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fatehbaz · 3 months

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Endangered Indian sandalwood. British war to control the forests. Tallying every single tree in the kingdom. European companies claim the ecosystem. Spices and fragrances. Failure of the plantation. Until the twentieth century, the Empire couldn't figure out how to cultivate sandalwood because they didn't understand that the plant is actually a partial root parasite. French perfumes and the creation of "the Sandalwood City".

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Selling at about $147,000 per metric ton, the aromatic heartwood of Indian sandalwood (S. album) is arguably [among] the most expensive wood in the world. Globally, 90 per cent of the world’s S. album comes from India [...]. And within India, around 70 per cent of S. album comes from the state of Karnataka [...] [and] the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore. [...] [T]he species came to the brink of extinction. [...] [O]verexploitation led to the sandal tree's critical endangerment in 1974. [...]

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Francis Buchanan’s 1807 A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar is one of the few European sources to offer insight into pre-colonial forest utilisation in the region. [...] Buchanan records [...] [the] tradition of only harvesting sandalwood once every dozen years may have been an effective local pre-colonial conservation measure. [...] Starting in 1786, Tipu Sultan [ruler of Mysore] stopped trading pepper, sandalwood and cardamom with the British. As a result, trade prospects for the company [East India Company] were looking so bleak that by November 1788, Lord Cornwallis suggested abandoning Tellicherry on the Malabar Coast and reducing Bombay’s status from a presidency to a factory. [...] One way to understand these wars is [...] [that] [t]hey were about economic conquest as much as any other kind of expansion, and sandalwood was one of Mysore’s most prized commodities. In 1799, at the Battle of Srirangapatna, Tipu Sultan was defeated. The kingdom of Mysore became a princely state within British India [...]. [T]he East India Company also immediately started paying the [new rulers] for the right to trade sandalwood.

British control over South Asia’s natural resources was reaching its peak and a sophisticated new imperial forest administration was being developed that sought to solidify state control of the sandalwood trade. In 1864, the extraction and disposal of sandalwood came under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department. [...] Colonial anxiety to maximise profits from sandalwood meant that a government agency was established specifically to oversee the sandalwood trade [...] and so began the government sandalwood depot or koti system. [...]

From the 1860s the [British] government briefly experimented with a survey tallying every sandal tree standing in Mysore [...].

Instead, an intricate system of classification was developed in an effort to maximise profits. By 1898, an 18-tiered sandalwood classification system was instituted, up from a 10-tier system a decade earlier; it seems this led to much confusion and was eventually reduced back to 12 tiers [...].

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Meanwhile, private European companies also made significant inroads into Mysore territory at this time. By convincing the government to classify forests as ‘wastelands’, and arguing that Europeans would improves these tracts from their ‘semi-savage state’, starting in the 1860s vast areas were taken from local inhabitants and converted into private plantations for the ‘production of cardamom, pepper, coffee and sandalwood’.

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Yet attempts to cultivate sandalwood on both forest department and privately owned plantations proved to be a dismal failure. There were [...] major problems facing sandalwood supply in the period before the twentieth century besides overexploitation and European monopoly. [...] Before the first quarter of the twentieth century European foresters simply could not figure out how to grow sandalwood trees effectively.

The main reason for this is that sandal is what is now known as a semi-parasite or root parasite; besides a main taproot that absorbs nutrients from the earth, the sandal tree grows parasitical roots (or haustoria) that derive sustenance from neighbouring brush and trees. [...] Dietrich Brandis, the man often regaled as the father of Indian forestry, reported being unaware of the [sole significant English-language scientific paper on sandalwood root parasitism] when he worked at Kew Gardens in London on South Asian ‘forest flora’ in 1872–73. Thus it was not until 1902 that the issue started to receive attention in the scientific community, when C.A. Barber, a government botanist in Madras [...] himself pointed out, 'no one seems to be at all sure whether the sandalwood is or is not a true parasite'.

Well into the early decades of twentieth century, silviculture of sandal proved a complete failure. The problem was the typical monoculture approach of tree farming in which all other species were removed and so the tree could not survive. [...]

The long wait time until maturity of the tree must also be considered. Only sandal heartwood and roots develop fragrance, and trees only begin developing fragrance in significant quantities after about thirty years. Not only did traders, who were typically just sailing through, not have the botanical know-how to replant the tree, but they almost certainly would not be there to see a return on their investments if they did. [...]

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The main problem facing the sustainable harvest and continued survival of sandalwood in India [...] came from the advent of the sandalwood oil industry at the beginning of the twentieth century. During World War I, vast amounts of sandal were stockpiled in Mysore because perfumeries in France had stopped production and it had become illegal to export to German perfumeries. In 1915, a Government Sandalwood Oil Factory was built in Mysore. In 1917, it began distilling. [...] [S]andalwood production now ramped up immensely. It was at this time that Mysore came to be known as ‘the Sandalwood City’.

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Text above by: Ezra Rashkow. "Perfumed the axe that laid it low: The endangerment of sandalwood in southern India." Indian Economic and Social History Review 51, no. 1, pages 41-70. March 2014. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Italicized first paragraph/heading in this post added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

#a lot more in full article specifically about #postindependence indian nationstates industrial extraction continues trend established by british imperial forestry management #and ALSO good stuff looking at infamous local extinctions of other endemic species of sandalwood in south pacific #that compares and contrasts why sandalwood survived in india while going extinct in south pacific almost immediately after european conques #abolition #ecology #imperial #colonial

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a-a-a-anon · 16 days

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#ik bad news gig audio bootlegs exist but i meant video form! like how theres a bootleg full video of the monsters of rock gig!#1 i didnt add bc he did the show (in a diff role) again and theres a vid but.... ade as brad in rocky horror.. i wish there was a recording #also while doing this i found out ade had a sitcom with david mitchell that was lost for years but is now on youtube :) (drs and nurses)#britcom #rik mayall #ade edmondson #adrian edmondson #the young ones #bbc bottom #also i think the btm series 4 scripts were written bc i found a lot of forum posts about it but i couldnt find any archived news articles s #if its fake i wouldnt know sorry!!#and ade says in berserker they were never OFFERED a fourth series which sounds like they werent the ones that turned a fourth series down #so it sounds like they probably wouldve had scripts #also i bet theres so much early work lost media... the comic strip and tyo and filthy rich and catflap....#but i didnt find any info abt any specific scenes/scripts missing #i wish outtakes for filthy rich and catflap and the dangerous brothers existed tho!! and more tyo outtakes!! bloopers my beloved

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leroibobo · 6 months

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with my nakba posts, here's some website recommendations if you want to learn on the history of specific depopulated palestinian areas:

palestine remembered is probably the most famous and comprehensive website with full documentations of former locations and depopulated villages. it also lists information on palestinian refugee camps, guestbooks, and the ability to submit pictures/info if you know of any. information on each village varies.

zochrot is an organization dedicated to teaching both palestinians and israelis about the 1948 nakba (which is not covered well if at all in israeli schools, as you can probably imagine), which includes documenting information on villages and even an app. information on each village varies.

the interactive encyclopedia for the palestinian question's places page has some detailed histories and a map as well, but doesn't go into the detail of the last two sites, and doesn't have pictures or sources.

some villages also have their own websites, and many of them are also in english (for example, the one i linked for kafr bir'im). honestly just look up (village name) + website and if it's there you'll find it.

wikipedia also has surprisingly comprehensive coverage of the villages, the articles include a little more of the "war" background than the other websites do. (and of course since it's wikipedia you can find further sources on there.)

all that remains: the palestinian villages occupied and depopulated by israel in 1948 is a famous book by palestinian historian walid khalidi which gives a detailed account of what became of 400 different depopulated palestinian villages. it was released in 1992, so it's not current, but many of the things he wrote still hold. a lot of the above links use this book as a source.

#palestine #wanted to include villagesofpalestine.com but the website isn't working for me #if anyone knows of any others please feel free to reply/reblog with them :)

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5ummit · 11 months

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New Mature Content Warning Overlay (And How to Get Rid of It)

More fun community label "features"! Unlike the new mandatory label for #NSFW, this one is a bigger deal to me because it affects my entire blog and it can't be avoided by just using a different tag.

Apparently on custom blog layouts, if you happen to post or reblog even a SINGLE post that's been flagged with the mature content community label, a full-page warning overlay will appear blurring out your entire blog that must be manually clicked through every single time the page is refreshed. At first I thought this was just a bug due to my older layout but I've come to realize it's not. It's a feature (as confirmed by this recent changes post) that affects all custom themes. The formatting will vary based on your own theme but here's what it looks like on my blog:

I don't know about you but I find this is stupid and annoying. If it could be dismissed once and never seen again that might be one thing, but that's not the case. The vast majority of my blog is not "mature" enough to warrant such an aggressive and invasive warning. I also think pop-ups are obnoxious in general and I'll be damned if tumblr's going to force me to have one on MY blog.

After some desperate googling for a known workaround and being unable to find even a single mention of it, I decided to take on the challenge myself. I'm not a theme coder, so apologies if there's a better way to do this, but luckily it only took me like 10 minutes to figure out a simple fix, which I'm now sharing with anyone else who may want it:

.community-label-cover__wrapper {display: none}

Just copypaste that somewhere in your CSS and goodbye pop-up!

If you're not sure how to access your theme code, check out this help article. You can also add the code via the Advanced Options menu, which is actually even better (if you can get it to work, it depends on how your theme was coded), because it will then automatically be reapplied to a lot of themes without having to remember to manually add it every time if you change your theme in the future.

Obviously this will only remove it from your own blog for anyone who may visit it. If you never want to see this warning again on other people's blogs you can also add this custom filter to your ad block:

tumblr.com##.community-label-cover__wrapper

Unfortunately I do not have an easy tutorial on hand for this one as the method will depend on your specific ad block app or extension.

Some additional notes:

After adding the theme code and saving the changes, give it a minute to update as it sometimes takes a little while for the page to refresh.

The warning overlay only seems to appear if a "mature" post is on the FIRST page of your blog, which is still annoying and makes the whole thing even more pointless and stupid because what if someone visits any other page of your blog, and oh no, happens to see "mature" content they weren't warned about?!

The warning also appears on direct links to "mature" posts.

