#The vast majority of men couldn't find it

[masterkeynobi]

usually i loathe when a protagonist gets turned into a "bad" parent in a sequel series but tortall does it so well and so realistically that i can't help but think it'd be ooc any other way. of course alanna is gruff and sometimes unkind and not always present. of course jonathan must do what is best for realm and reputation; of course he's king first, father second. jon's parenting style is visible from the start in how roald acts during his page years — jon as a page sees ralon held down and beaten for the crime of bothering little alan; roald, much as he wants to, can't so much as join kel on her nighttime patrols for fear of how it'd look. jon takes alanna on as a squire because they're good friends & lovers; roald has had his knight-master picked out for him for years before he's even made a squire.

alanna gets along well enough with alan and thom, her knightling and her scholar, but she can't for the life of her understand how aly works. in my opinion this has something to do both with the fact that aly is a lot more like george in the most dangerous ways and with the fact that aly is rather significantly more of a Girl than alanna ever was. alanna had no (0) female friends growing up and only one older female mentor figure. she grew up and still lives the vast majority of her life surrounded by men of similar status. is it any surprise she finds her sons easier to talk to?

there's a passing sentence in trickster's choice that alludes to aly having once been jealous of how effusive her mother was about keladry of mindelan. i can't help but think also about kalasin ii of conté, kally whose mother's people are matrilineal, kally who should by rights have been her mother's heir. kally who calls the lioness aunt and wanted as a child nothing more than to be a knight, who will spend the rest of her life in carthak and likely never see a lady knight again. i think she was jealous of kel too, but in the opposite direction. aly couldn't and wouldn't be who kel was, too protective of her own freedom and too much like her father to ever want a shield. aly envied the easy understanding alanna had of kel's ambitions and grit. kalasin had those same ambitions but never got the chance to show that same grit. kalasin spent the four years of kel's page training at king's reach learning to be an empress.

it's the. not wanting and choosing not to do vs the wanting and not having the choice. it's the jealousy someone so distant from alanna got so much of her attention when her interactions with her own daughter were constantly snippy vs the thought that kally should've been there first, should've gotten to prove the conservatives wrong, should've been able to show kel around and shield (ha) her from the worst of their ire. no little girls will grasp wide-eyed for tales of aly cooper or empress kalasin the same way they do for the lioness and lady kel. i don't think aly minds, but i think kalasin very, very quietly does.

#sree.txt #tortall #aly cooper #kalasin of conté #keladry of mindelan #alanna the lioness #jonathan of conté #sorry for the recent verbose tortallposting it will likely continue #also everyone on the planet needs to read in the perfection of conduct and virtues by rain_sleet_snow on ao3 #lifechanging fic i simply cant stop rotating kally in my mindcrowave now

[roguekhajiit]

TW: Transphobia

I had my first ever encounter with a transphobic member of the LGBTQ community this week.

At work on Monday, I overheard some co-workers discussing Transgender Day of Visibility and how President Biden issued a statement acknowledging Trans Day. Since it just so happened to occur on the same day as Easter this year, my very close-minded co-workers took that and Biden's statement as evidence that Trans people are trying to take over Easter!

Now, I consider myself to be Non-binary (specifically Demi-girl/Agender), but I tend to fly under the radar, which is very helpful since I live in a very, very red state. It doesn't hurt that my normal sense of personal style is very casual and all black. So, I can wear traditionally "men's" pants, and no one pays much attention to me, which is the way I prefer it. I hate anything that draws attention to myself.

So, I bit my tongue and hyperfocused on my work. Then, when I went home, the non-binary gremlin in me just couldn't be contained anymore; I opened Reddit and made a post about how no one is going around trying to steal stolen holidays.

Now, I was fully anticipating pissed off Christians to rain their uninhibited fake outrage down onto the comment section (which happened) but I wasn't anticipating a self-identified 60 yr old gay man to come into my comments saying things like, "Why would you put a Trans holiday anywhere near a religious holiday knowing every seven years it's gonna land on said holiday" and "As a gay man I believe that the one part of our community is stifling the rest of us."

Tell me you're transphobic without telling me you're transphobic.

Now, since I can't just ignore the sheer inaccuracy of his math; according to Google from 2001 to 2100, Easter will only land on March 31st 5 times. Five times in an entire century. The last time Easter was on March 31st, it was 2013. So, 11 years ago, or over a decade ago. No one gave a shit in 2013 that Easter and Trans Day were on the same day. But let the president acknowledge it in a statement and everyone loses their fucking minds.

So, why would you avoid celebrating something important in your life on the off chance that it might coincide with someone's religious holiday? Of course, you wouldn't. If your birthday is on Christmas, do you no longer have a birthday?

"Next, why wouldn't you place it in the month of pride then each day of pride month could have a different day celebrating each letter of the lbgtq+ community."

Yes, that is what Pride Month is for, celebrating the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. But are you gay only in June?

But sadly, even some in our diverse community isolate and vilify trans individuals just like what this old gay dinosaur is doing. For 15 years, a vast majority didn't know or even give a shit that Trans Day existed. That is until a president acknowledged it.

"May I point out there's no gay holidays that coincide with Yom kipper or Ramadan."

True, Yom Kippur and Ramadan don't coincide with any "gay holidays," but Shavout is directly in the middle of Pride Month. Any outrage there?

"So just piss off the Christian's so they have one more thing to hate us for. I find many in our community asking for acceptance while giving none, just my opinion and nothing more."

How very accepting of you to say, my lord.

"Maybe it's time we all in the gay community and cis people give the whole year to the Trans community."

But they aren't asking for the year, or even a month. They just want one day that is their own. And even members of our own LGBTQ+ community can't even give them that.

"I'm gay so I can't be transphobic."

Your statements say otherwise. Just because you're gay doesn't mean you are absolved of your transphobia.

Perhaps it's time we stop placating these dusty ass old gay dinosaurs and call them out on their hateful thinking. Their "I got mine" attitude only harms our communities. Just because you won the fight for same sex marriage doesn't mean you're safe. The fight for equality is never-ending.

More and more of us are having our rights stripped away right before our very eyes. Roe v. Wade has already been overturned, and they aren't going to stop there. They never planned to stop there. They are very methodically chipping away at our rights. Right now, they are focusing their efforts on the trans community, slowly outlawing their very existence. And while they have you distracted by that, they are quietly overturning same sex marriage laws. Your rights aren't safe and never will be safe as long as we have members in our communities who subscribe to this kind of thinking.

#trans community #trans day of visibility #transgender #trans rights #lgbtq community #lgbtq #lgbtq+ #lgbt #lgbtqia #lgbtqia+ #lgbtqplus #transphobes #reddit #nonbinary #demigirl #demisexual #agender

[skiiyoomin]

⤑Back to navigation

content: Bang Chan x reader, mentions of food, strangers to possible lovers

credit to @skylardarling for the idea !!

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

ღThe start of something new

When Felix had invited you to spend the night in his apartment during the beginnings of your friendship, you didn't think twice about accepting the offer. However, what hadn't crossed your mind was the possibility of him living with other people. Hence, why you were blatantly surprised to find not one, but six other guys living under the same roof as him.

That didn't stop you from enjoying your time, in fact, they were all fun to hang out with, albeit a bit very chaotic.

And while they were all kind and accepting, Chan, the eldest member caught your eye from the first introduction. You'd heard many stories from Felix previously, but nothing would've prepared you for the charming face that greeted you at the door. And when his lips curled into a smile, showing off his dimpled cheeks? wow.

You hit it off almost instantly, finding common ground in interests you both enjoyed and shared. Of course, Felix picked up on the newfound chemistry and used this as an advantage to play Cupid. How could he not when the sparks between you and Chan were clear as day?

After the takeout boxes were left empty and everyone was satisfied with the food, all 8 of you squeezed wherever you could in the living room. Some on the floor, others on the couch. You had managed to squeeze yourself between the arm rest and very conveniently, besides Chan. As you settled down beside him, he shot you a grin.

"You think they'll ever make up their minds?"

He questions, nodding towards Hyunjin and Jisung who were very passionately debating whether to binge watch Shrek or Ice Age. You laugh, amused by the scene of adult men arguing over children's movies.

"I think i'll be old and wrinkled by the time they do"

Now it's his turn to laugh at your joke, making you feel giddy inside like a high schooler. At last, they picked one and everyone quieted down. 3 movies later, the vast majority had passed out, snoring away in dreamland, yourself included.

