get into mo4. go onto tumblr. consistently and exclusively post art of statistically everyone’s least favorite character, with little exception. proceed to go on with your silly little life

being aromantic is like. hey btw you're going to live a life that is the culmination of most of society's worst nightmares. sorry lol ✌️ but then you turn around and take a really good hard look at it and it turns out that living in that nightmare is fucking awesome and you get to wake up every day and take that fear that other people have and laugh and hold it close until it's a great joy for you instead. and being happy is a radical act that you define instead of someone else. and you're sexy as fuck that's just a fact of life i don't make the rules on that one

Very interesting (concerning) that while there’s a general consensus of “of course there’s queer Muslims and Jews and Christians we love them!” But that love is conditional. You can be religious but not too religious. You can be spiritual as long as it’s not actually that important to you. You can be observant of your religion’s dogma and traditions as long as you keep it away from everybody else.

But I don’t want to cut myself into smaller pieces. I don’t want to take a part of my life and culture and being and hide it away behind closed doors. It’s just…hypocritical and disappointing when people, who clamor about their love for the contradictory and self-authentic, hate when they’re confronted with it.

I do respect and commend people who are not paraphiliacs but try to be openly supportive because it's the type of decision that can come with a lot of harassment involved, and for a lot of people I know the mindset that 'you can't control a paraphilia but you can control the harm they cause' is like, the 101 of this sort of activism.

But we ought to move on to 102 at some point, right? This isn't even simply about paraphilias but about the larger discussion on sexual abuse: 'the harm they cause' is a reductive and inaccurate view that continues to perpetuate the idea that sexual abuse is caused by sexual desire.

That there is a wrong type of 'horniness' that makes people violate the autonomy of others, and therefore people who are oriented towards being 'turned on' by the wrong things are always implicitly more at risk than the people with 'normal' orientations: that we speak of paraphiliacs in terms of 'control' and 'avoidance', as if they were reactive dogs that need to be muzzled.

This view simply does not hold up when we compare it to other sexualities (and I think this is sort of another fundamental issue involved: people think that paraphilias are somehow morally 'distinct' from sexualities and thus speak of them in different terms and standards).

A man who sexually abuses a woman didn't abuse her because of his heterosexuality. A man who sexually abuses another man didn't abuse him because of his homosexuality. What you are attracted to is neither prerequisite for nor predictive of abuse, because abuse rests on factors like power dynamics, dehumanisation and the ability to get away with it first and foremost.

It is very surprising to me still that people who seem to recognise that abuse isn't about 'the victim was so hot that I couldn't resist' and that there are larger interpersonal and systemic factors at play still often speak of paraphiliacs in these terms (something to be controlled, something that causes 'urges', something that, even it doesn't 'make' you abusive puts you at risk of it). To me, it tends to reveal two things:

The first is, like I mentioned above, these people think there is a fundamental difference between 'sexuality' and 'paraphilia' in terms that are underlined by respectability politics. And I say this as somebody who doesn't actually consider being a paraphiliac as quite 'the same' as being queer/etc. (there are other sociopolitical differences that make me think this), but when you see the people who make these distinctions explain themselves:

'Liking the same gender is normal, liking [x] is not' 'Homosexuality isn't a mental illness though, I have nothing against the mentally ill but a paraphilia is a mental illness' 'Being queer doesn't give me urges to hurt people unlike a paraphilia' 'You don't need to "recover" from being gay, that's conversion therapy and it's also impossible! However I support paraphiles who are seeking help for their attraction!'

... the message becomes quite clear: people believe that there are identity markers that are inherently indicative of morality. That a paraphilia has to be distinguished from a sexual orientation because a sexual orientation is never a reason why a bad person is bad, but a paraphilia could be.

And the second, which I find more fundamental, is that these people don't talk to paraphiliacs. They 'want' to be activists so they will 'support paraphiliacs seeking recovery, don't bully them, don't threaten them!' but they will put paraphiliacs on their DNI as their personal boundary, 'for my own comfort.'

Look, I'm not here to tell people to interact or not interact with whoever, frankly it's none of my business. But I do think you need to consider what exactly you're trying to do when you say you want to advocate for a group you refuse to even talk to. Do you think you sound different from those people who say 'I don't care if you're gay, just don't be doing that in front of me'? If you won't talk to paraphiliacs, your idea of how paraphiliacs live come from stereotypes, call-out posts, and hyperpathologised psychiatric description, even if you think you're reading those posts in a Non-Judgemental Critical Thinking Immune-to-Propaganda Way.

