#i should also be allowed to be mad when the systems that are supposed to help qre not set up to help!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

astridthevalkyrie · 29 days

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so idk how mha is gonna end but obviously the moral of the story we’re going for here is that everyone deserves to be saved and heroism is about saving people no matter what. that’s great! i’m guessing some or all of the league is going to survive and be put into some kind of rehabilitation center (toga and spinner seem the most likely to me for now but who knows). and i’m fine with that i like the overall message of it.

but how are they going to deal with the fallout from the league’s victims? i get the feeling that they’re not, or it’ll be a one-off like “some ppl were upset we didn’t jail or kill the villains but the heroes calmed them down” or something like that. i mean. whoever in the LOV it is would have to show remorse eventually, for one thing, for them to be any different than the corrupt hero system. but even then, all the families of whoever machia trampled on during the war arc, are they just gonna be cool with this? mind you I don’t think that anyone in the LOV should be killed or jailed rather than rehabilitated, but i wonder if the show is going to bring up that anyone who dabi or toga killed won’t get a second chance. they won’t get rehabilitated, they’re just gone. how are their families and friends going to deal with what society deems as an appropriate punishment for them?

i think this message also could’ve been conveyed better if we had more prominent “corrupt” heroes aside from endeavor and hawks. the top ten minus them and the irrelevant guy who retired after the war arc are all portrayed narratively as good people. iida’s brother is attacked by stain for no real reason at all aside from not being all might. all might’s heroism ends up being bad for society overall yeah, but so much of that is because of who toshinori is as a person rather than hero society (which does play a part but if toshinori just hadn’t pushed himself to be the best and number one savior for everyone there wasn’t necessarily any society forcing him to until after he’d already showed them he could do it).

PLUS the existence of afo offsets this message. everyone can be saved…..besides the real super evil people?? if, and I’m not saying they do, shigaraki and afo had the same kill count, is the lack of a sad childhood the only thing that makes afo beyond redemption? i mean he might not be gone gone if he’s still inside shigaraki’s mind or whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that the heroes were trying to kill him too. narratively, why was all might in the right for killing him all those years ago when hawks was in the wrong for killing twice? because twice was kinder? because twice was neurodivergent??

mha also a little bit contradicts itself because. hero society is exposed post war arc. civilians have every right to be mad that their current number one is an abuser and that the heroes failed and couldn’t protect them. but theeeen, we have ochako’s speech in which she yells at scared civilians that “the heroes are the ones who are getting dirty!” which is like. yeah. they are. but during and post the war arc civilians also very much died. i feel for izuku but at first glance if someone promised you a safe haven from being attacked and then said oh never mind we’re actually going to bring the one guy shigaraki can absolutely track and hunt down here because he’s tired of fighting, getting upset with that is not totally unreasonable.

and I get that civilians are supposed to get mad at heroes for being corrupt, but not for failing, because heroes should never have been put up on such a high pedestal. they should be seen as humans who are as fallible as everyone else. that doesn’t change the fact the average innocent person would be rightfully scared, because it’s not just the heroes who are getting dirty. people are getting attacked. the heroes are not saving everyone. they shouldn’t have to and there’s no way they realistically can, but picking and choosing which aspects of hero society people are allowed to criticize feels…meh. if there’s gonna be fallout, fallout that endeavor and hawks if not the rest deserve, there should be proper fallout.

i don’t think the UA kids should be treated as full-fledged heroes because they’re not, but their age should not be the one thing that makes them better than the current heroes. they’re liable to the same mistakes and the same fallings. or they would be had they not all been portrayed from the beginning as one big happy hopeful crowd who just wanna save the day! there was opportunity to show who was in it for the right and wrong reasons and somehow ochako who has been so poorly written for several seasons actually had the most relevant arc (besides bakugo) about being in the hero business for the right reasons. ochako should have interned with hawks ochako should have interned with hawks ochako should have interned with there should’ve been more students in it for the glory, for the money, for the fame, but even monoma from class b and mineta are apparently true heroes! is being a high schooler all it takes??

anyway this is all jumbled and a mess but mha should’ve made hero society far more corrupt to justify its dismantling is my point. right now we’re getting a vibe of “the heroes are just as bad as the villains if they don’t save them too” and that’s just like. objectively not true. if hawks was supposed to be an assassin for hire for the hero commission, we should’ve seen him kill people aside from the guy who could’ve turned the tides of the war, at the very least actually kill best jeanist to finish his mission. if toga wanted to preach about how the heroes are just as bad because they killed jin, it falls flat when she’s on machia’s back stomping on people and then killing an old lady to talk to ochako. the heroes should try to save everyone including the villains because that’s what heroism is, but they are not equally as bad as the villains for trying to stop the villains.

the hero commission in general is just like afo, a vague villain we can blame so that we don’t have to blame the underlings. if people discriminate against animal quirks we should’ve seen it way earlier with shoji and tsu and tokoyami, maybe really expanded on it once mirko and hawks and even the dog cop were introduced. if sooo many heroes were in this for the wrong reasons, where are they? the current “failings” of the hero system are all might, endeavor, hawks, lady nagant and bakugo. everyone else is fine! there was a chance to show that someone like mount lady isn’t a real hero because she only cares about fame. there was a chance to show that aizawa is a good hero compared to others because he doesn’t try and seek glory. but these points are only halfway done and then kinda left there.

#mha manga spoilers #mha #anti mha #<- not really but tagging it in case #mha critical

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kendrixtermina · 6 months

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Palestine and the Crisis of Democracy

While right now the main attention should rightfully be on the immediate victims of this ongoing catastrophe, this incident has also exposed how much the power of lobbying groups & corporate interests has eroded western democracies.

At this point they’re not meaningfully different from China or Russia aside from being wealthier. What have China or Russia done that the USA isn’t allowing its client state to do right now?

We’re supposed to have free speech? Where is our free speech now, if being anti war can cost you your job & the media is owned by the corporations.

At this point ppl in the global south are 100% justified to distrust the western bloc as much as we distrust China or Russia.

We’re approaching a 1984-ish situation of 3 identical superpowers ravaging contested territories in endless proxy wars.

That said, it’s tempting to go ranting about „the evil west“ or „the whites“ or curse all israelis – and don’t get me wrong, the west as an institution has proven its moral bankrupcy and IDF as an organization with a culture of fomenting this needs to be dismantled & abolished even more badly then ICE or the USA police.

But when you look at the people on the ground, not politicians or media, but at the individual human people, that’s not really the case: We’re seeing record protest turnouts everywhere.

Politicians are being swarmed with protest mails. (I just sent some myself)

Even in the USA, two thirds of the population want a ceasefire. Heck, even in israel, 62% want a ceasefire.

And there’s no telling how much of the rest genuinely want this vs. Being misled or confused by propaganda. Don’t get me wrong: Those people making mocking tiktoks are evil and I’d love to see them roasted on a skewer, but they are NOT the majority and acting like they are is bad tactics.

So what does this mismatch tell us?

We don’t have functioning democracies right now.

Maybe some South Americans do, maybe Belgium and Spain and Ireland, but the rest of us?

Not so much.

We gotta fix that, not just for our sake, but for what it does to the rest of the world.

Whoever’s in charge isn’t us, and its a dreadful mixture of incompetence and evil.

It’s not that all people, not even all western people, are terrible and evil. It’s that right now, in both the USA and even Germany with it’s 6 mainstream parties, there’s no viable candidate you can vote for that will not support this madness.

Nobody really benefits from this, or wants this, but a small coalition of fascists, the military industrial complex, a few crooked politicians, and a bunch of opportunistic hatecrimers of antisemitic, islamophobic and/or arabophobic persuasions.

This is what happens when problems that are pointed out time & time again don’t get fixed: Like the longstanding human rights abuses in Israel (that were known aout for SO LONG!), the existence of veto powers deadlocking the UN, legalized bribery & first-past-the-post system in the USA, USA hegemonic control of europe…

It was a perfect storm of every long-standing flaw in the system coming together to create a perfect storm of horror.

- but the first ones to sin are usually the last ones to bleed and the ones who pay the bulk of the price are, as ever so often, those who were already the most oppressed.

So what do we do?

Vote small party, maybe, for europeans. Vote in primaries to get the bought-out mainstream candidates out, if youre in the US.

Protest, complaining and combatting misinformation is gonna be an important tool while our democracies are compromised, we can’t rely on voting alone.

If us talking didn’t help they wouldn’t try to shut us up.

Messaging wise, on this issue, we might stress being anti-war. They’re trying a different smear because mocking anti-war ppl as bleeding-heart hippys doesn’t work anymore.

They can’t say being anti-war is antisemitic.

It’s important, of course, that (unlike the hippys) we don’t slip into wishy-washyness here or peace at any price that just basically the oppressed shutting up. Just peace or no peace. Lasting Peace of no Peace.

But peace has an appeal to most people, even those inclined to be wishy-washy or apolitical.

I think selling them on Lasting Peace and Just Peace might work better than shaming them for not being hardliner enough.

It’s super cynical and fucked up that we’re even having to THINK about „marketing“ when people are dying, but we need to convince people, especially since the usefulness of our votes is currently compromised.

Even a king must yield if there’s a mob with pitchforks outside the door.

#political thinkpiece #palestine #gaza #fascism #israel #USA #European Union #democracy #feelings #politics #current events #anti war

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commander-writergirl · 1 year

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Flames in the Window

Synopsis: Khonsu pulls Marc away for a mission, but for once you aren’t following him. And Marc has to make the tough choice: doing what Khonsu askes or spending Hanukkah with you.

Pair: Marc Spector x Jewish!fem!Reader, Steven Grant x Jewish!fem!Reader, Jake Lockley x Jewish!fem!Reader

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: light angst

Word Count: 2,080

A/N: not antisemitism allowed. Also please feel free to send me asks about the Moon System and their Jewish girlfriend hehe. Also I think the comics are influencing how I write cause it’s very different from the show.

