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tyrantisterror · 4 months

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Who's THE Devil?

You know, from, like, The Bible?

One of the things the various takes on Hell more or less agree on is that there is one demon among the legions of Hell who more or less reigns supreme - The Devil with a capital The. What they rarely agree on, however, is which devil that is. So, for funsies, let's look at all the candidates for The Devil, shall we?

Belial

The concept of demons arguably predates Abrahamic religions, at least if we take it at its most nebulous definition of "supernatural people from an Other world who are somewhat antagonistic toward humanity." But the more specific and probably more familiar version of them began with The Book of Enoch, one of many texts that were deemed non-canonical by Christians yet still holds a great deal of influence on Christianity as a whole. It's an extended account of the Noah story, positing that a group of angels rebelled against heaven because they wanted to sleep with mortal women, and created a race of giant half-human half-angel offspring called the Nephilim (Goliath, of David and Goliath fame, was one of the nephilim). God wasn't happy with this, and sent the rebel angels to a fiery pit before killing most of the nephilim with the big ol' flood (though Goliath's lineage survived somehow I guess).

It's not quite how most people picture the War in Heaven and rebellion of the angels, but it's nonetheless where that story started, and that makes it important. This is the first take on what would become the classic origin story for demons and Hell itself. And who is the leader of the rebel angels in this story? Why our good friend Belial, of course. Belial would remain a prominent demon from hereafter, but despite having the earliest claim for the crown of The Devil, Belial has not remained the frontrunner in the race, and is generally demoted to just being a high ranking demon, rather than the Highest ranking one.

2. Beelzebub

I've talked about Beelzebub before and I don't want to spend too much time rehashing that post, so brief recap: Beelzebub began as a mean nickname for a god from a rival religion to Judaism who was named Baal Zebul, which means Lord of the Heavenly Place. Baal Zebub, by contrast, means "Lord of the Flies." Eventually Baalzebub becomes Beelzebub and, divorced from the original context of its creation, becomes a character in his own right, being a prominent demon. And because Beelzebub appeared in a lot of texts, many of them very old as demonology go, he became a major competitor for the title of The Devil, and remains so to this day. I think it's partly because the name "Beelzebub" is really fun to say, but the sheer history and volume of demonology texts portraying him as a big, powerful devil also help. In the rare stories where Beelzebub appears but does not get to be The Devil, he's still portrayed as fairly high ranking, with both Milton's Paradise Lost and Marlowe's Faust making him The Devil's right hand demon, second in command of Hell. So even when he loses the crown, Beelzebub takes home a good silver medal

3. Asmodeus

Asmodeus is another of our "predates Christianity" demons, right up there with Beelzebub and Belial, and as far as I can tell from what I've read he was originally intended to be The Devil rather than just a devil. It's kind of right there in the name - "deus" means god, so Asmodeus having that name marks him as a demon who thinks himself equal to God.

(well, ok, there's some debate about the full origin of his name, with some arguing the "deus" part was originally a play on "deva," which in turn is loosely translated as... demon. The fact that Asmodeus's name is pronounced/spelled differently to a preposterous degree is part of why the water is so muddy - Asmoday, Asmodai, Asmodee, Osmodeus, it goes on and on)

One of his better claims to the crown comes from the story of Solomon - you know, the wise king who told people to cut babies in half. Solomon's less canonical feats include enslaving a shitload of demons to build a temple for him by way of the rite of exorcism, using a magic ring and the power of Christ to compel the damned to do manual labor for him. Asmodeus is specifically stated to be the strongest demon he summons in part because he is the King of all Demons, i.e. The Devil - and the other demons weep at the sight of their king being reduced to a slave by mortal hands.

Why is this a strong claim? Because the story of Solomon in turn inspired The Lesser Key of Solomon, a text about using the rite of exorcism to summon and use demons to do your bidding. The Lesser Key of Solomon includes the Ars Goetia, which is basically a big ol' bestiary of demons, and where many of your favorite pop culture demons - like, say, Stolas the owl guy - come from. Being the King of all demons in the story that inspired one of the more thorough and exhaustive lists of demons and their hierarchies should count for a lot.

There's one other great claim to fame Asmodeus has in his favor. While not directly named in Dante's The Divine Comedy, the description Dante gives of Satan's physical appearance matches with the most popular descriptions of Asmodeus - in particular, his three heads, one of which is yellow, one red, and one black. Granted, it'd be more of a smoking gun if one of those heads was a bull and the other a goat, but they're all very ogre-like, so I still think it stands. Dante's Devil is, more likely than not, Asmodeus, and that's a BIG point in Asmodeus's favor.

4. Hades/Pluto

Ok, so, a great deal of the Old Testament was originally written in Greek, and the New Testament was written in Latin, both of which happened when belief in the Olympian Gods was pretty strong. As such, the word "Hades" appears in the Bible a lot when talking about the place where dead people go, though it probably wasn't meant to literally be the same underworld as that in Greco-Roman mythology. Probably.

But because Christianity was spread primarily by the Roman empire once they converted to Christianity, and because Europe ended up getting a centuries-long case of stockholm syndrome for the Roman Empire that involved many people in power declaring that Greco-Roman mythology was super important literature and Latin was the language of God Himself, there is a good chunk of Biblical apocrypha that treats the use of Hades as, well, a literal crossover of sorts. Which is to say that Hades the god is sometimes treated as, like, a figure in Christianity, generally a demon specifically. And because he's, you know, Hades, from, like, The Odyssey, people feel he needs to be prominent. I mean, Hades RULED the underworld in Greek mythology, so if we're stealing him for Christian folklore, he should at least be in upper management, right?

The strongest case for Hades being The Devil comes from The Book of Revelation, one of the few books in the Bible that actually contributes to demonology (despite what people tell you, demons really don't show up in the Bible that much - most of what we think of as iconic demon lore come from non-canonical works). You know the four horsemen of the apocalypse? War, Famine, Plague, and Death, right? HA, WRONG! It's Conquest, War, Famine, and Pestilence & Death, you fake horseman fan. Well, anyway the line that introduces Death/Pestilence & Death ends with "And Hell followed with him." Except, no, not really, because the specific word used is... Hades. "And Hades followed with him." Which, depending on how you want to interpret the line, could very well mean a literal, King of the Underworld Hades.

Of course, the problem with using Revelation as proof is that Revelation itself is pretty unclear on who's leading the forces of evil. Is it the Seven-Headed dragon who's cast out of Heaven at the beginning of the end of the world? Is it the seven headed leopard monster that the dragon gives his crown to? Is it the monster who crawls out of the ground to speak for the seven-headed leopard with the voice of a dragon? Is it Hades? Is it God, the one who's allowing all this violent shit to happen and frequently sending his angels to make it way fucking worse? Who can say.

So, while it's not super common, there are more than a few works where The Devil is none other than Hades himself. Disney... might not have been completely off the mark, I guess?

While I think Hades's claim is pretty weak, I should note that one of the works that puts a LOT of Greek mythology into Hell is none other than Dante's The Divine Comedy. 70% of the demons in Dante's Hell are just Greek monsters, with the remaining few being Asmodeus and some OC demons he made up with portmanteu names a la Pokemon. Notably, Hades is one of those demonized Greek figures - presented as the Judge who decides where in Hell sinners end up based on their crimes. He's not The Devil, though, so while Dante kind of helps Hades's case, he also kind of ends up making a counter argument to it.

5. Abaddon/Apollyon

Ok, so, the word "abaddon" is used in some texts to refer to Hell, and sometimes it's personified as well. It literally means "ruin." Well, in time, Abaddon is personified and become a demon, which should feel like a familiar story to you by this point. And because Abaddon can also literally be Hell itself, it's only natural that some stories posit Abaddon the demon as the rule of Hell, much as Hades is the ruler of Hades in Greek mythology. This is Abaddon's big claim, and it's not bad, but it's not super strong. Nonetheless, it was enough for at least one prominent Christian text, Pilgrim's Progress, to make Abaddon (under one of his synonym names, Apollyon) to be The Devil, so we can give him that too.

6. Sheol

The sections of the Bible that are written in Hebrew use the word "Sheol" to refer to the underworld/afterlife rather than Hades. Now, Judaism doesn't have the same Hell as Christianity, or the same concept of Heaven either for that matter, and Sheol is less a place of torment for the damned and more of a waiting room for the dead to hang out in until the Messiah comes.

Nonetheless, Sheol did get personified like Abaddon and Hades, and that personification (which, in some versions, is a batty old lady, which is fun) later became a demon in its own right, and thus, for the same reasons as Abaddon and Hades, has a claim to being The Devil by dint of also being, you know, Hell itself. Not the strongest, most popular claim, no, but a claim nonetheless.

7. Satan

Feels rather obvious, doesn't it? Ok, so, in The Bible, one of the characters who was retconned into being The Devil is the angel in the Book of Job who takes on the title of Satan. In the original context of the story, "Satan" is not a name, but, again, a title - a job title, really, roughly akin to "prosecuting attorney." The Satan in the Book of Job isn't a rebel angel, but an angel whose job is to argue for the opposing view point to make sure everyone is doing the right thing. Less "The Devil" and more "the devil's advocate."

But! Christians fucking LOVE the devil, and they want more devil in their Bible, so many translations treat (the) Satan not as the hard-working servant of God he was originally written as, but as, you know, The Devil, arch-enemy of God and justice. And so Satan becomes synonymous with The Devil, and over time more and more appearances of The Devil give him the name Satan.

I can see an argument for this being the strongest claim, because the sheer amount of works where "Satan" is treated as The name of The Devil is enormous. But I think it's important to note that many of those works actually treat it as a name for the devil, which is to say, not the only name. I guess a lot of modern works think the name is so commonly used that it lacks its punch, and so they have The Devil pull the "I have many names" schtick to sound more imposing.

8. Lucifer

So there's a part of the Bible that talks about a star falling out of Heaven as a sort of metaphor for how people can fall from grace. Well, good ol' King James translated this as not just a falling star, but specifically The Devil himself, giving him the name Lucifer, which means "light-bringer." The King James translation of the Bible is bad in that it's immensely inaccurate, but good in that it's a beautiful piece of poetry in its own right, and since it had the authority of a goddamn king behind it, it quickly became a prominent Christian text and is still the preferred translation of many Christian sects to this day.