Somewhere in between the movies, your eyelids had grown heavy until you were falling into unconsciousness out of your own free will. Chan noticed your drowsiness and gently moved your head to rest on his broad shoulder. Even though you were in deep slumber, he still couldn't avoid the blush creeping up his neck when you instinctively snuggled to his side. God, you were so warm. It took everything in his being not to cuddle up to you.

However, as the minutes ticked by and as per usual, sleep did not seem to call him despite the ungodly hours, he decided to head back to his room where he could at least get some work done. But when he attempted to stand up, you snuggled even closer to him, as if asking him to stay with you. He really didn't have the heart to wake you up, not when you looked so at peace. He scooped you up in his arms and made his way to his room where he gently placed you down on his bed. At least you'd sleep much more comfortably on a bed than curled up on the couch.

At around 6am, your eyes involuntarily blinked open. You noticed a few things immediately. First, that wherever you were, it was definitely not the living room. Second, that the bed you were sleeping in was very comfortable, and third that the sheets smelled an awful lot like Chans cologne which you got a whiff of in the moments you were sitting close together.

Yet, despite being in presumably Chans room, said man didn't seem to be present, which made you wonder where he was exactly at such hours. Wandering down the hallways and past the living room where everyone was still snoozing away, you caught sight of a light coming from the kitchen. Your suspicions were confirmed when you spotted Chan typing away on his computer. His head snapped up in your direction when the wooden floor creaked under your feet.

"Hi"

You greet in a hushed tone as you sit on the chair besides his.

"Hey, what are you doing up so early?"

He asks in a tone just as hushed as your own.

"I should be asking you that"

You reply with a small giggle as you give him a pointed look. He chuckles as well, the sound reverberating in the quietness of the early morning.

"You caught me" He sighs "I can't sleep much, you know, insomnia"

"Oh. That must suck a lot" You sympathize.

"Did you rest well?" He switches the conversation back to you, something you noticed he did quite a lot.

"Yeah, your bed's really comfortable"

He chuckles once more. "I'm glad"

Your eyes shift to the computer screen. Curiously, you nod towards it. "What are you working on?"

His eyes drift towards the screen as well. "A song, i've been thinking about a few beats for a while now."

"Really? Can I listen?"

"Sure, I could use a few opinions"

The bright hues of pink and oranges shined bright behind you as the sun rose. You were engaged so deeply in conversation with Chan that you didn't notice how time flew by. Before you knew it, everyone was up and moving around the house once more and you were getting ready to head back home with Felix as your escort.

Though of course, you didn't leave without winning Chans number and a promise of something more.

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

BONUS:

There was a comfortable silence in the car as Felix drove you back home. It was broken when he turned to you with a cheeky grin.

"So Chan huh?"

"Oh shut up"

#skiiyoomin #skz chan #skz x reader #skz #bang chan #bang chan x reader #chan bang #chan x reader #stray kids #stray kids x reader #stray kids fluff #stray kids x you #chan x y/n #bang chan x you #chan fluff #bang chan fluff #skz chris #chris bang #chris skz #skz chan fluff #skz fluff #stray kids fanfic #chan x you #christopher bang #bang chris #bang chan x y/n #stray kids chris #skz channie #skz headcanons #skz scenarios

[nerdygaymormon]

A lot of rhetoric in support of anti-trans legislation to restrict gender-affirming care talks about regret and detransitioning.

Some proportion of people experience regret for any medical procedure, from chemotherapy to orthopedic surgery. Nonetheless, we don’t see a plethora of opinion pieces about the awful risks of hip replacements. It’s inevitable that some percentage of people who transition will regret it; the real question is whether the medical care is beneficial on the whole—not whether the occasional person later regrets a medical choice they made when younger.

In 2021, it was found that 13.1% of transgender people participating in the U.S. Transgender Survey reported detransitioning at some point in their lives.

The authors of this study are careful to note “these experiences did not necessarily reflect regret regarding past gender affirmation.” Family and societal pressure are the driving forces that lead many people to detransition – not because people wake up and decide they're not actually trans. All those who took part in the survey still identified as trans, thus it's presumed that the detransitioning was temporary.

Transitioning and detransitioning is complex. You can stop taking hormones and still be trans. You can regret taking steps that alienate you from your family, even as you wish your family would accept you living how you want to live. You can even regret some aspects of a treatment (any kind of medical treatment) while being grateful for the knowledge you gained by trying it out.

Detransitioning doesn't equal regret. Regret doesn’t always mean that people wish they hadn’t transitioned, it just means that there are some parts of the story that they long to change.

What’s clear from this evidence is that the vast majority of people do not experience regret, however defined, after transitioning genders. The rate of regret is still better than other treatments which don’t require national debates over their use, which really begs the question of why the health decisions of this group gets so much attention, and why so many people weigh in even though they have no medical or psychological training and aren't directly involved the treatment of transgender people.

————————————————————

The study included a sample of the responses of the reasons by those who detransitioned at some point in their life. I think they are insightful.

External factors

 Caregiving reasons “I was caring for my 80+ year old mother who had severe dementia, and it was just too confusing for her.”

 Difficult to blend in as identified gender “I don't pass, even after FFS [facial feminization surgery] etc.”

 Financial reasons “Unable to afford HRT [hormone replacement therapy]”

 Lack of support “Lack of trans community at the time” “Back in 1997, virtually no one had heard of queergender people. I couldn't find a support system, and I couldn't figure out how to tell people what I was.”

 Legal reasons “Social services legal pressure regarding child custody” “Forced to by going to federal prison for two years” “Family court order—part of custody award”

 Medical reasons “Blood clotting from estrogen” “Pain in binding large chest”

 Fertility reasons “We decided to have kids so [I] went back to testosterone long enough to bank sperm so we can do IVF [in vitro fertilization].”

 Pressure from a medical health professional “Parents took me to a region with hostile doctors.” “Medical supervisor at federal facility removed regional-approved treatment because I didn't fit his idea of ‘a gay man so gay [he] wants to be a woman so it's easier to sleep with men’ after I had identified as lesbian to him.”

 Pressure from a mental health professional “Mental health professional told me I am not transgender and thought I was just crazy.” “In those days you couldn't be diagnosed trans if you were also gay or lesbian.”

 Pressure from a parent “Moved home after college. Had to conform for parents.” “I was facing being pulled out of school by my family.”

 Pressure from the community or societal stigma “With the high level of transphobia that exist[s], life gets very lonely.” “I live in a very conservative place and was afraid for my safety.”

 Pressure from my employer “There are times when my current job requires me to present [as] female.”

 I had trouble getting a job “I flip flopped genders because of needed employment.”

 Military-related reasons “Military forced me to detransition while in service.”

 Pressure from friends or roommates “Staying with people I knew would harass me”

 Pressure from unspecified or nonparent family members “Visiting conservative extended family for the holidays” “I temporarily detransition during visits with my in laws.”

 Pressure from religion or a religious counselor “Religious pressure (Mormon)” “Pressure from religion”

 Pressure from school “School staff harassed and abused me daily for my gender expression.” “Exclusion by Peers in School, No Mechanism for Getting Preferred Name on School Rosters”

 Pressure from a spouse or partner “I began to really clearly identify as transgender … but I realized it was pushing my marriage apart. At the time, I decided to try living as my assigned gender and set these feelings aside, but they kept cropping back up.”

 Wanting to find a spouse or partner “My partner of 4 years and I split up and I felt that I would always be alone as a trans person.” “Difficult to find lovers, dates”

 Sexual or physical assault “Traumatized by corrective rape so recloseted” “I have become frightened of the police since being sexually molested by an officer.”

 Sports-related reasons “Playing competitive sports”

 Travel or relocation “North Dakota is not a friendly place for anyone outside the gender binary. When I go back home, I butch up.” “I was studying abroad in a country hostile to LGBTQ* people (Russia).”

 Unable to access gender-affirming hormones “Living in rural area, couldn't get hormones” “I lost access to HRT and stopped passing.”

Internal factors

 Psychological reasons “Wasn't emotionally ready, I was scared of my identity.” “Transition had to be put on hold due to mental health issues.” “suicide attempt”

 Uncertainty or doubt around gender “Unsure of my exact gender identity” “Thought I might have been wrong/confused”

 Fluctuations in identity or desire “My gender feels complicated and changing all the time.” “I enjoy having the ability to go back and forth between genders.”

