have to do some independent research for a current sensitivity read and I've just found this claim, which seems so grossly incorrect that i have no choice but to pause work and come be a petty bitch on Tumblr for a moment.

[ID: A Google search result excerpt from a web page, with part of the text highlighted. The highlighted text says: "In the time of the ancient Triple Goddess, women never went through the stage of menopause because they usually died before menopause had time to develop. That is why there are four phases of the feminine way (maiden, mother, maga and crone)." /END ID]

Okay, um. Firstly. I don't think there was ever some definitive "time of the ancient triple goddess". I know that the Triple Goddess archetype has become its own discrete thing in neopaganism and that's fine, but historically speaking there have been multiple "triple goddesses" or deity-like figures with a triple aspect. It's a pretty common theme, and they don't all align to a specific time period.

But fine, putting aside that a lot of the research into various possible Triple Goddesses is pretty damn controversial (*squints at Robert Graves*), let's say that this ~Ancient Time~ is... Ancient Greece? That probably sounds ancient enough, right? And you've got lots of mythical female trios around that time, so. The time period is about, uh, 1,500 years long. Lots of stuff happens! Most importantly for our purposes, Aristotle is born. Aristotle was writing around 2,400 years ago – and one of the things he wrote about was menopause. It's mentioned in the Bible, too. People definitely knew what menopause was! Also, if the "crone" was an ancient stage of womanhood, then someone who is old enough to be a crone must have gone through menopause first. Time is, after all, linear.

This claim contradicts itself anyway. If woman "usually" died before they reached the age of menopause, then how come they never went through menopause? To rephrase, this is like saying that most women died before they reached the age of menopause and even the ones who survived to that age.... apparently didn't go through it? for some reason?

"But Art! The internet is full of nonsense, why are you taking specific umbrage with this?" – Because it was the first thing that Google threw at me. It didn't answer my query about the origin of the phases of womanhood, and the website itself doesn't have relevant information. You know what it does have, though? Someone who is either very good at SEO, or who could shell out money for someone else to SEO-optimise that site. Why do that? Well, because essentialshift is run by a lady who claims to be a "multiple 6-figure serial entrepreneur and strategy expert" who promises to teach people (women, specifically) how to super-enhance their business by the power of.. *cleans my glasses to make sure I'm reading this right* connecting to "your intuition, your unique energetic blueprint and your own light" and then harnessing "your uniqueness, your inner-goddess energy". This will cost you in the realm of $500 per course.

It's bullshit! Worse than that, it's bullshit specifically designed to sell you a product; bullshit that fully utilises the absolute worst aspects of modern feminist neopaganism, including cultural appropriation, misinformation, gender essentialism and tradfem-adjacent rhetoric.

I need to go scrub my brain with bleach now (or at least have some cake and a cup of tea).

Huh. Alright.

in hindsight, it’s honestly REALLY funny that people (including myself) used to believe that this was concept art for Meta Knight

y'know. Meta Knight. the guy looked like this in his first appearance.

Hey, there's been something I've been meaning to ask for some time, what do you imagine Prythian's neighboring unnamed Continent to be like? how does it differ from Prythian and are the fae different over there? do they also have seasonal courts or do their kingdoms/nations run in a other way? since you headcanon that the Archeron sisters have fae heritage through their mother and maternal grandmother it gives me the feeling that they intermingle more with humans than the Prythian fae who seem more isolated.

Also: Happy holidays by the way!

Hi, happy holidays to you too!

I'm not sure I always imagine the Archeron's with faery heritage that direct- my overall headcanon is fae blood SOMEWHERE (see, Nesta's semi immunity to magic? or glamour? which the series never explains)...which I imagine has to be relatively common, actually. If we're willing to look at humans in the context of having been an enslaved people, some mixed genes feels unfortunately guaranteed.

As for Effloresce- where I am so, so excited for you guys to meet the Archeron's murderous tree lady faery queen grandmother, my god- I've cast a pretty wide net. Canon portrayal being Prythian (England/Scotland), Hybern (IRELAND, WHAT THE HELL), and then The Continent (Europe) makes sense in the slightest shred that like...she wanted to use a real map to base shapes on? Which I get? But the through line kind of sucks.