Tags: @romanarose @softlybarnes

“What do you mean you don’t want to come with me?” Marc stared wide-eyed at you. You always went with him on his missions. But standing in the New York apartment he had moved into, you stood arms crossed.

“I’m not traveling with you on another mission. I don’t care what Khonsu wants, I’m not doing it.” Marc was surprised with how quickly you got your mind wrapped around the fact that Marc worked as Moon Knight serving an Egyptian God. But you were also very mad, and he was prepared for the jabs come Passover.

Marc walked over to you and rubbed your arms. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

You rolled your eyes. “Tomorrow is the 25th of Kislev.”

Marc raised an eyebrow, “No its December 3rd.”

You shook your head and sighed. “Hanukkah falls on the 25th of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar. Tomorrow is the 25th of Kislev.”

Marc sighed and closed his eyes. “Right.” He shook his head, “So we take a travel menorah.” Marc grinned at you.

You scuffed, “I’m not celebrating a holiday based on Judaism standing against oppression while you do errands for an Egyptian Deity.”

He had to give you credit. With how devoted you were, he half expected you to call him a hypocrite and break up with him when he told you about Khonsu. Khonsu even said you would leave because it would be the last straw. But you were still here, you still wanted to be with him, them.

He sighed, “Okay, you stay here in New York. I’ll go do this mission and when it's done, I’ll do whatever you want.”

Marc watched as the anger drained from your face and you looked down, “I want you to stay.” You whispered.

Marc sighed and kissed your forehead. He hugged you closely. “I know baby, but I have to do this.” You slowly wrapped your arms around his waist.

“Promise me, you’ll be back before the last night.” You looked up at him, chin pressed to his chest.

Marc thought over the timeline. He leaves in an hour. Hanukkah starts tomorrow. With travel and everything he’d be gone, five days tops. “It will be five days, tops. I promise to be back before the last candle is lit.” He smiled at you, stroking your cheek.

“I’m gonna hold you to that one Spector.” You stood on your tip toes and kissed him.

----------------------------------------------------------------

“We’re not getting back in time, are we?” Steven asked as Marc tried to track their target. He and Jake were becoming constant reminders that in two days Hanukkah would end.

Sadly, for Marc, he was in an area that had a Jewish population, and he was reminded each night that he was closer to breaking his promise to you. So, between his Alters and the universe, Marc felt like he was going to break your heart.

“Amigo, if we don’t get back--”

Marc interpreted Jake, “I know, I know.” Marc sighed. This wasn’t supposed to take this long, but given it was the holidays, Marc should have realized the target would be surrounded with family; including children.

“Maybe we could come back after the holidays.” Steven suggested. It was a thought Marc had been thinking about as well. If he came back right after, the target would still be here, and the family would be gone already.

“My son, you must finish this before leaving.” Marc tensed as Khonsu’s voice surrounded him. Marc dropped his gaze from the target.

“I made her a promise.”

“But without me, that promise wouldn’t exist. You owe me your life.”

Marc clutched his fists. Even though Khonsu was unable to show himself, he still made himself known. Marc knew what you would say that Marc has his free will. That it seems to be the one thing he sold when he took Khonsu’s deal.

“I have done everything you asked of me. Even when it went against my own morals. The target you want gone will still be here when I get back.” Marc began to pack his stuff. “I’m going home to my girlfriend to celebrate Hanukkah with her.”

Marc put his bag over his shoulder and began to walk to the ladder leading down to the side alley.

“This will cost you Marc Spector.” Khonsu said as Marc’s feet touched the ground.

“Well according to you, you already own me.” Marc grumbled heading for his hotel room to get his plane ticket to get home to you.

-------------------------------------------------

You stood cleaning out the wax drip from the night before to get the new candles in. It was the seventh night and each night you worried more and more that Marc wasn’t going to make it back in time. You trusted his promises but when it came to traditions, it was always hard to figure out what he was willing to do.

You sighed and began to set up the candles for the night’s lighting save for the Shamash. You traced your finger over the bird and flower design along the Hanukkiah body. It had become a tradition in your family to gift a new Hanukkiah on the first night.

You couldn’t bring yourself to open the one for this year as your parents had gotten it specifically for you and Marc.

You sniffled and pressed the heels of your hands into your eyes. You weren’t going to cry. It wasn’t worth crying over. You knew this was his life, that these were his choices.

You took a deep breath as a knock sound. You pushed your hair back and walked to the door. You opened it and came face to face with Moon Flowers and Sunflowers. You blinked at them before they moved to show you a pair of dark brown eyes.

“Hi baby.” Marc said shyly.

You blinked at him, “You’re here.”

“Yea, well I made you a promise.” He smiled lightly, “That and Jake and Steven would never forgive me if I broke it.”

You stepped back and Marc walked in dropping his bag and closed the door with his foot. You carefully took the flowers from him and walked to the kitchen. Marc following close behind you.

He looked around the kitchen as you set the flowers in water. He could see the remnants of latkes, you probably ate days ago with apple sauce, he guessed from the empty jar. And on the platter usually used for cake or pie, now sat sufganiyot.

“Oh, she made them at home,” Steven mused. All three could see that the sufganiyot weren’t uniformed and could see chocolate peeking out.

“Do you want one?” You asked after following Marc’s gaze.

“Maybe later,” he gave you a soft smile before pulling you to him. “So, what exactly did you make while I was gone?”

“Besides the sufganiyot where my Israeli friend kept on giving her two cents?” You smiled wrapping your arms around his neck. “I made Latkes, I tried Hanukkah honey balls-”

“Honey balls?” Marc asked as Jake snickered. Such a child.

“Fried dough covered in honey. It was actually pretty good considering I don’t like honey.” You giggled while playing with his curls. “I was planning on make some rugelach, but I started missing you too much.” Your smile fell away and you looked down. “I was worried you weren’t coming home.”

“Well, we’re here now.” Marc lifted your chin. “And you have us for the rest of the time.”

You smiled and held his wrist. You watched as his eyes rounded out and his shoulders relaxed. “Did you happen to make your famous challah, mi Vida?”

You bit your lower lip. Jake had slowly become obsessed with the challah you made. Maybe because you sometimes used honey and cinnamon instead of sugar and salt. “Sorry, I decided to go to services since my boys were gone.”

Jake pouted, “Well I guess you’ll have to make it up to us. I remember something about blintz?”

You rolled your eyes. You were going to kill your mother for introducing Jake to blintz. “Fruit or cheese?”

Jake gave a lopsided grin, “Surprise me.”

You smiled and pecked his lips before walking back towards the front window to light the Hanukkiah. Jake kept his hands on your waist the whole time. Once you stood in front of the table you had set up, you felt him tense behind you. “Marc?”

He hummed, “They just want to observe tonight.” You nodded and reached around him to dim the lights.

Marc looked around as the blue and white fairy lights stung up. That’s also when he noticed all the little things. There was a dancing rabbi animatronic, a few figurine bears holding dreidels and Hanukkiahs. He also noticed the living room table had a runner with varies symbols on it ranging from the Magen David to plates full of latkes. He wishes you could have been here to help you decorate.

Next Year, he promised himself.

When the smell of sulfur hit his nose, Marc faced forward again and wrapped his hand around yours that was holding the Shamash. He didn’t remember the prayers as clearly, so he listened to you and mouthed along as you both lit the seven candles; left to right, lighting the newest candle first.

When all the candles were lit, and you placed the Shamash in its place, Marc stood holding you as the flames flickered.

“I used to get the order mixed up,” Marc said. You looked at him. “My father would say, you set them up right to left and I thought that was how we light them, but he would always smile ruffle my hair and tell me we light them left to right. I used to pout cause it felt so simple and yet I forgot every year.”

“My dad used to fix me cause I would always get confused too.” You whispered, not wanting to break the ambience.

Marc kissed your forehead before nuzzling his nose with yours. “I promise, next year will be better.”

“Maybe we can even invite your dad?” You searched his face.

“Baby steps.” he whispered, gripping your waist.

“Baby steps.” you stroked his cheek and pecked his lips. “You did this with me and that’s a great step.”

He smiled, “So I noticed a box when I came in from your parents...”

“Oh yes they sent us a new Hanukkiah.” You said before moving from his hold and going to grab the box. “I didn’t want to open it without you.”

Marc chuckled, “They have high hopes for me sticking around, huh?”

You chewed on your lower lip as you sat on the couch. You weren’t going to tell him; it would be too much pressure. “I guess but let's enjoy it.” You smiled patting the spot next to you.

Marc walked over and sat next to you. You began ripping into the packaging and peeled the tape away. When you pulled it out, Marc blinked at it.

The Hanukkiah was glass fused with foiled gold and silver. You both realized it resembled that of a half moon. The candle holders were embedded in the glass, save for the Shamash which was raised to stand taller than the rest.

You handed it to Marc and pulled the card out of the box and opened it.

“To Y/N and Marc,

Chag Sameach! We saw this menorah while visiting family and thought of you two. Two halves to a whole.

We know Marc struggles with his Jewish identity but with you, our sweet Y/N, we know you will fill the other half.

We hope to see you for Pesach this year and wish you the best.

Much Love,

Mom and Dad.”

You folded the card up and set it back in the box before setting it on the floor. You looked at Marc to see his thumb rubbing against the body of the hanukkiah and a tear slip down his cheek. You wiped it away and pressed your lips to his cheek.

“I can’t believe, I almost missed opening this with you.” He gave a shuddered breath before setting the gift down and pulling you into his lap.

You closed your eyes as he nuzzled into your neck. You began to stroke his curls, letting one wrap around your finger loosely. “But you didn’t, and that’s the important fact.”

You worked to hold back your tears again as Marc sniffled. You two sitting in silence as the Hanukkah lights flickered in the window.