Note: internal factors can be the result of external factors (e.g., self-doubt regarding one's gender identity in response to being persistently misgendered or rejected).

#transgender

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

Notes from Twelve Caesars: Images of Power, by Mary Beard, chapters 1-3:

Roman art and imagery have always been politically charged. Pagans, Christians, atheists, authoritarians, (small-r) republicans, and others all use it to claim historical precedent, represent their values, and find like-minded people.

This frequently leads to thematic conflicts and awkwardness. E.g. Andrew Jackson refused to be buried in a (supposed) Roman emperor's sarcophagus, because it reeked of monarchism. Horatio Greenough's statue of George Washington was modeled after the Roman Cincinnatus, but modern people don't catch the reference. They're more likely to ask, "Why is this old man so ripped?"

Part of what makes this difficult is that the vast majority of surviving Roman art comes from the imperial period, not the republic. There are relatively few Roman symbols with no autocratic or "kingly" connotations.

However, Roman art and history was never exclusively an upper-class hobby. Collecting Roman coins was popular and widely affordable from the Middle Ages onward. The history of the Roman empire was intricately linked to the rise of Christianity, so it was important to how most Europeans understood their religion and worldview. Even if you couldn't read, you would probably see Roman emperors in art, or hear stories of how early Christians interacted with the empire.

Image of Nero at Poitiers Cathedral, pointing toward the crucifixion of Saint Peter in another panel; he is dressed like a contemporary king at the time the window was made.

In A Rake's Progress, William Hogarth depicts all Roman emperors but Nero (red arrow) defaced, symbolizing the rake's descent into Nero-like depravity. Hogarth must have expected his audience in the 1730s to catch the reference. These days, in most countries, Roman history is considered more of a specialty field than basic education.

There are long traditions of both representing Romans in modern dress, and of depicting modern people like Romans. This usually wasn't a mistake on the artist's part, but a conscious choice. Putting Romans in modern dress helps convey their power or personality in visual language we already know - think Marcus Crassus in a businessman's suit. Meanwhile, putting modern people in classical dress and settings was intended to give a sense of gravitas, timelessness, and to legitimize power.

Left: George Sackville, Duke of Dorset, by George Knapton. Right: Julius Caesar by Titian, upon which Sackville's portrait was based.

So you can absolutely draw Mark Antony in a miniskirt. It's a time-honored tradition!

Framing and gesture are important. Sackville's portrait above is obviously supposed to make you think "conquering hero." One painting might tell you Claudius was destined to become emperor, making him look noble and chosen by god(s)...

(Unknown artist, workshop of Giulio Romano, The Omen of Claudius' Imperial Powers)

...And another artist might portray Claudius as a frightened old man, and the imperial court as ruthless and bloody:

(Lawrence Alma-Tadema, A Roman Emperor, 41 AD)

These paintings will give you two very different ideas of what a monarchy is like!

Roman portraits have also influenced European physiognomy and phrenology. Busts attributed to famous Romans were taken to represent the actual men's features, and thus their personalities. Ironically, many of these "case study" busts later turned out to be fake. Phrenology has now been discredited as racist and pseudoscientific.

Sketch of a bust of Vitellius by Giambattista della Porta, emphasizing his "uncouth" temperament by comparison to an owl. Phrenologists believed the shape of a head could predict personality.

And of course, fascists have appropriated Roman imagery for their own propaganda. I believe fascists appeal to "superficial history" like this as a way to claim their extreme, hateful policies are actually traditional, and therefore normal and legitimate.

Mussolini abolishing the Italian Chamber of Deputies in front of a statue of Julius Caesar, which he had relocated to Rome's city council chamber. "One dictator in front of another," as Mary Beard aptly put it.

It is sometimes difficult to separate Roman imagery from these authoritarian connotations. Even before fascism, European nobility often used it to symbolize their own power and legitimacy. But I think the more modern creators adapt Roman history and imagery, for a wide variety of purposes, the better we can keep it from getting entirely tainted by extremists. I love the folks here on Tumblr who make art, comics and memes of their favorite weird little Romans. History is for everyone.

After all, most Romans weren't emperors. Just ordinary people like us.

#i'm not even halfway through the book i just have lots of thoughts 😅 #mary beard #twelve caesars: images of power #jlrrt reads #jlrrt essays

[aroace-confessions]

I am so exhausted at going into the aro tag and it's all shipping discourse and that this happens every time there's the hint of a new aroace character.

In probably 2014 the vast majority of MCU fic focused on shipping the white men. This is very common in fandom. There was also a frequent thing that cropped up where the black characters and female characters were brushed off as ace and therefore unshippable (and then hardly in the rest of the fic). Being (aro) ace was the reason these characters couldn't be shipped.

Only it was not canon and it was (very rightly) pointed out that if you are doing this to every single character of colour and female character then there is a pattern and racism and misogyny are unfortunately also not uncommon in fandom.

Unfortunately this conversation was being started when ace discourse also was so you imagine how it went. People stopped writing "ace" characters but still failed to include the characters other than the white men.

And I think we might be on the flip side? I think a few people shipping one aroace character isn't a problem, but if it is happening every single time then there is a pattern wider fandom needs to acknowledge.

And I also think we need to be careful with some of the arguments. It felt like being thrown under a bus last time and I think aroaces in relationships are being pushed into the same situation all of us were back then with one side using them to justify erasing all of us rather than actually supporting them and on the other people being angry and feeling erased making arguments where some are easy to read as our experiences are more valid than yours and that is unfair to them.

Fandom doesn't completely have an issue with aroace characters. They have been perfectly happy to use us an excuse not to have to ship the characters they don't want to. What they don't like is feeling like they are being told by a creator they can't ship this one.

And ok so it's just fandom. It doesn't matter. Except aroace characters are new and rare and a group of people who have been told they just haven't met the right person yet and a relationship is the happy ending everyone should be striving for and they need to do that too find a representation of them finally, they have someone, and the immediate conversation is about romantic relationships. Of course they're going to be hurt by that.

I think mostly I feel bad for any aroaces who do want to do this dating thing who feel caught in the middle and I don't want anyone hurting them in their arguing.

I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this. I'm just tired and I have a migraine and I hope the dating aroaces are okay

Submitted 08/03/24

#aroace #aromantic asexual #aromantic #aro #asexual #ace #aphobia #shipping

[thegroovywitch]

On groupies and muses...

(A little essay I've written for my Instagram post about the magic of groupie-dom)

During the last 8 months or so, with the rise of the "rockstar gf" aesthetic, I've seen the word groupie being villanized and criticized even more harshly than in the past. As a proud feminist, I absolutely agree with the logic behind the discourse: women shouldn't depend on men and being someone's girlfriend shouldn't be their highest aspiration in life, but the word groupie holds a special magical meaning in the music world that is often forgotten or misunderstood.

First and foremost, the OG groupies weren't just people who slept with rockstars. Some were painters, some were musicians themselves, some were models, some photographers, some were artists who used their partners just as much as they used them, in a creative whirlwind of inspiration and love. The fact that groupies are often only remembered for their partners and not as real humans with goals and thoughts and emotions is nothing but another case of good old misogyny.

Older groupies have made a lot of work during these past decades to de-villanize such a word in the name of feminism and allow women to celebrate groupie-dom for what it really was: a wonderful example of female sexuality happening right when it was starting to be "ok" for a woman to be considered a sexual being and find her own pleasure in sex.

Furthermore, the vast majority of groupies were women, but not all of them were. There are numerous accounts of men following musicians around, befriending them, sleeping with them etc. How come are queer people often erased from such discourses?

We know for a fact that a lot of male rockstars back in the day were gay or bisexual, while others did a lot of "experimentation". And who were their partners in such occasions? Male groupies, most of the time.

All this to say it's ok to "just" be a muse. It's not at all a passive role but one of most laudable, to be the inspiration and the genesis of art itself. To be a muse is to be divine, a piece of heaven on Earth that an artist can grasp with their own hands and be so intellectually enlightened to create masterpieces. Considering this, haven't straight male muses always existed, too, and won't they always exist, as long as heterosexual love and female artists will be a thing?

I couldn't only be a muse, because I play several instruments and would like to be part of a band one day. But what a noble name, Muse, and what a shame if we forgot how crucial and sacred that role really is.