So. I make Prythian bigger- also a continent in it's own right. And I tend to make their magic wilder. Less settled. Less controllable. The land is choosing its rulers and stopping the turn of seasons, it IS faeryland.

And then there are other places like it in the wider world- enchanted forests. Magic lakes. Magic phenomena. But unlike Prythian, I like to think 'the continent' is a place where humans can live too. There's human places and faery places, but I think the bigger cities are mixed. There's mortal queens, but there's also faery council democracies. Kings, and princes, and all kinds of little city-states. The strict Court system (here is Winter, where All Winter Fae Live) is Prythian specific.

And a part of that diversity is just...five hundred years ago, in faery reckoning, the war changed everything. Five centuries is more than enough time for humans to multiply and adapt and thrive, but it is not that long for immortals. That's why the mix works- all the magic in the world is not quite the same as the bright, burning spark of a human life and their driving, incessant, curious will to survive.

It's a dangerous world.

But a bright and beautiful one too!

aggravated rn bc tr*der j*e's sucks so fucking bad. ik every grocery store in the US is Problematic and does this... but the degree to which ALMOST EVERYTHING is imported to keep prices low is uh. rlly something as somebody interested in sustainable food systems. tjs will literally use imported shit as like. an ~exotic~ selling point. it's gross

anyhow I'm Mad because the company newsletter was cheerfully announcing the departure from USA grown blueberries to exclusively importing Peruvian blueberries.

WHYYYYYYYYYYYY we literally have them here. oughhhhhh

Phoebus. Know folks rooted for you to bring back Guy for Guy's sake. Not yours. You didn't deserve that encouragement. You don't even deserve to have your brother back. If it weren't for the bargain with the Master, I would have preferred Guy to pass on from this life and seek peace in Heaven. You don't deserve Guy. You don't deserve any of that cheer thrown your way. You're a waste of breath and space. An irreedamable jerk, through and through, who should be punished for your actions beyond just having your brother taken away from you. No amount of love and forgiveness you get from anyone else will ever convince me you are worthy of redemption.

“....................................................”

“HAHAHAHAHA!! I wouldn’t have said it better myself. Where were you when Phoebus was at his lowest point? That was beautiful. More truth speakers like this. You are splendid. A shame you didn’t come forward sooner.

“Remember that you only brought your brother back because I allowed you, Phoebus. You don’t deserve him. At all. In the end of the day, you are still the Sin of Sloth, my thrall, and my slave. You saved no one--No one. Your brother can still be snatched up by be at any time, and for your actions, you will be reminded for the rest of eternity of your sin. You have been Marked, and you will be reminded there is no escape for your fate, for you or Guy. Do not forget that you stood aside and smiled. Do not forget you still said those words. There is no forgiveness. Only me.

“Remember that I own you. I own you both. Here and forever more.”

“........Yes, Master....”

This is a Song of Achilles hate page

Sorry, I do make the rules

some of you guys like

i’m perusing through your blog and idk who you love most so idk how to violence you

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

they should invent a new type of "staying in bed for 2-3 hours after you wake up repeatedly opening and closing apps on your phone" where it makes you feel awesome and energized and emotionally fulfilled

I low-key love the fact that sci-fi has so conditioned us to expect to be hanging out with a bunch of cool space aliens, that legitimate, actual scientists keep proposing the most bizarre, three-blunts-into-the-rotation "theories" to explain the fact we're not.

Some of my favourites include:

Zoo Theory: What if there are loads of aliens out there, but they're not talking to us because of the Prime Directive from Star Trek? (Or because they're doing experiments on us???)

Dark Forest Theory: What if there are loads of aliens out there, but they all hate us and each other so they're all just waiting with a shotgun pointed at the door, ready to open fire on anything that moves?

Planetarium Theory: What if there's at least one alien with mastery over light and matter that's just making it seem to us that the universe is empty to us as, like, a joke?

Berserker Theory: What if there were loads of aliens, but one of them made infinite killer robots that murdered everyone and are coming for us next?!!

Like, the universe is at least 13,700,000,000 years old and 46,000,000,000 light years big. We have had the ability to transmit and receive signals for, what, 100 years, and our signals have so far travelled 200 light years?

The fact is biological life almost certainly has, does, or will develop elsewhere in the universe, and it's not impossible that a tiny amount of it has, does, or will develop in a way that we would understand as "intelligent". But, like, we're realistically never going to know because of the scale of the things involved.