This hack has NOTHING to do with entire blogs that have been flagged as NSFW. It only works for non-flagged blogs with custom themes that happen to have individual "mature" posts.

#I'm not letting my entire blog be penalized for a couple rare singular posts that may or may not even be 'mature' enough to warrant it #tumblr may force us to use community labels #and they may have full control over the new blogview #but MY custom blog layout has always been and always will be MINE to format and present however I want #that's the whole point #tumblr #psa #tutorial #my words #tumblr themes #wendy's help desk

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phoenixyfriend · 2 months

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How to Call Your Reps About Gaza

I make a lot of posts telling you to call your reps! Anyway, here's the overall shape of how to argue to them.

Disclaimer: I am not in politics. I do not have experience as a staffer. I am just someone who cares a lot about where things are going, and wants to help. Also, this is specific to the US, because that's where I'm based. Hopefully, people with expertise can add more suggestions on.

Find your elected officials.

My Ko-fi: this took me two days to write up, so uh. If you've got a few dollars, send them my way so I can keep doing this sort of thing, and maybe move out of my parents' house sooner.

General tips:

Be polite, or at least civil. Do not swear or shout at whoever answers the phone. This will quite possibly get your number blocked. Fifty civil calls over the course of several months will do more than one where you shout. You can be frosty, you can say you are disappointed, you can say you find the actions of your reps to be reprehensible or morally bankrupt, sure. But keep calm and aim criticism at the rep, not the staffer.

Keep it short. The staffers who answer call centers are busy. They usually start trying to hurry me off after about two minutes. I've yet to manage a call longer than four or five minutes. Pick one or two topics for the day, and focus on those. Cycle through them every time you call. Stick to just one from day to day if it's a large, ongoing issue like Gaza.

Plan for voicemail. I get voicemail more often than not. My House rep usually has a staffer free, but the Senators are almost always voicemail. This will give you a minute and a half max. Be ready to get your point squeezed into that.

Only call your representatives. The important, powerful word here is "constituent." You will be ignored or even counted against if you are from a different district or state. The first thing you start with is your name and address. A staffer will ask for the information they need. On voicemail, leave your full name, your city and state, and zip code before you go into your message. Do not lie, either. They look these things up in the system when you call. I'm not sure how--I think maybe they have access to a database of registered voters--but every time I call, they ask for my last name and address and at some point say, 'oh, yep, I've got you right here,' which indicates a database of some sort.

Research at least a little bit about their opinions. If they already agree with you, then it's much easier to leave a quick "I support you and want you to know that" to combat anyone who's arguing from the other side. If they don't, then you're best off finding out what specific issue they have so you can know the best kind of comment to leave.

Look up specific bills or arguments. I get daily emails from GovTrack about bills that are on this week's docket or have been voted on in the past day. IDK about anyone else, but being able to say that I disagree specifically with HR 815 or something makes me feel powerful, and possibly like I will be taken more seriously. Sometimes you can start with articles like this one, which include links to specific bills on the official congress website.

Email after if you can. Reportedly less effective, and takes longer, but you are more likely to get a written (canned) response, and it reinforces whatever you called about.

Basic structure of a call, at least as I've been doing it:

"Hi, my name is ____ ____, and I am a constituent from [city, state], [zip]. I am calling to express my opinion on [topic]. I am concerned about [short argument with a clear impact on the topic]. I ask that you support [measure or fellow congress member]/vote [yay/nay on specific legislature]. Thank you for your time, and I hope you keep my opinion in mind."

For this post, the topic can be stated as the war in Gaza, military funding for Israel, or unrest in the Middle East, depending on which you think your elected official will respond to best. That said, the structure should work for whatever your call is about.

Arguments to use against your elected official... or your on-the-fence cousin:

I'll be honest, some of these are not going to do much against your representative. They know the arguments, and have been going over them with each other for months. You just need to have one locked and loaded that they consider relevant instead of a nonstarter, in order to back up your opinion as 'founded' instead of 'nonsense, can be swayed with a good marketing campaign.'

I'll include explanations if I don't think something is self-evident (or needs more evidence to tell your cousin), but in most of them I'll provide some suggested verbiage that you can tweak as needed, and for a few of them, that's really enough.

THESE ARE FOR THE TOPIC OF CONCERN, ONLY. You still need to end each one with "I ask that the [official] votes to [action]" at the end. Give them something actionable (example from Feb. 13th). My go-tos right now:

Both chambers: Reinstate funding for UNRWA

Both chambers: Place mandatory restrictions on any aid to Israel, with contractual threats to cut funding if Netanyahu and his government continue to disregard civilian life

Senate: Put support behind Bernie Sanders and his motion to restrict funding to Israel until a humanitarian review of the IDF’s actions in Gaza has been completed (S.R. 504) (Tabled by the Senate on 1/16, but it is being brought back in as conditions continue to escalate)

House: Put support behind Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s petition for the US government to recognize the IDF’s actions in Gaza as ethnic cleansing and forced displacement, and put a stop to it.

House: Put support behind H.R. 786, introduced by Rep. Cori Bush, calling for an immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.

What Not to Say

"There is no threat to Israel." I've talked about this elsewhere, but the short version is that this will be basically laughed out as you not knowing what you're talking about.

Anything generically antisemitic. (I mean, it might work on some of the white supremacists, but do you really want to encourage that thinking? No, so don't do it.)

Facts that you "heard somewhere" but cannot find a reliable source for. If it's being reported by the New York Times, NPR, or the BBC, it's probably trustworthy by government standards. If it's not a super common statistic, cite the journal you got it from by name. Remember, you aren't arguing to tumblr mutuals. You are arguing to your elected official or your 'I don't really pay attention' cousin. When it comes to this, big name news sources are better.

Unrealistic demands for complete isolationism, permanently abandoning Israel to its own devices, supporting Hamas, etc. Again, you will not be taken seriously. Pick an argument they might actually listen to, and use it to press them towards a possible solution. You want them to believe that if they adjust their position, they will be doing the will of most of their constituents, and thus more likely to get reelected.

The Ethics Argument

Third-party reporting has stated that that nearly 29,000 Gazans are dead since Oct. 7th, as of 2/18/24. The vast majority of those are civilians, and over half are children. Palestinians in Gaza are facing an acute hunger crisis threatening to become a full-blown famine.

The International Court of Justice has found that there is credible reason to believe that the state of Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza.

This does not mean that every single Israeli is complicit. It does mean that the government, particularly Netanyahu and his associates, has been reprimanded by a large, diverse coalition of countries, and has consistently refused to listen to that court since.

This argument will possibly work on your cousin. Less likely to work on your elected official. They already know the numbers. I just wanted to get it out of the way first.

The Re-Election Argument: Michigan vs New York

Meanwhile, this is possibly the most effective. Again, this is not an argument of ethics. This is an argument of "how can I make my elected official do what I want." We do not use only the purest moral argument. We use what works.

What to say to your elected official: Michigan, as a swing state, was won by democrats on the power of the Arab-American vote in the 2020 election. We (either party) are at risk of losing Michigan due to the current Congressional approach to the Gaza conflict, as that demographic is now polling as likely to abstain from voting entirely. The risk of losing several congressional districts due to the Jewish vote is a real one, but the risk of losing the the executive branch is greater, especially after what we saw with Suozzi. Supporting Palestine might lose us parts of New York, but supporting Israel will lose us Michigan.

Explanation: Something that has been taking up a lot of time and space in the election coverage is the situation in Michigan, and more recently, there has been attention paid to the special election of New York's third district, AKA the "who gets to replace disgraced George Santos" competition.

Michigan is traditionally a swing state. While 2.1% doesn't sound like a lot, that is some 211k-278k people (depending on your source), and while not all of them can vote... Michigan was won by about 154k. Arab-Americans are not the only relevant demographic, but they sure are an important one, and they are vocally opposed to the situation. Approval has dropped from 59% to 17%. From that same article:

As Axios notes, Biden won Michigan in 2020 by 154,000 votes, but there are at least 278,000 Arab Americans in Michigan. Biden took Arizona, a state with an Arab American population of 60,000, by only 10,500 votes. In Georgia, Biden prevailed with a margin of 11,800 voters, in a state that has an Arab American population of 57,000.

Democrats cannot afford to lose these states. Pressure your congresspeople about that, especially if you live in one of those states. I assume most Arab-Americans in said states are already calling every day; the rest of you can join in.

Meanwhile, most Jews (considered the most pro-Israel demographic by strategists) in America are concentrated in a very small number of electoral districts. Of the twenty most-Jewish, ten are in New York, which is why I put it up in the section header.

One of those districts was won by a Republican in 2022: George Santos, New York's third congressional district. Following his scandals and ousting, the seat was up for a special election, and the two candidates were Tom Suozzi, a democrat who held the seat previously (he decided to run for governor, and lost), and Mazi Pilip, a Nassau county legislator who was of Ethiopian Jewish background and had been in the IDF. She ran on a campaign that leaned strongly pro-Israel and anti-immigration, and when Suozzi won, she interrupted his victory speech to accuse him of supporting a genocide against Israel due to his rather centrist, rather milquetoast stance on the conflict during his election campaign.

Now, Suozzi's win probably had more to do with Pilip being anti-choice than her pro-Israel arguments, but he still won.

Democrats can better risk possibly losing a few seats in NY than definitely losing three swing states.

"But I don't want Dems to win their districts after what they've been--" Nope. Listen to me. Surveys indicate that Republicans are on average more pro-Israel, because Trump and Netanyahu are buddy-buddy, and we do not have a viable third option.

Also, again, this is about convincing Dems to be better. "If you do not vote to put restrictions on funding to Israel, I will not vote for you in November" is a lot more powerful than "I will not vote for you either way, because of what you've been doing, but you should do what I say anyway."

The Re-Election Argument: Risk of Escalation

So, that thing I said about Trump and Netanyahu?

Yeah, so, while Biden is giving Israel military aid while cautioning them to slow down and be careful, Trump is... complicated, but suffice to say he's much closer to Netanyahu on a personal level than Biden is. Biden's relation with Netanyahu is reportedly pretty frosty, while Trump's is based on relations through the Kushners.

Just from wikipedia:

Netanyahu made his closeness to Donald Trump, a personal friend since the 1980s, central to his political appeal in Israel from 2016.[21] During Trump's presidency, the United States recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and brokered the Abraham Accords, a series of normalization agreements between Israel and various Arab states.