#moon knight x reader #marc spector x reader #Marc spector x Jewish!Reader #fem!reader #steven grant x fem!reader #Steven Grant x Jewish!reader #jake lockely x fem!reader #Jake lockley x jewish!reader #marvel #my fic #hanukkah fic #hanukkah #jewish representation #holiday season

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orchideae · 4 months

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salt meme *cracks knuckles*: ☠ What does someone have to do for an instant unfollow from you? ☼ How long do you stay mad? ☢ What fads/trends are you so over (What is a fad)? ♨ Have you ever made a public call out post? ❥ Has someone ever ruined an FC or character for you? ❣ How salty are you feeling right now (Please give a comparison beginning of writing the answer to this and after you wrote it, for science purposes)?

— @delusionaid // Prompt: The salty AF meme

❣ How salty are you feeling right now? (1) I can't believe Youtube is playing a song called 'Do or Die' as I'm typing this up. Youtube wants me to go hard, but I dunno how much I can live up to that. But currently, salt levels are around 7/10.

☠ What does someone have to do for an instant unfollow from you? Show a genuine lack of respect across the board. This plays into numerous elements of social interaction, but more so than anything, it plays into the element of taking away someone's autonomy to how they run their blog. See, this is actually also something that more so makes it that I'll never follow you in the first place, but I guess that'll also work as salt too, right? Right, autonomy, I hate that we live in 2024, and people have been all about "it's your blog, you have the freedom to do what you want!" Yeah, except, ding, ding, 'do what you want' doesn't quite mean what we all think it does. You know, that little thing called its official definition? Yeah, not a thing. Have your liberty, however, you can't write with this person or that muse because they're problematic (correction: this person 'feels' that they're problematic) or have done some questionably morally grey things in their lifetime, you can't write a character with any of these 375 faceclaims that you're supposed to keep track of and agree with, if you write a villain then you should obviously ignore all of these villainous traits that make them villains because why would you ever write a villain who does bad things? (Unless he's hot or said villain is a female character, of course), on that note, please ignore this and this bit of canon because it makes me (personally) very uncomfortable. And to expand on the last two in specific, obviously you can't ever write or acknowledge these (dark) things any way, because if you write a character who even did something less bad, like spoke rudely to anyone, you obviously do the same thing in life outside of Tumblr.com and so I will write a callout about you. But apart from all of that and more things that are coincidentally hidden behind a little 'etc.', you can do whatever you want! Have fun!!

❣ How salty are you feeling right now? (2) About... 9/10.

☼ How long do you stay mad? Unless it's something really trivial, I'll usually sleep and my brain will process it back into non-existence the next day or the one after. But I do however, hold a grudge like none other. Granted, getting to that point is rather difficult to do, but if you do genuinely wrong me in some capacity, then I will remember that. Now, I believe in second chances, but those can't apply everywhere, for I do firmly believe that there are lines that truly shouldn't ever be crossed. Overall however, I'm not an angry person and to anger me in the first place is quite difficult. And you know, you especially do like to say that even when I'm angry, I'm smiling and laughing and 'don't really sound any different', so how mad/angry am I really? I think I really am just the 'No talk me I angy' cat meme in the flesh.

☢ What fads/trends are you so over? I still hate the concept of 'censorship'. I'm sorry, but if I dislike a character, a culture, a character trait, a show, book, an adaptation, I have every right to say so and I can even talk about it on my blog for hours if I so choose to do so, just like others are allowed to do the exact opposite. It is a two-way street. I shouldn't have to adhere to some system of social politics of, well, you're allowed to complain or talk about how this and this is bad, but if you want to touch on that, well no, we can't quite let you do that one! That's not exactly fitting in the current social political climate. Because here's my thing with it in general, if anyone for example told me that they disliked Yelan, I think that it would be a shame, if someone told me that, for example, they disapprove of my take of her sleeping around (again: not done in promiscuity); that's perfectly fine, tell me why and we can have a friendly talk about it. Because last I checked, discussion is incredibly healthy for our mental development. I want to know why people think differently, and I love the challenge of even possibly changing their perspective on the matter. But if everything is censored from the get-go, then there's no discussion, no potential for growth or understanding. I'm sad that this mere concept is still as prevalent in all fandoms as it seems to be.

♨ Have you ever made a public call out post? Can salt posts like this entire ask response be considered as a public call out post of bad behavior across the board? Yes? Okay great, then yes, I absolutely have. I reblog a salt meme like this at least once every 2/3 months when my activity isn't entirely shot into the depths of hell itself

❥ Has someone ever ruined an FC or character for you? Meh, I don't care much about FCs, at least not like I used to when I actively used them, nor did I ever really feel like any FC was ever 'ruined' for me. I just get very tired of people overusing specific characters or roles, but I'm very easily affected by overexposure or over-hype in general, so this isn't surprising.

❣ How salty are you feeling right now? (3). 6/10 or so, I'd say.

#[ answered: ooc. ] finding her is no easy task either. for it is always she who finds you when she wishes to; not the other way around.#[ salt. ] that's the worst-case scenario. but all too often; the most pessimistic speculation turns out to be the closest to the truth.#delusionaid

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x-authorship-x · 7 months

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Okay so I've been having thoughts about the time up until Shisui's death (specifically the hope au) and it's driving me insane. Anyways, do you ever think about how exhausted Shisui probably was mentally, emotionally, and physically? Like first off, where would he have even felt comfortable to sleep let alone allow himself to with everything going on? Like he's been distancing from his teammates, they've practically been avoiding each other from both sides, and Shisui found out a group of supposed "anbu" were following him that one time so the dorms are out. He hadn't accepted his room at the Yamanaka house as his yet and he wouldn't have wanted to be around Ino when he was so stressed- plus he would have spilled info to Inoichi whether he wanted to or not. The Uchiha compound was being watched and just not a great environment with everything going on, let alone him having to sleep in an empty house. The only person he could really talk to was his literal kid cousin he was always trying to protect so that's a no go- he was essentially cut off entirely from his support system while also having to repeatedly deal with his uncle, the clan elders, and Danzo. He was pretty much forced into a dangerous mission mindset with no breaks in a place he was supposed to be safe and able to rest and y'know /not/ deal with the world ending stress of trying to save both your clan and your village where even a small mistake could be fatal. Then! He gets betrayed by Danzo, who's supposed to be a village superior he should be able to trust! He gets attacked in his own village, all alone, has his eye stolen, gets poisoned, and all of that horrible stuff! Doesn't help that he has literal reality warping eye powers so losing his eye by a treasonous bloodline thief is terrifying!! With him being poisoned, possibly had his grandfather's eye used against him, missing one of his own eyes, probably in shock, terrified, and exhausted it's no wonder he wasn't exactly making great choices. Even if he didn't consciously think it- he was a tired, traumatized 19 year old who was extremely stressed and probably just wanted to get out of this situation. Also let's not forget that because he was still in his mission mindset, he was pretty much locked on to the goal of doing whatever it takes to protect his clan and village so he probably didn't even think about trying to get help from his teammates or sensei to /save his own life/ because he grew up prioritizing others (his cousin, his clan, his village, etc) over himself and that was even before he was cut off from his support system!! And even in his final moments he uses his own death as a tool!! Like I can't even be mad at him or think what he did was stupid because like- it's understandable why he did what he did even though I absolutely hate that it happened. How did Inoichi even let him out of his sight?? I could never. I want to wrap him up in a warm blanket and never let him go, y'know after i kill Danzo with my bare hands.

Honestly this ask just reaaaaally made me want to delve into Inoichi's POV, like what if Shisui is the puppy to his John Wick???? He just starts fucking dropping people and Danzo is like GET ME OUT OF HERE?!?!!

Glorious 👌

But anyway, Anon this ask hurted so good 🥹 owie, thanks for breaking our hearts all over again for the millionth time ❤️

#torship #torship talks #ask #anon #shisui death mention #hope au #not #no tomorrow #udb #until dawn breaks #Inoichi #inoichi dad and shisui son #SHISUI OWWWW

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fortheloveofsnorkacks · 2 years

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Hm, I should probably backpedal and say that I don’t think Harry Potter has a grand unified magic system or the bestest worldbuilding ever. I just don’t think people criticize the right parts of it?

Like, in worldbuilding, hands down the worst flaws in HP are geography and history, and social systems. Geography is probably the worst because it borders on xenophobia and is rather offensive, but as mentioned earlier today, it’s also patently silly that “a forest in Albania” attracts so, so many convenient plot points when there’s a whole lot of forest in Albania. HP feels like it’s set in a fantasy Britain that’s actually an island halfway across the Atlantic, except for mentions of going on holiday abroad of course (those always jar me a little bit as someone from the US). It’s isolated, there’s practically no foreign influence unless it’s sinister plot dressing, and any time foreigners enter in, there’s just laughably exaggerated stereotypes. Ah yes, the three countries, Britain, France, and Eurasia.

History falls apart the minute you get close to it because it just accepts so many modern things as ancient (basic things, like heritable surnames) and is about as accurate as Kevin Costner’s accent in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. But usually history more than a century prior is often just set dressing, so I’ll let it slide, with a caveat that I imagine there’s room for a lot of colonial grievances with the historical monolith, but I lack the expertise to put my finger on it.

Social systems are weak generally because the only careers we’re informed of are teacher, government employee, shop owner, private bank security, or biologist. This is mostly okay if you don’t pick at it, but also unravels under scrutiny, and the fact that we don’t have any picture of wider wizarding society except for government employees is limiting. Similar criticisms can be made about muggle cultural influence, or the total lack thereof.

But when it comes to magic, it really, really doesn’t bother me that any plot magic you want can reasonably be contrived, as long as it’s useful and quirky enough. This is a world where half the spells are puns on british household products. It’s like getting mad at willy wonka for not telling us how the machines that make magic candy work. (it’s the colonialism you’ve gotta look out for there). I literally do not care that there’s a luck potion when it’s described as incredibly difficult to make and dangerous to get wrong, and also dangerous to overconsume.