#groupies #muses #60s #70s #classic rock #rock and roll #rock #my writing

[o-craven-canto]

Ea, Our Second Chance (16)

16. Ean heraldry

(Index)

(< 15. Dissection of trepangfish)

(original page)

« ... He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs, and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves. » – Cassius, in William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II

« As the Romans knew well when they spoke of virtus, or the troubadours of valor, the worth of the sovereign is the same as his strength. Weak leaders terrorize their subjects, because they fear them; strong leaders want their people to walk with straight backs and eyes held high. Weak leaders keep their subjects quiet, because they have many mistakes to hide; strong leaders do not fear the truth. Weak leaders make their subjects work with the cane and the lash; strong leaders are served out of love. » – emperor Charles Saïd, A House Built on Sand

« There once was a fellow named Chuck / who was poor, ugly, and [redacted]-out-of-luck / He couldn't get laid / so he became king instead / just so he could find someone to [redacted] » – seditious rhyme of probable Pandavan origin, registered by the municipal police of Carcassonne, circa 310 AL

« One of Caesar Saïd's most ambitious accomplishments was the creation of a whole iconography from the ground up. Immediately after the Peacemaking Wars, he faced the need to strike a careful balance between the continuity of tradition with the culture of Earth, and the novelty of an empire of which he could be credited as true founder and maker... He would eventually resolve in favor of using organisms from this world, as popular choices from Earth's cultures such as eagles, lions, and bears meant little to the vast majority of his new subjects... Although it's interesting to notice that most of Saïd's heraldic beasts are in fact natives of Inanna, closer in location to the bureaucratic dreariness of Landing Point than to the fable spires of Montsalvat, but in the position of making the deepest impression upon the first generations of settlers.

... The springbear is an obvious symbol of overwhelming power. Like Hobbes' Leviathan, it can crush anything under its weight... As noted in Belvedere's recent work, it also represents an explicitely masculine incarnation of strength... Two charging springbears form visually the supporting columns of Saïd's personal coat-of-arms, strength channeled for the benefit of the Kingdom. The fact that no species of springbear is native to the Ninkasi Land does not lessen its significance anymore than the local lack of lions or, for that matter, unicorns lessened that of the British coat-of-arms on Earth.

... The colossal anzu-bird, which Saïd made a point of hunting personally in his harpoon-glider during his visit to Makka al-Jadida, justifies its own place in any heraldic system created on this planet... Named after the Mesopotamian harbinger of thunderstorms, the anzu combines extraordinary power and lightness, the qualities of an empire that must be at once immovable and dynamic; although at the same time its ungainly locomotion makes it extremely vulnerable on the ground... Its eye, in particular, caught the attention of poets and semiurges... ceaselessly staring at the blinding light of Utu, and nothing else, as the anzu fears no attack from above... The anzu-eye, as depicted for example on the chapels of Carcassonne and the ancestral shrines of Shangdu, is not merely a symbol of looking fearlessly into the sublime, but one that is purely an end in itself, with no need of practical justifications... In this sense it is contrasted with the anzu's olfactory flaps, distended in flight to detect food on the ground... In fact, the anzu is mainly a scavenger which, like Earth's vultures, uses its gliding capacity to cross the desert in search of carcasses, although it has been known to kill and eat living animals. The satyrical song "La Bravoure de l'Anzû", for broadcasting which Cyrus Yoshida was sentenced to sixty canestrikes in 266 AL, exaggerates its "cowardly" qualities, thus inverting its whole symbolic meaning...

... The honeybee was used by Napoleon and the early Mormons as symbol of industriousness and communal living (cf. the beehive structure of the townhall in New Zion)... In Ninkasi, its place is taken by the nest-building kirikits, who routinely risk their lives to gather food for their colony and defend it from predators. With their characteristic three hands and crude tool use, kirikits also add a connotation of intelligence that is lacking in bees... A colony of kirikits, almost two hundred members strong, is kept in the courtyard of the Imperial College in Mediolanum, making its nest on a grove of walnuts. The kirikit figures prominently on the College's paperwork...

... The use of the flute tree as symbol of pride and sturdiness is subtler, as it's not the whole plant, but rather the texture of its trunk that is used in heraldics... The peculiar "flute-bark" pattern (circles or ovals arranged in rosettes) is found on the ducal banners of Palmyra, the livery of land-based military officers, the porphyry paneling of the Ara Patrum... The apparent breaches or injuries in the trunk of flute trees are, of course, carefully crafted by nature to strengthen the trees, channeling the wind that would otherwise uproot them, and creating the lugubrious wail that resounds in the woods around Lake Svarog. This is exactly the trick employed by the architects of Palmyra for its high-rise towers, and by Sporean engineers for their arcologies, and serves as an excellent icon of resistance in the face of adversity.

... Saïd never quite justified his choice of the blue nova (Ouranthus cyaneus) as the Kingdom's official "flower"... It may have been a simple matter of personal preference. There are anecdotes about a young Saïd taking shelter in a grove of blue novae after being wounded in the Battle of the Sherida River... Richter has hypothesized a connection with the "Blaue Blume" of ancient German Romanticism, a symbol of longing and striving for the infinite, a fitting illustration of the motto Aut Caesar Aut Nihil... Less convincingly, Hrabe argues that the nine-fold symmetry of the plant-top might refer to the nine dukedoms of the Kingdom... »

– Theophilus Singh, Historical Compendium of the Celestial Kingdom, volume I, chapter IX, 276 AL

« I had a scaffold built just outside of Water's Edge [Byzantium], near where the river Sherida meets the waves of Rahab. The beauties of Ninkasi Land had fueled only corruption and debauchery for far too long an age [...] Three hundred prisoners, the worst criminals I could find in the long years of war, were brought there on open cars. Pirates, druglords, highwaymen, mobsters, terrorists, skilled in the crafts of murder, robbery, rape, and torture; those whose crimes were beyond pardon, those who could not be allowed to live in My Kingdom nor loosed upon other nations.

I had a theatre prepared around the scaffold. Nothing more than a few hundred folding chairs and fundamental facilities for the businessmen, the townheads, the landlords, and the scholars of Ninkasi. [...] Twenty by twenty the criminals went to the scaffold. My own black-gloved hand triggered the mechanism; they fell through the floor; the rope wrung their necks; and they died. Many of My men, who had suffered all manners of cruelties and indignities by their hand, regretted only that they would go so quickly to their final and greater Judge.

Other twenty came after, and then twenty more, until their whole number of three hundred was consumed. Some found some dignity in their final hour; some, who had never wept for another, wept for themselves; and some fell cursing God and Man, perjurying their innocence, and offering other, better lives in their stead. [...] Their bodies were buried on the shore under a great black stone, where good people still fear to tread. [...]

When the clocktower of Water's Edge struck one, I bade the witnesses rise. They would swear an oath of fealty to Me, and serve as My ministers and vassals, or simply My subjects; or they would leave the borders of the Kingdom forever, and forfeit any property they could not carry out within 48 hours. [...] A Joseon-born businessman, who had enjoyed much profit from the sale of unwilling services, said that I could not consider free an oath taken on pain of losing all of one's life's work. «Vae victis,» I responded; «It is only by My mercy that you are given this choice».

Four fifths of the present took the oath. The Europeans genuflected, the Americans saluted, the Chinese kowtowed, the Japanese bowed. All these gestures have the same meaning, and I accepted them equally. The rest was escorted to their homes to prepare their departure to our new borders. [...] My men, the children of Ninkasi, raised their guns, and thrice they cried as one: «Vive l'Empereur! Vive César Saïd!» A salvo of artillery made the distant hills tremble. The drone fleet traced My coat-of-arms in the skies.

Nine months later, the ground where Cutter's Bend once stood had been cleared of all contamination; and upon the basement of its ruins Montsalvat now glittered with marble and silver. There I kissed the hand of His Holiness Neophytus III; and there, after twenty-seven years of blood, sweat, and tears, the Titanium Crown finally rested on My brow. »

– Emperor Charles Saïd, quoted in Theophilus Singh, Historical Compendium of the Celestial Kingdom, volume III, chapter XIV, 279 AL

#speculative biology #speculative culture #scifi #worldbuilding #alien world #future history #my work #ea our second chance

[wolflord02]

Gauntlet of Shame (Stardew Valley Expanded fic)

First time posting any fics in ages... based off of this post because this convo gave me a spike of inspiration and I couldn't help myself.

