I actually dated her for a little while to try and save face but we ended up breaking up because she knew I still loved my ex)

Am I the asshole for just wishing we could all leave this in the past? Like I know it was a horrid thing but it’s been 3 years and I don’t think it should still be causing as much conflict as it is

What are these acronyms?

wow you took that former friend/student stuff really well, like a really level headed reaction. Have you always been able to do that? How do you think you’ve reached that kind of mental equilibrium? I’ve always found anyone leaving my life so intensely stressful and upsetting even if it’s someone I want to leave.

haha well I’ve continued thinking about it several times a day over the past few days so I wouldn’t say the experience has been stress-free! in this case it helps that I’ve read like five different articles in the last week on people breaking off longstanding friendships or relationships over the Israel-Palestine conflict so I’m like ah well it’s not just me experiencing this… people’s emotions are super heightened right now and I think there’s a lot of tacit (or explicit!) encouragement to cut out people who don’t share your exact position or aren’t performing their opinions in the exact way you think they should.

I also think it helps to remember that in most interpersonal conflicts there’s not one person who is Right & Good and one person who is Wrong & Bad… instead people tend to be a little bit right AND a little bit wrong or biased or short-sighted. I think she is right that the situation is very urgent (people are losing their lives and it’s happening terrifyingly fast) and I think she’s justified in having her emotions run really high over this, as she’s been immersing herself in extremely graphic, wrenching content 24/7. but I also feel reasonably secure in my own position! I don’t think social media is a productive place to engage in political advocacy or to do any actually meaningful learning about complex issues. I don’t think we have a moral obligation to post graphic content documenting the horrible deaths of others on our private social media accounts (in fact I think the opposite!!). and I also think it’s okay for people to be like ‘you know what? I am not an expert in this. I need to take some time to read/learn/explore conflicting viewpoints—and I can afford to take that time because I am not a political leader or an army or a government, I am just a person half a world away who is trying to understand a different region’s insanely messy and complex history/politics so that I can hold an informed opinion and advocate for actions aligned with my beliefs and values.’

it kinda bummed me out that she chose to be like ‘bye forever’ given our many years of working together, but also, she had been posting stuff for days that was like ‘if you are not reposting this I am going to unfollow you I am watching you I am taking notes I see your silence as complicity’ so it wasn’t like, a huge surprise that she would react that way. idk sometimes interpersonal conflict like that can be painful but can also prompt good reflection… I feel like she’s pushed me to read a lot more (I don’t trust her sources, but it’s made me seek out sources I do trust to confirm some of the info she’s sharing). but I also feel like it’s reconfirmed for me that I am just not going to engage in super heated, super vitriolic discourse wars online and it’s okay with me if that choice leads some people to label me as not radical enough. idk if this answers your question I think this particular ending-of-a-friendship is pretty context-dependent, but I guess the whole, ‘two people can have a big falling-out and neither of them is all right or all wrong’ helps me avoid feeling too defensive or too wounded about it.

Hi, something I have something I wanted to ask about possible programming to see if it makes sense to someone else? I am somewhat sure I was programmed. But I am usually able to research it and also DID itself. Actually it almost feels like a compulsion. The only thing I have a lot of trouble reading is how to get better :/ but I am able to learn about how it works however much I want. I also am extremely drawn towards psychology and learning how people work.

The question I have and that I am worried about is, is it possible this is because I am meant to be a programmer for other people? It would make sense to allow me to do research if the group that programmed me wanted new info for new stuff on how to program others. Also a position as a psychologist could give me some power. Idk how I would actually figure this out but it makes me feel weird how program like my want to research is.

🗝️🏷️ RAMCOA details

It is possible. It would depend on your group and surrounding details. Programmed systems come with internal programmers, so looking for similar things might be helpful anyway. It usually sets off some nasty side effects because there are more protections to keep them in line, but it will have to be done eventually.

Some groups have nearly all their subjects participate in programming, either for others or just to manage their own systems. Programs might not have been placed to deter this learning, or it could have decayed over time. It’s hard to say whether it’s intentional without the context of the body’s history.

Age will be a factor in how concerned you need to be with progression, but you shouldn’t assume safety. The older you are at last contact, the higher the chances you served your purpose. Leaving young, even after only a few years, can still include training. Chances are better that you didn’t get the same close-downs.

Our group programmed several bases for future uses and developed some more than others. You might have come from a place like that, where they simply hadn’t ruled it out yet.