There are other things that do bother me because they affect the plot and how I relate to the characters, chiefmost among which is the fact that “dark magic” is some huge bogeyman with apparent moral implications and we have absolutely no implication about what makes “dark magic” any different from regular magic. We are repeatedly asked to judge or reject characters because they use this “dark magic,” yet we have absolutely no justification why love potions are a “haha funny drug...okay maaaaybe it’s slightly rape-y but what are you going to do about it?” and the imperius curse is legal grounds to have your soul eaten. Here’s where the worldbuilding fails, because if we had any idea how the in-world magic people conceptualize different types of magic, we could understand why they, in particular, view the unforgivable curses with such dread but see nothing inherently wrong with other methods that produce the same result. Instead, we’re asked to accept that “dark magic” is bad and every other plot-necessary magic is fine.

Or to return to potions, Veritaserum bothers me a lot more that Felix Felicis because regardless of how rare it’s supposed to be or how difficult it’s supposed to be to make, it’s used too much in OotP to justify the rarity excuse, and now it really does matter why it’s not used when there’s wartime kangaroo courts and martial law is enacted and the police are allowed to use deadly force. Pensieves are a similar case: they’re kind of woo-woo mystical, but we’re not told of any great skill it takes to operate them, or even given any explanation at all for their existence, and given how difficult it is to convincingly tamper with them and how picture-perfect they are, all of a sudden it does matter why pensieves are not used in wizard court. I can ignore off-handed mentions of werewolves prior to PoA because there is a very obvious Doylist explanation there (the werewolf plot hadn’t been invented), but I’m little less forgiving of Slughorn bringing a vampire to his party because we’ve already been exposed to a bunch of “part human” magical issues in all three of the prior books, but now we’re supposed to just ignore this vampire brought as someone’s “guest” that everyone’s nervous around and uncritically gawks at?

So when it comes down to it, my primary issue with HP worldbuilding is not the magic (shocker—I don’t really care about hard magic systems). It’s the fact that the social structures are not sufficiently explained to justify what happened. It’s a pet peeve of mine that people use ‘worldbuilding’ to mean ‘magic systems’ and ignore what the sociologists would study. If the wizarding world is supposed to be cowering under Voldemort, except the entire adult wizarding world works in an office or at Hogwarts and wizards abroad literally do not care enough to do or say anything, and the last book is supposed to be about how bad Voldemort’s takeover is, that’s a major failing. After the Weasley wedding there’s literally nothing other than Hogwarts and the Ministry to show how bad things are getting. Oh, and the bus driver, can’t forget him. And the hospital. There’s just the one, though. (Who knows where fabric comes from? Or the food? How on earth is the wizarding world big enough to justify the size of the Ministry of Magic given how few students are at Hogwarts?)

We get all these hints about laws relegating magical beings on the fringes of society, and they’re used as set dressing! When you take a boarding school novel but you don’t flesh out any of the outside world except for the government and you set the last book outside of school, you end up with The Great Camping Trip! That’s the real weakness to me when it comes to HP worldbuilding. It’s a series that tries to be about society, but it really only duplicates the dynamics of a boarding school.

#wizarding world

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hauntingcryptids · 2 years

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Sneaking Around Part 2

Dhawan!Master x Reader

Summary - The Doctor forces the Reader and The Master apart, not believing that The Master actually cares for The Reader. But the Reader getting hurt on an adventure make The Doctor rethink The Master’s opinion of the Reader.

Based On This Request -

Warnings - canon typical violence/unusual alien species, alien plants, stabbing via thorns, poison, near character death, the Reader being hurt

Word Count - 3721

A/n - Gender Neutral Reader. Requested by this lovely anon! Thank you so much for the request! I am really happy that you enjoyed Sneaking Around Part 1, and I hope that you enjoy Part 2 because I really enjoyed writing this.

Sneaking Around Part 1

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It had been tense aboard The TARDIS since The Doctor caught you and The Master “entangled together”, as The Doctor described it. You had assumed that your friendships with The Doctor and The Fam would become tense after the truth was revealed, but this was worse than anything you could imagine. You again assumed that this cold reaction had a lot to do with how The Doctor found you and The Master. That you couldn’t disagree with, it was awkward, but you did hope that your friends would be pleased for you for having found some happiness in your life. But it turned out that The Doctor thought that The Master hypnotised you into having feelings for him.

You couldn’t even turn to The Master for comfort during this strenuous time, though. The Doctor demanded that you and The Master were not to see each other again. The Doctor had rearranged the TARDIS floor plan and placed intensive security measures so The Master couldn’t hack into it. You were instructed to always be joined by a member of the Fam. The Master was moved to a more secure part of The TARDIS far, far away from you.

You had tried to sneak away from your guard of the day many times and hunt for The Master’s room, but you were never successful. You were always led back to your guard by The TARDIS. All you wanted was The Master.

One morning, while you were late for breakfast, you walked in on Graham and Yaz gossiping about The Master. Apparently, he had been trying to hack The TARDIS systems but failed and resorted to roaming the halls of The TARDIS in search of you. The TARDIS naturally notified The Doctor of his actions and the two Gallifreyians were currently engaged in a verbal fight. Ryan, who was supposed to be your guard of the day, was trying to find where they were fighting before you did.

Naturally, you snuck off to try and find The Master and The Doctor before Ryan. You were a part of this, and you should be allowed to discuss your wants with them. Also, The Doctor couldn’t keep you away from The Master forever. Even if The Doctor and The Fam were right and The Master never cared about you, it was your right to be mad at him, not theirs.

You heard distant yelling, and you knew that you were close, but then you heard The TARDIS beeping. Something in your subconscious knew that this time machine that you called home was not talking to you and was instead notifying The Doctor and The Fam. You began barreling down The TARDIS hallway toward the yelling. You could hear The Master and The Doctor now but then the hallway you ran into went completely silent. The TARDIS was keeping you away from them. You did your best to find where they were, manoeuvring around the labyrinthine halls of the ship. Eventually hearing yelling again and you ran down the hallway to finally see The Master again after weeks. But when the distant voices were finally becoming clear Ryan ran into you.

“Please, Ryan!”

“No, I’m sorry.” You bickered with Ryan for an indiscernible amount of time. You had thought that you were making some progress in convincing Ryan to let you see The Master finally, but through your pleading monologue, you hadn’t noticed Ryan pushing you back throughout the TARDIS halls.

“You will have to talk to The Doctor.”

“Then let me see Her! Wait, why are we in the kitchen?” You sighed realising that Ryan had walked you all the way back to the kitchen probably with the help of The TARDIS.

“It’s not fair that I am not allowed to talk to him, let alone see him!” You screamed at Ryan while he prepared breakfast for the two of you.

“The Doctor says that you will feel better once The Master’s hypnotism wears off. And you have to avoid seeing him during that process.”

“Hypnotism?! Ryan, The Master never hypnotised me. Ever! Not even when he was O! He would never do that to me!”

“How do you know, Y/n? You’ve got to admit, we barely know The Doctor even though we travel with her. How could you possibly know that the person who tried to kill us wouldn’t also hypnotise you and manipulate you?”

“He promised me. The Master promised me that he would never hurt me, and I believe him. Not because he hypnotised me, but because I love him and I know that he loves me, too. We wouldn’t do anything to hurt each other.” Ryan only sighed defeatedly and handed you your food. He felt bad for you, but he didn’t know how to handle this situation, and frankly, neither could you. You took the food that Ryan had offered you with a huff and ate in silence before spending the rest of the day in your room.

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A couple more weeks had passed since you overheard The Master and The Doctor fighting, and you still hadn't seen The Master. You believed that The Master hadn’t hypnotised you, but you played The Doctor’s games sullenly. Four days ago was the day The Doctor’s analysis of your brain ended and much to your excitement, there was no evidence of mind control. The Doctor was stumped and frustrated. She didn’t tell you then, though, she told you much after the fact.

The Doctor was going to tell you this morning, having finally accepted the truth. She guessed that she had to allow you to see The Master now; there was no reason why she could stop you. Except for the fact that she had received a distress signal from the planet Dazsos. The Doctor figured that she would tell you after all of you helped saved the planet as a reward for your hard work.

All of you left The TARDIS in two groups; you joined the Fam in talking to the President of Dazsos and investigating the surrounding grounds of the President’s office while The Doctor and The Master did the heavy lifting. With this system implemented, all of you helped save the planet relativity quickly. The President thanked all of you for helping him and his people and allowed your group of friends to explore their planet after they and their people prepared all of you an extravagant dinner. The only warning the President gave you and your friends was to avoid the native Dyllitrio plant.

After the dinner, you had hoped to finally talk to The Master, but The Doctor pulled him away from you while Yaz pulled you in the opposite direction. You sighed defeatedly, but you tried to distract yourself from your loss by enjoying the rest of the day and the planet you found yourself on. The Fam, mainly Graham, helped a lot. The four of you laughed and joked about random things and took in the beauties of the planet, but then, somehow, you all got onto the topic of The Master. You didn’t bring him up because you knew that your friends would just complain about him, but you also couldn’t stop your friends from talking.

Your mood instantly changed as The Fam began ranting about The Master. You tried to block out what they were saying, but some things poked through your upset mind.

“Why him?”

“He will never care about you; you know that right?”

“I can’t believe you actually like him!”

You huffed as you followed The Fam as they were all collectively ranting toward you about your partner that you were still determined to see again. You didn’t want to hear what they had to say; they had already uttered similar phrases since they discovered that you and The Master were together. Multiple times throughout the quarantine you defeatedly believed that your supposed friends would never understand, and you appeared to be correct.

You sighed and slowly walked away from the ranting group in order to find The Master and The Doctor. They would both be annoyed by the fact that you went wandering off by yourself and potentially interrupted their talk, but you were positive that they would both understand why you left The Fam.