So, you know, that's pretty fucking big as claims go. There is one incredibly prominent (if woefully inaccurate) translation of the Bible where Lucifer is The Devil. Kind of hard to fight that one.

But it doesn't end there! I would argue that the most influential origin story for Christian devils, the one that has become ingrained in the cultural consciousness as THE story of the War in Heaven, is Milton's poem Paradise Lost. That's where most of the tropes we associate with The Devil and demons and Hell really come together to form the great devil mythology - well, it and Dante's The Divine Comedy, anyway. You know which name Milton chose for The Devil?

Lucifer.

Well, ok, he also calls Lucifer "Satan" with about equal frequency, but still - Lucifer is The Devil of Paradise Lost. And because of the sheer weight that both Paradise Lost and the King James Bible have in culture, Lucifer has ended up being used as The Devil in countless works since! Not bad for a translation error, right?

While the sheer number and notability of literature that uses Lucifer as The Devil is kind of argument enough for him having the best claim, I'd like to add one more argument in his favor: dramatic irony. I think what draws people to Lucifer is the meaning of his name - "the light-bringer" - and how it contrasts with his role as the king of a pit of darkness and misery. "Light-bringer" is a heroic name, the name of a character who brings hope and joy, which makes it so delicious when it turns out our "light-bringer" is an utter bastard. It's just irresistible, isn't it?

9. Mephistopheles

A good number of demon stories - arguably the majority of them - focus on mortals who make deals with demons and end up damned to Hell for doing it. We call these stories "faustian pacts," and we do that because the most famous story of this kind is the story of Faust, a scientist/alchemist who makes a deal with a devil named Mephistopheles to learn the secrets of the universe and ends up doing a lot of sinning in the process. Since Faust is such a famous and influential story, it only follows that its main devil is frequently viewed as The Devil.

...except

In most versions of Faust, Mephistopheles is not presented as The Devil within the narrative. He's a henchman, a flunkie, with one of the bigger names like Lucifer or Beelzebub pulling the strings. So while there are a number of stories (including a few versions of Faust itself) where Mephistopheles gets to be The Devil, it's far more common for him to be a devil - perhaps a prominent devil, maybe even one of the strongest and a close member of The Devil's inner circle, but rarely the one in charge.

10. Baphomet

Baphomet is a god whose name and appearance was repurposed as a demon by The Church of Satan, and so while I have to admit that is a claim to the crown, I don't think it's a great one. First, nothing about the Church of Satan's belief system is meant to be taken genuinely, with them admitting that they view Satan/Baphomet as a symbol rather than a literal supernatural being they believe in. Second, by rights Baphomet should be allowed to be Baphomet instead of being literally demonized. I honestly think it's better for Baphomet to lose this race than to win it.

11. Iblis

Demons in Islam work differently from demons in Christianity. Rather than being fallen angels, demons are wicked Djinn - a race of people made from fire and smoke rather than ash and dirt like humans. Djinn aren't quite as powerful as angels in Islam, but do have significant supernatural powers that humans lack. Like humans, Djinn have free will and can choose whether to be good or evil - and those that choose to be evil reside in Islam's version of Hell, where they are ruled by Iblis, the first Djinn to choose the wicked path and the ruler of Islam's Hell.

Unlike Christianity, there isn't really any debate on this. Iblis is, for all intents and purposes, the CANONICAL ruler of Hell, The Devil of Islam, and thus has the strongest and really ONLY claim to be The Devil of that religion.

...but, at the same time, Iblis can't really be the Christian devil, because Christianity doesn't have Djinn, and all the iconic parts of Christian demonology kind of hinge on the idea of demons as rebel angels, which demonic djinn very much aren't. So while Iblis's claim in Islam is irefutable, he doesn't have one in Christianity. Ain't that wacky?

I think it should be noted that there are more-or-less canonical texts where Iblis isn't treated as purely evil, either, including one where he actively asks for help in repenting and is turned down because, well, evil has to exist, and someone has to rule over it, and like it or not, that's Iblis's job now. It ends with Iblis wailing that he has become the greatest martyr of Islam. Which is so fucking hardcore, I love it. In Christianity, the texts where we humanized demons are non-canonical at best and deemed heresy at worst, but Islam allowed it to be more-or-less canon. They saw the coolest takes on the Devil and said "yeah we can allow that" - so much more rad than what Christianity did with them.

So, who do YOU think is The Devil? You know, from, like, The Bible?

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1863-project · 3 months

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For the ask game: common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about?

[ask meme]

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

I...actually get frustrated with the infantilization and/or demonization of characters that could be read as autistic, because it happens so often and there's such a lack of self-awareness when people do it. If one person headcanons it, a bunch of other people pile on, and before you know it, your character is being treated like someone else entirely - and unfairly so.

Let's take the most obvious example and the reason I don't engage with fandom much:

I am so tired of what fandom at large has done to Emmet since 2010. He's been infantilized since day one, often being portrayed as needing Ingo to take care of him or otherwise be his brother's keeper. He's also been turned into a violent, 'unhinged' stereotype since day one. Neither of these things are new. They've been happening since the release of the games. Neither of them have any basis in his canon characterization - a competent railroad employee who's a goofball but simultaneously responsible and always puts safety first.

I was hoping people had moved past that the way they moved past Blankshipping (though some people still do this, too, EW), but it seems like they haven't. Emmet is still either a helpless child or a serial killer waiting to happen to so many of these people, and as someone who actually felt so validated and seen the first time she discovered Ingo and Emmet, it hurts so deeply.

In real life, I'm also infantilized. I turn 35 this year and have a Master’s degree and work a big grown-up adult archivist job and live outside my parents' house, but because I'm neurodivergent and short, I'm frequently assumed to be and am treated like a teenager way more often than you'd reasonably expect. It's incredibly frustrating to constantly be treated like an innocent child because you don't meet neurotypical benchmarks of adulthood the way they want you to or because of the way you carry yourself or enjoy things. But at the same time, people shy away from me because I'm "too intense" about the things I care about.

Sound familiar?

Fandom was, when I was a younger girl, a place where neurodivergent people (especially autistic and ADHD people) were safe from the real world not understanding, accommodating, and accepting us. We generally kept things on the down-low, since it was another thing we'd be bullied for if people knew, but for us, it was a safe space. Then people realized fandom could be commodified, and once capitalism got a hold on fandom and made it mainstream, all our bullies were suddenly in our little space again, and...well, you probably know the rest. (Yeah, they brought their ableism with them.)

I'm not saying old fandom didn't have its problems. It had a LOT of problems. But it was, altogether, a safer space for neurodivergent people to find community and themselves than it is now. Now it feels more about producing things and moving on to the next big thing to produce more "content" to keep engagement instead of an actual community of nerdy, passionate people getting excited about each other's fanworks and chatting about their favorite things together.

And that reflects in how people treat autistic and autistic-coded characters now. Emmet is one example of many - look at Papyrus, or Entrapta, or numerous others.

This trend really, really fucking hurts, and I cannot stand how willingly fandom spaces just go along with it without thinking critically about it.

#replies #moonflower01 #fandom ableism #autism #actuallyautistic #Pokemon #Submas

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genericpuff · 5 months

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This is stupid, but you know those new LO hoodies the Webtoon shop has? I know the font they're using. It's Eckmannpsych which is an Adobe font.

That's not the stupid part though. The dumb part is the capital H and G in the Eckmannpsych font do not match what is on the hoodies, which would obviously be on the hoodies that have Hera or Goddess on them. So, Rachel looks to have taken the time to hand draw her own H and G to match the font style for those hoodies but did not take any time to make new, better art for the merch, but instead reused ugly panels from the comic. Talk about a strange look into her priorities. She doesn't like how the G and H look on a font? She will remake those to fit what she wants. Rachel when the assignment gives her the chance to make specialized, better designs for those same merch? She can't be bothered to even try. WTF!

for the love of god-

I'm assuming and hoping they had the commercial rights to that font LMAOO But it did kind of make me go 🤨 because while I didn't know the font EXACTLY off the top of my head it still felt... weirdly out of place for something like LO? Why are these hoodies being stylized like they're from Austin Powers LOL

On another note tho, the LO merch is just like... disappointing in how bad it is for what's supposed to be WT's #1 series, which is, btw, a series with so much unique stylization that it shouldn't even be this hard to make merch for it! it just feels very "first attempt at redbubble merch", but unlike genuine first attempts at making merch (which is obviously a learning curve that I wouldn't judge anyone for being new to) this is a company that's sunk shitloads of money into LO so I don't know why they can't get better merch made?? so much of it is just the default drawings taken and slapped onto a tote bag or t-shirt, which like, yeah cool fine you're using art that's recognizable and considering the art is already made, it stands to reason that they should use it for more than just the comic. It's just disappointing to see how lazy it often is and how little effort is put into translating it onto a t-shirt/tote bag/etc. like we can't even have ONE exclusive t-shirt with a unique design that isn't just poorly copy pasted from the comic?

Case in point, those t-shirts that Rachel was advertising a while ago that were actually straight up falsely advertised. I can't find the post about it on my Tumblr (I'm pretty sure I talked about it here) so here's the IG story rundown I did on it ages ago:

Again I'd really like to have benefit of the doubt here that Rachel isn't the one making these designs, usually that's not how the merchandising process goes in these types of deals, so I'm not gonna point the finger at her. But it's just so odd to me that it happened in the first place. And this goes for a lot of LO's merch, so much of it feels cheaply made and rushed off a conveyor belt for the point of making money without much expense. Which yeah, that's a business model for sure, the goal is to profit, but like this?

You can't even argue that it's like people criticizing LO the comic because like, as much as I'll justify what I spend my time doing here in my free time, it's true that at the end of the day I don't have to pay for LO, so really the only thing I'm doing is inflicting psychic damage to myself, it's not like my actual money is on the line LMAO That's why I stopped paying for LO ages ago and only do it when I have a specific episode I need to review (such as the midseason hiatus review series I did). At the very least, if I really want to keep reading LO but don't want to pay for it, I can just avoid FastPassing it and read it for free so I can save the coins for other series I'd rather read. The Webtoons' FP system is very fair that way.

But this is merch explicitly made to generate revenue. It is a product, front to back. You can vote with your money by not buying the thing you don't like, absolutely, but the fact that it's this poorly to begin with is just so indicative of Webtoons' business practices and so shitty for the people who genuinely enjoy this comic and are being advertised and sold shoddy merchandise that doesn't even come looking the same way it's advertised. It's really not a good look for Webtoons, Rachel, or LO that this is what they're selling to people.