Like I said, I do have some appreciation for people who take that 'first step' of at the very least recognising the harm in perpetuating the normalisation of threatening/harassing/etc. paraphiliacs, but there is often this kindness-as-concession undertone to it all when you see it spoken about in these controlled, pathologised ways. It feels very much like you don't think you're actually talking about real people, but you're talking about abstract concepts in a thought experiment where you side with the model that furthers your self-image of your ideological bent.

Are there any fae-like creatures in french myths?

I know about the story of a giant black wolf that terrorized France back in the day, but that’s all I can remember.

Legends and stories including wolves are in fact really widespread in european culture since middle age ! But yeah the most well known in France is the Beast of Gévaudan which was described as massive ! (and the one from Le petit chaperon rouge/Little red riding hood)

Concerning other creatures and fairies/faes in french legends and stories, we do have

Mélusine : fairies mentioned a bit everywhere in France, they are mostly described as women with a scaly tail lower body and are sometimes associated with mermaids or vouivres. (far from how they look like in genshin impact)

Vouivre : not to be mistaken with wyverns, vouivres are creatures described as snakes with bat wings, sometimes they are depicted having rear legs and wings (and they look very goofy like that imo). These creatures can be aquatic and in some descriptions, possess a big jewel on their forehead.

Tarasque : a creature from provencal legends, which lived in a swamp near Tarascon and terrorized and ate people. It's most popular description was of a big creature with a spiked turtle shell, six bear legs, horse ears, bull chest, lion head, a human face and a twisted tail. Legend says Ste. Marthe tamed the beast. (I swear they were just being attacked by bowser this is the same creature)

These are the one I depicted roughly in the pic above but there are many more creatures depending on the different regions of France ! (There's a lot of fairies and fantasy like creature in stories from bretagne/brittany) Some others that I find either fun or cool are :

Meneurs de loup : which translates to wolf leaders are people told to be able to talk to wolves and even transform into one, either because they are werewolves or they made a pact with the devil. (it's kinda giving spice and wolf vibes and I love that story sm)

Jambe crue/Came-cruse : Roaming in the Pyrénées at night, this thing is a single leg with an eye on the knee that eats people and runs very fast. (Idk why this one is so funny to me but oddly terrifying as well)

[PUT INTO PLACE, TIED DOWN AND ARRANGED, AND IS NEVER THE SAME, AGAIN.]<-listen to my favorite songs. VAMPIRES ARE WONDERFUL ARENT THEY. THE FLESH IS SO MUCH MORE DURABLE. SO MUCH STRETCHIER THAN HUMANS. THE STRESS DOESNT KILL A VAMPIRE THE SAME WAY IT DOES A HUMAN. YOU CAN TAKE THEM APART THREAD BY THREAD AND LEAVE THEM WIDE AWAKE WITHOUT WORRY OF THE BRAINMATTER SPOILING UNDER VINEGARY AGONY.

im sorry

Man why is writing so hard today? I literally sat down at my computer and typed for a solid hour and a half and it was utter garbage. But the more I looked at it the less I could figure out how to fix it! So I pulled up PS and decided to draw instead but every image just flew out of my head I couldn't do it and really I should be writing and man my eyes hurt. My whole face hurts kinda, actually, but my eyes really hurt and it's so hard to focus and it shouldn't be this hard and-- Jesus Christ it's 1am and I only got 3 hours of sleep last night.

In this hypothetical, the prosthetics are detachable, able to easily be modified or repaired, even customized for visual or fucntional preferences.

Getting them is about as safe as any other major surgery; certain amount of risk, yadda yadda. There's more details that would sway an answer, if this were something currently going on -- like the cost, can you sub out these prosthetics if they ever halt production, do you need medication to retain them, blah blah-- but, here? This is wish fulfillment. If you have something that hurts, or you wish you could just fix or swap out, you get to have it, just this once.

Long time no swtor thinkpiece, but.

Thinking about Eight in the IA class story and then who he is post-Alliance; going from a bold, daring and casually ambitious wildcard to someone who feels as if he's lost most of his zeal to become rather...listless. Empty. Not to say that he isn't fulfilled by his work in the Alliance (who all make exceptions to have him do anything but murder all day) but he starts picking up more mundane activities like, peeling potatoes for the Alliance cantina, or doing minor tasks that don't involve much thought on his own volition-- a stark change from a man who only cared about his blade and who it fell on. It's like he's been soundly defeated by the circumstances surrounding him.