After retracing your steps, you finally saw The Master and The Doctor. They were walking swiftly along a cobblestone pathway; the two of them appeared to be arguing animatedly. The closer you had gotten to the President of Davsos’s residence, the more cobblestone pathways would crop up and lead you to the building. The pathway you were walking on eventually connected to the one the two rebel Time Lords were walking down, but in between the two paths was a verbose garden. If you were to walk or even run down your pathway, The Master and The Doctor were still far enough away to be all the way down the hill ahead of you. You were impatient and you wanted to see The Master after weeks of not being able to. So, you ran through the garden.

You didn’t manage to run that fast. Whatever alien plants were potted in the ground apparently didn’t like you treading in their bed. The smaller plants would nip and snap at your heels and try to wrap themselves around your ankles. You could always shake them away from you, though, and continue your pursuit of The Master.

Before you, you saw a bundle of thick shrubs surrounding and stretching out from a tree. Thankfully, you were far enough away from the tree to avoid any consequences from it, but the shrubs possessed a challenge.

You tried your best to get out of range of the plants. And you almost thought that you had until you felt a thick vine wrap itself around your leg and drag you backwards. You let out a loud scream out of surprise and pain. The death grip the vine had on you was unyielding, you could already feel yourself losing circulation in your foot. Just as you thought that that lone vine was your only worry, another vine wrapped itself around your other leg, and then sharp spikes shot into your flesh. You then screamed in pain again as a searing hot wave ran through your body, starting where the spikes were digging into your skin and moving upward.

Your legs grew increasingly numb as you were dragged toward the shrubs. Occasionally, more sharp pains and heat waves would shoot through your body. You assumed that that pain was caused by more barbs being carved into your skin and the heat was caused by some sort of poison. The pain was becoming less apparent, though, just as the world around you began to fade and blur. Just as your vision went completely black, you saw two figures running toward you from over the hill.

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The Master and The Doctor ran to you as fast as they could; even with their advanced biology, they were heaving breaths in fear and adrenaline.

“Y/n! Oh, my gods, Y/n! What trouble have you gotten yourself into now?” The Master slide down on his knees and scooped you up in his arms while The Doctor soniced the plants to release you. The vines of the Dyllitrio plant completely unleashed their hold on you, shrieking and skulking back to the shrubs they weaved through.

The Master caressed your face in worry to wipe away the sweat from your forehead. You were beginning to thrash around, and spasm and your eyes began to roll back into your skull; the poison was beginning to spread.

“What’s wrong with them?!” The Doctor questioned, joining The Master by your side.

“I don’t know! I’m not familiar with the vegetation of this planet!”

“Give me a tick. Got to look something up.” The Doctor jumped up and pointed her sonic screwdriver up into the sky, which caused her TARDIS to materialise in front of the three of you. The Doctor quickly ran inside her ship, leaving The Master to help you, mumbling something about the library

“Doctor! Now is not the time to do a bit of light reading!” The Master screamed at his old friend. He swore under his breath, but you were more important than his anger towards The Doctor. He had to take care of you because there was no way to know what The Doctor could possibly be doing right now.

The Master carried you through the halls of The TARDIS. The medbay doorway couldn’t come across his path soon enough. He kicked the medbay door open with his foot, much to the TARDIS’s dismay, and placed you onto the nearest hospital bed. The Master began to frantically hook you up to the machines in the medbay to monitor your vital signs while he waited for The Doctor.

“I found it!” The Master’s old friend screamed as she barreled into the medbay holding an ancient and dusty-looking book.

“Found what?”

“The antidote!” The Doctor threw the book she was holding onto your legs, which The Master quickly removed.

“That’s where they're hurt, you idiot!”

“Sorry! Can’t talk now. In a hurry!” The Master rolled his eyes at The Doctor’s ignorance.

“Doctor, if Y/n survives this, I’m going to kill you!” The Doctor ignored The Master’s comment and ran to a random corner of the room with a bunch of cabinets, rifling through them haphazardly. She finally came back holding an IV bag containing a green liquid and a small pot containing a green gel.

“I’ll hook up the IV. Start removing any thorns and cleaning the wounds with antiseptic. Then spread this gel on the wounds.” Both of the Gallifreyians worked quickly to help you overcome the poison of the Dyllitrio plant. They removed all of the thorns that were dug into your skin and spread the reversal gel over your legs. The Master carefully wrapped your healing wounds in bandages and gauze while The Doctor ranted about something that The Master wasn’t really processing.

“Can you give us some privacy, Doctor?” The Doctor nodded and mentioned something about collecting her companions before slowly walking out of medbay, seemingly suddenly aware of the gravity of what just happened.

The Master pulled up a chair to your hospital bed and just looked at you, taking the image of you passed out, wounded and hooked up to tons of medical devices fully into his mind. This really was The Master’s worst fear. Before the two of you began dating, he would have stated that his biggest fear was being captured by The Doctor. Now that he had you and experienced what love and care could actually feel like, seeing you hurt and broken really was The Master’s worst fear.

He really wanted to hurt The Doctor. You wouldn’t be like this if The Doctor hadn’t forced the two of you apart. But you wouldn’t want The Master to do that. You would just want to be with him. Maybe, when you felt better, you would make a snarking comment about how The Master finally had complete control of you now that you were hurt, and The Master would have to help you with everything. That’s what The Master wanted to experience, not another revenge plan.

The Master leaned forward and held your hand that wasn’t connected to the IV. He brought your hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it before moulding your limp hand to cradle his face. The Master stayed like this for a while, just trying to enjoy being in your presence again and trying to suppress his ever-growing rage for The Doctor by reminding himself of his love for you. The Master then moved to brush some dirt that remained on your face from when you had fallen on Dazsos. He kept his hand there and just held your face. For some reason, he just felt the need to talk to you. It had been so long since he was able to do that.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, Y/n, but I’m here for you. Everything’s going to be okay, love. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You are going to be just fine. I’ll make sure that you withstand this, and I’ll do anything and everything in my power to help you with the recovery process. And I’m not going to let anyone tear me away from you again. It’ll just be you and me. I’ll make everything right again. For you.”

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In your dreamy hazy, poison and antidote-filled state, all you saw was The Master. His calming tone, his deep and hypnotic brown eyes, his strong hands holding your body, his affinity for purple clothes; everything that made The Master The Master surrounded you and filled your mind. It gave you hope. It reassured you that everything was going to be okay, and you were going to be perfectly fine, even though you couldn’t really remember if there was anything to be upset over.

Suddenly, a bright light seemed to swirl and mix with all of the purples and memories of The Master, almost engaging in a battle. The brightness won out and overtook your mind. You felt as if you were falling until your eyes jolted open making you realize that you had just been dreaming before then.

“Good morning sleeping beauty. Have a nice nap, did you?” The Master knocked your chin with his knuckles before wiping away some of his tears. You blinked rapidly, trying to understand your surroundings. Once adjusting to the bright light of the medbay, you finally realized that The Master was beside you.

“Master! You’re here!”

“What did you think that The Doctor could get rid of me that easily? Never!” A stray tear fell down The Master’s face, breaking the strong facade he was trying to put on for you.

“You’re crying.”

“Yeah, I almost lost you, you silly Human.” You tried to move and brush away the tear, but The Master pushed you back down onto the hospital bed while tutting.

“No, no, stay down, love. Your wounds are still healing.”

“Everything feels fuzzy.”

“That would be both the side effects of the poison you were stung with and the treatment. You’ll be back to full health and memory in a day or two, three days at maximum.” You nodded in delirious understanding. Of course, three days was a long time for you and your Human patience, but you mainly only focused on The Master’s voice. The Master chuckled at you. You couldn’t tell if he was amused by your blissful drug-addled state or he telepathically heard you thinking about his voice, but you didn’t mind. You just wanted to be close to him. Especially after not seeing him for so long.

“Can you cuddle me, please? I want to be closer to you.” The Master looked around the room quickly before agreeing to your request. He apologised to you, though, because he had to leave your side for a moment in order to get a blanket. He could tell that you wanted him to stay with you, but he wanted you to be comfortable.

The Master quickly retrieved a blanket and returned to your hospital bed. He covered you in the blanket and helped you shift over on the bed while making sure to not cause any extra injury. He then finally joined you on the hospital bed. The Master helped you cuddle into his side. Then he caressed your face, your neck, and every part of you that was not hurt and placed many bittersweet kisses on your forehead.

“I’ve missed you. So much.”

“I’ve missed you, too, Y/n.”

“I wanted you. I needed you, Master.”

“I’m so sorry, my love. I tried to talk to you and see you so many times, but The Doctor always stopped me. And I tried to keep civil with The Doctor and her little pets, so as to not hurt you, but I hate how much time we have spent apart.”

“I tried to secretly see you, too, but someone, or The TARDIS, always stopped me. I just wanted to be with you, Koschei. So, so badly.”

“And I just wanted to be with you, Y/n. Thankfully, we are together now, though. And we will get through all of this together. I promise.”

“I really love you, Koschei. Like, really really love you.” You had begun to tear up now, again, partially because of the drugs you were on but also because of the joy of seeing The Master again.

“I really love you, too, Y/n. Like really really love you, my little Human.”

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“He actually cares about them.” Graham perked up after seeing The Master reassure you on the display screen on the TARDIS console.

“Yeah, he does.” The Doctor responded coldly.

“We still can’t be certain. He could be lying or hypnotising them or all of us.” Yaz piped up, she still didn’t trust The Master.

“He’s not lying or hypnotising or manipulating. The Master actually cares about Y/n. Now, I suggest that we all head to bed. It’s been a long day.” The Doctor moved away from the monitor to click and press some buttons as a distraction, waiting for her companions to leave the console room. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Yaz hesitated from leaving and turned to say something but ended up closing her mouth abruptly and turned to fully leave the room. The Doctor understood why Yaz and the rest of The Fam had questions about your and The Master's relationship. It would definitely be something to get used to. But The Doctor knew The Master since childhood and knew that his feelings were genuine.