Trump's been more all-over-the-place recently, badmouthing Netanyahu for being what Trump perceives as a loser, which complicates understanding what his approach is. It's kind of incoherent right now.

Given Trump's general history of being pro-Israel, though, and the attempts by House Republicans to push through a bill of unconditional funding for Israel. It failed, but notable is that the more recent bill passed in part because it was paired with aid for Ukraine and Taiwan (something Dems are much more invested in having happen).

What to say to your elected official: If Trump is reelected due to his current appearance of being more critical of Netanyahu, there is evidence from his presidency to indicate that he will support Israel much less critically if elected. While he claims to want to settle the Middle East, it seems incredibly likely that he will worsen the situation for Palestinians, and ramp up retaliatory strikes to groups like the Houthis in a manner that will impact non-military parties, igniting tensions that are already tenuous.

The Disrespect/Wild Card Argument

This particular argument is best used against the Very Patriotic Politicians who are more concerned with the US's image and Being The Alpha Nation than with other things. Basically, this might work on Republicans.

This isn't really something I believe in, as a matter of foreign policy, buuuut it might work on your rep, so. Consider it!

What to say to your elected official: With Israel's recent actions in ignoring Biden, blocking US-sent aid like those flour trucks that got stopped at the Rafah border because they'd be distributed by UNWA, and generally Disrespecting The USA and Being Unpredictable is not only making the US look bad for being unable to wrangle a smaller country, but also making it so we are less able to wrangle other countries in the future, because Israel cannot be predicted and might set someone off.

The Europe and Reputation Argument

What to say to your elected official: The United States is losing credibility as a world power known for its military and ability to manage international disputes on behalf of the UN, because it is seemingly unable to influence Israel, and losing credibility as an upstanding moral state that is not doing foreign coups and banana republics anymore, as it appears to be tacitly supporting Israel's ICJ-labelled genocide, which is a really bad look with the other Western Powers.

I'm not entirely sure who this might work on, but there's gotta be at least a few politicians who are really concerned about America's image, more than about actually doing the right thing. Figure out if your politician is one of them.

If necessary, you can bring up how Trump is threatening to pull US support for NATO if Russia attacks someone.

The Middle East Stability Argument: Iran-backed Militias

What to say to your elected official: I'm concerned that the continued support of Israel, and thus the funding of their actions in Gaza, will increase the instability of Iran-backed militias, as we have already seen with the Houthis and Hezbollah. Entire Muslim-majority nations are showing increased displeasure not only with Israel, but with the US by extension. We cannot afford another war in the Middle East when we haven't yet pulled all our troops from the last one, not with the recent and recurring economic recessions. Any situation would also very likely be complicated or inflamed by the growing tensions among Eritrea, Djibouti, and Ethiopia regarding Red Sea access as well.

Use this on the ones that claim to be pro-military or pro-veteran. See what they said about HR 815 before the foreign military funding amendment was added.

The Middle East Stability Argument: Egypt

What to say to your elected official: Egypt's government has been unstable since the Arab Spring, and even now the military government is incredibly unpopular. With that existing instability, the addition of economic strain from the reduced usage of the Suez canal, the international disputes occurring because they're the main throughway for aid into Gaza, and the threat of a sudden influx of nearly one and a half million Palestinian refugees should Israel continue to push south... Egypt is looking at a possible near-collapse as we've seen in nearby nations suffering similar instabilities.

Explanation: It took several years for Egypt to really start recovering from the revolts in 2013, and it has applied for four IMF loans in recent years. The current government is unpopular to such a degree that they are looking to build an entire new capital from scratch in the middle of the desert so that they're less open to the risk of civilian uprisings; one of the primary causes for civilian dissatisfaction is economic issues.

Due to Houthi attacks at the Bab al-Mandab Strait, traffic through the Suez canal is down massively, and since the canal "represents almost 5% of the GNP and 10% of GDP and is one of Egypt’s most important sources of hard currency." (src) Various sources are reporting that trade through the canal is down 40-50%, which is putting more strain on the already unstable economic and political situation.

Finally, Egypt's population is about 110 million, but the governorate that shares a border with Israel and Gaza, North Sinai, has a population of barely 500,000. A push of one and a half million starving, injured people will, very suddenly, nearly quadruple the population of the governorate, and require extreme aid response from Egypt's government to keep alive and prevent a larger crisis in North Sinai and neighboring governorates.

The Middle East Stability Argument: Normalized Relations

What to say to your elected official: I am concerned that Israel's continued attack on Gaza is jeopardizing any chance of normalized relations with the Arab states in the future. American has put a lot of work into trying to get these various countries to normalize with Israel, and our funding of the current attacks on Gaza are sabotaging all that effort.

This one can be combined with the Iran-Backed Militias argument: Israel, in pursuit of revenge against Hamas, is setting itself up to be in more danger long-term, rather than less.

The International Trade Argument

What to say to your elected official: I am concerned about how the war in Gaza is impacting international trade and shipping costs. With the Suez Canal down to half its usual capacity and the Panama Canal raising costs and dropping capacity in response to the water restrictions, along with rising fuel costs in Europe and Asia, global trade is incredibly strained. We are being relegated to the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Horn, and the Malacca strait for much of intercontinental trade, and the macroeconomic projections are looking very bad for America.

The Domestic Economics Argument

What to say to your elected official: Many of the plans for Israeli military funding cause damage to other parts of the budget. For instance, a recent plan put forward by the Republicans of the House suggested IRS cuts in order to move that money, a plan which would impact the US budget negatively in the long term; we need those 14 billion being spent domestically, not supporting an overreaction/possible genocide in Gaza.

Explanation: In general, pick something receiving budget cuts that your congressperson will care about. I care about IRS funding, and saw it mentioned as a target in an article, so that's what I've got in my suggested verbiage up there.

The fewer people that are working for the IRS, the more they focus on auditing poor people (simple, easy taxes) and the less they can effectively audit rich people (complicated, time-consuming taxes), which means rich people are more likely to get away with evading millions or even billions in taxation. So yeah, you want more funding in the IRS if you are poor. They are already auditing you. You want them to audit the big guys.

The Russia and China Argument

What to say to your elected official: I am worried that the current focus on funding Israel without restriction is causing us to lose sight of the international threat posed by Russia and China. Russia is actively invading Ukraine, which continues to put massive strain on the European economy with regards to oil prices, especially with the Suez situation, and China has been testing missiles near Taiwan, and thus testing US responsiveness to those threats, for months now. We cannot afford to support an internationally unpopular war if we want to remain ready for Russia and China.

This is less likely to work on Republicans, since Trump is friendly with Russia, but hey, give it a shot if they're one of the ones who aren't fully in his camp.

EDIT 2/22/24: I'm a bit unsure of this tactic, but I'm putting it out there with hopes that someone with more political experience can offer feedback:

"Congress, and the US government in general, has promised to sanction Russia for the alleged assassination of one man within a week of the suspicious death, after five months of refusing to enact even slight consequences on Israel for the deaths of nearly thirty thousand, half of which are children. This is ethically questionable at best, but for the interests of elected officials, it is a very bad look. The mismatch shows a massive bias by the American government in regards to Israel's ongoing mass murder, with over two million facing famine as a result of Israel's aid blocking, and America's reputation on the world stage, as well as individual politicians' reputations domestically with constituents, is plummeting."

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Finally, my ko-fi again. I spent a long time on this and I'd like to move out of my parents' house sooner rather than later. If you appreciate my time and effort, please feel free to donate a couple bucks.

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plaguedocboi · 7 months

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Waterfalls! These gorgeous, powerful features of nature have been oddly lacking in my past lists, I think in part because their danger has always seemed more “obvious” to me. But doing the research for this list has reawakened my phobia of the water. Some of the later entries (numbers 9 and 10 especially) brought back anxieties that I thought I had gotten over long ago, but it was kind of thrilling. Like watching a particularly scary horror movie. Let’s get into it!

1. Underwater Waterfall, Mauritius

No, it’s not really a waterfall. It’s just an optical illusion caused by sand falling off the island’s slope down into the deeper water below. But it looks cool and scary, and the drop-off is 2.5 miles deep so that’s pretty impressive and I think it deserves at least a mention.

2. Blood Falls, Antarctica

There’s nothing particularly dangerous about this one, it just looks incredibly creepy. Obviously, it’s not actually blood, it’s just water that’s very rich in iron. But the really fascinating part of this waterfall is that its source seems to be a subglacial lake that contains a unique microbial ecosystem which has been isolated for two million years! These microbes are like nothing else we’ve ever observed in nature before. They live in an incredibly cold and extremely saline lake, and metabolize sulfur and iron ions with no oxygen present. They are being used as a model to study what life on ice-covered alien planets could be like.

3. Khone Falls, Laos

This waterfall is not nearly as famous as some of the others on this list, which is surprising because it’s the widest waterfall in the world, with an average width of six miles! Although not particularly tall, it is the second most powerful waterfall in the world, more than double the power of Niagara Falls! The Khone falls divide the Upper and Lower Mekong river, making travel by boat between the north and south impossible. What makes it kind of unsettling to me is that during the rainy seasons the falls are basically swallowed up by the river, turning them from a spectacular waterfall to a series of massive rapids.

4. Huntington Gorge, Vermont

When water levels are low, this river is a popular and scenic swimming spot, and the canyon has an almost otherworldly quality with its unique bends and overhangs. Unfortunately, these very features are what makes it so dangerous. Much like the infamous Strid, the gorge is full of holes, steep drop-offs, and powerful currents hidden beneath the water, which can suck people in and trap them against the cliff walls. Over fifty people have died here since the 1950s, and many more have been injured. With proper precautions, one can safely explore the gorge and swim in the river, but don’t forget that this water has swallowed up many people before you.