Especially for what they're charging, good lord-

Like, okay, they're hoodies and they're gonna be expensive to print and ship so the higher overhead cost makes sense, but jesus christ, with the kind of merch Webtoons has already given the stamp of approval on, would it even show up in decent condition? How bright are those colors gonna be? Are they gonna strip off as soon as I throw it in the wash? I'm half-tempted to buy a hoodie for myself just to do a review on it but I can't justify dropping $75 CAD on a hoodie that only has art on the back. Maybe it's just me living in the hellish lands of Canada where we play with toy money that's the problem, but it's just not a gamble I wanna take LOL If I bought one it would probably be the Hecate or Hermes ones because they're the only ones that are at least somewhat legible and have decent character art that isn't a character looking like they need to poop LMAO

(these are literally the two worst drawings they could have chosen of these two i stg lol the only thing that would have made this worse/funnier is if it was Handsome Hades and Persephone Kidnapping a Baby LMAO)

It has me worried about what the LO figures are gonna look like when they release. Are they gonna have some creative liberty with making them chibi-fied (like a Nendoroid?) or are they gonna try and replicate the art style exactly and wind up making literal blow-up sex doll Persephone? 😭

NGL, if the figures are done well enough and don't cost an arm and a leg, I might consider buying one just for the shelf collection, but again, it depends. If Webtoons released a tarot deck with really good panels from LO (like the Tower 4 scene or Persephone sitting on the rooftop with her comb or Eros flying down into the Mortal Realm) I would buy the shit out of that. I would even just take the Major Arcana if 78 cards was too much to ask :'0 I'm not against Webtoons/Rachel trying to profit off LO merch at all, I just wish it was BETTER- (╥﹏╥)

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything

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tigergirltail · 2 months

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TIGER HRT CHAPTER 1 - MONTH MINUS 6 - THE CONSULTATION

The specialest of special thanks to @ayviedoesthings for creating the original Dragon HRT story, and a big shoutout as well to @kaylasartwork, @welldrawnfish, @nyxisart, and @deadeyedfae for their takes on the concept! Every one of you is inspirational, and your work gives me so much second-hand gender euphoria!

---

"Miss Alexis, please come in."

I look around as I walk inside. Between the doctor being a balding middle-aged man and the office looking like any generic doctor's office, I'm honestly a little disappointed. I was hoping the infamous source of therian HRT would be a little more… I don't know. Exotic? Unique? I was half expecting the walls to have before and after photographs of clients, but I suppose when it comes down to it, this is a serious medical facility, not a beauty salon. I walk up to the desk and sit down in the chair.

"Now I understand you wish to be a… a tiger?"

I'm unable to suppress my euphoria at the idea, and I start grinning and nodding. "A white tiger! I haven't changed my fursona since I got one, it's about time I start embodying it!"

"Indeed… And I see on your medical history that you are transgender." He mutters under his breath, "Just like all the others…"

I give a little smirk. 'All the others' are the reason I'm here. If this guy is handing out meds that can turn people into dragons or fish or bats, then a tiger should be easy, right? It's a mammal, and not much bigger than a human, relatively speaking. I had even given some thought to the rumoured "Fifteen Minute Shortcut", but when it comes down to it, even if I did have the ungodly pain tolerance to withstand such a rapid transformation of my bone structure and musculature, I… don't really want to do it quickly. Mundane HRT has already been such an absolute gift in terms of euphoria from noticing the slow and gradual changes, I want to keep that up. I want to notice the little things.

"Now I'm afraid there are some requirements to be settled first…"

Oh boy. Here comes the bureaucratic bullshit. Everything that's been put in place to make sure Our Children don't Make A Terrible Mistake. When it comes down to it, bodily autonomy only counts when you're not one of the weirdos. The instant you decide to be capital-d Different, people start falling over themselves trying to talk you out of it.

"First of all, I see that you have been taking human hormone therapy for a little over six months. We do require a full year of human treatment before beginning therian treatments, and I'm afraid that is fully non-negotiable. There are matters of biology that require the body to be a certain degree of… receptive."

I was afraid of this, but at least it's not a deal-killer. Another half-year is bearable, even if I am going to be shaking with anticipation the entire time.

"I also see you have letters from a practicing physician and a social worker, but we do require a second psychologist to be involved in the process."

Okay. Absolute horseshit, but not impossible. All I've got to do is find another social worker or psychologist. And pay them for several months of sessions. And hope they don't decide I'm crazy for wanting to throw away my humanity. I can feel my expression souring…

"It's also required to live as your desired species for at least a year before beginning the process."

"What." I'm leaning forward and glaring at the doctor before I fully realize it. "And how exactly am I supposed to do that, without the… the requisite biology, or the inborn instincts, or the… the habitat!" I let out a frustrated growl. "Am I supposed to fly off to India or Bangladesh or somewhere, and start camping out in the wilderness??"

"Miss Alexis, please, I'm afraid these are… are the requirements set forth by the guidelines of -"

"Guidelines!" I slam a palm down on the desk between us, before letting out a frustrated breath. "Just that… Guidelines. You know, and I know, that a lot of people have come to you already, with a lot more… exotic requests. Flying animals? Aquatic animals? A fucking DRAGON??"

The doctor seems taken aback, maybe he didn't expect this level of resistance.

"What is even the natural habitat of a dragon anyway? Or the diet? Or the behaviours in the wild?? It's a mythical creature for gods' sakes, there's no firm evidence they even existed!!" I stare at him, unblinkingly, with what I dearly hope is a predatory glare. "But I do get it, though. You have to be absolutely sure I won't regret it. Liability, or whatever. …Maybe we just need to know how hard I can BITE."

Something changes in his expression. ...Malice? No, not quite. A sort of… satisfaction, maybe.

It was a test. He wanted to know whether I'd just roll over and accept the impossibility of my quest, or whether I was prepared to fight for it.

Joke's on him, just getting human HRT was such a godsdamned hassle, I already know how to fight.

He adjusts his glasses. "Perhaps there is something I can do for you… Let me get you some forms."

#tiger hrt #therian hrt #animal hrt #transgender #trans #furry hrt

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grison-in-space · 1 year

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Wrapping up the Guards! Guards! reread, I hit this passage from Vetinari to Vimes and have to pause to snicker because Vetinari is just so damn young here:

“A great rolling sea of evil,” he said, almost proprietorially. “Shallower in some places, of course, but deeper, oh, so much deeper in others. But people like you put together little rafts of rules and vaguely good intentions and say, this is the opposite, this will triumph in the end. Amazing!” He slapped Vimes good-naturedly on the back. “Down there,” he said, “are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don’t say no. I’m sorry if this offends you,” he added, patting the captain’s shoulder, “but you fellows really need us.” “Yes, sir?” said Vimes quietly. “Oh, yes. We’re the only ones who know how to make things work. You see, the only thing the good people are good at is overthrowing the bad people. And you’re good at that, I’ll grant you. But the trouble is that it’s the only thing you’re good at. One day it’s the ringing of the bells and the casting down of the evil tyrant, and the next it’s everyone sitting around complaining that ever since the tyrant was overthrown no one’s been taking out the trash. Because the bad people know how to plan. It’s part of the specification, you might say. Every evil tyrant has a plan to rule the world. The good people don’t seem to have the knack.”

Ah, yes, sir: because you are very evil, what with the assuming power largely, as far as I can tell, because you're offended by how poorly the system works; you whose first career move was to work to create stability in the city in a bid to minimize blowback, you who are above everything else practical and focused on utilitarianism. Uhhuh.

He's so young. Almost everyone in Guards! Guards! is, of course--Carrot with his law book most obviously--but with Vimes the alcoholic depression and the despairing cynicism has its hooks in so deeply that the overall impact is hard to see. By contrast, moving from Making Money to Guards! Guards! reveals a Vetinari who is almost embarrassingly green relative to the Vetinari who trains Moist: he is constantly making arrogant mistakes (ie "there's no dragons, that's nonsense") that his older self would be mortified to see, and then there's little pronouncements like this.

And for that matter, Vetinari himself should know full well that his "bad people" don't necessarily bother with much planning, either; just look at Mad Lord Snapcase. It's possible to view this through a Doylist lens--we just know a lot more about the history of Ankh Morpork by later books than Pterry did when he was writing this one. But I like to integrate Watsonian interpretations into my readings of the text, and so I enjoy thinking about this as partly a bid to undermine any support Vimes might be lending to any bids for power Carrot might make. After all, Carrot hasn't made any commentary about his sword one way or another; it's unclear to both Vetinari and the reader whether Carrot knows about the long lost heir of the city thing, and even more unclear what Carrot might choose to do in the absence of a giant flaming dragon having declared itself king.

Vetinari is in a fairly precarious place in this book, having been Patrician for only a relatively short time as far as I can tell, and after all there has just been an extraordinarily popular movement to replace the entire office of the Patrician with a hereditary king. If Carrot chose to, he could make life quite difficult for Vetinari: he might not win a theoretical power struggle, but he could certainly cost quite a bit of political capital and considerable public belief in Vetinari's ability to create stability. And Vimes, as Carrot's immediate supervisor and erstwhile human mentor, is the single person most likely to be able to influence Carrot away from that leg of the Trousers of Time.

It's an interesting way to plea for the support of a man like Vimes, I'll put it that way. It's wholly truthful and quite earnest, and it's not particularly manipulative: if anything, it paints Vetinari in quite a lot worse light than he could make a reasonable claim to being. It also avoids tugging on at least one equally truthful argument that could be expected to tug on Vimes' own sentiments: Vetinari is, for all his flaws and autocratic opinions, at the very least not a king. While he holds power, there will be no monarchs, no Lorenzo the Kinds to claim divine right to rule. I suppose it's also possible that Ventinari simply didn't know, of course, but--it's such an interesting little speech from a character perspective.

#discworld #guards! guards!

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imreadydollparts · 6 months

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A bit of a ramble.

I was asked if I had a pony salon wish list by a repeat customer that was interested in replenishing my supplies a bit.

I do, but it's not exactly what you might expect because part of how I can keep my salon fees so very low is that most of those supplies are paid for by my S.O. as we can grab them at the store during our regular grocery run.