You might have been designed for counseling or teaching, or you may have come from a generational line that expected you to carry on their traditions.

There’s always the hope that it was a mistake or a natural failing of programming. Not every group has the capacity to program at length. Some systems get the right kind of stimulus and rebel on their own accord.

Take precautions anyway: determining current contact, knowing what the body does during each chunk of the day, having safety plans for violent programs if they are set off. No matter what you find, you are not at fault for what was done to you. It will bring more good to gather yourself and move forward as best you can.

cw: mentions of death, spoilers for volume 9 of vnc

reader info: meant to be f!reader but i'm also kind of bad at writing for specific genders it never really comes up that much

notes: @rin-idk i posted this early and i had to delete it im so sorry sjdjdjf, i'm basing this off this theory! (spoilers for volume 9). this is also a continuation of my past louis x reader headcanons, the reader will be the same and have that history with louis!

LOUIS DE SADE X READER HCS (AU WHERE HE LIVES)

being domi and noe's friend, it's likely to say you would later go on to meet vanitas just as they did, so you'd reasonably have an idea about the comings and goings of the main plot

although even after meeting a vampire doctor who held the book of vanitas and used it for good... louis "coming back to life" was the last thing you'd ever expect to come out of this

at first it felt a little strange because it had been so long, you'd thought he was dead for all those years, it was hard to just pick up where you left off even with your friendship let alone with any romantic feelings

but alas with time louis being around again slowly felt more natural

he doesn't talk to you very much about things that happened in moreau's lab, it's mostly just kept a secret between him and vanitas as they were both there, you, noe and domi are kind of just only filled in on the basics of "after my head was cut off i was taken to this lab to be saved and i stayed there"

although he does have occasional nightmares that he goes to you about for comfort, though much context of what happened isn't given

not that he doesn't trust you, he doesn't want to upset you, so aside from that he refuses to mention it and if asked will just brush it off and make some joke

of course there's also the obvious thing of him. not being able to speak now. on the offchance he was taught any kind of sign language by moreau and the teacher, he teaches you as well so you can understand him, but otherwise pen and paper works just fine

i feel like i need to add my big headcanon that he kinda just doesn't like vanitas 💀 "(name) why has your taste in friends gone down since i've been away, after seeing you with vanitas it was a miracle to find out you're still friends with domi and noe"

although i guess it's more like frenemies there's no like extremely malicious stuff it's just like "ew it's you" whenever they see each other

sorry this is turning into more "louis being around in the current plot" headcanons

he's very grateful for you being there and staying patient with him whilst he adjusts to Existing Normally(tm) before anything changes in your relationship

whilst he never spoke of his feelings for you when you were both younger, it's quite obvious that he missed you just as much as he did noe and domi

there's no exact spoken moment of "we should be together now", it just happens with a gradual increase of you both being more affectionate, louis being more accepting of your affection towards him, etc

he likes hugs❗️❗️give him lots of hugs. there's something extremely grounding about them and he feels safe in your arms

he'd probably get upset about something and after being comforted and calming down he'd smile and make some joke about how you're the lady, traditionally he should be protecting and comforting you, not the other way around

despite his joking he is still actually quite protective over you, especially considering you both being in a friend group that rather commonly gets involved with cursebearers and other dangerous situations

i've mentioned louis' frenemy type dislike for vanitas but at the end of the day he's very calmed by the fact that if you were to become a cursebearer, being friends with vanitas would give you an immediate cure, rather than you having to go through anything near the likes of what louis did

i also think that louis would have to keep his being alive a secret, domi is the only member of his family to know he's still alive

so being in a relationship with him feels a little easier, he's just louis, not "louis the discarded twin of dominique de sade who the majority of his family dislikes" because you don't have to deal with the opinions of people like veronica and antoine because- louis was executed as far as they're concerned

though the trade off here is that louis has to be more secretive in general, perhaps using different names or not being able to go to altus with you if invited

with you being domi's friend, it would probably also be that he'd have to be kept secret from your family too, not just his own, with class divides and the de sade's being a higher class family, it's pretty much given that to have been such good friends with domi as a child, your family would have to have already known the de sade's and be close with them

it's still a common theme with him that he prefers quieter time with you than a larger gathering with more people around, reminiscent of him preferring to sit and read with you rather than play alongside domi and noe

overall i think he'd be pretty gentle with you and as a partner despite his more sarcastic and, what i'd affectionately call "bastard" personality