Warning: Mentions of cheating/infidelity, cruel and unusual punishment by the sexy witch lady Camilla (she is her own warning)

~

The farmer could have sworn they had a heart attack when they heard the angered voices of their lovers from the inside of Castle Village’s tavern as they stood at the door. Magnus, Camilla, Lance, Isaac, Jadu, and Alesia’s words were too muffled for the poor person to hear clearly, but it was plain as day that they were talking about them given that their name was mentioned more than once, alongside very… derogatory words.

They really should have expected this, given what happened when they tried dating the vast majority of the younger people of Pelican Town, how the men gave the newcomer the cold shoulder for a long while after that… but then again, the women welcomed them to their chatting session when they’d arrived with a lucky rabbit’s foot with them. The farmer remembered that they happened to have a rabbit’s foot with them… maybe this’ll go better than their gut told them?

They took in a deep breath and stuffed their hand into their pocket to hold the paw charm as they used their spare hand to push the door open.

Their heart dropped as they saw their partners glaring at them. “...Oh dear sweet Yoba…” they thought, feeling their very soul being pierced by the eyes of the most notable mages and adventurers of the village.

Jadu’s piercing violet eyes burned with anger as he spoke up. “Funny seeing you here, my dear. We were just talking about you,” he growled sarcastically, with a voice dripping with so much venom the farmer felt their entire body tense, ready to flee the situation at any opportunity like they were a cornered animal faced with a much stronger predator. 

“You… After all this time, and all we’ve been through, I thought I’d finally found a partner I could actually trust… how fucking dare you show your face here knowing what you’ve done to me? To all of us!?” Isaac clenched his fists so hard, that the farmer thought he was about to tear his leather gloves in half.

Alesia didn’t need to say anything. She didn’t yell at them, nor did she give them the stink eye… in fact, she didn’t look at them at all. All she did was place an arm over Isaac’s shoulder to comfort the scarred warrior as much as she could.

“Have you come to find even more hearts to break, Farmer? Were the most famous and powerful of Castle Village not enough for you?” Magnus scowled, but behind the mask of anger, the farmer could see honest pain in the wizard’s eyes.

But no other gaze of disgust or hatred compared to the look Camilla gave the youth. She had a look that reeked of disapproval, pain, disappointment, and disgust so potent they could almost taste it on their desert-dry tongue.

“So, you thought you’d get away with all of… this?” Camilla said first with a sneer, gesturing to herself and the others surrounding the table where the group stood.

“I-I…” The farmer started, earning even more hateful stares, some even by other patrons which they hadn’t even noticed before. Some of the older adventurers gave disapproving looks as well, while the younger ones mostly snickered or whispered to one another. Even if the upstart managed to talk their way out of this, they would still have a horrible reputation in the village and far beyond… what have they done?

SLAM.

The farmer let out a shout of fear and nearly drew their sword when the door slammed behind them. They damn near jumped out of their skin, and their head snapped behind them at the source of the noise. Their eyes met with Lance, who had his hand against the back of the door with a more sour than usual cat-like leer. “Well? Care to explain to your lovers why you’ve chosen to betray us?” the pink-haired man said as he stepped towards them, looming over them like a tower as they struggled to think of anything to say.

“Ha! Did you honestly think a rabbit’s foot would save you? This trivial magic might work with the magicless, but this is child’s play here.” Camilla laughed as she took the item from the Farmer’s pocket. The farmer watched in dismay as the blonde woman held the paw in her hand, and lit it ablaze with no effort in the slightest.

“...Oh.” they whimpered pathetically as the burnt paw’s ashes fell to the wooden floor of the tavern.

“Well? Are you going to say something?”

The farmer froze under the penetrating gaze of their partners. They couldn’t say anything.

“...What are you going to do to me?”

They were only met with a grin from Camilla that made their skin crawl more than any monster could ever manage.

~

The farmer’s screams echoed through the Crimson Badlands. They ran through the vast sea of blazing sand, their bare feet burning in the desert sand while laughs and mocking cheers called to them. Camilla wasn’t entirely cruel when dishing out this punishment. She’d cast a spell on them that increased their defense to the point where a nuke couldn’t leave so much as a scratch on them, yet the sense of pain remained as they ran through the sandy hellscape, barely avoiding the swarms of monsters targeting them.

Normally, they’d be skillfully swinging their sword and cutting these swarms down with ease which made even the most seasoned adventurers jealous, but Camilla made sure that they were incapable of such a thing. Even though they still carried their weapons with them, it would be an utter waste of time trying to use them considering their attack was so low, they may as well be throwing pebbles like slingshot ammo, and swinging pencil-thin twigs as swords and daggers. It was a cruel punishment… but what would most people do, if given the power to use non-lethal, but oh-so-frightening means to get revenge on their cheating partner, especially if it was with so many others who were just as unaware as the rest?

Magnus chose to leave, seeing this as a childish and unnecessarily cruel way of disciplining the young adventurer. Meanwhile, the rest stayed to watch the chaos from Castle Village’s tall outer walls.

Childish or not, they all knew damn well that the farmer would never do this again, and none of their “lovers” would give them a chance to hurt them ever again, lest the next punishment include… harsher events. Maybe they would have the same punishment, but they’d be reduced to their underwear with even more bystanders watching on as the gauntlet of shame commenced…

However, there was a slim chance that they’d attempt to continue their relationship with any of them. …They weren’t that foolish… right?

#stardew valley #sve magnus #sve camilla #sve isaac #sve jadu #sve alesia #sve lance #stardew valley expanded #constructive criticism welcome #i really hope no one is out of character

[ro-botany]

Offtopic opinions

Awakening is a game that was rushed, and suffered a lot of cuts, but when you pay attention to the history the game lays out, you start to see this rich world they were trying to create. And the plot! It takes a standard "the prince must slay the evil dragon" story and it flips it on its head and uses it to explore cycles of abuse and trauma.

I'm not sure I agree there about the game having a rich world.

There's very little to the world building like Chrom's famous ancestor and Ylisse's First Exalt is just a word for a word copy of Marth without any sort of name. Similarly Chrom's father has no name and the crusade is woefully underdeveloped.

There are also characters like the Hierarch, whom allegedly acted as a mentor to Emmeryn but just betrays her with this big event going uncommented on and the Hierarch having no name, his Japanese name is just the name of his class!

The Taguel are another thing having basically no history outside of things basically copy/pasted from the Laguz and the writers couldn't even get Panne's personal history right; she says in one support her birth mother raised her alongside other taguel, but in another says her mom died when she was an infant so she never knew her or any other taguel.

Compare these all to even the first game having oodles of info on Marth's ancestor and the history of the continent as well as its wars.

Or Orson's betrayal in Sacred Stones to the Hierarch, as well as the long history of the Laguz in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn compared to the Taguel's inconsistent lore that acts as a mere footnote in Awakening.

Also personally I find Awakening follows all the standard FE tropes to the letter without any sort of diverging from them.

...If you find killing vast swathes of virtual human enemies disturbing, then strategy games centered around war may not be the games for you. This is what we call a genre convention. You gotta be able to handle killing the little pixel guys to enter.

Its not that I find it disturbing but more I feel Awakening treats war like a game and isn't interested in explaining why the protagonists are killing people or the ramifications of killing people.

Its simply playing into "kill brown men because they're ugly and rescue the sexy brown women from them."

Like even Genealogy of the Holy War talked about how the cycle of vengeance affected everyone, how its still sad to kill the Loptous cultists as they are human beings and that even the head of the cult, Manfroy didn't start out evil.

Awakening, to me personally, just seemed like it only cared about making the player feel powerful by having every enemy be either forced to fight them against their will or be a piece of crap that absolutely nobody loved (Aversa's storyline goes out of its way to say nobody mourns Grimleal deaths for example), whilst every women around just threw themselves at the player.

(Second debate hour anon ask I got too busy to reply to when it came in; My Bad anon hope you're doin well.)

"whilst every women around just threw themselves at the player" Anon, I can't stress this enough:

This is the game where M/F MONOGAMY IS A STRICTLY ENFORCED GAME MECHANIC I'm. I just. Did we read the same supports? Because most of the Robin supports I remember are like, Robin failing really badly at making soup, or losing stuff, or teaching people funny slang and then regretting it.