But it got me thinking: Would people be interested in knowing what I use a lot of?

I've shuffled the wish lists around a bit to make them more sharable (because they were a mess), and will talk a little bit about what I use and how.

(I know punctuation and capitalization in a bullet list doesn't go like this. I don't care.)

bubble wrap is used to protect ponies in shipping

40Vol is 12% hydrogen peroxide cream, which is what I use to "retrobright" yellowed vinyl in the SunBox and it will sometimes remove stains - I don't use this up very quickly, surprisingly

I will use any dish soap, but that's the one I'm using right now because I had bought it to wash dishes but the whole family doesn't like the scent so I took it down to the salon to use up. I'll get something else when this runs out, which won't be for some time

Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine conditioner isn't really great for repeated application to people-hair because it does build up over time, but it's excellent for a single application on synthetics. Well conditioned hair flat irons better than dry hair (and feels nicer, too).

I absolutely burn through melamine sponges. They're excellent at removing grime from vinyl that doesn't come off with a gentle hand-washing or toothbrush scrubbing. Anything acetone can take off, a melamine sponge can, just slower. Melamine sponges are micro-abraisives and will take the shine off of things.

larger envelopes for larger numbers of ponies sold on eBay

smaller envelopes. I prefer these envelopes to boxes because it keeps the shipping weight down, and ponies do just fine wrapped in paper, then bubble wrap, then in an envelope. For larger orders I reuse boxes from other things.

packing tape doesn't need much explanation. I tape boxes shut with it.

I wrap every pony in packing paper both to help keep their hair in place during shipping and to keep them from touching each other in the case that one has that particular yellow hair that likes to stain when it gets hot, or has colorant leeching that I don't want to transfer from one pony to another

cellophane tape is used to close the paper towel strips that I use to set their hair

Paper towels are cut into strips to use as hair setting strips, used to clean up areas that I don't want the mess getting onto my work cloths (I do mean cloths, not clothes) nor in my washing machine like rusty oxy clean goop, rusty tail washer chunks, or bits of hair that were combed out. I also use paper towels to strain the cleanser bath when I'm doing deflockings. I prefer to put all those little bits of plastic filament in the trash rather than down the drain. I'd like to get some full-size paper towels for straining flocking fluids because the perforated line is a weak point that sometimes breaks but it seems they're all half-size, now. Coffee filters are too slow and get gunked up too fast by the debris and glue residue from deflocking.

acetone is used to remove factory paint, or you know how sometimes paint from something else sticks to a pony, and smooth out rough areas

L.A.'s Totally Awesome concentrate has many uses in my salon. I use it to remove Mattel head glue, deflock ponies, and remove nail polish from areas where acetone would remove factory paint

This is is the things I wouldn't mind getting for the salon.

You may or may not know that the salon is currently mostly in the basement bathroom. Don't worry, no one uses that bathroom, so there are no potty particles flying around.

Towels are just for laying out on the wire shelves where I dry ponies, or laying on the floor when I need more room to dry ponies. I often do a hundred or so ponies all at once and need a lot of space to work.

There is no counter space in there at all, and it's honestly very difficult to work in there. As such, I've been looking at adjustable work benches because I have to accommodate the toilet and shower if I want to put in some work surface. It's a whole thing.

UVC light is the kind of UV light that kills off bacteria and fungus. Right now I have UVA lights in my SunBox for "retrobrighting" and wouldn't mind adding a little UVC lamp in there, just to help with cleanliness and probably also would help with smells.

The sink in there is teeny tiny and very difficult to work in, so an extension for the faucet would be really handy. I'd rather replace the whole sink, to be honest, but that's not in the cards at the moment.

A thermal printer would be really handy and let me no longer be reliant on the inkjet printer for which the ink cartridges are being discontinued, soon, and will become difficult to get a hold of. I honestly don't know if THAT one will work with my computer (I don't think my computer has Bluetooth), it's just a placeholder, really.

Obviously this isn't EVERYTHING that I use in the salon. I have an ozone generator for bad smells, paint and paint brushes, combs, brushes, flat irons, crimpers, curling irons, straws to curl hair, pipe cleaners, a massive stash of doll hair........

There's quite a lot going on down there, really.

(Since I'm putting wish lists anyway, here's the art supplies list: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/264SH6D7R373P?ref_=wl_share )

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lunart-06 · 6 months

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My Makoto Naegi angst analisis thing (Hc)

(PLEASE KEEP IN NOTE): That this is just my general idea of him, kinda scared to share this cause qjdnnejf I know everyone has different opinions on Makoto so I'm just posting this in my own prespective of him. (It's a little messy cause I am unstable and disorganized when I write this so beware ooo)

Here's the art I made for this

So like, I believe Makoto has issues I think we all established that, and the moment when komaru mentioned of how he changes a lot in UDG (but still hold some same aspects of traits and habits that just makes him.... him) after managed to contact him the first time. It strucks me so bad that it gaves me a migrane /vpos

Like, Makoto earned his new title of the ultimate Hope (with the capital H and everything) just by defeating Junko the ultimate despair? By that point he was seen by the world as the savior and as the first and only hope they have thought lost for YEARS

Makoto's ability to move everyone by just words to which he probably didn't even realised the power he held over it. He's just incredibly passionate and its because his whole body speaks GENUINE emotions, his stubborn willpower and determination undeterred by despair and everything Junko herself has set up for.

It is something not everyone has the luxury to have. His optimism. But that's the thing.

Makoto was the ultimate Hope, only because he was just optimistic in nature. It was the flock of the moment during the last trial, his contagious optimism is what everyone, his friends, the world, preceives as Hope. The enlighting feeling of inspiration by just words of support and motivations for the first time since years after the tragedy started.

But again. Thats the thing. The "Hope" they admire, they clung onto, they worshipped, and they DIE for, was his mere optimistic nature. Just like he said himself "Optimism is all I'm best at".

Its cause well, it's true. (Kinda)

All he was ever good at in his view was just being that. When I rewatched future arc I sense how unBEARABLY useless he is without that title and usual positive nature, and his words don't reach the leaders of future foundation from attempting to kill one another (aside from certain ones, and at the very end ofc, but even then it was too late to prevent the deaths). His words doesnt even managed to reach Ryota from preventing him in using the Hope brainwash video.

It just further shows how.... normal he is

Despite the title, it just shows that he is nothing but a normal guy. He's not some god everyone preceives him to be, he's just some dude that was placed in a wrong time and place.

It's like all the good he is being- well, normal. Like typical "good kid". Somehow it kinda hurts to think about it, like you're obligated to see all positive in lives for it as everyone depends on you for such.

And now the whole world was in the palm of his hands.

I feel like he's scared, despite his strong stand and brave, determined face, he is a normal, ordinary guy that scared to lose what he was ever good and seen by everyone as. Being optimistic and hopeful.

Its like he's not allowed to even be sad for a moment to cry his hearts out. Because the world depends on him, his friends depends on him, he rely on them too much, he cant lose hope cause if he does, the world will fall apart AGAIN, and people will die AGAIN (just like his classmates, just like the people who died for him) he doesnt think he can handle that the second time.

Since that one thing Makoto despises the most is violence. Death to be exact.

He was probably exhausted but he cant yet, he has to keep moving forward, for the world's sake, his friends' sake, his only remaining family; his sister's sake, and for the sake of those who had died so he can carry out their hope that was left behind.

Theres also this quote that remind me of him:

"I'm scared that the moment I look like I'm suffering. Noone will believe me anymore"

Because like. He really cant do things as much without his friends. All he has was his hope; his positivity, determination, and optimistic nature. So he stood tall, facing despair, putting up a strong look just so people of the world, and his friends know, that they all can trust him. To have faith in him.

Because being optimistic is all he's best at.

That hope he has held dearly was destroying him internally. Scary thing is it? Despair isnt what was breaking him. It was the very thing that he was good at. And the very thing everyone thought of when they see him.

Just like junko when you think about it. She- ultimate despair, destroyed herself by the very thing she is (basically executed herself in the last trial) and now makoto was doing the same thing.

"The world's hope", "the strongest who never falters at the face of despair", "the savior", "their guiding light"

How much longer should he keep that up? Before everyone realised that he's nothing but just an ordinary, plain, boring guy?

How much longer should he fall before allowing himself to hit the ground?

A sprout who never truly managed to grow old, it's choose to shelter other by it's leaves, holding still, unmoving.

Yet its roots slowly rotten by parasites and disease, trying to keep the earth together. They can't die now, they're the protector, the hope of it all. <-(quote by one of my friend Ele, which I think is neat in itself, considering Naegi's name means sappling or seedling in general ajdhwjdj)

He may have survived the first killing game that birth his title as the Ultimate Hope,

He may have survived the second killing game in the Neo world program that shows us how devastated it must be for Makoto that Nagito would go that far for the sake of hope, how Makoto's words and hope does not reach the remaining survivor,

He may survived the third killing game in the Future Foundation where it must be devastating that he's unable to understand the victims fully from preventing them to try and kill eachother off ("don't try pretending you understand them, you don't understand them at all" kinda feel), where he watched as Kyoko died for his hope, not telling him THAT she will die, letting him live because not only that he was the closest friend she ever has, but knowing her; she thinks that the world still need the ultimate hope, and because of that, she was ready to accept her fate for it, because she was assured that Makoto is strong enough to move forward even when it's hard, because she has faith in him. Because she believes that Makoto will never give up Hope.

Eventhough he had survive countless scenarios where he could die anytime of those. I feel like eventhough he had survived multiple times.. he had died, multiple times as well, to become who he is now (multiple rebirth symbolism). To the point where he is unrecognizable in his own eyes, the feeling of the old him far out of reach, who is he now?

Things are so simple to him back then, why does things don't make sense to him about himself now?

He may never feel lonely outside, because he believes that his friends will always have his back, he believes that there will always be someone that could give him a hand.

But here, in his own mind, in his own exhaustion, in his own struggle, in his own confusion, he is completely all alone. This one is his alone to go through, his friends has too much on their plate already to handle this, he relied on them too much already.. (in a way, perhaps, he try to rely on others less).

Theres soooo many I wanna say about him but this is the general idea of my view on him, or er, version ig? His accidental savior complex that is.