5. Victoria Falls, Zambia

I’m sure most of you already know about Mosi-oa-Tunya, more widely called Victoria Falls, as the largest waterfall in the world. Formed as the Zambezi river pours into a series of massive gorges, this curtain of water spans nearly a mile and falls 300 feet with such force that columns of rising spray can be seen for miles around. Despite this, the pools around the lip of the falls can be relatively tame, and locals have fished while balancing on the edge of the cliff for generations. The safest and most famous of these fishing holes is the Devils Pool, which allows you to literally swim right up to the edge of the world’s biggest waterfall. The pool is actually very safe when the correct precautions are taken, and I can only find one death attributed to the pool specifically, when a tour guide in 2009 fell while trying to help a man who had slipped and was dangling off the edge (and, honestly, I was expecting a lot more deaths given the amount of clickbait articles advertising it as the most deadly swimming hole in the world). Although that was the only death from the Devils Pool, there have been many other deaths at Victoria Falls, mostly tourists who underestimate the power of the river or get too close to the edge. So if you ever visit this spectacular waterfall, please observe it from a safe distance and follow all the rules.

6. Huka Falls, New Zealand

This is not a traditional waterfall, but rather a series of small waterfalls along a narrow stretch of the Waikato river, creating an incredibly turbulent chasm that ends in a whirlpool. The 300-foot wide river is funneled into a 50-foot wide stream, causing a torrent of water that flows at a rate of 58,000 gallons per second. Obviously, this is not an area that you should get in the water, but not everyone takes that advice. There have been multiple deaths at this waterfall, and a few narrow escapes, including two swimmers who, incredibly, survived after trying to raft down the falls on pool toys. Please, for the love of god, don’t do that.

7. Niagara Falls, US/Canada

These falls are the only place on this list that I’ve visited, and I can tell you they are certainly an incredible sight, but also rather intimidating due to their sheer size and power. These three massive waterfalls are fed by the Great Lakes and, combined, have nearly 700,000 gallons of water thundering down every second. There is also a permanent whirlpool in the river that has existed for over 4,000 years and reaches depths of 125 feet! Besides being huge and awe-inspiring, these waterfalls are known for their appeal to daredevils who have gone over the edge in barrels or, in one case, a giant rubber ball. But these famous success stories are punctuated with tragedy. Roughly 20-30 people die at Niagara Falls every year. Most of these, sadly, are suicides, but others are failed attempts to replicate the successful daredevils of the past, and others are accidental. An estimated 5,000 bodies were recovered at the bottom of the falls between 1850 and 2011.

8. Murchison Falls, Uganda

Also known as Kabalega Falls, this is the worlds most powerful waterfall. Formed as the Nile River flows from Lake Kyoga to Lake Albert, this waterfall is so strong it literally causes the ground to shake around it. Here, the Nile is constricted from a river nearly 400 ft wide to a passage only 20 ft wide, creating an incredibly turbulent and violent tunnel of water that tears its way into the pool below at 79,000 gallons per second. And this is no ordinary pool. Waiting below the falls is the highest concentration of large crocodiles observed anywhere in the world, waiting for any dead or stunned animals caught in the falls to wash into their lair. Although the waterfall and surrounding park are now a beautiful tourist attraction and wildlife refuge, the history of the falls includes tales of human and animal sacrifices, thrown in alive to appease the gods that some believed resided beneath the raging waters.

9. Bath Fountain, Jamaica

This is just a random little waterfall along a hiking trail, but the video triggered some intense bathophobia in me for the first time in a while. Like, I was scared to get in the shower after watching this. Proceed with caution:

youtube

10. Kipu Falls, Hawaii

This one scares me because, despite my research, I can’t actually figure out what the hell is happening here. Multiple people have died here; all tourists, all drownings, all of seemingly very unclear causes. Kipu Falls is a beautiful and popular swimming spot, and locals frequently dive off the top of the falls with seemingly no danger. However, five deaths over the course of five years from 2006-2011 challenged its reputation of being a safe swimming hole. All the articles I could find seem to repeat the same information; there is no current in the pool and the waterfalls are not especially powerful. Despite these established facts, all five deaths were the same. Someone jumped in, surfaced, and then were dragged back down to the bottom of the pool and held there until they died. This has resulted in a lot of speculation, including everything from a hidden whirlpool current to evil spirits. I’m just. Really unsettled by the lack of information on this one. Every article I found was published in 2011 and I couldn’t find any updates, which hopefully means people aren’t still dying here, but… what the fuck???? Was going on????? Sorry guys this one might not be as dangerous as some of the others but it freaks me out a lot so it’s getting a higher rating. I want to know what’s going on but I’m sure not going to investigate it myself.

#long post #water rating #bathophobia

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professorcalculusstanaccount · 1 year

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Tintin through time!

Thought it would be fun to have my various designs for Tintin in one post. The canon comics have a floating timeline and Tintin never ages. I think rooting him in a specific time and context makes him feel a little more real (also I am a sucker for historical fiction). Click below for a potted timeline and notes about each design!

Left to right, top to bottom:

Child - in my timeline Tintin was born in 1915, a year into the First World War. He was probably picked on a lot by his peers for being small, ginger and slightly effeminate, and was picked on by adults for being “difficult” and asking too many questions.

Early canon - He leaves school early and becomes a reporter at 14. He’s unhinged, he’s blasé, he dresses like Spongebob. Coming right out of Catholic school he has a lot of unhealthy beliefs he needs to confront and unlearn. I imagine his editor is a pretty shady person as they are willing to send this kid off to dangerous places. His naivety prevents him from spotting any red flags at first.

Late canon - Tintin as we know him! His journalism career is at its peak at the tender age of 17. He’s found a family and stability at Marlinspike. His politics are evolving. He is, however, pretty neglectful of his own personal life, almost fully focusing on his career. He’s starting to grow wary of his editor and they frequently argue, Tintin often winning out as he knows it’s his articles that sell papers.

Young adult - With the Second World War breaking out this is an unstable time in his life. He’s come to terms with being gay but is fired from his paper after being forcibly outed. Tintin and the Marlinspike team take fighting fascism into their own hands.

For his design here he wears a turtleneck like Captain Haddock, glasses like Professor Calculus (also representing a renewed perspective on things) and his hair is more relaxed like Chang’s! The idea was to show how he has been impacted by the people he cares about.

After the war ends he struggles with unemployment and burnout, insecure that he might have peaked as a teenager.

Middle aged - It’s the late 50s - early 60s, Tintin is jaded and cynical but still kind and willing to help others. He is absolutely horrified by the events of WW2 and carries an enormous sense of guilt, feeling he didn’t do enough. His faith in journalism has also been thoroughly shaken, witnessing the spectacular failing of the system himself, and realising there are people who genuinely do not care for the truth, and are only concerned with power.

Elderly - if he somehow makes it to old age he’d be a chaotic little old man who doesn’t give a Single Shit. It’s the late 80s and early 90s, at this point he has retired from journalism and has published his own books, and has taken to becoming a full time political activist (here he’s wearing an AIDS awareness ribbon from 1991, in the 70s Herge had Tintin wear a helmet displaying a symbol for nuclear disarmament). Kids adore him, cops hate him!

He has taken to technology, being an early adopter of the Internet and desktop computers. He and Chang have since been able to reunite with Chang’s family and they often spend time with Didi’s grandkids!

I don’t know what would kill him. Old age? A car bomb? Maybe he falls over badly and bangs his head one last time. I don’t think it’s my place to decide.

#fanart #tintin #adventures of tintin #photoset #headcanon #historical fashion #might do this again for other characters!#professor calculus would be very interesting to research for #homophobia mention

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lilyginnyblackv2 · 1 year

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I think a lot of Buddy Daddies fans will be interested in this article by Unseen Japan entitled: How discriminatory comments by Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio's secretary may lead to actual reform on LGBTQ+ issues in Japan.

Here is an excerpt from the article (with text provided underneath):

Text: Just days after Prime Minister Kishida minced words on legalizing same-sex marriage, his secretary Arai Masayoshi made things worse. Speaking to reporters off the record, Arai expressed his distaste for sexual minorities, saying, “I don’t want them living next to me either. ”Arai’s comments very much made it on the record. The ensuing backlash led to Kishida summarily sacking him. Arai’s blatant discrimination prompted politicians and activists to decry his comments and reignited discussions on the government’s failure to protect sexual minorities.

(Bold done by me for emphasis and to highlight what Arai said, specifically.)

There are also a lot of quotes by politicians in the article as well. One, Koizumi Shinjiro, makes this comment:

Text: Looking at the news reports on these statements, once again I feel that the government’s efforts to tackle the declining birth rate on a different dimension will never come to fruition if their policy is based on denying diverse values and ways of life [3].

It should be noted that many of the politicians, activists, and every day people in Japan do not agree with these sentiments and actually support same-sex marriage rights. Unseen Japan made a Twitter post about this, which I will link below.

Text: A new telephone poll by Kyodo News says that, in the wake of discriminatory comments against LGBTQ people by PM Kishida’s (former) secretary, a full 64% of people in Japan support same sex marriage rights. Only 24.9% oppose.

And the wild thing is that Buddy Daddies is airing right now, right when it seems like issues regarding same-sex marriage, discrimination, and general rights are all starting to reach a boiling point in Japan. We have this show airing about two hitmen living together and raising a child together. IN MODERN DAY 2023 JAPAN.

That’s the big thing. They aren’t raising a kid together in a made up fantasy land or in a sci-fi future world or in a city based off of NYC. Kazuki and Rei are raising Miri in modern day, 2023, Japan.

When Kazuki and Rei are at Miri’s daycare, listening to her speech with all the other parents (moms, really) like this:

They are going to be perceived as a same-sex couple. When the government official was looking over their paper work like this:

He was perceiving them as a same-sex couple.

We know that one of the theme’s of the series is “two people of the same sex raising a child together.” That was a modern day theme that they wanted to explore. And they are exploring it so mundanely. Like, there are some ridiculous aspects to the series, but those aspects aren’t connected to them being two guys raising a child. The ridiculous stuff usually stems from the conflicting aspects of their job and caring for Miri + their general personalities.

Instead, we are getting a story that is normalizing the concept of a same-sex couple (as society would perceive them) raising a kid together. Right when there is a shitstorm going on in the Japanese government around discriminatory statements about sexual minorities by the PM, the PM’s secretary, and other politicians in PM’s political party in the past (like back in 2018).

This is kinda revolutionary by not being revolutionary at all, and just presenting everything in a realistic and normal way (in regards to the more SOL aspects, anyway). And that, in the current Japanese social and political climate surrounding LGBT+ based issues, makes it a very queer series. Even if the creators weren’t intending on that.