So I'm proposing my own hypothesis. I call it the "Fool in a Field" hypothesis. It goes like this:

Humanity is a guy standing in the middle of a field at midnight. It's pitch black, he can't move, and he's been standing there for ages. He's just had the thought to swing his arms. He swings one of his arms, once, and does not hit another person. "Oh no!" He says. "Robots have killed them all!"

like can you imagine if you, as a housed person, said "oh man im really struggling financially right now I can't pay my bills- my electric is going to be cut off, my car might get repossessed, and I definitely can't afford to get a new laptop after mine broke"

and someone who had a lot more money than you said "I can help you!" and you were like"oh my god great thank you so much-" and then they just offered to take you to olive garden. and you say "hey man that's really nice but I'm actually okay on food right now, I really just need to pay some of these bills. I already got food somewhere else (foodstamps, friends, food pantries) and I really just need money. if you can't do it that's fine but I don't need food"

and the rich person said "you must not really need money or be poor then or else you'd take me up on my offer. I bet you were going to use that money on drugs anyway"

that's what yall sound like when you refuse to give homeless people money & just offer to buy them food

food is great! if you need it and that's what you're asking for. unfortunately food doesn't buy clothes, hygiene products, shelter, pay a phone bill, or yes even buy drugs or alcohol if you're going into detox and can't do so safely without literally dying

Vincent Price at the opening of The Tingler (1959)

One of the most memorable interactions was Saturday. Into our booth strolls a small family, tempted by free samples of freshly brewed tea. We chatter and give them the spiel, that the tea is character merch and we’re a cozy health-based app called Forage Friends.

The young girl zeroes in on our pride pins.

“They have my pin!” She says excitedly. “They have my flag!”

The dad blinks. He is surprised, but also calm and positive when he sees it’s the lesbian flag. “Oh. That’s… different from what you told me.”

“That was months ago, dad.” And she rolls her eyes. Definitely a teenager.

I turn to him and say, “Yeah, dad.” And we share a little laugh about it.

He says, “No, it’s great. That’s amazing, honey. It was just news to me.”

“Well, I guess I just decided to stop lying to myself. About liking guys. Like right now.”

A little lesbian just came out to her dad and he was super cool about it.

I’m standing there in my tie-dye mask and my cheery blue apron pouring tea and making small talk and I’m trying really hard not to cry or compare it to my experience, the fire & brimstone, the disgust, the conditional acceptance as long as I never bring it up.

So as this beautiful bonding is going on, the girl’s even younger brother turns his gaze around. He’s in a snorlax hoodie and bored and wants to go look at the swords across the hall. But on the other side of our booth….

“WHY DO PEOPLE DRAW THAT?” He asks loudly, and we all turn to our neighboring booth.

Our neighbors were extremely lovely people. Every time we had a break we would talk, and we became good friends over the weekend. They kept apologizing that their booth was next to ours and we kept repeating that it was totally fine. Their booth was great. I even bought their merchandise.

The thing that was so contentious, that they felt the need to apologize for, was that they were selling explicit titty hentai stickers of popular characters. They were censored with little yellow R18 labels but the content was very clear.

So back to the family: I freeze and immediately go somewhere else to let dad handle this question. With adult customers I’ve been loud and positive about our neighbors. (“Man, how has it been boothing next to them?” It’s been great! They bring a lot of foot traffic and they’re kind and wonderful professional neighbors. If anything it’s a fun juxtaposition. We believe in artistic freedom. I bought a sticker too!)

But this is a kid, it’s not my place to explain anything…. But I was extremely curious about what this chill dad would say.

“Well,” dad says with a long measured silence between each word. “Sometimes people are horny.”

I, a hearing person who likes subtitles just as a preference, shouldn't have to read a subtitle that's obvious nonsense, go back a couple seconds, and listen again in order to figure out what's going on. An accessibility feature should not be the most half-assed part of a professionally made production. Scripted media has absolutely no excuse for not having subtitles or having subtitles that aren't perfectly verbatim. Professional captioning services should be ashamed of the shoddy work that they put out. Captions should be treated as a part of the production, just like filming, editing, audio balancing, etc - and anything that releases with missing or bad captions should be seen as unfinished