And don't make me start of his self-sacrificial tendency. /lh

#danganronpa #makoto naegi #lunardr thoughts #danganronpa 3 #danganronpa 3: the end of hope's peak high school #also to note how despite his attempt to assure strongly of their escape and protection to Sayaka #it's still wasn't enough to stop her from drowning in her own desperation #its almost like she doesn't believe in him at all #butterfly effect as what my friend said /lh

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jokeroutsubs · 7 months

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[ENG SUB] Bojan Cvjetićanin: I know that we will cry our eyes out. And I'm really looking forward to those tears

Original article from Slovenske Novice Si

Translation credit: @moonlvster

Bojan Cvjetićanin: I know that we will cry our eyes out. And I'm really looking forward to those tears

Just before the highly anticipated concert in Ljubljana's Stožice Arena, we talked to Joker Out's singer, who told us about the band's plans for the future. First, they're going on vacation, and they're even all going together.

At the time of our chat, there are two days separating you from the concert in Stožice, how are you feeling?

We announced the Stožice concert quite a while ago, everyone was asking us if we were a little crazy, even we sometimes asked ourselves if we were completely sane in the meantime. But after a year, we are now in the final stretch, and we can't wait, because we don't have the nerves to wait anymore. If it dragged on for another week or so, one of us would explode. We can't wait to get on stage, we really need it by now.

What do you expect to feel after such a big concert? It can probably kind of drain a person?

When the concert was announced, we didn't imagine that in one year we'd be at the point where we are today. A lot of things happened in this year, and for us, this concert marks the end of one era and the official start of a new, even more important one. Based on the experience from Cvetličarna and Križanke, I know that we will cry our eyes out as soon as we get to the changing room. I really look forward to these tears because I haven't cried in a while. The crying will probably last a while and we'll let a lot of things out. I wouldn't say that we'll feel empty. Two days after the concert, we're going on holiday together, and that's where we'll be able to talk and air out everything that has happened to us. After our holiday, we're immediately going on tour again, there won't be a lot of time to think.

It's interesting that you're going on holiday together, do you not need time to have a break from each other?

Everyone we tell reacts the same way you did, they ask us if we're normal. But we have a good time together, we enjoy it, we get on well. Going on holiday togather is natural. We're constantly building a relationship that gets deeper every day, even though it seems like it couldn't be any deeper.

How do you resolve any conflicts that might happen in the band?

Luckily we haven't had any big conflicts so far. We have daily friction, which tends to happen in a group of five creative people, but it probably happens in all teams. Our rule is to speak honestly about all feelings, to prevent any grudges from developing. That way, we resolve everything quickly.

On your website, I looked up the concerts you've announced until the end of the year, a lot of them are abroad. How did you pick the places where you'll play? I understand that venues in the capital cities of former Yugoslavian countries are a natural choice, but how to choose the right venue in, for example, Barcelona?

After the Eurovision Song Contest, we had to really quickly draw up a tour. When we started doing that in June, it was already really late, generally you book venues for the year at the end of the previous year or the start of that year. We responded to invites from all foreign promoters who invited us to have a gig in their cities. Venue availability dictated where we went, we grabbed everything they offered us.

I know that the audience response abroad has been excellent so far, did that surprise you?

We have two tours behind us, UK and Nordic, we were in Great Britain and Scotland, in Norway, Sweden and Finland. We weren't surprised by the good response, but we were surprised by how many people sang in Slovenian. That's pretty hard to get used to.

When we talk about Slovenian musicians breaking out internationally, we quickly come up against language barriers - well, now you're saying that you don't feel that. But still, global success isn't just a question of talent, there's only one Rihanna, but there are plenty of girls who are like her at the start of her career. So what is the key? Luck? Connecting with the right people?

Any kind of success is an accumulation of many links that have to connect into a chain. Hard work, knowledge, talent, a huge amount of luck, being in the right place. I'm not really someone who believes in coincidences, but we can say that, as well. And connecting with the right people. From the start of our journey, we've tried to connect with people who wanted to be with us from the beginning because they liked this story, and not because they thought they could get money from it. Well, at the beginning, it was clear to them that there wouldn't be any money for a while. Love within the team and hard work are the key things.

How much of an influence did performing at the Eurovision Song Contest have on your international success? Some might say that young people don't watch the contest, but your performances prove otherwise…

It's true, the Eurovision Song Contest was our catapult. Just the final night was watched live by 62 million people. We're very glad that before the Eurovision Song Contest, we had built a strong enough base in Slovenia and made enough music that a certain percentage of those 62 million who looked up our music online could actually find it there.

I think that it was in 2020 when the songs Vem da greš and Gola were being played. Back then, I said that Joker Out would definitely be the next biggest band here, and I like to brag about that now. Would you say that there was a certain moment when you looked at each other and said: this is it, we've made it?

Right from the beginning, we've considered what we do to be the best thing. Success is a completely subjective thing, but we've truly believed in what we do. We trusted that if the five of us, our producer, and the people closest to us liked something, that meant it worked. We didn't let any outsiders challenge that. As for a specific moment... for me personally, it was our two concerts in Cvetličarna when we released our first album, that was when I saw how big everything that was happening around us was, when you put it all together in one place.

But it's probably not easy if so many people want a piece of you? You've spoken about panic attacks before…

We have a specific profession, the working hours, workplace and working relationships aren't defined. Us performers also constantly feel like we have to be available 24 hours per day. It's important, when the time comes, to learn how to say no as well, and to understand that nothing is more important than your health and well-being. If you don't have that, you can't create either. All professions have their dark sides, that is ours.

Earlier you spoke about entering a new era for Joker Out, what's coming up for you?

I can talk about short-term plans, about next year. We will spend the first half of the year in London, in March we will also have a European tour, we'll spend the summer at festivals, we already know that we will perform at festivals we've been dreaming about all our lives, and we will finish the year with two more tours around countries that we won't have visited in March. So, our new era will be marked by conquering new territories, as well as moving our brains there.

Siddharta is currently celebrating 20 years since the concert at the Bežigrad stadium, where do you think you will celebrate the Stožice concert anniversary in 20 years?

I have no idea, but I certainly hope that we will be as close then as we are now.

I know that most of the Joker Out boys are from Bežigrad, but twenty years ago you were still far from going to concerts, but perhaps you were kicking a ball somewhere around there on the day of the concert?

I was four years old, I know the other guys also weren't old enough to remember that concert. But we have watched it many times on CD.

#joker out #bojan cvjeticanin #jokeroutsubs #bojan cvjetićanin #jan peteh #kris gustin #nace jordan #jure macek #kris guštin

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touchlikethesun · 3 months

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i’ve been thinking about haikyuu name meanings again, so i thought i’d share two of the name meanings that make me smile a lot :)))

木　boku - tree 兎　to - rabbit (?) 光　kou - shining, glory, pride 太郎　tarou - “great” son or first son 赤　aka - red, communism (??) 葦　ashi - reed (?) 京　kei - ten quadrillion; other readings (kyou, tokyo), capital city 治　ji - govern, regulate

so i’ve purposefully kept the direct kanji meanings, even tho most of them are simple and/or non sensical when applied to bokuto and akaashi’s character. but i've done so to replicate my own confusion and (hopefully) eventual satisfaction when i’d worked tho the many layers of word play.

so the first character of bokuto’s name 木 (tree) i originally thought was supposed to tie him to owls, yknow bc owls are often sitting in trees, and that might be part of it, but when 木 is used in adjectival constructions (so instead of ‘tree’ it might mean more ‘wooden’) and applied to people it often carries pejorative connotations of stupidity, close to the english ‘blockheaded’ - which i have to admit. did make me chuckle. (note: i thought there might be some connection between boku and boke the insult kags is always launching at hinata but they seem to be unrelated go figure)

兎 (to) was another confusing one, since ordinarily 兎 is the character for usagi (rabit), but when read as to there didn't seem to be any real mean associated with it, which is funny because most of the names in hq!! have more thought put into them then that. i was just about to write it off, when i looked up the two kanji together on wiktionary and-

木兎　mimizuko - alt. spelling for eagle/horned owl

see above: eagle owl and bokuto koutarou for comparaison.

so basically in bokuto's name there is both a pun calling him a bit thick and a pun with the type of owl that inspired him how fucking incredible is that??? i personally love it

光太郎 (koutarou) seems to be a bit more of a traditional name, and we also have a very clear in-universe explanation for it's meaning. bokuto is the youngest of three with two older sisters, and it seems mr and mrs bokuto were very proud to finally have a son (ehhh patriarchy sucks sorry it is what it is) and wanted to give him a name that reflected their feelings. however, i do also think that 光 can also be taken to represent bokuto's presence in the series as a whole.

the first meaning of 光 being 'shining' obviously makes me think of the most bokuaka line in all of canon "we are the stars of the world" (ik some translations use protagonists in place of stars but shhh i'm being symbolic plus the vers i read used "stars"), because bokuto is such a star, he shines so brightly, and motivates so many people (the least of whom being akaashi and the rest of fukurodani). bokuto was always destined for glory and stardom in volleyball, but i think he's also just. so bright of a person. like yes, ofc he has his moods and his caprices, but that doesn't change how much he just, well, shines, brightens up a room. i don't know how much of this was intentional or accidental, but i like it.

like with bokuto's name, i ran into a bit of trouble with 赤葦 (akaashi) at first. literally, it means red reed, which didn't really seem significant. although 赤 (aka) also means 'red' as in 'communist' so now even tho it is certainly not at all the intended meaning i now and forever will headcanon akaashi as being a communist or someone at the very least well versed in communist theory. however, like with bokuto, akaashi's name is actually a reference to アカアシフクロウ (akaashi-fukuro) or アカアシモリフクロウ (akaashi-mori-fukuro), so another type of owl

i've already talked about what i find so amusing about 京治 (keiji) in this post, but to summarise here (actually maybe this counts as an expansion?), the most relevant part to akaashi's character is the second kanji 治, meaning to govern or to regulate. 治 is sometimes used on it's own, but it is also often used in compounds related to peace, healing, (and politics, my commie akaashi headcanon wins again hahaha).

i think akaashi's character evolves from what it was intended to be, and i'm not sure how accurate this meaning is by the time we reach the end of canon (or maybe i've just been reading to much bokuaka fic and it's skewing my perception of him), but akaashi started out a bit like bokuto's external emotional regulator. for someone with as insane mood swings as bokuto, mood swings that other people struggled to understand and react to, he must have had quite a hard time, and indeed we're shown that his difficulties managing his emotions seriously and negatively affects his performance on the court. enter akaashi. akaashi, who through careful observation, quickly learns to not just react to bokuto's mood swings, but to understand them, their causes, and even eventually to anticipate them, effectively giving bokuto the tools he needs to learn to control his emotions and continue giving his all like akaashi knows he can.