And now, I am done finishing on this topic (at least for now), lol.

#Buddy Daddies #KazuRei #Kazuki Kurusu #Rei Suwa #same-sex marriage in Japan #Japanese government and politics #Japanese society #Japanese LGBT issues #LGBT #queer #queer media #long post #image heavy post

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intermundia · 4 months

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im obsessed with the cover of this magazine i found from 1999 which i think looks like the jedi order had some kind of a space tiger beat equivalent full of hot gossip about notable jedi lol

there are a couple good quotes in the article, like here's ewan about the jedi on screen:

"They frown a bit, and they're good fighters. They stand for everything that's good. Nobody frowns better than Liam and l in this movie because we have the Jedi frown. We're just kind of cool geezers."

i genuinely believe that the decision to have the jedi frown was enough to tank their reputation with a large number of fans who found that off-putting and cold. if the jedi had smiled more, i guarantee that the number of fans who say that they were responsible for their own fall would be much smaller.

like think about it!! literally just bc mace windu frowned at anakin in the phantom menace, people malign his character so much. they read it as anger or disdain, but he was just frowning bc the jedi frown. they are serious people!! yoda said it in episode 5: "a jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind."

there is a lot that can be unpacked about frowning, the american norms of smiling and facial performance of emotions, and the discomfort people feel when those norms are violated. as someone with flat affect, i FEEL THAT. i love that the jedi are serious and focused. they're space wizard monks, yk?

the other good quote is about how ewan intentionally tried to match alec guinness's voice:

"in the scene in his house where he shows Luke his laser sword for the first time, he's got such a specific voice — the Obi-Wan voice we know... kind of a fatherly voice."

ewan attempting to sound fatherly did things to those of us who are.. sensitive to such things 😅 it's like catnip for my brain personally lol

#obi-wan kenobi #light of my life #i love the potent late 90s energy of this magazine #i love the middle age sound guy being featured in a bubble like a boyband member #let alone boss nass lmao #my library #will get off ebay challenge: failed

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utilitycaster · 2 months

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Do you think part of the D20 journalistic bias comes from D20 being edited? It gives the appearance of much more effortless play and lets them control the pacing in a way unedited play like CR simply can't do. They get to (potentially) hide a lot of stuff people would jump on as flaws while CR has no choice but to let it all play out. I greatly prefer CR's approach, despite it biting them in the ass a bit through no fault of their own.

Answering these both together to group cause and my opinions, and I do want to note this is specifically about journalism/press coverage, not their respective fandoms even though there's obviously some overlap.

I think there's a couple things, but I do want to note this was actually prompted by Daggerheart, not Critical Role. The response from several prominent voices in the Actual Play journalism community, whom I will not name here but whom I do not respect intellectually, really was, within hours of the open beta (which as far as I know they didn't have early access to - more on that later) "um it could be better, I don't like xyz and also it's sooooooo important to have criticism" and again, it is important to have criticism, but also you act like D20 has never had a mediocre moment and that Kollok is brilliant, so.

This...got away from me a bit. I'd say I'm sorry but actually I adore writing thousands of words about actual play and it will happen again but I'm putting the detailed answer below a cut. The short answer is I think a lot of Actual Play journalists actually sort of fell into their jobs through being vaguely involved in nerd spaces and aren't actually equipped to talk intelligently about TTRPGs and actual play as a medium that should, at its best, be a perfect fusion of narrative and mechanics. So instead they're distracted by flashy edits and bright lights and cool noises and some abstract concept of "novelty" and write only about that. Also Critical Role is the 700 lb gorilla in the AP space (though not, actually, the TTRPG space) and doesn't give them early access and that's meaaaaaan. Indeed, for all I think a lot of their coverage of D20 and Worlds Beyond Number is obsessively fawning, I also think it's extremely surface level, frequently factually wrong, and fails to get at what's truly excellent about those shows either.

I think, honestly, the biggest one is that I don't actually think a lot of Actual Play journalists watch series in full. I was looking for Polygon coverage of Fantasy High Junior Year and they have one glowing article but it's more about Fantasy High as setting and institution and D20 "changing the game" (also more on this later) to the point of outright contradicting the pull quotes they used from interviewing Brennan Lee Mulligan (also more on this later). So I started looking through their coverage and actually, quite a number of their write-ups are based on only one episode, or half a season. Clearly, they haven't read the full open beta (nor have I, but I think their complaints about the character build process belie a profound misunderstanding of what TTRPGs are, also more on this later). So editing is certainly part of it because it's really easy to see cool special effects and sound design within one episode and shit out a hacky article about it, whereas actually getting to the substance - character relationships, cohesive narrative, storytelling - requires work that I do not think they're doing. And on the one hand I do kind of get it, because yeah, if journalism is your livelihood then you perhaps do not have the time to watch 4 hours of D&D a week for 2-3 years if you're only going to get one article every six months out of it. But I don't think the answer is "focus intently on Microsoft Powerpoint-esque scene transition tricks while ignoring that nothing occurring at the table is actually fun to watch." For more on this, see this post.

The second, which is very relevant to Daggerheart but also is actually a big gap in D20 and WBN coverage in my opinion, and which I put in the tags, is that I actually don't think a lot of journalists have a solid understanding of TTRPGs nor of most genres. And I think Critical Role has a particularly good understanding of both these things, actually, if one skewed towards collaborative storytelling that is not rules-light. I think one really big example is that one person within the space is mad at the Daggerheart questions for the character archetypes because what if your character doesn't fit these. I think this is dumb as shit. I actually think that a common criticism of D&D - that you can't play ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING - is not valid, or rather, it's a valid opinion to hold but if you want to play a character who doesn't fit into the available archetypes perhaps you need to find another game. We all inherently understand that Blades in the Dark characters will be members of a criminal organization in a relatively low-magic setting, correct? That you can't show up to BitD and play a lawful good wizard prince because that's not the story being told? Or like, how in Honey Heist, you are a bear and you are trying to get honey, and you cannot play a human child investigating the old abandoned house at the edge of town, but there's a cool game called Kids on Bikes that will let you do that? Great! Why is this suddenly so hard to understand in the realm of heroic fantasy, that you will fit into specific archetypes? Why do people's brains, if they have them to begin with, vanish suddenly? I know I just did a big old rant that included this within it but genuinely I think a lot of people are deeply ignorant of heroic fantasy, or don't like it, and either is fine, but then they get mad at the heroic fantasy game for having heroic fantasy archetypes when the answer is "maybe this will never make you happy because it's not for you." (Frankly, I think this is also why they love D20, because it doesn't really do straight-up heroic fantasy, and that's fine, but they do keep acting like doing a Game of Thrones pastiche is equivalent to the invention of the wheel.) Like...I remember in the Midst Q&A that Xen said they tend to not like playing typical D&D classes, but their solution was to, you know, create Midst instead of sitting around going "actually, because D&D doesn't support cyberpunk narrative and the character archetypes within very well it is an utter failure." (I could go on forever about how actually TTRPGs are not a showcase for your already extant OCs to prance around but that's a totally separate post).

Mechanics and story are inherently intertwined, is what I'm trying to get at (sorry I'm really tired and have a lot to do but I'm passionate about this answer, it will be rambly, she says like 3 pages in) and I really don't think most actual play journalists get this. At all. And I do think that CR, and Daggerheart, and the people working for it, and especially Spenser Starke, Rowan Hall, Matt Mercer, and Travis Willingham, get this more than almost anyone else in the field. I also think Brennan Lee Mulligan and Aabria Iyengar get this, and the thing is, for all the praise showered upon them, much of which I think is deserved and most of what I think is undeserved is not because they are lacking but because the person writing about them is an idiot crediting them for things they (Brennan and Aabria) would never claim to have invented, their mechanical prowess is rarely if ever written about well. Fantasy High Junior Year's downtime mechanics actually fill in a famous gap in D&D, namely, downtime, and provide an excellent marriage of story and mechanics in my opinion, and I haven't really seen any discussion, because that would require watching the part of the TTRPG show where they play the TTRPG, and knowing the vague word on the street about D&D criticism that isn't just "*nods sagely* capitalism is the BBEG."

And finally: related a bit to the edit but Critical Role used to not be able to provide any early access to press, because it was literally a live show, and I suspect they never broke the habit, and I think that is for the best. As discussed a lot of D20 coverage actually feels like they watched the press screener and then never returned to the show. And I do not know the politics about them, but given that several of these publications (notably Polygon, but some others) have been shitting on Critical Role for several years, and just generally given the way CR's leadership vs. how D20's leadership respond to fandom pressure, I suspect Critical Role does not give these journalists a ton of early or increased, if any. Honestly, why should you, if you're getting interviewed in Variety? And I think the journalists are mad, because they think they're special and should get treated as such.

I do want to wrap something up, and I want to thank @captainofthetidesbreath for talking a little about this in game design/ttrpgs and giving me the idea, but in story, you should be challenging your audience, expanding their horizons, and being new and interesting. In the actual playing of TTRPGs, especially a new one, it is vital to be inclusive and easy to understand and patient and provide points of reference. I really feel like many Actual Play journalists and some TTRPG ones as well have this equation flipped and are looking for challenging concepts that most people will never be able to get a group to be willing to play, and bells and whistles in production, but leave story as an afterthought. Critical Role designs games to actually be played and to be used specifically to tell good stories, and puts story before production, and I think that undercuts those journalists' whole deal.

#answered #Anonymous #long post #cr tag #anyway though i am going to go lie down and try to take a nap bc the daylight savings got me but good.

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sinfullyrosey · 2 years

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“Realistic” Courting Rituals

GN!Reader X Various TWST Characters

This isn’t as smutty as my other works and was more of a straight forward, logical look at applying typical animal courting/mating rituals onto the TWST cast. A lot of people tend to write the beastmen and fae characters as animalistic, but rarely actually do the research into mating habits, so I thought I’d write up little headcanons or whatever.

Some of this comes across as rather silly ‘cause I stopped taking it quite as seriously midway into typing them up lol

All characters are 18+

Leona Kingscholar

Male lions will begin courtship by rubbing their head against the lioness’s head, spraying urine, and licking her genitals. He will also patiently follow around a lioness until she is ready to mate, where in which he’ll bite onto her neck to get a grip and mount her. Females are also very demandful and will become aggressive if a male isn’t mating with her enough. She’ll even attack him until he does.