For the moment, The Doctor was just trying to be happy for the two of you. You both had been for too much for her to be mad or suspicious right now. However, if The Master actually did anything to hurt you, there would most definitely be hell to pay. But there was nothing for her or The Fam to be worried about; The Master loved you more than anything in the Universe and would do everything to make sure you were fully protected.

#ghost’s posts #my writing #fanfiction #x reader #anon #doctor who #doctor who x reader #the master #the master x reader #dhawan!master #dhawan!master x reader

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beatrice-otter · 10 months

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OTW Board Meeting Problems--the Pre-Meeting Conflict

A lot of people showed up to the OTW board meeting today (several times the attendance they've ever had) and they were not prepared. A number of people have writeups, here's one with links to other writeups. I'm actually not writing about the meeting itself but about the problems the day before (Saturday) in the Help channel of that server, the content of which has since been deleted. (Regular deletion of that channel is a pre-existing policy which was stated in the channel header beforehand, this is not something they decided after-the-fact. That channel is (supposed to be) for quick technical questions only.) Here's my memory of what happened. I don't remember names. A user asked if they could add the Pluralkit bot to the server as an accessibility tool. Pluralkit is a Discord bot that makes it easier for users who are systems to show which person in their system is speaking at any given time. Someone else objected because you can't block people with Pluralkit, and they need the ability to block for their own mental health. Someone official (I forget who) said that they wouldn't be adding Pluralkit because it evades blocks, and asked if there was any other bot or process that would provide the same functionality while still leaving the user blockable. At this point, I shifted my attention to another server that has people who are systems, and asked if anybody could recommend an alternative to Pluralkit. Nobody had an alternative that worked better, and also explained why Pluralkit doesn't allow people to be blocked. Messages posted using Pluralkit are not, from a backend point of view, posted by your account; they are posted using other forms of metadata called webhooks. Therefore, if someone blocks your account/username, it does not block any message you (or any member of your system) sends using Pluralkit because Discord's back end doesn't know it's from your account. Because of this, anyone using Pluralkit cannot be blocked by anyone for any reason. This is a problem for both moderating and for other users, some of whom need the ability to block people for their own mental health. (For example, if you have idiosyncratic triggers and don't want to have to explain your trauma to get people to spoiler mention of things that nobody but you would ever think of as a trigger--it's easier just to block people who talk about that a lot than to explain things.) After getting this explanation and talking about some other stuff, I went back to the OTW channel and found that there had been a LOT of discussion on the issue in the meantime, some heated and some not. There were several people, for example, who misunderstood the problem, and thought that Pluralkit allowed bad-faith users to evade blocks, and argued that since bad-faith users can use a lot of other tools (such as making new accounts) to evade blocks, that Pluralkit should not be singled out like that. (In fact, a Pluralkit user does not need to evade blocks; even the best faith Pluralkit user can't be blocked, because of the way it works.) There were reciprocal accusations of ableism from both the people asking for pluralkit and the people who need the ability to block for their own mental health. But things didn't go down the toilet until somebody showed up and started making really nasty and dismissive comments about systems and people with dissociative identity disorder, accusing them of faking it and being liars. At which point a lot of people got mad at that person for good reason. There was no moderation at any point. Presumably this is because the server is only used for board meetings and few people show up for those and they aren't used to needing moderators, especially not on days when there is no board meeting. And despite the time and place of the meeting being advertised by several different people with lots of reach in fandom (which I've never seen happen before), nobody in the organization thought to try and prepare for an influx of people either ahead of time or on the day of. On the one hand, I can't blame them, because they've never had a turnout like this in the history of the organization, and it's really hard to prepare for something unprecedented. On the other hand, it's an unfortunate failure, because some people got hurt and a lot of people got even more upset than they were to begin with.

comments Comment? https://ift.tt/hYdC6pa

#dreamwidth #original post

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hawkinsschoolcounselor · 2 years

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Hi. I think I need some help understanding something regarding El. My friend recommended your blog, praising your character analyzing skills. So you might be the right person to ask. El, being the sharp and observant queen she is, obviously gets an idea of the fact that Mike's behavior towards her isn't really what one would hope for in a romantic relationship. However after their not so romantic summer break in 1985 she's still unable to connect the dots and is happy to only question his feelings instead of fully realizing things. And I can't help but feel it's odd because last year she's dumped him for it and now it feels like she's regressing. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Welcome to my blog. I hope I live up to your friend's hype.

I think, at the end of season 3, El is trying to cling to all she feels she has left. Her father figure died, she lost her powers, and she's moving away from her friends. It's really one of her lowest points, and she's losing a huge portion of her support system at the same time. Had her life not been completely torn down by the end of the season, I'm not sure she would have gone back to Mike. Unfortunately, she needed him, and the love she wanted to believe they have, to keep herself going.

This continues into season 4. We see El continuously lie to Mike, despite the fact that she got mad at him for the same thing in season 3. She's desperately trying to make herself look like an appealing girlfriend to him because she's terrified of losing him. This is why she buries her disappointment at his inability (or unwillingness) to say he loves her. If she were to acknowledge it, then it means the danger of losing all she has left becomes very real. We see her plaster a smile on her face when Mike's flowers say "From Mike," even if we don't understand it at the time, because she has a plan to, essentially, make Mike see her as a perfect girlfriend. She's going to be everything he could ever want, in her mind, but things don't go according to plan.

This all comes to a head when Mike reacts badly to El hitting Angela with a roller skate. Despite everything that happened to El, Mike essentially makes her feel like the villain. This isn't really Mike's intention, but, unbeknownst to El, Mike was also trying to force things to work out by creating his own idea of who El was, one that may or may not have been enabled by what El would lie about in her letters. This attack shattered Mike's illusion, leaving him at a loss. El was supposed to be this superhero, a mythical ideal that was impossible for her to live up to. This becomes why El decides to go "be a superhero again."

El is "regressing" because she sees herself as needing Mike's love to continue. Things are terrible for her in California, and her thoughts of Mike are apparently all that keeps her going. The thought of losing him, after losing so much already, fills her with despair, so she becomes more and more desperate. It is my solemn hope that she starts to see value in herself and her other relationships. A reunion with Hopper should do wonders to help her out, but it still leaves the underlying issue, a lack of self-worth and a fear of being alone ("I do not belong"). These issues largely come from her upbringing in the Lab, particularly when she was kept in isolation after the massacre. Hopefully, she is able to get some form of closure with Brenner, which might allow her to move on.

#stranger things 4 #eleven #jane hopper

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quintupleaaaaabattery · 11 months

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I’m mad at the live action HTTYD. I know it’s simple don’t watch it. That’s probably what y’all gonna say. But this is for many reasons

1. CGI - I don’t see them not butchering this. It’s like you are starting from scratch making dragons try to look realistic and yet diverse. Like there are so many different types of dragons, ranging from terrifying to cute (or in Toothless’s case both). Also the RED DEATH that’s gotta be major scary so it looking really bad CGI takes away the scare factor. It has a very high probability of taking away from the film if the CGI is bad, and also lessens the impact of how we see the dragons.

2. Now onto the casting. (Just making a note, in no way am I doubting the acting talent of those cast, I know that they will kill it.)

First off I couldn’t give a fuck, about Nico Parker playing Astrid.

Oh that takes away blonde Scandinavian representation, it’s historically inaccurate. The whole plot is Vikings riding dragons. It’s not supposed to be historically accurate it is a fantasy world.

Also what Scandinavian representation. The vikings characters either have Scottish accents, whilst all the young dragon riders have American accents. Yes I know Vikings were in America, but they still wouldn’t have an American accent or speaking English. Scandinavian characters does not equal Scottish. They are two different cultures.

The Vikings are also not represented right in the first place, ie it’s a loose representation. They didn’t have the horns on the Helmets, the names are wrong. Astrid’s last name would be Hofferdottir (daughter of Hoffer), for example and Hiccups would be Stoickson (Son of Stoick). There is a paternal naming system with a clear divide on the gender binary (I hope that makes sense, I’m no expert when it comes to Viking naming and I don’t know how to explain it with the correct terms.

Additionally they even present the God’s wrong. If you are actively apart of the fandom re. watched all the content in the franchise not just the movies (no I’m not counting nine realms or rescue riders rest assured), season 1 episode 8, Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Man, of ROB, mentions Freya as the goddess of fire. In Norse mythology she’s not the goddess of fire, that’s Logi (well he’s the god, and no I don’t mean Loki, I had to do I quick google search as my mythology knowledge is somewhat limited to the Riordan books). Freya is the goddess of love and beauty, and that kind of stuff.

I also have to add if this were era appropriate, and culturally accurate Astrid and Ruffnut and Heather, they wouldn’t be part of the action. Don’t get me wrong Viking women were some feminist queens who lived in a society that was more progressive. They were allowed to divorce their husbands, for mistreating them may it be that they were abusing them. However they still were not expected to fight, their lives and chores were still housebound. If this franchise cared about the ‘culture’ or the ‘historical accuracy’ we would not see these three queens grace our screens being badass and menaces to their adversaries in battle.

Instead it gives POC representation. (And no I am not a POC myself, I’m White so I can’t speak for the experiences of a POC woman because I don’t face the same type discrimination, feel free to add your input if you are POC.) Astrid being a love interest, and a character who is seen as others as a symbol of beauty. So it’s not Eurocentric beauty (blonde hair, blue eyes), but that makes it more impactful. Astrid is this three dimensional warrior goddess who is determined and strong and her being blonde never drove the plot or her character’s actions. Her biggest insecurity is that people view her as less tough because she is pretty not because she is blonde.

Quote, “Just because she's beautiful, people think she's not tough. But you should never underestimate me.”

It doesn’t matter she’s not blonde because she is still beautiful. This allows POC girls to be better represented (I do know that she is still light skinned).