Then there's the issue of his companions, who only knew him as their cunning leader who stopped at nothing to achieve his goals, even using some of them in the process, who now appears to be an entirely different person. One who quietly fades into the background, instead of being in the thick of it. He's changed.

His skills haven't waned, but his voice is flat, his eyes without gleam, his all consuming desire that drove him to accomplish the impossible by the day naught but simmering ashes by the time they reunite with him in KOTXX. He even apologizes to some, without explanation. This distresses Vector, in particular, who witnessed the worst of his sides way back in the day. "It's not me you should apologize to, Agent." Vector can only quietly say, "I have never held you in ill regard for the choices you've made, anathema as they were to my principles." It's a conversation that peters off, but one that Eight never had, never had soon enough --his firm refusal to rectify or acknowledge that Vector could choose him over his own ideals is one that gnaws at him on the inside for years, on his own belief that people cannot change what they truly believe in, and so there is no point in trying to make amends for what bridges he burns in the pursuit of his own wishes. This, and many other denials, compound over the years into a rather hurtful self-made solitude that follows him long into the Alliance. (A mother will never give up her son. There is no other way. I cannot change my nature as a weapon. Their rejection of me is something I must accept.) A punishment, but for who?

Perhaps he still feels he's failed the last mission Keeper entrusted to him. The one that asked him to become a real, living person, and not just a sword dressed in imperial colors.

Eight spirals during the events of the Eternal Empire. He watches his downfall happen in real time. There's little he does about it. His home is gone, as are the people he fought for--Keeper, Watcher 2, Intelligence--and this new age is only filled with allies he cuts down faster than he can imprint their names into his memory. He's alone in this fight at the behest of others who do choose their ideals over him, who, in the end, turn away in fear and disgust when he bloodies his blade in their name. He makes no effort afterwards to right his image in their minds. He plays the villain, if others will not. For the first time, he tires of killing.

This leaves him alone, an outcast even among friends. Eventually, amongst the ruin their failed Alliance leaves in its wake, someone asks why things turned out this way; his lack of a will in the greater fight comes to light and sets several alarm bells off. Lana reduces his duties on the battlefield. Others, out of shared guilt and a fear of the bloodshed he wreaked on their orders, give him a wide berth to live normally for a while. It's not much and does little to his disillusionment and estrangement with his allies, but...it's a start.

Eight the Assassin turns into just Eight. And Eight the former agent, ex-Cipher, killer extraordinaire who never once dreamed of the stars, turns into someone who quietly watches the sun set on a world he barely recognizes,l but still stays up to see it, potato peeler in hand.

“Waaa I don’t want all this protesting to ruin my graduation” You are an infant. You are living in unprecedented times with a chance to make a difference in the world and all you’re worried about is the status quo and your personal comfort.

chu~

ohohoh

I will say that because these one after another, recurring anxieties are RECURRING and usually spiral from each other I can often disregard them a little more easily bc I'm like... I've been over this before?

I see your dog-coded Agrippa and Cassius, but what about Crassus ? Kind of like feral dog coded

for me, Crassus skips the dog coding allegations on account of no one being able to put a leash on him, and there's no person he seems to be singularly devoted to in a way that dictates his actions

Dating The Praetorship of Marcus Licinius Crassus, Martin Stone

like, there's Sulla, but Crassus also did a lot of that of his own accord, and Sulla shut the door on him politically so Crassus climbed in through a window and worked a different aspect of Roman society-politics with magnificent skill. he ALSO skips the dog allegations because if anyone is bringing someone to heel, it's Crassus doing it to other people. there isn't a specific person that Crassus' actions can be dedicated to in a way that makes me think of a dog the way Agrippa's actions for Octavian do.

I also don't think he's feral! what he is: really fucking ruthless, or has the potential for ruthlessness, which isn't the same thing to me as being feral. and being ruthless is not uncommon for Late Republic politics

Lucullus: A Life, Arthur Keavney

but its that pivot point between being firm, ruthless, and likeable that makes him interesting. he's actually. he's--

okay, so in my mind, he's Machiavelli Prince coded. there are only two Romans I have ever made a compare and contrast analysis using Machiavelli's Il Principe, one is Augustus, the other is Crassus. and for once my connect the dots of thematic tomfoolery has something I can cite, someone ELSE has also made a comparison to Augustus

Dating The Praetorship of Marcus Licinius Crassus, Martin Stone

I am so fucking sick of living with my roommate and his fuck ass boyfriend. Also watching my roommate burn every single one of his (already rather minimal, I might add) bridges for this guy is also kind of painful but also his relationship with me is one of said bridges so I'm almost past the point of even feeling bad for him lmao