Leona doesn’t have a pride full of females demanding attention from him, but he does have you which is a blessing for his lazy ass. Once he has an interest in you, he’ll start pursuing you by checking in on you, following you around to make sure that you’re safe (and to scare off any rivals), and will become more openly affectionate. Will definitely rub his head against you, maybe a bit too hard as he lets out a low rumble (not a purr, lions don’t purr, sorry). As time goes on he works up to licking and cuddles while napping.

Doesn’t spray urine ‘cause that’s unsanitary, but will give you articles of clothing and jewelry as a way to get his scent on you and ward off rivals. Is super patient and will wait until you give him the go ahead to the next step since it’s the lionesses that signal for mating to begin. I imagine the two of you were napping in his room with him nuzzling you and things just got heated. He won’t do anything unless you make it very clear you want him to dick you down.

Starts off with lapping at your genitals lazily until you’re ready to take him. Would probably prefer doggy style the first time since it allows for easier mounting, but won’t protest if you prefer a different position. Will latch onto your neck (specifically the back part) just on instinct to make sure you don’t wiggle around too much. There is a slim possibility he has barbs on his dick, but due to being humanoid (or maybe magic idk) they aren’t sharp and won’t completely wreck your insides. Definitely adds another unique layer of pleasure for you so congrats.

Will only mate as many times as you request ‘cause this is still Leona we’re talking about and he’s a lazy piece of shit. Find your inner lioness and demand another round or else his ass is grass.

Ruggie Bucchi

Hyena males have a variety of courtship behaviors meant to attract a female mate. Females are naturally more aggressive than males, so males tend to be submissive and may widen their legs to show their penis to let the female know he wishes to mate. Males will also “shadow” females and follow them around in order to get close to them, as females are extremely picky.

Okay, regardless of whether or not you’re a female, he’s going to be more submissive, unless you happen to be more submissive then him. In which case, he may adopt more dominant traits, but it’s gonna be weird for him. Will start following you around and copying you, like: If you eat, he eats. You’re napping under a tree, he’s napping under a tree. You’re studying for a big exam that week, he doesn’t have a big exam but will help you study anyways. Essentially becomes in tune with your schedule while still managing his own affairs somehow. Will also be more openly affectionate, yet will back off the moment he feels he’s overstepping. Female hyenas are very picky and the last thing he wants to do is lose his chance with you.

Will widen his legs more when he’s around you as a sign, but won’t outright say anything, even if others notice or point it out (it’s his way of flexing give him a break). Honestly, you could do almost anything to him and he’ll allow it ‘cause he doesn’t want to lose his chances with you. Like, you could grab his ears out of the blue and he’d just take it as a sign that he’s making progress. Like Leona, he won’t make his move until he knows for sure that’s what you want. Male hyenas aren’t allowed to mate unless the females allow it, so he needs you to basically outright say that, yes, he can fuck you and you won’t bite his head off. Feels truly blessed that the courtship went successfully and will be over the Moon if you want to go another round with him.

Jack Howl

Male and female wolves courtship is fairly neutral, with both snuggling, walking close together, mouthing each other’s muzzles, nose touching, and grooming. Males are very protective and will fend off rival males. Males and females get stuck together due to swelling in the male’s penis and contracting from the female’s walls, which can last 15-30 minutes.

Honestly one of the most “normal” in terms of wooing you. He becomes more physically affectionate and will want to spend more time with you. Quality time is key for him, so expect a lot of nuzzling against your neck and facial area, maybe a few licks here and there. He doesn’t have a muzzle per say, so he’ll substitute it with kisses, usually open mouthed ones. Out of everyone, the most likely to have multiple heated makeout sessions with you. A lot of touching and close contact, may even become overly protective of you to the point of warding off anyone he perceives as a rival (yes this includes Leona).

Will become more and more affectionate until you two finally mate. He’s a bit rough the first time around, making sure to thoroughly fuck you. May bite and scratch you but in a way that pleasures you. And yes, he does have a “knot,” but you two don’t get stuck like you originally believed because your walls don’t work like a female wolf beastmen’s so you’re fine. Is the king of aftercare and will go the extra mile checking you over, getting you hydrated, and napping with you.

Azul Ashengrotto

Male octopi have to be careful when courting and mating due to females cannibalizing them. Most courtship includes removing their penis/tentacle and presenting it to the female to take and use, though a male will also stretch out his still-attached penis and mate from afar as well. Typically, females pursue males and flash their beacon.

Put simply, he’s a little bitch when it comes to courting you and probably keeps his distance. He knows you won’t actually kill and eat him, but given his less than stellar first meet with you, he’s nervous. Probably won’t actively start pursuing you unless you gave him the sign to do so. What sign you may ask? Why, the beacon sign of course. This beacon is actually just a ring of Mostro beverage you got on around your mouth and laughed off while he stood there, flustered and trying to keep his hard on in check.

From that point onward he’d try to get close to you, while still keeping his distance. Most courting was in line with human customs at this point, so gift giving, quality time, acts of service, etc. But he could never work up the courage to try and bring up mating with you, too afraid. It’s morbid, but he probably did at one point consider just giving you his tentacle penis, too afraid to swallow his nerves and mate with you the practical way. Floyd encouraged this route while Jade managed to knock some sense into the idiot before he did anything rash.

Best bet is to have a moonlit dinner with him, get a few drinks in him to calm his nerves, and lead him into the nearest secluded room and start ravaging him. Might have a few instances where he looks about ready to bolt, but once he’s fully sheathed in you and you’re practically devouring his mouth, he’ll finally get the damn hint. Sex with his octoform won’t be until much later though, but don’t worry, he won’t unattach his dick when the time comes.

Floyd & Jade Leech

Female eels let male eels know they’re ready to mate by opening their jaws very wide, where in which the two will then wrap their bodies around each other and mate for hours at a time. Mating only occurs when the environment is warm enough and there’s plenty of food.

There is little to no courting, these two just go for it the moment you openly yawn in front of them on a particularly warm day at the lounge. All the requirements are met: The lounge is stocked with food, the weather is warm but not too hot, and you did just open your mouth wide like some needy whore right in front of them. Honestly, whether the both of them are present or it’s just one of them, there’s a good chance they will pull you into the nearest empty room and just start going at it. Unless you explicitly say otherwise, they’re down to fuck you the moment you open that pretty, little mouth of yours.

Note: The Leech twins know what yawning is, but if you repeatedly do so in front of them, they’re going to take that to mean you want some fuck. They’re currently on the menu and you just ordered a nice, hot serving of eel dick.

Will wrap themselves around you the best they can given their human forms, but would probably prefer to be in eel form since they’re more used to that form of mating. Yes, they can last up to hours and go multiple rounds. Buckle up ‘cause you’re in it for the long run babe.

Malleus Draconia

Dragons aren’t real, though they are usually portrayed as very possessive lovers who may court by giving jewels and gold. Some male lizard species have been known to scratch the back of females and lick her as a way to ask to mate. If she licks back, then he’ll proceed to mate with her. Many other lizard species also includes males showing off to females, pursuing them, head bobbing, and showing dominance.

Once Malleus actually realizes that his feelings are more than just simply platonic, he’ll begin courting you the ‘ol fashion way, dragon style. He becomes protective over you, will make sure nobody else is courting you and will make it clear that he is the one pursuing you. Will glare and snarl at anyone who looks at you for too long or attempts to woo you. Will show off to you, either through his magic abilities, knowledge on certain subjects, or even strength. Shows dominance by outmatching everyone else at something, which isn’t that hard for the much older and experienced fae. Might bob his head at you, but will stop after you questioned him about it and he got embarrassed over the silly act.

Instead, will start to give you gifts of precious gemstones, gold jewelry, and other valuables, ones that have meaning to them. Like, he’ll usually give you emeralds or dragon-shaped jewelry, or will give you your personal favorite gemstone. Once things start to really hit off and he’s alone with you, will go for it and gently scratch your back, followed by a light lick. Honestly, Lilia or somebody better inform you the meaning of this beforehand because if you don’t reciprocate with a lick of your own, he’ll take it as a rejection and become disheartened. But if you do reciprocate, then you’re in for a long, rough night ‘cause this dude’s dick ain’t human and his goal is to properly ravish you. You will be sore and covered in bitemarks the next day.

Sebek Zigvolt

Crocodile males will secure an area for mating, scaring off any rivals, before beginning the official courtship. The males will then begin to rub their snout along or on top of the female’s head and continue to do so until both are rubbing against each other or “dancing” together. Some vocalizations and bubble blowing in the water may occur as well.

How you managed to catch Sebek’s eyes despite him only having eyes for Malleus is not exactly known, but you did. Congrats, you now have an overzealous manbaby who’s in denial of his feelings and is trying his best to avoid you, only to end up following you when he’s not with Malleus. He wouldn’t even realize it at first, but he acts protective around you and will keep any rivals away. The way he treats you directly doesn’t change much outside of him (trying) to be nicer and not insult you quite as much (as per Lilia’s advice). It isn’t until he starts to notice you reciprocate his efforts that he begins to secure an area for you two (most likely his bedroom or some unused room at his dorm).

When it comes times for the deed and he leads you to the room, he becomes much more affectionate and starts to rub his face and mouth along your head and neck area, breathing in your scent. He’s embarrassed by the action, but can’t help it as it comes almost natural to him. Once you start returning the gesture, he’ll take it as the sign to go ahead and he’ll start creating a deep rumbling sound while fucking you. Is a mix of rough and gentle, going from nipping you to outright biting.

Lilia Vanrouge

Fruit bat males will find a female to roost with and spend extensive amount of time grooming the female. They’ll also vigorously lick the female’s nether regions, possibly to either arouse her or to remove rival sperm.

Similar to the Tweels in that he kind of just goes for it. Dude’s old and has been around the block enough to have confidence that he could just go right into courting you and eventually win you over. Will start spending more time with you, sharing quality time and just hanging out. Will wait until he’s reached a point in the relationship that you’re comfortable around him and now he can start the actual process of courting for mating.