I do think she is a bit too old for the role. Like she’s 18, you haven’t started filming and she just looks older, I mean 21 she doesn’t look 15. So I’m a bit iffy on that, but otherwise let’s get to why I am really boycotting this movie.

I don’t see anyone complaining about the casting of Hiccup, it’s all Astrid. Yet the casting of Mason Thames as Hiccup is problematic.

The main reason as to why I wasn’t looking forward to a live-action adaptation was that I knew that they would butcher it to be an ableist mess. Why isn’t anyone talking about how this movie is taking away disabled - amputee representation. Hiccup, a amputee, is being played by a abled bodied actor.

Now I’m disabled. I’m not physically disabled like Hiccup, so my experiences, limitations and how I am discriminated against are different as I am Autistic (also have ADHD to be mentioned). Let’s be honest though that boy definitely is AuDHD, but that’s not the point. So hopefully you can see why I am upset. (Feel free to add your input if you are physically disabled/an amputee)

By doing this they are taking away one of the only protagonist who is an amputee- and don’t say what about Luke Skywalker - because his disability was magically replaced with a lifelike copy, as if he never lost a hand in the first place, which is problematic in its own right.

Hiccup Haddock clearly is an amputee and is permanently affected by it, their is no cure, but this doesn’t make him any less of a person and whilst he does have limitations, he can still live out a happy fulfilling life. This is a defining aspect of his character and is essential to the plot and moving the story forward.

Now I know your counter argument, but Hiccup only lost his leg at the end of the movie. I know they can CGI it off for that little bit of time and find a way to show a prosthetic leg, but it is still takes away representation. You’re claiming you want these characters to be portrayed accurately but you don’t care if disabled representation is being taken away.

It isn’t authentic representation when a person who doesn’t live as an amputee to play an amputee. They don’t share those experiences. Thus this casting is ableism at it’s finest.

I know Hiccup is a abled bodied for most of the film so that’s why you think it would be more practical for an abled bodied actor, but when they make the sequel what are they gonna do for that? Hiccup is disabled for the rest of the franchise, so it’s counterintuitive in away. They might as well have casted an amputee actor from the beginning.

You might argue that how would they do that as Hiccup loosing is foot is less impactful if he is an amputee from the beginning of the film but have you considered that they just put a boot over it/ cover with clothing. I’m not to sure with the mechanisms but I’m sure they could have figured something out.

And if you are going to argue that it would harder to do and film action/practical scenes, whilst it might be harder (I’m not denying that and might being the key word) but friendly reminder about a certain character who is an amputee from the MCU being Echo (whose currently in line of getting her own series).

I’m honestly wondering why they are doing this in live action in the first point, and I am disappointed in not only the casting but the reactions to the casting, mostly how people aren’t even acknowledging the ableism of the casting and focusing on slamming the casting that was more inclusive and forward thinking. But no, clearly people are to focused on race, (being that all characters in the Viking times have to be white, the least oppressed group and the most represented, which I do include myself as I am aware of the privileges I get because of it) instead of focusing on the erasure of amputee representation.

So that’s it sorry for the long rant/post.

#httyd movies #httyd franchise #httyd hiccup #httyd astrid #how to train your dragon #hiccup how to train your dragon #hiccuphorrendoushaddockiii #hiccup haddock #astrid hofferson #astrid httyd

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canigetacupofugh · 1 year

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What even is OGL?

TLDR: OGL stands for Open Game License and is a public copyright license that allows people to use certain parts of the game system- most notably the mechanics.

It was supposed to be irrevocable and permanent at LEAST for the editions made before and up to it's inception. It is also why/how D&D is the game that you have heard of and not something more generic.

It was actually a brilliant business plan hatched by a man who understood the product, and supported by others that also understood how much they'd come to owe a happy community for the success of the game.

Let's talk about it!

A "Brief" History of Open Gaming - or, How WotC is Shitting on 20 years of a good thing -

Waaaay back in 2000 WotC released the first OGL for D&D 3.0. This was awesome because it meant that there was a nice legal way for people to essentially share their home brew - rules, settings, modules, entire campaigns. It took away the fear of lawyers and placed a chunk of the rules in the creators hands and said, "Here, so long as you follow the rules, you can use this part."

Ryan Dancey, the person who started the negotiations for WotC to buy TSR in the first place - the original owners of D&D - was the person running the show back then and he believed that the way to have D&D be a business success was to have a thriving creative community.

"I think there's a very, very strong business case that can be made for the idea of embracing the ideas at the heart of the Open Source movement and finding a place for them in gaming. One of my fundamental arguments is that by pursuing the Open Gaming concept, Wizards can establish a clear policy on what it will, and will not allow people to do with its copyrighted materials. Just that alone should spur a huge surge in independent content creation that will feed into the D&D network."

And boy was he right! See, the idea here is that if they open up their system (Known as the d20 System) then players learn this system across several genres/settings making it a standard.

Content creators were happy, the D20 System became a standard, everybody (mostly) happy. They even won over a lot of the Grognards who weren't happy with the changes being made to D&D.

Dancey understood the product they were selling.

When 4th came out in 2008 they released the GSL - Gaming System License. It was more restrictive than the previous OGL and like WotC themselves predicted, the community largely ignored 4E (Side Note - 4th is actually my favorite system and it makes me sad that greed ruined it), or even outright shunned it and we saw the brith of Pathfinder - under the OGL, they used the 3.5 ruleset and essentially made their own D&D - with blackjack, and hookers! Several of the people at Paiso used to work for WotC and genuinely believed in Open Gaming and working WITH content creators.

The GSL was, in Andy Collins words, "a Frankenstein's monster of an open license that ended up pleasing basically nobody."

There was less content made by 3rd parties, so instead of a new system having your usual Grognards who just didn't like change, and the people who tried the new system and didn't like it, you added a whole swath of people who were also mad that WotC had changed the rules they said they wouldn't - and since the old OGL was still active for previous editions, they just didn't hop on board the 4th Edition train.

In 2016 we saw a return to the old OGL and they even added another option for content creators - The Dungeon Masters Guild storefront - which allowed people to make content for specific WotC owned settings (creators set their own price, but WotC and OneBookShelf took 50% of proceeds).

In August 2022 rumors started that the OGL was in danger again, aaaand you're probably reading this because you've heard about or seen the new OGL 1.1 leaks and the backlash that is occurring.

Until WotC actually makes official statements on all this, everything is alleged and plenty of people are covering the leaked document and what it might/does mean so you can find that elsewhere (this is already long-winded!) but I'll give my thoughts on the topic. My personal thoughts/opinions - It's pretty easy to ignore some of the new OGL when you see things like you have ot make $50,000 on your product for WotC to want it reported or $750,000 for them to want royalties (at 20-25%, ouch!) because they're going after people who are making some money and can maybe afford it - I even kinda get it - they see how their property has become a household name and want to find ways to make even more money off of it. They want a slice of the pie these 3rd party creators are baking. I get that. And if it was like 4.0 where the old OGL still stood and you could just keep making content for that system and ignore the new system- then I wouldn't care.. but this is much worse. They want to walk back a license that they told people would not be revoked. That people have made a living off of. They also want to be able to just poach your ideas from what you make and not have to share any pie with you - as an artist, ownership of my own IP is something I value.

The thing is, while WotC might own D&D, they didn't CREATE it. This is a huge faceless company that doesn't care about people. They are not your friend and they have shown their hand - they didn't learn the correct lesson from 4th, or see that we as a community were forgiving them with 5th - they just see money and want to squeeze us all for everything we got. They don't understand their product or the community and they want to not only take, take, take, but if we let them, then we set a dangerous precedent that licenses that are supposed to be irrevocable can simply be torn up, and that they can just take your hard work and keep it for themselves.

Now, I don't think they can actually legally revoke the OGL 1.0 - but if they do somehow, that's no bueano for more than just TTRPGs, and isn't it bad enough that they're trying to? Is there really ANYTHING they could do to save this? I'm pretty open-minded, maybe some gesture exists, but I can't imagine it right now.

If you read all that, thank you! Here's a silver lining for you - Paizo is releasing their own ORC - Open RPG Creative License that they are entrusting to a law firm to keep it open. Read more about it HERE

#ogl 1.0a #ogl 1.1 #open gaming license #dungeons and dragons #dnd #TTRPG #ORC License #paizo #history lesson

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shyfrog-says · 1 year

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Hey, parents.

Let your kids get away with a lie every now and then.

Consider, "Why would they lie to me? Did I do something wrong? Have I failed to garner trust and establish our family as a safe space to make mistakes and share our regrets?"

If they don't lie that often, then its not a problem. Don't reward lying, per se, but don't threaten to ground them or take away their shit if they "cleaned" their room by shoving everything under their bed or played video games longer than you told them they were allowed to.

If they do lie a lot, it's probably your fault, so getting mad at them or punishing them is not going to help. Children are very impressionable, and that means your treatment of them and your behavior around them affects most of what they say and do. They could be lying as a survival tactic, because maybe you've done or said something that makes them feel unsafe around you.

"Are yOu TrYIng to tEll ME HOw to rAiSe my Kid???"

YES.

I AM SO SICK AND TIRED OF THE PROSPECT THAT YOU SUDDENLY BECOME CAPABLE OF RAISING A CHILD JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE CAPABLE OF ACQUIRING ONE.

Some people simply shouldn't be allowed to have or raise kids, but any attempt to regulate something like that would be undoubtedly disastrous, so I think instead we should make unsolicited parenting advice more commonplace.

And not specifics, just general common sense shit.

Like, hey, don't beat your kids. If not because it's ethically reprehensible, then because you are increasing the likelihood of your kids wanting nothing to do with you when they become adults.

Or, hey, don't pressure your children into eating something when they're not hungry, or just eating something they really, really don't want to eat. That's how you make adults with eating disorders. Instead, try to find a roundabout way of getting them to want to eat it, or at least to try it of their own volition.