i think it's relevant that 治 is also used to talk about healing and peace, (and not just governing which has rather unfortunate implications of control and coercion that i don't particularly like) because that is what akaashi's presence in bokuto's life ultimately provides, as evidenced by bokuto's growth by the end of the series ("hey look guys i'm just a normal ace!" meaning he's learned to manage his emotions by himself, something that i think would have been a much longer and harder journey without akaashi's influence).

when i said i'm not sure how accurate 治 is when applied to akaashi's character by the end of the series, i mean that i think it downplays the reciprocal nature of bokuto and akaashi's relationship, because for as much as akaashi helps bokuto manage his mood swings, bokuto also provides a lot of emotional support and motivation to akaashi. and i'm not sure this was something that furudate had already taken into account when first coming up with these characters.

i think there might be smaller symbolic meaning relating to akaashi's position as a setter, but that's really only a minor detail i think...

anyways, there you have it! bokuaka kanji meanings and thoughts!! do let me know if you have different interpretations, or if i've missed something, i really really reallyyyyy like talking about things like this but for now brb i am going to go read like a dozen bokuaka oneshots xx

#i feel like their names being owl refs is common knowledge like i feel like i already knew that #and had just forgotten #so to anyone that didn't already know or needed the reminder #here it is lol #bokuto koutarou #akaashi keiji #bokuaka #haikyuu #fukurodani

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linkemon · 9 months

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First meeting headcanons 1

Friendly reminder that English is not my first language. You can check my Masterlists both in English and Polish here.

Venti

✧ He is very likely to be found in a bar. Angel's Share is a place where he stays much more often than he should. Mainly because one bottle of wine is not enough.

✧ Your first meeting would be there. Tired after your trip to Mondstadt, you wanted to spend some time in the famous tavern. Even if you don't drink alcohol, the bartender Diluc also offers drinks without it. And Venti himself would be completely drunk, you can be sure of that.

✧ At first you didn't feel like interacting with him. He seemed very pushy. He began telling strange stories, most of which sounded like complete nonsense. How were you supposed to know what had happened hundreds of years ago? You didn't last long as you made your way out.

✧ But then the stranger announced that he would give a concert. You were about to leave when you heard a beautiful melody. The slightly drunk voice spoiled the effect a bit but you felt enchanted. Lyre seemed to dance at the stranger's touch.

✧ All the guests in the tavern were stunned. When the song ended, they clapped happily and some even whistled. They asked him to play again. He agreed on the condition that he would get another bottle of wine. You decided to stay and listen to him.

✧ Standing on the table, he introduced himself as the bard Venti, then almost fell off, but someone in the crowd held him before the fall. He cleared his throat and exclaimed that his next performance was dedicated to the beautiful [Reader]. Several people patted you on the back and others gave you interested looks. You felt slightly embarrassed, but stayed until the end of the concert. Then you had a few more drinks with him. It wasn't until the next day that it dawned on you that you'd never introduced yourself to him and yet he knew your name from somewhere.

Zhongli

✧ After you got a job in one of the famous and old restaurants in Liyue, you immediately got a lot of detailed instructions from older colleagues about what and how you should do.

✧ When you first picked up an order from a handsome man with a deep voice, you didn't think he was the legendary indebted customer. Especially after he praised your tea brewing technique. You learned it when you were still a child. Your village was small and usually hardly anyone knew it in the capital. And yet this man recognized where you came from only by the way you prepared the drink.

✧ You should be getting ready to serve other customers, but as soon as you were about to leave, a man named Zhongli would find a new topic to talk about. He had so much information that you listened to him with fascination. You got so caught up that the old waitress had to come over to remind you that you're still working. You have been humbly asked for forgiveness. You couldn't be angry with Zhongli, so you just said it was okay, waved your hand and walked away.

✧ It wasn't until you entered the building that you forgot to ask for the bill. You completely panicked, but the older waiters just laughed that, like another new person, you fell for it. Every single one of them went through this with their famous penniless client.

✧ Some time later someone from Fatui settled the bill, so you breathed a sigh of relief. You promised yourself that the next time you meet Zhongli, you will definitely get money from him in advance.

✧ Your first meeting was extremely strange. Mostly because you met her puppet first, and then her. You helped Aether escape the death penalty with Thoma. With a death sentence hanging over your heads, it was hard to like Raiden Shogun anyway.

✧ However, when Ei left her meditation spot to see how Inazuma had changed, you looked at her a bit differently. You imagined a haughty ruler, but it turned out that she has no idea about many things.

✧ When you said you liked dango milk too, she bought a hundred and had them delivered to you. You had to give it to all your neighbors for another week so it wouldn't go to waste. Even Aether and Paimon couldn't finish them.

✧ Enemies attacked you during your little trip. She saw that you were going to draw your sword, but she stopped your hand, saying there was no need. She crushed them herself with one slash, then went back to admiring the view.

✧ In the evening you gave up the idea to cook something to end the day. She said she absolutely couldn't cook. When you started to laugh, she gave you a murderous look, so you stopped, remembering what happened to the previous attackers. The woman just sat and watched what you and Aether were preparing for her. When you handed her the sweet soup, she took a sip and then announced that she might start leaving her lonely place more often.

#headcanons #genshin impact x reader #venti x reader #zhongli x reader #ei x reader #raiden shogun x reader #first meeting #over teyvat #genshin impact

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yanderefairyangel · 6 months

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I think it's very funny how I hear so many people say "if only we could have a game with Engage's gameplay with 3H's level of writing we could have a perfect game" because we already had a FE game with 3H's level of writing long before 3H came out... and that's Fates.

I kid you not. 3H and Fates have the exact same writing flaws when it comes to the story and the worldbuilding. And that's that it was waaay too ambitious for its own good.

I mean, Fates orginal script was literaly so big it was massive novel trimmered down for video game format as for 3H's well...

10 freaking thousand years of worldbuilding for a video game story.

See the problem ??? That's something you do for a novel not a video game !!!

The main reason why stories in video games tries to stay simple is because they are aware of the medium they are dealing with !!! Fates and 3H are both game that are very, very long. Do you have any idea how long they would be if they went fully into developping all of the worldbuilding and lore they were supposed to have ?

That's the problem with big worldbuilding. As ambitious as it is it comes with the downside of requiring a lot of screen time to make every bits of it story relevant in a way or another and to flesh it out well. Do Fates and 3H do it well ? Well, Fates is a tought subject seeing how the localization removed a lot of its worldbuilding and created incoherences and inconsistencies on top of that, but we do see that in the original there were some of them not that developped such as the 12 dragons having only 3 at least that are very plot relevant : Hydra, the Rainbow sage and Moro. You don't learn a lot about 3 more of them, the Ancestor of the tribe we do meet in Fates and the one that shared their blood with the Royals, but there is still some stuff missing and that could have been developped more. And this problem Fates had, 3H had this too, but multiplied by 4 because of 4 routes. And the Hopes recton. And I know Hopes takes place in an alternate timeline but some of the change are way to weird to attribute it just to Shez's survival. Like, the complete shitf of personality from Dimitri's uncle : in Houses he is supposed to be a useless lecher, in Hopes he is a depressed Claudius trying to kill Dima.... what happened exactly ?

What those game tried to do was waaay too big. They have the exact same problem in the story and lore. They also have the same strengh as in a strong cast with good characterization. And if I consider 3H's stories to be weaker then the 3 stories in Fates, I think the 3H''s cast had a stronger characterization compared to the Fates one.

Again, I can salute the ambition, but if we encourage the devs to follow that direction, we are basically begging them for half finished story with improper lore and worldbuilding.

A good worldbuilding isn't a gigantinc epileptic. It's one that is consistent, well used in the plot and despite of his tenght is rich enough. Take Pandora hearts. It's worldbuilding is small. Literaly. We only know the name of 2 city, Sablier and Reveil. We don't even know the name of the country we are in ! All that we can recognize is that the character are dressed in the 19 century victorian era seetings and have English name. But the country has 0 name. You can look, it's called and I quote the material world only to distinguish it from the Abyss !!! Even the characters comming from another country such as Isla Yura or the Duc Barma's family, characterized by their red hair and special clothing, we never learn which country they come from not the name ! And that is perfectly FINE. Because learning the name would eventually change nothing. Not having the name removes nothing from the story because PH focus only on those setting in a way that matters for the plot. Reveil being the capital of their country only matters to localize Gil's appartement and the Pandora's base. Sablier matters because it's at the core of the plot, the only historical aspect that matters is the tragedy of 100 years ago. All the other important place such as the Abyss, the monster, the chains, the system of contractor etc all of this is detailed in a way that is not thousand of data but only the essential to keep the plot moving foward so the story feels focus and only has some elements to flesh out rather then 1000000. And even then, Sensei still managed to improve that with the VNC worldbuilding that is much richer but that still is focused and that focus comes from how she is using a size that fit for the medium she writes for !! And the PH lore is still rcih in references, metatextuality and wink wink to Alice in Wonderland

And the main reason why I think Awakening and Engage had stronger stories then these 2 game was because they knew what they were doing. And by that they knew what they were : video games. Think about it 2 seconds.

Awakening was written as a random regular video game script. Fates became a novel. 3H had an over 10 thousand years woth of lore chronicle going on. Engage was written as a random regular video game stories keeping with a traditional RPG vein.

And out of the 3 Engage is the most consistant. It's not without its flaws, but it objectively does better because it knows the format it has. It knows it is a video game. You can't expect a video game to be has rich and have the same writing as a novel. Each medium as it's own rules : that's why when manga or novel can adapted on screen, the screewriters as to adapt it to the medium he is dealing with. Because it's not the same medium, it has different rules, different challenges etc. If a video game adapts a novel, you can't expect it to be as much in depth because a video game is supposed to be shorter then a novel. Same for a manga. Same for a movie.

Engage and Awakening knew their size. They knew what they were doing and avoided being so big. Because even if the 3H writers had kept in check all of the ten thousand years of lore they wrote, nothing would change the fact that they don't have the time to flesh that out in that game. The data doesn't allow it. The timing doesn't either.