Will invite you over for tea, which becomes rather apparent wasn’t the actual reason as he begins to groom you in the form of brushing your hair and preening your overall appearance. Will chat with you, buttering you up and complimenting you throughout. Will forgo the brush in place of his fingers and he’ll start to nuzzle and kiss your neck. This can take up to hours before it actually reaches the bedroom. When you actually get to the bedroom, prepare for another hour or so of him just going down on you, licking and nipping your lower region until your orgasming again and again and again. Better buckle up because this bat fae’s mating is a day-long experience.

Che’nya

Male cats will mount the female, usually grabbing the back of her neck with his mouth to keep her from pulling away. There aren’t any real courting habits, males just mate females if they reciprocate. Sometimes males will gather around a female and take turns mounting and mating her. Male genitalia have sharp barbs on them, believed to stimulate the female and scrape out rival sperm.

I’m gonna be honest and say I almost forgot Che’nya and don’t have much to say on him. The most normal of the beastman, even more so compared to Jack. If he did court you, then it probably just includes him sneaking into NRC to flirt and mess with you. Will randomly appear and peck you on your face, neck, or mouth. I can also imagine him being unbothered by any of the others being interested in you, like, as long as he gets his own turn with you, he’s fine with it. When you two actually do it, he’ll mount you from the back and bite the back of your neck (much like Leona though gentler). And also like Leona, his dick barbs aren’t sharp and won’t hurt, stimulating you more. Will maybe cuddle and purr with you afterwards, unless you two get caught or something. In which case, he’s pecking you on the lips and disappearing with a laugh in the air.

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riyangiis · 3 months

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flowers for you ! ─ han yujin

you've had a crush on yujin for so long, you just gave up on trying anything because you're nowhere near his level. but rumors started to go around about him and another idol in your school, you couldn't help but be jealous.

pairing , han yujin x reader

warnings , idol!classmate!yujin, idol! oc, rushed..

𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 !

han yujin, a name known all around your school. insanely talented, unbelievably attractive, his whole existence is precious, and so many more. you were absolutely nowhere near his level. he's adored by many and probably has his own group of admirers.

you know there are so many other talented people like him in your school, so you don't even bother and try to get him to notice you unlike delusional daydreamers who can't seem to catch a break.. chocolates here, letters there.. you just sort of ignore him the whole time to ease the pain of knowing that there isn't asingle chance of him liking you back.

just one thing caught your attention, seo jiwon. she's the rising star of the infamous group starlinx. the frequently praised and adored, the super talented maknae, the drop-dead gorgeous girl. she was exactly what you were scared of.

jiwon's had her own share of admirers too, but rumors started going around stating that yujin and jiwon have a thing for each other after a fan recorded their interaction in school. it's nothing really, socializing at it's finest. but fans started realizing how 'good' the both of them would be for each other. you felt a little bit of jealousy bubble up at the thought.

nevermind. articles like k-daily use their aesthetic and unique style more than the main focus of the entire website. so it shouldn't matter at all, right? maybe. you snapped out of your thoughts and went to a specific app to see other's opinion on this. you scrolled on twitter and find some tweets about the whole situation.

this whole idea may sound stupid, but you really thought of fully ignoring both jiwon and yujin as if you were only able to sneak a few glances with them whenever you got lucky. give up.. it's not like they will notice and as if it's gonna do anything major.. (maybe)

you turned your phone off and started getting comfortable in your bed, trying to get some sleep. all you could think about was yujin, jiwon, yujin, jiwon, it was suffocating. if anything you should be drowning in your soft bed and get some sleep, not drown in those stupid thoughts.

what should you do tomorrow? just let them be? safest option but your intrusive thoughts or your heart will never agree to that. be mean to them? might get cancelled by their fans around the school. fully ignore them and act like they never existed and dodge every option that leads to them? maybe.

"gosh jiwon, no wonder people called you helpful."

yujin sighed and dropped the notepad with a million ideas to make the first move. for who you ask? you'll see. he checked each page to see how many recommendations jiwon did with a whole lot of research about what that lucky person likes and possibly wants in a guy.

"how do you even do this?"

yujin's face was full of shock and wonder, jiwon smirked and looked and yujin's reaction in satisfaction. she snatched the notepad and flipped every page to boost her ego a little bit more.

"hey, it's me, the super wonderful maknae, jiwon! you'll never get anything wrong with me around!"

"i don't understand how you're good at this more than taking simple notes and putting the teacher's lectures to use."

jiwon slowly looked at yujin to create a more dramatic effect, she stared at him as if she just failed her exams. yujin just sits there confused.

"was i wrong?"

jiwon smacked yujin in his shoulder playfully and made sure he wasn't hurt at all, yujin acted as if he just got shot and played along with her.

"all we need to do is focus on the main thing, get [name] to like you and not get scolded or caught."

a camera from afar failed to hear their conversation and just snapped a picture of yujin and jiwon at the back of the school, jiwon seemed to notice an awkward presence and looked around in her surroundings, yujin followed. the person slowly walked away without the both of them knowing that they pretty much screwed their plan up. a little bit i guess.

the bell rings, a few people sigh after getting tired of hearing the teacher's boring lesson in mathematics. everyone grabbed their bags and rushed out of the classroom. jiwon and yujin involved. jiwon sneakily watched the both of you exit the room, why do you look more gloomy than usual? yujin hold the chocolates in his hand feeling a little nervous, he walked up to you and tapped your shoulder, you continue walking.

"hello?"

you continue walking.

"i'm busy."

he tried to catch up and stopped in front of you. in which you tried to pass by him, is anything wrong? you usually tried to greet him but his fans were always near him that time. he gently pulled you to a private spot and held you as if you were delicate. you blushed at the thought, but snapped out of it.

"what is it that you want?"

"i was about to ask if we could hang out for lunch, since you were busy i just wanted to give you these."

yujin opened his hand that had pieces of your favorite chocolate inside. you slowly took them and kept them inside your pocket. he knew what you liked?

"wait.. why are you giving me this?"

oh, yujin didn't think about that. he tried to brush it off with a pretty bad excuse.

"i always saw you buy them in the store or eat them at least once a day. and you're really kind to me and treat me like a normal person instead of some deity.. i just wanted to give you these as a thank you.."

yujin nervously looks down at the floor with his face fully red. he tries to cover his blushy state with one hand but you noticed right away.

"i.. thank you, i don't really know what to say. don't hide yourself, yujin. you look so cute right now."

you teased him and removed his hand covering his face and held it. you remembered that he asked you to hang out with him, you can't miss that opportunity.

"uh, also, we can hang out another time if you want? i can ditch my friends-"

"what? no need to ditch your plans.. that's pretty ridiculous to do for someone you only interacted with a few times.."

"someone? you're the han yujin! even if i tell my friends they will probably get it.."

there goes your blushing yujin again. he's all giggly as well, you could honestly ditch everything just to see yujin blushing. maybe that's just how adorable he is.

"maybe we can hang out at the park, if you're free at saturday?"

and there it is. you finally got to have a pretty long conversation with him, is this a dream? whatever. you just had to get prepared for saturday, get your best outfit, maybe prepare incase anything happens.

"what do you mean you're gonna hang out with someone?"

gyuvin asks yujin confused, they had a packed up schedule and this is the first time yujin was able to hang out with someone.

"are they special? what did they do for that hang out? is it jiwon asking you to do your 'secret sessions'? what is it??"

gosh, gyuvin really sounds like a curious mother. curiosity kills the cat (ricky) you know? (probably why he's really curious)

"hyung, calm down. were only studying for a quiz.."

yujin looked down on the floor knowing he messed up big time, that horrible excuse did not do anything but peak gyuvin's curiosity more.

"a quiz?? you can ask hao hyung for help.. or maybe gunwook.. what is it that you need help for?? are you hiding something from me??"

yujin inhaled and tried to explain to gyuvin about everything.

"uhm.. iwantedtoaskjiwonforhelpbecauseilikesomeoneandiwantedtomakethefirstmovesoiaskedthemtohangoutwithmenowweregoingtotheparkonsaturdaybutidon'tknowwhattodo."

gyuvin's brain was processing on what yujin just said. holy, his son is a rapper too?

"wait wait, YOU LIKE SOMEONE??????"

gyuvin shouted out loud enough for the other members to hear.

"be quiet!"

hanbin, zhanghao, and ricky scolded gyuvin for #1 being too loud, #2 disrupting hao's precious beauty sleep, and #3 ricky just wants to scold gyuvin. gyuvin's jaw is still on the floor after what yujin just said. him? liking someone? his son is growing up?

"wait, i have an idea."

gyuvin dragged ricky and hanbin to a flower shop and asked hanbin which one should yujin pick for his.. crush..

"what are their preferences anyway?"

yujin looked around and spotted a bouquet full of pink tulips.

"this, i once saw in their instagram post that they liked pink tulips."

ricky looked at the price and the quality of the flowers. hanbin seemed impressed by yujin.

"pink tulips.. affection, caring, good wishes, and love.. not as deep at red tulips, which is good because you guys are still kids. impressive yujin."

ricky grabbed the bouquet and his wallet to pay for it. they walked out of the store and talked about what yujin should do on the way back to the dorms.

(i cant add more pics so pretend this is a divider)

it's saturday, you decided to pick a casual but good-looking outfit. you tried to look as presentable as you can, you're literally gonna hang out with an idol. yujin probably has better things to do.

you walked all the way to the park and waited for yujin to meet you at the spot you both agreed on. you waited for a little while until a familiar voice called your name. yujin walked up to you holding something behind his back with that cute smile he has.

"what's that behind your back?"

he slowly revealed the bouquet of pink tulips. you got flustered and took the bouquet, the price tag was still attached, it looks pretty expensive for flowers.. you looked at yujin in shock, how did he know? he just smiled in satisfaction. it's obvious that you love his gift.

"flowers, for you."