All the supports had to be written to believably be building friendships, because you can still A rank characters with each other after they're married. Because of this, the vast majority of supports only pivot into anything even remotely romantic directly in the S support. It's usually not done well, honestly, imo. But either way that doesn't leave room for this like, harem anime AU you're inventing in your head.

"Women throwing themselves at the player" did you read the support where Robin accidentally gives Sully the shits and she threatens to kill him, anon. Did you.

Anyway. It sounds like you're reaching for reasons to object to this game on some kind of moral grounds. You don't HAVE to do that, though. You can just dislike the game for non-moral reasons. Or for no reason. It doesn't have to be that deep.

Anyway to address your other points briefly I mean, uh, with way too many words as usual lmao

I'm not about to argue that the game is perfect in any respect. It's not even CLOSE. I've said before and I'll say it again that there's a lot of unused potential in Awakening, from places where characterization is thin to the massive gaps in the worldbuilding. The way this game treats Aversa is gross as hell and it has plenty racism problems besides. Trust me, I am not unaware of or ignoring the bad and the ugly.

To be honest? It being deeply flawed is what keeps me coming back to it.

If a game is perfect, there's only so long you can gush about how good it is. If a game is GOOD, but FLAWED? You could write a fuckin thesis about it. Hell, I arguably have, the word count on the collection of Awakening-related meta posts I've authored or made big additions to just keeps on jumping.

Yes, Awakening's worldbuilding has major gaps; but what we got was legitimately interesting! Piecing together what we got is fun for me! Filling in some of those gaps by extrapolating from the facts at hand is fun! Headcanoning in the rest is fun!

Sure, some of the characters and relationships are sorely underdeveloped, and there are some inconsistencies in the supports and that sucks. But seriously analyzing what's there is fun as hell! Taking the things we know and extrapolating personality and relationships is a blast! And for the more major characters, what's there is legitimately compelling as hell - the amount of scholarship the mutuals and I have authored about mister Grima faildragon himself is proof of that. As is the fact that we have honest to goodness essays about Validar of all characters. VALIDAR.

I can't really compare it to most of the other FE games, having not played most of them. I can accept it's not the best FE by a long shot. But I'm also willing to give it leeway for how the release dates hamstrung it, I appreciate the clear love and effort that was put into it anyway, and I respect it a lot for the part it played in keeping the franchise alive today.

And to be perfectly frank, it also is a story that I stumbled across when I was in a rough patch, and it helped me deal with the Horrors, so y'know. It's a really important game to me for that reason.

If its flaws are dealbreakers for you I may not be able to change your mind. That's ok!

But hopefully this at least gives you some insight into why I, at least, am so obsessed with it. It's flawed as hell and that makes it capital C Compelling.

#robot's debate hour #no replies s'il vous plait #now featuring me being a bit of a shit in the first section #sorry not sorry that sentiment is just so funny to me i have no clue where you're getting that from anon #anyway. genuinely just skim my ''grimleal studies'' tag anon #we barely headcanon things here it's 90% persuasive essays with thorough citations by volume #i'm not kidding when i say a flawed game is a game i sink my teeth into forever #flaws give you footholds for shit to talk about #places to extrapolate #things to criticize #the ugly bits are the secret sauce that make the meal delicious

[loominggaia]

What about subcultures in Mogdir, Zareen’s biggest rival and contrasting equal in power?

Mogdir Kingdom is a large territory with many diverse cultures, so I imagine there are a lot of different subcultures within them. Here are a small handful I've come up with so far:

Green Peppers: Red elf luddites who oppose all things high-tech. Many of them have traveled from Zareen Empire or the Damijana Empire to get away from the busy urban lifestyles there. While there are many luddite cultures on Looming Gaia, green peppers are unique because they're specifically trying to get back to their ancient Boanningwad roots.

They study Boanningwad culture and lifestyle, and imitate these things as much as possible in their daily life. You can find green peppers in many places across the world, but the vast majority live in Mogdir Kingdom because of its proximity to the high-tech empires, plus its culture is conducive to their chosen lifestyle.

This group calls themselves "green peppers" because their species has changed from green to red just like the fruit, and they feel they must uproot their lifestyles to return to their green state.

Feathermouths: These are basically the "crazy horse girls" of Mogdir Kingdom, but instead of horses, their passion is in pegasi. Feathermouths can be anyone, but stereotypically they are upper-class fae women, usually elves or gnomes. When they're not riding or caring for their pegasi, they are talking about them non-stop to anyone who will listen. Those who can't afford pegasi of their own like to volunteer at local stables to spend time with them.

They are called "feathermouths" because pegasus wings are known to shed feathers during flight, and these feathers often end up in their jockey's mouth. Can you even call yourself a feathermouth if you haven't swallowed a feather or two?

Bouquets: Many Mogdiri people incorporate plants into their wardrobe, and they have done this since ancient times. But bouquets take this a step further. This is a fashion-based subculture that celebrates flowers in particular. Bouquets wear clothing made from real or fake flowers, in such elaborate designs that it can often look cartoonish.

Their goal is to look like a vase full of beautiful blooms, so they usually don some sort of corset and a skirt, while the upper half of their outfits are bursting with flower motifs, and they may wear flowers in their hair or ornate hats or headwraps. Sometimes their big flowery hats are so large, they struggle to fit through doorways. They are known to attract bees everywhere they go, but the bouquets have a reverence for these insects so they don't mind.

Bouquet subculture began in Mogdir Kingdom but has spread to other lands in modern times, most notably Seelie Court and Matuzu Kingdom. In foreign lands it is more popular with women, but in its homeland of Mogdir Kingdom this style is equally popular with men and women.

Scrungers and Mudleeches: Scrunge and mudcore are two popular "alternative" music genres that were born in Mogdir Kingdom. Scrunge came from Terrian districts in the western Arcadian Forest, while mudcore came from Aquarian districts in Waterwalk. These genres sound very similar to the untrained ear, but their fans insist they couldn't be more different. These fans are called scrungers and mudleeches respectively, and likewise, it can be hard for outsiders to tell them apart because they tend to wear similar fashions, both trying to look as shabby and unapproachable as possible.

Scrungers wear clothing made out of course materials like burlap, in dull, dark colors, and often smear their faces with dirt. They take pride in not washing their hair, so it tends to get stringy or matted. Mogdiri fauns are responsible for inventing this style and music, as a response to their oppression by the local fae. Mogdiri fae at the time pushed a colorful and "fresh" aesthetic inspired by spring blooms and perfectly manicured gardens. Many local fauns did not strive for this aesthetic, as they were satisfied with their more traditional districts in the wilderness. But the fae pushed this lifestyle onto them regardless, and the faun youth responded with scrunge, rebelling against manicured perfection and instead reveling in the uglier sides of nature, like dirt and decay. Likewise, scrunge music has an ugly, abrasive, and feral sound.

Mudcore has a similar history, born as a response from rebellious young sirenes who were sick of their own culture's obsession with vanity. Mudleeches make a point to cut their hair in choppy, asymmetrical styles and leave it uncombed. They wear a lot of mismatched clothes to strain the eyes and thorny accessories as to look unfriendly. Mudcore music sounds quite similar to scrunge, but with a notably "watery" twang to it. The lyrics of both genres emphasize anger towards authority and the status quo.

While scrunge began with fauns and mudcore began with sirenes, both subcultures have spread out to other species in Mogdir Kingdom, and today you can find a diverse range of fans. However, most fans do tend to grow out of it as they age, so it's rare to see adult scrungers or mudleeches. It's primarily a scene for teenagers and young adults.

Fauxseelie: Much like rusties, fauxseelie are obsessed with a foreign culture. But instead of Damijani culture, they are obsessed with Seelie culture. This isn't too surprising, as Mogdir Kingdom and the Seelie Court have been allied many times in the past, and there is a lot of travel and trade happening between these lands. All Mogdiri have been exposed to elements of Seelie culture in one way or another at this point.

But the fauxseelie develop an obsession with all things Seelie, viewing the Seelie Court as a mystical, exotic kingdom full of beauty, elegance, and adventure. There are actually two branches of the fauxseelie subculture: bright fauxseelie, who obsess over Seelie culture, and night fauxseelie, who obsess the Unseelie culture. However, it's also common for this group to have an equal fascination with both courts, and even the continent of Umory-Ond as a whole.