Another example. Recently, Goody two shoes came out. And despite it being a prequel to Pocket Mirror, it has a very good story and a simple one with a few very important characters and enough lack of information for it to be a mystery and not just something that was left as is without proper developpement. And that's because it knew what it was and stick with it : being a prequel to Pocket Mirror.

Engage and Awakening, while not perfect, also stick with what they were : video game stories. Fates and 3H were more then that because they have enough of information to be literal novels. If you compare Engage to the manga, you'll noticed that the manga get to expend more on a lot of things and again it's all because of the medium. If Engage had a serialization as novel, it would be the same, more dense. If Engage had an anime, same. The same story will have different management of its ressources depending on the medium you are writing it for. Fates was written like it was a novel when it was supposed to be a video game. Same thing for 3H.

When the fandom says they want a story or writing on the same level of 3H they don't think about how a lot of 3H's flaws comes from the very core of the project, the size not fitting the medium or try to handwave it as "a game can be ambitious" but the problem is that 3H and Fates biggest flaws WERE their ambitions. The more your project is ambitious, the more it requires you time and effort and date for it. So when it doesn't suit a video game format because of the several restrictions, you know your project will end up feeling incomplete. The writers of 3H themselves said it. 3H is the smaller picture of a bigger one.... so how many Foldan game do we need to have the FULL picture ??? Knowing that Fire Emblem's settings keeps changing, 2 are clearly not enough.

Again, it's the aesthetic of depth that speaks. The fandom loves big stuff. And while 3H's worldbuilding isn't an empty shell, it has way too many elements to flesh them out entirely leaving holes that aren't of the level of mystery or ambuiguity, but of half cooked. However, fandom LOVES HOLES, it adores void so each time they'll spot one they will try to fill it imagine something bigger then it could have been implanted within the canon. Because it's more interesting to them then whatever IS could have actually written. And it shows that the aesthetic plays into this because 3h and Fates have the EXACT SAME LEVEL OF WORLBUILDING and it follows Seisen's too. 12 important figures ? Check ! Weird wonkery of blood givins special power to an elite of favored people? Check ! Lizard like creature revered as deities ? Check ! Magical weapons only some people can wield ? check ! The list goes on. But for some reasons people acts as if Fates had no lore (that's wrong, you can even check what the FE wiki says on that matter) because it doesn't have the same aesthetic as 3H despite all the common points these 2 games have.

And even if they decided to do 3H but less big, I don't think it would work because 3H's story also ended up being relying on its size and it would have worked had it had more lore... but that's the thing ! it already had TOO MUCH lore for a random video game and it was over 400 hour long and no matter how many DLC they would have released they just can't dwell into all of this ! Might as well create a new franchise entirely focused on the world of Foldan !!!

So really, be careful what you wish, because if you keep making believe to the devs that what they did with 3H was the way to go even though it's clearly disadvantaged by the size and the format of the medium, they will never manage to improve what was flawed in 3H. And that's mainly because what was flawed in 3H was that it needed more then it did when it already did something gargantuan which imo is the evidence that the level writing of 3H doesn't work on a video game. At all.

Again, take Goody two shoes. It had little going on but it explore it to its fullest resulting in very simple story with little stuff yet very rich and full of emotion and its simplicty made it work very efficientely. That's good writting. Not throwing in very big stuff and struggling to finish it, but managing to exploit to the fullest even the smallest thing to create a rich experience. Something that manages to be rich even though simple is what's actually impressive. That's the route to follow for a good game story.

So you wanna know what IS should do ? Follow what they did for Engage but simply improve what in Engage was flawed. Because Engage has the right size for a video game format and even if you think they would have expanded on more, the additions are so easy to spot that you can see it's not level of 3H big, but simply some polishing, maybe some chapter added, but not something as astronomically tall as Fates or 3H since those game had the problem of not going more in depth with the lore, requiring more lore to something that was already too big and too long for a video game. And again, I am not saying they can't take anything from 3H cause 3H does a lot of good things notably regarding the characterization, such as the idea of personal paralogue for the characters. That's great. This should come back. But when it comes to the story itself... gneee... nope. No. 3H's ambitions and tenght is way too close to to the core of the project yet it's the main thing that hold it backs and lead it to slip so often.

Imo the perfect FE story would be able to managed to combine simplicity and ambitions since the more simple story could feel like it needed more, but that's the same problem with the much more ambitious project. The writers of IS should try to find a balance between the two to fix that issue, but I don't think 3H has this balance

#3H critical

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rewcana · 1 year

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do you spend many of your waking hours on social media? do you feel like it's a problem? in this world of late stage capitalism, your time and attention is actively being harvested by big corporations. it's.. not good. it also just makes you feel bad!

here are some tips that have really helped me reduce the amount of time i give to these apps & get in control of my social media addiction:

1. IDENTIFY PROBLEM APPS

you probably know which apps you spend the most time on. however, looking at real data about usage is very helpful because time spent on social media is very deceiving. keep in mind which apps you spend the most time looking at and interacting with for the rest of this list.

2. TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS

this is probably the easiest thing to do and it makes an immense difference. it's up to your discretion which notifications you want to keep on (turning on messaging notifications but turning off algorithm and interaction notifs for example) but, the most effective way to stay off problem apps is to turn off ALL notifications.

3. TURN OFF NOTIFICATION SOUNDS

i always keep my phone on silent. i understand that not all people have that privilege but, if you're able to i would highly highly recommend. it has helped me a lot with anxieties regarding waiting for notifications. i used to experienced the phantom vibrate and check my phone obsessively when nothing would happen. you can also just turn off notification sounds and vibrations for any non necessity apps if you don't want to jump to turning off all notifications.

4. CHANGE THE PLACEMENT OF PROBLEM APPS

i actually learned this trick from facebook when they changed the UI slightly so you had to be more intentional in interacting with the app. changing the layout of the apps on your phone really helps you catch yourself when you are automatically opening up apps that cost you time and attention. instead of keeping social media apps on the homescreen, keep it on a different screen, in a folder, & if possible out of the preview window for the folder.

if you want to expand on this more, you could keep a log in a notes app of every time you reached for an app that has since moved. you can even put the notes app in its place!

5. UTILIZE APP TIMERS

my experience is based on samsung app timers so i'm not sure how it differs in different makes. i really dont like my phone telling me i can't do something so i've set my tumblr timer to the highest end of my usage data (2hrs 10 minutes). another mindfulness thing that i like about using the timers is that when i'm switching between apps, my phone tells me how much time left i have (it's currently 1 hour 21 minutes, most of the 49 minutes i've spent writing this lol). i'm just a slut for data so i really like this aspect of the samsung app timer function and it's very useful besides this point.

6. DELETE APPS

okay, i know this seems drastic. but it doesn't NEED to be depending on your habitual problem apps. apps like youtube, instagram, facebook, and tumblr (to a lesser extent ime) (and probably others these are just the ones i have experience with) can pretty easily be transferred to being used exclusively on a web browser. if you use firefox it will even get rid of ads which is very important for overall sanity and for safe web browsing. one of the biggest plusses to moving from an app to a web browser is that it won't automatically play your platform's version of tiktoks. it also makes it more difficult to upload items which is a plus because it will hinder you from doing so and cut back on the loop of expecting validation from recently posted content.

opening instagram without immediately being enthralled by their endless stream of reels has made it SO much easier to control my time on the site. there are tons of plusses to transferring from app browsing to web browsing.

so on the more drastic side, if you are addicted to tiktok you maybe should just delete it. tiktok is intentionally designed so you can't use it in a web browser and can only use it in the app. i will talk more about tiktok and how evil it is later in this post.

7. MOVE DMS TO MESSAGING APPS

if a hesitation to turning off notifactions or deleting apps is from not wanting to miss conversations from online friends, i understand your pain. but, if you are serious about cutting down screen time on apps that are absolutely draining your attention, talk to your friends about switching to a different messaging app. i would suggest signal personally.

your friends may be experiencing similar problems with phone addiction and even if they aren't, if they care about you, they will make this accommodation to help you in this process. i get that this is very scary but i believe in you.

8. USE TIME ON YOUR PHONE FOR OTHER THINGS

depending on your goals for how you spend your time, there are plenty of alternatives to social media / other problem apps you may have. personally i have downloaded a bunch of books on my reading list and will divert attention from dopamine pumping social media to reading. you can find tons of free pdfs of books online and if you are used to reading on your phone, it won't be a difficult transition to read longer form narratives from short text posts.

there are free art apps, language learning apps, self care / journaling apps, meditation apps, etc. that you can use when on your phone. this may seem counterintuitive, getting more apps to battle certain app addictions. but, simply weakening the habit that brings you to the apps that you spend so much time on should help. but watch out for apps that claim they are to teach or better you but have social media built into them / other tricks that keep you glued to your screen. everyone is trying to mine your attention so be wary of all apps and the methods they use to keep you engaged.

9. DON’T BE AFRAID TO PUT YOUR PHONE BACK DOWN AFTER PICKING IT UP

idk if this is a weird one or not but, you know the feeling of going into a room to do something but you forget what so you putter around trying to remember? i feel like going on your phone when you have a phone addiction is often a state of that except the majority of the time you DON’T have a purpose to go on it. so even though it may feel silly, opening your phone only to close it right after is PERFECTLY FINE.