#riyangiis #yura.writes !#zb1 yujin #han yujin #han yujin x reader #yujin x reader #zb1 #zb1 x reader #zb1 fluff #zb1 imagines #zerobaseone #zerose.library

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halfagone · 4 months

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Kryptonians and Ectoplasm

I have... SuperPham thoughts. I mentioned this on Discord the other day, and it went somewhere along the lines of this:

In an AU where Danny is biologically Lois and Clark's son, that means the radiation of the portal turning on, killing him, and bringing him back to life is likely a concentrated version of how Clark came back to life due to exposure to enough ultraviolet rays or ion radiation. He essentially has the ability to photosynthesize like a flower, and in this essay I will-

And well, that's all I had at the time. So here's the essay:

The Ghost Zone could very easily be translated to the Phantom Zone in the crossover. However, in many main forms of DC media, Kryptonians such as Dru-Zod and his allies were sent to the Phantom Zone as a punishment for their crimes, effectively cutting them off from their powers. Which means it's likely not ectoplasm that's substituting for the ultraviolet rays of a yellow star, but the process of opening the portal.

Even if looking beyond a half-Kryptonian Danny AU, there can be a lot of applications to this. And taking a look at Superman lore gives some clues to how we can further integrate this into DPxDC.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am not a scientist, be it physicist or biologist. This brain child was born from pure imagination and unlimited access to scientific articles.

For those that might be less familiar with this timeline, the period in which Superman dies and is seen replaced by four other Superman (one of which is Superboy, or Kon-El, the clone to Kal-El and Lex Luthor) is known as "Reign of the Supermen" and consists of a number of comics.

I won't get into the specifics of all these Supermen, but Clark comes back to life after roughly six months. [Taken from the DCAMU movie "Reign of the Supermen", in which the prologue reveals that the battle to the death between Superman and Doomsday was 6 months ago.]

So it took roughly 6 months for Clark to fully recover. Yet for Danny it took, probably, 5 seconds for the whole thing to be said and done. Which could possibly explain why he's so powerful, beyond the mixture of ectoplasm in his system for this AU.

On the other, other hand, there are many headcanons surrounding how ectoplasm functions on a more scientific standpoint. One of my personal headcanons is that ectoplasm feeds on the electromagnetic waves that humans emit through emotions. The stronger the emotion, the more ectoplasm pools together. Hence, when a person dies, all that ectoplasm pooling together and imprinting on said ectoplasm creates a ghost. [This headcanon is first discussed in chapter 28 of LL's Ascent.]

But we've already established that Kryptonians can be revived through ion radiation. So what is ion radiation? In simple terms, ion radiation is "a type of energy released by atoms that travels in the form of electromagnetic waves (gamma or X-rays) or particles (neutrons, beta or alpha)." But... didn't we just say that ectoplasm likely isn't the reason Superman came back to life? Especially since the Phantom Zone hampers Kryptonians' powers?

That is very true, and if you think about it, this would mean ectoplasm and Kryptonian biology exhibit a lot of the same characteristics. What would be the difference then? Ectoplasm retains the electromagnetic waves, hence how it maintains ghosts' personalities and memories.

However, hampering with these electromagnetic waves could explain why ghosts lose themselves over time, and might give headway to how anti-ecto weapons harm ghosts. But that is a topic that requires more research, and will have to be left for another day.

So ectoplasm retains electromagnetic waves, what about Kryptonians? They can't do the same. Once they are cut off from sunlight, or any form of ultraviolet rays, their powers go with it. Common headcanons for ghosts determine that they can go for some time without continually feeding on ectoplasm, although they gradually grow weaker the longer they go without a source.

But ectoplasm does not emit electromagnetic waves of their own. Perhaps ghosts could filter their ectoplasm and make this possible, maybe that's how they give people the creeps when they intrude on their territory. But otherwise, plain old ectoplasm won't do this. But do you know who does emit electromagnetic waves, according to this logic?

Kryptonians do.

Their emotions emit these waves, and when traveling to the Phantom/Ghost Zone, that would mean all the ectoplasm around them would feed on their emotions. Unfortunately, there is no source of sunlight in the Ghost Zone, which means not only are they cut off from a main source of nutrition, they are constantly being leeched off on from ectoplasm.

This could mean that going to the Ghost Zone, for a Kryptonian, might just be a death sentence. Which makes Dru-Zod's exile to the Phantom/Ghost Zone that much more grim and cruel. We know from the Flashpoint Paradox timeline that Kryptonians will slowly wither away and quite possibly die without any source of ultraviolet rays.

So what would this mean for a half-Kryptonian Danny AU? Well for one, it would explain why Danny is so powerful. His dual nature as half-Kryptonian and a halfa means that all the weaknesses he has from his Kryptonian biology is canceled out by his nature as a halfa, and vice versa.

This wouldn't entirely strip Danny of weaknesses. In some ways it could even compound his weaknesses depending on what's used against him.

Yet it's still something very interesting and tasty to think about. And provides a lot of possibilities for future plot points or alternate universes.

#dpxdc #dpxdc headcanon #dpxdc au #superpham #halfagone rambles #lore analysis #with yours truly :D #long post

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headspace-hotel · 2 years

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Sometimes I think to myself "I should write a Poem that isn't a wikipedia poem" but my time in poetry classes and the literary journals of the college library haunts me like a gross poltergeist pelting me with rotting meat

the stuff in literary journals is almost EXCLUSIVELY written by MFAs or PhDs in creative writing. You would think that devoting your life to writing poetry would make you a good poet, but actually it creates the worst writing that is humanly possible to assemble with english words

it's like a closed-off pond full of people that do nothing but write and read each other's writing and I think that is. a lot of the problem actually

i was googling a specific poet and found an article talking about her poetry book and how Deep and Meaningful it was and it was like describing very basic literary concepts using the most abstruse "intellectual-sounding" language. But I was even more struck by how it confused "regular human experiences that are seldom well articulated" with "impossibly deep insights into the core of the human psyche that can only be actually accessed and processed by a Few" and I think the two are connected.

Like I think there's something where you can get too plugged in with other academics and writers that can use the sophisticated language and express themselves well, and you don't sit and wrangle these indescribable things with a normal and random person anymore, and you just lose your sense of everything

anyway the lady's twitter was all about her constantly like posting about poems and reading poems and workshopping poems and working on her phd (which is about poems) and i'm like This is why you are a shitty writer

#poetry #bitching about poetry

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piosplayhouse · 13 days

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I don't know if you'll answer but I need to know the lore behind sexy times with Wangxian, like is it a fanfic? why do people hate the author??

It was the longest mdzs fic posted during its time in 2021 and gained extreme notoriety for its absurdly long tag list, frequent update schedule that consistently forced anyone scrolling any of its tags to see it at the top of their page, and escalating poor, racist, and trolling authorial behavior that ultimately culminated in the author virtual1979 being suspended from ao3 for a month because she posting an author's note saying she hoped that all her haters would contract covid and die. She deleted the fic from ao3 a little while after this happened, ig bc she wasn't getting enough attention anymore, but allegedly the thing's still up on dreamwidth under strict friendslock. The fan lore article goes pretty in depth about it:

The best summary for why it pissed people off so much is really just showing you these screenshots of what the fic looked like towards the end of its life on desktop and mobile (be warned opening the full image):

From my personal experience:

from 2019 up until around 2021 the fic really was just a normal-ish, if very strangely written and kinky, wangxian porn fic about them basically just fucking around post canon and enjoying day to day life. It updated pretty frequently and had a fair amount of tags because the author was literally just tagging anything that she wrote. But like the first few hundred, maybe even a thousand tags were pretty accurate to what the fic was because of that, and were relatively manageable for the first few years that it didn't pick up any attention really.

At some point in 2021 when cql was really starting to blow up online and the tag count was starting to pile up to the point of annoyance, the fic started receiving some comments that were just like "hey can you try to cut down on tags, I don't think it's necessary to be so specific as to tag 'Korean food' or 'eggs' or whatnot". The author did not share this idea, evidently, and instead built a grudge against commenters who would tell her to delete tags, subsequently adding more and more as time went on.

As the tag count and updates increased, the content of the fic did too-- it got a lot, lot weirder. I'm sure someone's saved it all somewhere but for reference it spun out into what I can only describe as like if Rick and Morty's plot was cut to be just the parts of the show with underage/incest plotlines with All Tomorrows level sex dystopian world building exclusively to elicit the most visceral audience reaction possible. Around this time is when more people started to notice the fic and its escalating tag issues, leading them to leaving more comments complaining about it, leading to the attention seeking author spitefully adding more tags. Around this time is when she also started adding fake tags that didn't apply to the story whatsoever (sorry to disappoint, "talking vagina" was one of those. I did check) just to boost the count, take up more space on people's screens, and bait people into commenting hate for attention.

By this time, it had become a fandom-wide annoyance as she had begun to tag entirely unrelated ships, therefore putting the near-daily updating titanic of a fic at the top of any mdzs-related tag. People were outraged about this, and calls came for ao3 to step in. Ao3 waffled around for a bit as there was no official rule at the time that imposed a tag limit, so there wasn't established ground to ban virtual1979 (who btw many people suspected of being 40 whole years old due to the username and allegedly some other internet sleuthing on Facebook or something). Meanwhile, she began to tag other fandoms-- tgcf, svsss, BTS, basically anything that would get a lot of attention and draw hate with the advent of The Monstrosity suddenly drowning out all other recently updated fics of the targeted fandoms.

People had been trying to retaliate without ao3 action, though, by coding their own themes/skins that would allow someone to block a user or work and other fic writers made their own parody, the "bland times with wangxian" collection, which were minimally tagged sfw shortfics typically featuring wangxian just doing laundry or things like that. A good amount of them were actually like just fics where wwx would explain to lwj how to install custom ao3 themes and block fics that were taking up too much space on his screen. Imo it was pretty funny, but these also sparked some controversy as people disagreed with fighting annoyance with more annoyance to people trying to find content.

Either shortly before or after ao3 staff said they'd step in due to an insane amount of reports and backlash, I forgot which atp, virtual1979 began perhaps the worst tagging spree of the fic's life by changing the title, many of the tags, and the summary to a slew of racial slurs, sexually explicit imagery, and other generally offensive statements. I'm pretty sure this came after the fic was temporarily hidden once, as this update gained considerably less attention than the rest of the tagging saga, but people were still rightfully pissed about it. Ultimately, like I mentioned before, the author was then suspended for a month for wishing covid and death on her haters, and attention seemed to die down during this time to the point where she didn't really fight much more when her suspension ended and deleted her account and the work shortly after. Again she seems to have moved to dreamwidth, but most have forgotten her and I'm not sure if her presence is public at all on there. But that's the story of the worst mdzs fic ever written

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