Fauxseelie consume a lot of media from this foreign land, eat its traditional cuisine, prefer to wear fashions that are popular there, and may even put on a fake Seelie accent. To outsiders, fauxseelie are considered just as cringy and weird as rusties, so most of them eventually grow out of this phase as adults. You may find clusters of adult fauxseelie, but they are...not popular, to say the least. They kind of hang out in their own little nerd groups.

That's all I have for now!

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

#ask #askculture #askmogdir

[tianshiisdead]

Just wondering, do you think Yao has a ponytail/long hair or cut short?

Hmm imo he has long hair! My imagined hair journey for him is braid but no shaving (Qing) -> long hair despite the fashion (early republic) -> short hair due to pressure from gov (late republic to early communist) -> starting to grow out again (modern)

Even though the vast majority of Chinese men now have short hair, and long hair isn't encouraged, I always find it a little sad. Hair used to be so important, it was the body your parents gave you, your love and gratefulness to them shown through maintaining long hair and not desecrating that gift. Short hair came through western fashion trends, and I suppose the Manchu queue before that, but for thousands of years it was such an important part of the way the culture understood the body and familial bonds. I think Wang Yao, old as he is, would have been pushed since early Qing to change his hair, and in the end couldn't resist that, but I'd like to think sooner or later he'd return to what he's always known and valued.

#ask #anon #hetalia #hws china

[torterracotta]

BANSHEE???? THE COP?????

look, i went from the available choices, and my vote went to Beto anyway

Let's break these choices down, yeah?

Cyclops - tl;dr There are specific periods of time where Scott is "hot," and the vast majority of the time he isn't! Is he my blorbo? Yes. Do I run a sideblog where the header is his Foxy Grandpa Ass jutting out? Of course. Can I vote him in good conscience? I don't think so.

Colossus - the man spent how much time trying to fuck a fourteen year old? He heard Mutants were moving to a sex cult island and was baffled because his dead pal Jeff was a human. Pass.

Gambit - not even with Rogue's dick.

Wolverine - I only barely believe he can find the clit, and have ZERO confidence he could locate my prostate, and I'm unsure enough about his grooming habits that I wouldn't willingly put any part of myself in any part of him. Pass.

Iceman - Closeted Iceman? Maybe. But out Iceman is an overcompensating baby gay written almost exclusively by straight dudes, and I have a strict policy of never touching white gays who have "BBC" in their search history.

Warren Kenneth Worthington the Third - do you know what happens to Angel's love interests? I'd rather not be hatecrimed by Cameron Hodge for a few sweaty minutes of underwhelming halfhearted bottoming from a princess who provides the own stuffing for his pillows. Keep flying, birdboy.

Nightcrawler - I know, I know, the man is a sex icon, but I'm not getting involved in any of that family drama. If it's not his evil lesbian moms trying to kill me, it'd be his step-sisters trying to get back in his spandex. Not worth it, especially after all that shit in Way of X.

Havok - Matt Fraction's Clint Barton: The Mutant Flavor???? Listen, I adore a broken man who knows his place as much as the next nigga, don't get me wrong, but if I'm not picking Scott, I'm definitely not picking his Luigi.

I do appreciate his commitment to the bit, though.

Banshee - let's jump back to Cyclops for a minute. Without getting into shipping war bullshit, most of the times he's been "hot" are when he's playing off of Emma Frost, right? Emma's tertiary mutation is the ability to make everyone else more interesting just by association, because she's fucking great. I mean I just read an Iron Man book for her, for fuck's sake. Back in the 90's, when she was newly not-evil, she and Banshee were essentially the co-leads of Generation X, a book that, when it wasn't being the New New New Mutants, about two unreasonably sexy people who couldn't stand each other being unreasonably sexy at each other. Even putting that aside (and if you read a few issues, you'll get it), the man's spent decades dedicated to flying around with his tits out due to mysterious clothing damage, amd I appreciate that.

Sunspot - look, I fixated on him when I was nine, as the only character I could find who was like me at all, and that was ignoring all the gay subtext with his best friend even before it turned into outright queerbaiting. I grew up with him, and he's only gotten better since then. He's the only dude in my top 5 muties. He's flawless (give or take bad taste in men and a propensity for being whitewashed), he's perfect, he's hilarious, he's my vote AND yours, he's Sunspot.

Cannonball - in my seminal 2020 fic, "How Many Times Would You Say You've Been In Love," I summed Beto's Best Boy up thusly:

Sam laughed, a quiet, gentle, chuckle that crinkled the corners of his eyes, not that Roberto could bring himself to look at them. Instead his own eyes travelled everywhere else, from Sam's mess of a mop, to his strong jaw, to the gap in his front teeth, his okay-for-a-white-boy lips, the freckles that covered his nose, and ending up… 

Do I love Sam as a character? Absolutely, he's one of the best. But he's not hot, he's a lapse in taste. Love conquers all, they say. 😔

Bishop - as one of exactly two Black men the poll listed, I want to give Bishop his flowers, but I have never read a good Bishop story where he wasn't awful. No baby gays, but no self-hating Black genocidaires, either.

#x men

[theequeerstrian]

A person just needs to take one look at a normal shelter and see the overwhelming evidence of dog breeds average households can't handle. It's all Pit Bulls, German Shepherds, and Huskies. All poorly bred messes of dog genetics and bad instincts. Sure there's some great dogs in that mix, but there's so many more dangerous ones.

To be fair, the vast majority of non-mutt dogs in shelters are also from backyard (aka irresponsible) breeders. Puppies from responsible breeders will always come with a puppy return clause (this is one thing I'm unrelenting on- certain health tests are as needed per breed, but the puppy return is crucial) SPECIFICALLY so that their dogs never end up falling between the cracks and going to shelters and poorly matched homes.

But.. you're absolutely right in that most of those breeds are POOR matches for the average pet home. The best bred husky, GSD, pit bull, etc will not last long in a household that's not prepared for a dog with high drive and/or high prey drive. Pit bulls were bred to fight (at first bulls, and then each other- the fact that aggression is a feature and not a bug is simply fact), German Shepherds were originally bred for herding but have largely been adapted as guard/attack dogs, especially since WWI (though obviously the herding instinct remains, it's just amped up and more readily turned on non-livestock targets), and huskies were bred to have the stamina/drive/love for running miles and miles at a time, often for several days in a row. Sure, not every musher is doing an iditarod every other week, but pulling a loaded sled even for just a few miles is HARD WORK and the resulting dog NEEDS HARD WORK.

There's a huge issue, especially that I've seen in the last decade or so, of people getting dogs purely off aesthetic. Huskies are pretty, Central Asian Shepherd's Dogs are big and "impressive" (this one's usually cis men who haven't examined their relationship to toxic masculinity lol), Pit Bulls have a built in "poor me" sob story for their owners (swear to god this is why half the people who have them do, they love that they get to whine about their poor nanny dog being targeted), and so on and so forth.

When I was a kid you didn't just?? Get any dog? Maybe it was my environment, but I distinctly remember seeing shows on animal planet talk about how important it is to get a breed of dog that matches your lifestyle. I had the AKC's Complete Dog Book and read it cover to cover several times picking out my favorite breeds. As a kid I couldn't FATHOM actually getting to own a doberman, as a child I knew I couldn't manage one so I didn't think it possible. I stayed obsessed though, and as I grew up and was more and more determined to have one someday so I adapted MYSELF to be a good fit for one. When I approached breeders, the ones who were ready to just toss me a puppy no questions asked didn't get any further inquiry. The one who actually screened me, interviewed me to make sure I was qualified? To make sure I wasn't going to dump the dog as soon as it became inconvenient? That's the one I got my dog from. Kandi's puppy contract has a no breeding clause (or if I did want to breed, I had to work directly with the breeder to ensure he was correctly titled and tested first), and a puppy return clause (breeder told me a story of a person who HAD violated this, and it took him months to find the dog and get it back but he did it and thank god bc the dog had been in rough shape, BUT THAT'S WHAT GOOD BREEDERS DO).

This. Has gotten venty/ranty but what the hey it's 7am and I'm avoiding getting ready for work.

ANYWAY.