And positive reinforcement. Reward your kids for doing things they're supposed to do. Clean their room? Extra video game/tv/whatever time (if you are restricting those things, make sure you give them other things to do too, like read or draw or play with toys or visit with friends and stuff)! Get an A on a test? The testing and grading system is severely flawed, but that's still an accomplishment, and maybe let your kid have some dessert or something! Little things like that will go a long way.

Also, play with your fucking kids. I know you're tired, I know you might just wanna lie down, but even just ten minutes of screwing around with dolls or bouncy balls or foam swords can strengthen your bond and make your kid feel like they're important to you. It's okay if you don't know wtf is going on while you're playing, just 'yes and...' it's basic improv.

You know, simple, basic stuff like that, but it can all be summarized like this:

DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE!!!

I get that there's no reliable instruction manual that can prepare you for everything kids throw your way, but "there's no instruction manual for being a parent" is not an excuse to ruin your kids and your relationship with them as they grow.

#kids #parenting #shitty parents #bad parents #good parents #children #frog

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solitarelee · 9 months

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Hi! I'm the anon from Shirecorn's ask- I feel like my specific situation is very different. I'm not saying teachers Need to help (sorry if it sounded like that- bad with words. I wish you were allowed to, though) but in my district, for some reason, they refuse to at least stand by and let us work on student safety if that makes any sense? EX. we blocked some sites (like Kongregate and Newgrounds type sites, plus Instagram, Pinterest etc, exclusively non-school appropriate games and social media) and a bunch of teachers at multiple locations got extremely mad at us for some reason. We have a librarian who gets really. REALLY weird about us blocking anything explicit too. She's worse than the parents for some reason.

I know all districts are different, but also thank you for putting up the good fight at yours. 🙏godspeed soldier. May administration be conveniently looking the other direction

LOL they got mad because it also blocks it for teachers, which meant they couldn't go on instagram at work. They SHOULDN'T be going on instagram at work, mind you, but I'd be willing to bet that's why they got pissy (at work we also connect to the school wi-fi. yes it's a nightmare. yes it's slow. I worked at a school that had separate wi-fi for the teachers once, and that was heaven lmao). It's also possible you blocked some sites teachers were using as rewards. In order to motivate students, I've seen a lot of teachers basically say "if you finish early, you can play games on your laptop" in order to allow slower workers a chance to finish within the plan while not boring the faster students to absolute tears every class period. I've also personally run into the problem where students would go to increasingly sketchy, virus-ridden gaming sites because all the safe, popular ones were blocked by the school. Not saying they're right to get pissy at you (you're just doing your job, they should get pissy at the school board if they're gonna lol), just a few reasons, good and bad, they might be getting irritated.

A lot of teachers also get... I would say morally opposed to censorship. You have to remember that the association with censorship that teachers will have is very bad, books that aren't allowed in the library and an idea of "children's safety" that involves keeping them from learning anything about history, their own bodies, the memory of hired mobs screaming and calling them pedophiles at school board meetings (I work in English so I have a significant number of colleagues this exact thing has happened to. One of my closest work friends got called a faggot at one of those.)

A lot of teachers (honestly myself included sometimes) have a kneejerk reaction to a censorship-based concept of children's safety, because their primary experience with it is one that's built not around children's safety but around control of children. Most educators (and librarians) are inherently morally opposed to this kind of thing and will react negatively to any hint of it. When kids are coming from homes with "child protection" monitoring systems to schools with anything problematic blocked, it becomes an issue of control. This is potentially where some of the teachers and the librarians are coming from and why they're reacting that way.

The problem is at the same time, admin is often blocking us from teaching internet safety in a helpful way that isn't just revolved around blocking Instagram and Pornhub. In almost every school I've worked or was placed in for observation, lesson plans had to be approved by admin the week before, and they had to have a core curriculum connection, and internet safety ain't in there. That's supposed to be the job of comp classes that don't exist at any school anymore (comp class was where we learned internet safety when I was in school in the 90s/00s). Best I could ever do was internet literacy, because I'm an English teacher and there's a core curriculum about research that I could connect it to.

Needless to say, I wish we could help too, since just blocking sites (while necessary imo just for like... keeping students on task? a lot of ppl don't seem to realize children in schools from middle up have literal constant access to a laptop and are on it all day every day in all classes) doesn't really do anything to teach kids internet safety. Parents aren't doing it (parents are often the source of the problem too) and if teachers aren't allowed to... it just doesn't get done, full stop, as those are the only two kinds of adults we tolerate around kids.

#solitaretalk #long ramble about internet safety and education #thank u for clarifying btw! it makes sense from an education IT perspective #a lot of ppl just like blaming everything kids lack on teachers which is fair abt 50% of the time and not fair abt 50% of the time XD #we're crippled with oversight which isn't inherently a bad thing. the IDEA of core curriculum is good #but as with most things the way its actually implemented on the ground is ~*~functionally useless~*~

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advernia · 2 years

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ARE YOU HARMLESS OR DANGEROUS?

ONE —

Now where on earth did it go? Left, right? A mere glance at his options, and he makes his decision in a snap. The path on his right hosted thicker rosebushes, leaves yet to be trimmed and roses pruned. Therefore, sunlight would pass less on the area. Lesser sunlight meant a darker place - perfect for hiding.

He keeps his pace at jog, all while keeping a sharp eye on the ground he walks on. A flash of sudden movement catches his gaze, leading further ahead - to where there's a dead end.

There's the rustling of leaves, not caused by his own footfalls.

Found you, he mutters under his breath. His jog turns to a walk, soft and steady as possible until he reaches that small disturbed spot. Crouching carefully and lowering his head close to the ground, he parts a portion of the hedge with his hand; shifing through the mass of leaves and branches until...

... he spots a curled ball nestled among the leaves, just a few inches away from his reach.

Riddle lets out a sigh, all the tension built up from his running and searching flowing out of his system. He found it before it had turned dark, what a relief. But what was he to do now?

The hedgehog continued to shiver all alone, still a spiky little ball.

TWO —

At a glance, there is nothing special about him but his physique. As a member of the Track and Field club, it is to be expected that he is in proper shape.

What else was there? For one, he was aware that Deuce Spade's grades were below average. Spade, despite being of Heartslabyul where order was prized over anything else, also seemed to carry a troublesome reputation along with his fellow dorm mate, Ace Trappola. To make matters even worse, both of them were known to be friends with the residents of Ramshackle dorm - to a duo with equally questionable reputations.

Sebek huffs - he keeps a tight grip on his magic pen and straightens himself, eyes focused solely on his opponent.

I must not dismiss the possibility of foul play occuring considering his supposed notoriety.

Adapting a defensive stance for the start of the match is a fine strategy for now, considering I haven't an inkling of the human's magic aptitude and strength.

To find an opening and to have a general idea of his capabilities - that's what I should prioritize first.

Once I've secured both or at least one... it's then I should form my plan of attack.

"The practice match will begin when the mirror falls to the ground!" the instructor's voice echoes.

THREE —

Sevens help him.

The practice match was about to begin, but his stomach was still churning. Deuce takes in a deep breath, lets out a longer exhale. Damn it, did he have to be so nervous?

It's just a practice match, he repeats to himself like a mantra, and somehow it helps. Now that he thought about it, didn't he fight worse things? The thing in the dwarven mines... a couple of seniors... the Dorm Leader... the Dorm Leader's overblot form...

He shudders for a completely different reason now. The image of that figure, dressed in dreary reds and dripping blacks, really hit differently. The searing heat of even the smallest lick of fire, the snapping sound of thorned whips hitting the ground. The spill of ink everywhere and anywhere, the heavy scent of burned and burning grass.

The Dorm Leader's frenzied shouting and warped cackling, like a man going mad.

... Remembering that terrible thing wasn't meant to be reassuring in the slightest, but strangely enough Deuce allowed himself to relax.

Right. I survived that incident... and if I made it out of that, then it means...

Deuce pulls out his magic pen from his blazer's breast pocket.

... I can face Sebek head on, no problem.

"Ready, set - go!"

FOUR —

"Oh, mind his head."

A warm hand nudges his own, guides him to lift his arm a bit higher so that a small, swaddled head would now come to rest on his upper arm better. But his shift in position suddenly has the babe moving, too - small arms and legs flail for a moment before they roll over, coming to rest on him in awkward angles.

"Seems he likes you," his sister-in-law chuckles, reaching out this time to stroke her son's head. "It's like he's curling up to you."

Leona had nothing to say about that, but he does pull his arms away from his body slowly - now granted with more space, the baby's arms and legs fall slack, allowing them to rest comfortably against his chest.

A soft smacking noise escapes small lips.

"I remember holding you too, Leona, shortly after you were born," Farena says with a warm smile, voice an unusual kind of soft that Leona had never heard from him before. "You were that small... but Cheka's a lot cuter, though."

A slap on the arm, a hearty laugh - it's a warm atmosphere for the king and the queen, for a husband and wife celebrating the birth of their first child.

But all Leona could do was stand where he was in silence, the weight of a world resting peacefully in his arms.

1: leona reappears for this batch! here's everyone's context:

riddle -> ... i just want to help you.

sebek -> don't think i'll lower my guard for a second!

deuce -> you're just human!

leona ->... heavy, that's what you are. (pre-game)

#twisted wonderland #riddle rosehearts #sebek zigvolt #deuce spade #leona kingscholar #look the question gave perfect opportunity for something ob!related for riddle & leona but... yeah... watch me throw a curve ball #now hopefully sebek & deuce's parts aren't confusing since they're connected haha! idk if practice matches are a thing but #c'mon that could explain the exams mechanic in the game itself lolol say uni exam but one-on-one battles ye #aaamd that's a wrap! well... there's a bonus one but thank you so much to anyone who read any of this queued stuff for the past 31 days!#to anyone if ever who left replies or comments on their tags: pls know that i am gross sobbing even tho i haven't read them yet #q&a

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