IN CONCLUSION, phone usage is pretty inevitable in this day and age. i've considered getting rid of my phone entirely but, between the expectation to be constantly reachable from employers to QR code menus at restaurants, it just doesn't seem reasonable to get rid of my phone completely. and i will readily admit its convenience and functionality is life changing and wonderful.

however in late stage capitalism, technology doesn't only work for you but it harvests you -- your data, your habits, your time, your attention, your wants, your needs, your thoughts. even leftist spaces with good intentions can trap you (doom scrolling). when i was becoming radicalized during the beginning of the pandemic i spent sooo much time online reading about all these horrible truths of imperialism, colonization, and capitalism, and i felt it was my duty to share these horrors with other people to radicalize them. but it was so unhealthy, especially when shit hit the fan (which it was like constantly doing) because everyone was posting about the horrors and it felt utterly inescapable.

after following some of these steps (which i did in stages over the course of a few years), my relationship with social media has improved greatly and my mental health is actually significantly better. all of this is based on personal experience and observation and this post is specifically for people who want to cut down on phone usage, it's not supposed to be a preachy post that's telling people they spend too much time on their phone.

it's also nowhere near complete. it doesn't tackle addictions to games on phones nor the notorious tiktok. i said i would talk about it later and here it is. i have a chalkboard in my kitchen and all it has written on it is "tiktok is the devil". i have never seen such a commonly used app that has such a degrading effect on all of its users. and it set a precedent to all other social media apps for autoplaying videos that demand user engagement. i was on tiktok for a little less than a year and the way that it would sap anywhere from 20 minutes to over 3 hours of my time when i told myself i'd only watch a few videos was insane. as an aspiring creator i felt that i needed to hop on it to get recognition but now, i don't see it as anything more than a tarpit to trap as many people as possible in its dopamine rich algorithm. but whatever, that's just my little rant. as a social experiment i think it's fascinating lol and i for the creators it's benefited im very happy for them.

anywayy, i hope this helps someone if it gets any attention at all lol. remember no one can make the decision of how you spend your time on or offline but you. not some stranger on the internet, not corporations, no one. you are in control of your time (well besides the whole having to work most of your waking hours to survive but that's what communism is for yayy).

#tumblr #social media #social media addiction #phone addiction #capitalism #dystopia #important #i hope at least one person reads this 😭#but forreal distancing myself from my phone and being more present in my life has improved it sooo much #cannot emphasize this enough #also phone addiction is not a morally bad thing just like any addiction!!!#the irony of me posting this and then staying on the app waiting to see if it gets engagement #ahhh addiction

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crimeronan · 7 months

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hi I saw you posting about the silt verses. it sounds interesting so I googled it but I'd like to hear what You have to say about it!!

(I'd also like to ask if it has any emphasis on bug-related horror bc that's a huge no from me, but if it doesn't I think I'll take a listen)

oh lord i have So Much to say about it. asking me what i have to say about the silt verses is like asking me what i have to say about call down the hawk or the owl house, like. it's a piece of media that is so immaculately conceived and well-executed that i can meta about Literally Every Single Line. if you've followed me for a while you probably know that i have high standards for horror media bc it's my most-consumed comfort genre; the silt verses is my fave piece of horror media Of All Time.

as for bugs, they don't play a huge role in the overarching story, but i do FOR SURE remember some imagery about parasites, insects, and people being transformed into bug-like creatures. so i'd look up episode warnings prior to consuming it, i can't remember off the top of my head which episodes specifically involve that.

the silt verses is, on the surface, a typical horror story about another world where gods are created through belief & fed through sacrifice. different gods have attracted cult followings, some gods are outlawed, some are not. it's stuff you've probably seen before if you're an avid supernatural horror fan.

however the writers then take the time to do absolutely Vicious and Scathing social commentary about pretty much every leftist topic you can think of. cult abuse, late-stage capitalism, corporate "we're all a family" speak, war, fascism, the creation of Unpersons with unhoused and mentally ill populations, prison violence, police violence, copaganda, generational trauma, environmental catastrophe, rural vs city mindsets and the political manipulation behind them..... Every Single Plot Point and piece of imagery serves a social commentary purpose. every single god and political movement is a transparent metaphor or allegory for our own world.

but what really keeps me coming back to it are the character arcs. from a horror writer's perspective, i can see exactly how carefully those arcs were sketched and plotted out. each of the narrators is dynamic and goes through a huge amount of character development -- positive for some, Horrifically Negative for others. characters are frequently caught between a rock and a hard place, forced to choose between two things they've always wanted...... and they also frequently choose Wrong.

and then they have to live with the consequences of those choices.

the protags are all messy and flawed and complicated, the antags are all messy and grounded and Very Real, and the relationships between people grow in organic ways that make me go MMM... before falling apart in equally organic ways. if you've ever enjoyed the same kind of desperate codependent and messy relationships that i most often write, HOO BOY you will have a good time with this podcast.

and if you like stories about people who are Genuinely Trying Their Best In The Face Of Impossible Circumstances, you'll ALSO get a lot of mileage out of this. it's a show where people make a lot of terrible decisions but also, people care So So So So So Fucking Much. really hits that sweet spot between nihilistic "everyone sucks" media and saccharine "everyone is always good at heart, all the time" media.

it also features some of the most stunning voice acting i've ever heard, not just in podcasts but in any media, ever. méabh de brún, b. narr, jimmie yamaguchi, and lucille valentine in particular all fucking KILL IT. like DAMN

and i can wholeheartedly recommend it without adding this, but if it's important to you: like 98% of the characters are queer. lots of trans cast members, lots of gay relationships, ace rep, los jibbities who get to be just as Fucking Terrible and embarrassing and hopeless as the characters in my fave White Man (TM) tv shows. u know how it is. i want queer people who are shitty bitches, always. and the silt verses DELIVERS

it's just. really good. i realize that this doesn't even get into the intricacies of who the characters are and what they want and what happens, bc like i said, i can talk about this show for a novel's length of meta. but these are the broad strokes of what has me in love with the narrative. it's So Good.

#replies #the silt verses #the silt verses meta #long post

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yurislotusgarden · 6 months

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Heya Yuri! How are you doing? For the Christmas fluff prompts, can I please request number 10 with Sigma and a gender neutral reader? I can imagine Cotton being really freaked out by seeing snow for the first time so darling reader decides to... absolutely capitalize on this and pelt him with snowballs until he's giggling and shivering from the cold LOL-

Bonus: You know how Sigma wears lots of layers? (Like damn, a long coat, a dress-shirt + tie, and a whole-ass turtleneck XD). Reader 100% dropped snow down Sigma's turtleneck just to see him jump and scream, just saying, it's a canon event XD.

ʚїɞ Throwing snow under clothes is such a dirty move. I love it

ʚїɞ Sigma x Gn!Reader

ʚїɞ Keep in mind English is not my first language, so you may find mistakes!

ʚїɞ word count: 841

ʚїɞ The event

ʚїɞ Tw’s: None! Just pure fluff, is not specified

ʚїɞ This is placed in his first year of damn existing, reader is a friend, the casino is above the clouds so there shouldn't be any snow even see up there but let's say that for this the casino was floating lower (?)

ʚїɞ Hey anon! I'm doing great, thank you very much for asking. Hope your day is going/will go well depending on when you read this :D

A person could be seen looking over at the bi-color-haired man as he let out a small scream, breaking the comfortable silence hanging over them in the man's office.

“Did something ha-”

“What is that?!”

You let out a confused hum at seeing Sigma pointing at something out the window.

“There's nothing to scream about?” You spoke confused. The only thing that can be seen outside besides the usual view is-

“What's that white thing?”

“‘White thing’? You mean the snow?”

“That’s snow?!”

Somehow, it never crossed your mind that Sigma has probably never seen snow before.

“Yes, that's snow, cotton.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Never.”

With a teasing smile after the small usual banter, you got an idea that you were sure Sigma would agree to…

“Wanna go out and feel the snow?”

“Are you crazy?”

…One way or another.

///////////////////////////

“WHY IS IT SO COLD?!”

A laugh could be heard nearby. You just stared and didn't dare to say anything but encourage the bi-colored-haired man as he reached out to touch the snow-covered rocks. It's always way more fun to see him acting like the complete opposite of what people know as the owner of the casino, you would even say that it's kind of a privilege to see that side of him being shown so easily around you.

“Don't laugh! Why did you tell me to touch it?!”

“I didn't tell you to do anything, I only lightly encouraged you.”

“You're the reason why I'm even outside!”

“Your point?”

Sigma could only sigh before getting lost in thought. Why did you even want to go out? It was so damn cold, everywhere he looked he could see mostly white, the fact that the two of you went to a place with no people was the only thing he was grateful for. He should try to get an answer someway soon-

“WHA THE-”

Sigma got forcefully snapped out of his thoughts upon feeling something softly, his mind supplied hitting his back *twice* if he counted the time that he got hit when turning around, just to see you with something in your hand.

Wait is that-

He had no time to think when he tried to dodge yet another snowball that, he now realized, was being thrown by you.

///////////////////////////

Sigma had to literally hide behind anything in the vicinity soon enough as he realized that fighting back with his own snowballs was useless when you had a literal army of them and he was also slow at making them.

He had no idea when and how did you even made all of them. Was he out of it for so long or were you someone that makes snowballs really fast? He had no idea nor time to wonder as you moved closer to him again and he had to run, Sigma was already covered in snow from all the hits he took. He really should stop laughing to himself and making it easier to find him again and again, shouldn't he?

///////////////////////////

White.

That was one word to describe the bi-colored-haired man when looking at him. Sigma was covered in snow, now trying to shake it off with a small grin as he couldn’t stop smiling after all the laughing for the past 20 or so minutes, as you finally stopped attacking him with a million snowballs, he swore it felt personal for some reason but even though you stopped, he still decided to keep an eye on you.

At the moment, you seemed to be just having a little bit of fun while waiting for him by scooping up snow and letting it fall back to the ground. He deemed it safe enough to look away for now since you seemed to be occupied with your own thing and not planning anything.

Little did he know that it was a grave mistake.

Should he try getting back at you? But how would he do it when he would obviously lose in another snowball fight? Maybe he should try and beat you in making the thing called ‘a snowman’, if he remembers the name correctly, but wouldn't you be better at it due to experience? What if he-

Due to his racing thoughts, Sigma failed to notice that you were getting closer and closer to him.

His train of thought was broken upon feeling something incredibly cold sliding down his back, worse, he realized in a second that it was under his goddamn clothes.

You wished you had recorded the situation as the shriek that the casino owner let out before trying to get the snow out from under his clothes was something you wished to show to Nikolai. Another thing to tease Sigma over was going onto the list.

///////////////////////////

“I am never going out with you into the snow again.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?!”

“I mean why, like why don't want to?”

“You're unbelievable.”

“I'm trying, thank you.”

Looking at the fact that Sigma didn't seem too mad about it, you decided you are definitely doing it again.

Notes, comments, and reblogs are greatly appreciated

Masterlist

#love how we lowkey accepted the nickname for him #I'm thinking of writing some short piece abt how did reader even think abt calling Sigma 'cotton' in the first place #more like how did that chaos go down #would anyone want to read if I did tho?#bsd x reader #bsd x gender neutral reader #bsd x y/n #bsd x you #x reader #sigma x y/n #sigma x reader

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