TL;DR: generations of selective breeding matter, good breeders matter, pick the dog that matches your lifestyle not your aesthetic, don't buy sob stories from manipulative rescues

[dumbdomb]

come to think of it, i do find it very odd that so many rfems have sent me hate about "being a man," or not to use "femme" but to call myself "fem" instead, bc according to them i'm not a woman. (some wlw people told me that "fem" was for men, so i couldn't use "femme" - even though i'm "not a man"...) but also, by their definition of "female" i'm not a woman, either.

so, not being a "complete female" automatically makes me a man? there isn't really any criteria for the biological sex of males other than not meeting the criteria of a biologically "observable female" sex? this would be claiming that the vast majority of the population is male, only for not meeting the definition of "female." this definition excludes many women who would currently say they are cisgender, intersex, or otherwise not a transgender woman.

the only "significant" sexes are female and male, and any other biological variation would be "irrelevant." people with such natural variations in their hormone levels, external or internal reproductive anatomy, chromosomes, etc. would not be a complete biological female. the assumption that there is an equal standard definition for the male sex is not practiced, relegating many to this category of "male." yet, an "observable female" that doesn't meet the criteria to be considered a "complete female" is not recognized as a biological "male," either.

i saw a post saying something about rfems stating that "women are female people" and everyone responding wildly by asking, incredulously, if women are nothing more than their vulva. but is that not what the proposed definition of who is "female" consists of? bc women, with a vulva, are not "female" if they are "incomplete" and therefore not actually "women" right? and the reason people compare this type of classification of people's bodies with nazism is bc that is essentially what reich agendas entail. it is a very important part of eugenics.

i don't understand how people who are critical of sex-based discrimination against females are not allied with the sex-based discrimination against intersex females? why would "feminists" agree that intersex people are an "irrelevant" category when issues like bodily mutilation, death in womb, and forced sexing or gendering of newborn children (without their parent's knowledge or consent) is "insignificant" to the biological sexes of "female" and "male"? their hatred of patriarchal institutions even makes it difficult to acknowledge sex-based biases and discrimination against males, to have any conversation on how males are not individually a system of oppression but are conditioned to support it the same way patriarchal women are.

i want nothing to do with people who are so full of HATRED for everyone who is not exactly like them, who hate women who are not a "complete or relevant female" like them... and have they all got their blood testsed, chromosomes checked and counted, ultrasounds of their "observable" internal anatomy - or is having a "normal" vulva the only thing that matters to being a "real woman"? bc if so, then why do these people keep sending me so much hate? for having been born with a vulva?! isn't that the very "sex-based discrimination" gc and rfem "females" are against??? seriously...

if it's bc i post consensual kinky ideas about adults with consenting adults, and you're against that, just block my blog!!! i properly tag my posts, and i pay attention to who i rb from - fellow kinksters interested in the same things as i am (which is mostly coy play in the form of cnc - NOT rape play - and nipple play. bc i'm actually quite vanilla, tbh lol). i'm tired of people calling me a misogynist for having sapphic attractions and being queer, or for NOT enjoying misogyny kinks and blocking those that do... it's like no one actually pays any attention to anything, or even cares... if you just don't agree with kinks and erotic sensuality, etc, then why would you spend so much time following my blog and sending me messages? close the page, hit the block button, and if this content isn't suitable to your personal preferences, then you may leave. however, i would recommend using the settings on your blog to filter any tags or keywords you are not comfortable with or want to see. it's not my responsibility to curate content specific to anyone else. if you're seeing posts you don't like, then i'd very much recommend learning how to adjust your settings BEFORE using this site.

#cw vent post

[generalkittysublime]

Watch Out: How fake bags Is Taking Over and What to Do About It

Ah, replica baggage, the hardly ever-ending splurge! I just can’t seem to get enough of these.​ I was at a celebration another day and there was a lady next to me and she or he had one of the most magnificent, saturated Prada bag.​ I used to be intrigued by its exclusive style and design And that i expressed my interest in obtaining it, only to discover that it was on the list of a lot of Duplicate’s out there.​ I had been stunned at first, also to be trustworthy, I was a little upset way too! But, just after I heard about the advantages these replicas offer, I transformed my intellect.​

Firstly, replicas are way cheaper as you will get the same style and design as the initial at a Substantially lower cost.​ You will discover gorgeous replicas of high-class bags from Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and plenty of much more.​ It truly is a great way to get anything inexpensive but nevertheless seem attractive and fashionable.​

Next, the caliber of the replicas presently is de facto superior.​ Lots of businesses use precisely the same elements and craftsmanship as the initial brand name which ensures that you'll be receiving the similar working experience as the original.​ Some companies even offer a a reimbursement assure if you do not like the product or service.​ This makes it much more Safe and sound to get replicas.​

Thirdly, the vast majority of replicas come with comparable options and facts as the initial model.​ Which means that the product or service seems to be much like the authentic and it may even idiot A lot of people.​ So if you would like get men and women's attention and come up with a trend assertion, a replica bag might be an ideal preference.​

Fourthly, It's also possible to get exclusive, confined version layouts from a number of the businesses that market these replica luggage.​ Because of this you can get something refreshing, new and special that not numerous Others will have.​ This will definitely flip some heads and have people today chatting.​

Finally, replica bags are a great selection if you wish to be trendy with no draining your wallet.​ They give the impression of being good, are affordable and a lot of of these give a a refund assurance.​ So, for those who’ve been planning to possess one among the luxurious brands, but have not been capable of find the money for it, then why not go for a duplicate rather?

It truly is happened to me, and I'm guaranteed It is really transpired for you far too.​ You are in a hurry to get a Exclusive current, you really know what you're looking for , and then the subsequent point you recognize you happen to be strolling out with the shop having a knock-off! That's suitable, I am referring to pretend baggage.​

Now don't get me Completely wrong - I'm sure plenty of phony baggage that look definitely superior.​ They may be actually convincing as well as craftsmanship driving them is often fairly extraordinary.​ But The very fact stays that they are phony, and they will never very last given that originals, or provide the similar quality.​

I'd an practical experience with a pretend bag a while again.​ I had been at the market, and I found a fantastic on the lookout handbag.​ I couldn't consider how realistic it seemed, and the seller claimed it was a fresh model that had just occur out.​ So I went forward and bought it, with out supplying it a 2nd imagined.​

The moment I received home, I spotted that one thing wasn't fairly correct.​ I went on the web and did a certain amount of analysis, and it turns out it had been a counterfeit.​ I had been so aggravated and disappointed which i had been taken in by a faux.​

What is a lot more, I was not the only real just one.​ I spoke to a few of my good friends, and it turns out which they had acquired related products with no acknowledging that they were knock-offs.​ At that time, it fake bags had been much too late to perform nearly anything about it.​ We just experienced to simply accept that we were fooled.​

It had been a worthwhile lesson in taking the time to be sure of Everything you're obtaining.​ Just after that experience, I vowed to do my investigate effectively and in no way buy a phony bag yet again.​ Now, I only ever purchase from trusted sources and I'm so much happier for it!

Nonetheless it's not just handbags which have faux variations.​ Shoes, clothing, watches, sunglasses - you title it, there's likely a counterfeit version of it someplace.​ It is a real problem, and it might be hard to tell the distinction between originals and knock-offs.​

That's why professionals advocate acquiring only from reliable sources.​ Buying from vendors that have a superb track record is The obvious way to ensure you're receiving the serious deal.​ And if you're in doubt, it is best to go on to the supply and buy from your model by itself.​ Like that you recognize you are obtaining the real factor.​

For me, shopping for a quality, reliable item is worth the further Price.​ Fake things are just a Untrue financial system - they could glimpse the identical, nonetheless it's only a matter of your time right before they begin to disintegrate.​ That is why I normally go to the trouble to make sure that what I am purchasing is a genuine report.​

Since I have shared the advantages of Replica baggage, let us figure out just what the negatives are.​ Just one important problem that Lots of people have is that they're frightened they're going to get yourself a counterfeit product or service.​ Although this is genuine, if you purchase from a dependable business that gives a a reimbursement promise, You'll be able to be sure you are acquiring a high-excellent product or service.​

Yet another challenge is it could be challenging to differentiate between an actual and a replica.​ This is why it is important to buy from the dependable supply because they are more likely to promote good quality products.​ In some instances, the businesses that sell replicas can be found abroad, that may be some an inconvenience.​

Inspite of these drawbacks, Reproduction baggage are still an attractive option for many people.​ Not simply are they less expensive, but they look equally as great and have the exact same features as an unique style and design.​ But, before you buy a Reproduction bag, Ensure that you do your exploration and purchase from a company you can trust.​ This way, you'll be able to be sure that you happen to be getting the actual offer!

#replica bags designer