#everyone reblogging the version of this without the link to the made up author stuff we are best friends now

[harrypotterfuryroad]

nerds retroactively deciding that they always hated harry potter is funny but it’s not anywhere near as hilarious as nerds retroactively deciding that the matrix sequels were genius feats of filmmaking

#levels of delusion only matched by the star wars ring theory guy #everyone reblogging the version of this without the link to the made up author stuff we are best friends now

[eulangelo]

callout for @genderfluidlucifer

google docs

tw for transmisogyny + TERFs + emotional manipulation

Transmisogyny

Lucifer is a huge transmisogynist who will complain 24/7 about how TERFs hurt the ace community, but the moment @randomclustermissile , a trans girl (who is not an exclusionist at all) tries to point out transmisogyny in inclusionist circles (in the most vague and general way possible, without pointing fingers nor calling anyone names) Lucifer will immediatly jump to block her and so they did with me (another inclusionist) and i have to suppose to everyone else who agreed with that post, even arriving to vagueing about us in private group chats to suggest that we were “sympathizing with exclusionists”. all because we dared point out transmisogyny in inclusionist circles. lucifer is TME but apparently they think they’re the authority on TERFs and their talking points but actual trans women are not, according to them, since this is the stuff that they would go and spew to other people. (screenshots from @enbyoctoling​)

here’s more examples of Lucifer (again, a transmasc person) going deep in detail about how according to them, TERFs/SWERFs hate aro/ace people and are an active threat to us

1. link

[Image ID: Three screenshots of a post by Genderfluidlucifer. The first screenshot is of a paragraph that reads, "Hey. So I can actually answer this. Anon your commentary about how you thought terfs would approve of sex repulsed aces is sort of it. Except...not. Basically terfs hate ace people for not wanting sex in the approved by terfs way. Terfs are actually extremely interested in [forcing] amatonormativity onto everyone. Because for as sex negative as terfs are...they don't want to actually acknowledge or change the fact that amatonormativity is at the root cause of rape culture and misogyny."

The second screenshot is a zoomed in section of the post that reads, "So yeah no I have NO idea where exclus allies are getting this idea from that terfs would even remotely care about the sexual rights of ace people. Terfs generally hate any sexualities in the LGBTQ+ acronym that aren't LGB because they can't force a gender binary onto those sexualities. At least, not as easily. That's why it's actually a massive sign of someone who doesn't call themselves a terf being a crypto terf if they use the term LGB in a positive manner. Along with the term SGA, as it is deliberately exclusive of nonbinary and not inherently SGA centric queer-aligned sexualities. /END ID]

link to the full post, these are just excerpts but the whole thing is just a very long rant about how TERFs hate ace people and so on (i think it’s worth noticing that although the actual post is kinda long, trans women are never once brought op in a conversation about TERFs issues and the only time transmisogyny is mentioned is not relevant to the conversation)

2. link

[Image ID: A screenshot of a reblog by genderfluidlucifer. The original poster is nothorses. It reads, "Because apparently I have to say it: Testosterone is not a 'violent' hormone. It doesn't make you 'more aggressive' or a worse person, it doesn't make you 'dangerous,' or 'toxic.' Transmascs do not need to be 'warned of the dangers of T.' We do not need to spend our transitions terrified that we're going to become a danger to those around us - that HRT is going to turn us into a monster.

Everyone experiences mood swings during hormonal shifts (pregnancy, menstruation, menopause, estrogen HRT, etc.) and while you might have grumpy moments or feel anger/frustration that you need to learn to handle differently, that doesn't make you a bad person.

Testosterone can change the way you access/process emotions somewhat, but if you're already thoughtful about how you handle your feelings and treat others, you're going to be fine. It's normal to lash out on occasion, by accident, then apologize and work to do better. It doesn't make you a bad person. Everyone on HRT is prone to this, and everyone experiencing hormonal changes is prone to this.

Getting HRT should be positive and affirming; you should not have to spend your entire transition terrified of becoming a monster."

The post then has a reblog by captainlordauditor that reads, "The big danger of T is that needle ouchy." /END ID]

here’s them reblogging from known transmisogynist user @nothorses (once again, the irony that a post about how testosterone is seen as the "aggressive hormone" does not mention transfem at all which are literally the main victims of this rethoric in the first place)

3. link (1), link (2)

[Image ID: Two screenshots of posts by genderfluidlucifer. The first screenshot reads, "Queer exclus: We're not repackaging terf rhetoric! Saying that is transmisogynistic! Also queer exclus: Remove the plus from LGBT!" and has tags that say, "I will pay these people to grow some god damn self awareness. Imagine being this dense. Queer discourse." The post has 15 notes.

The second screenshot reads, "Honestly it is so stupid and frustrating to see ace exclus continue to deny that the ace discourse was started by terfs. Proof was given countless times. And a big name terf like galesofnovember even admitted to starting it. Those of you who demand proof but ignore all of this never wanted proof to begin with." and is tagged with, "ace discourse. The post has 38 notes. /END ID]

heres another two post of theirs conflating TERFs with ace exclusionism

4. link

[Image ID: A screenshot of a reblogged post by furbearingbrick. The original poster is boxlizard, Lucifer's old account. The original post reads, "By the way for people still in denial about it, here's galesofnovember, a terf, admitting that she intended to start the ace exclus movement. She's taking credit for it. Normally if the victims of this behavior weren't ace/aro or other queer identities y'all be ready to rightfully lynch her. But since it's us, y'all just still wanna stamp your feet and go, 'Nuh uh!' instead of acknowledging facts." The part that says, "admitting that she intended to start the ace exclus movement" is a link to a galesofnovember post.

There is then a reblogged addition from furbearing brick that reads, "archived versions of the receipts" and has two links to the webarchive. The tags read, "Bringing this back since it's apparently still relevant. Terfism mention. Aphobia mention. Queerphobia mention. Blocklist." and has 1,455 notes. /END ID]

this is their post that ive already talked about but basically they found a 52 notes post made by a TERF in 2012 and this one person said "i dont know why i dont get to be the princess of the anti-ace-brigade" and apparently they are convinced that this means TERFs started the ace exclusionism movement and that this is one of their goals. which is insane when TERFs in real life only care about making life miserable for transfem people first and foremost.

5.link

[Image ID: A screenshot of a reblog by genderfluidlucifer. The original poster is yu-gay-fudo. It reads, “Just in case you happen to be unaware, some of the “radfem lite” they post to warm you up to their rhetoric, just off the top of my head:

- Ace/aro exclusionism

- Bi exclusionism or claims that bi people are “less queer” bc of “straight passive privilege”

- Saying you have to be dysphoric to identify as transInvalidating nonbinary people

- Calling queer a slur regardless of context, saying people can’t identify as queer, and saying that it can’t be reclaimed

- “Mogai hell”, “kweer”, or otherwise mocking less common labels and claiming they are “just cishets who want to feel special”

- Excluding sex workers from feminist discussions or claiming that sex work is inherently evil

- Basically anyone who thinks they can determine what other people identify as”. The tags read, "queerphobia tw. twerfs tw. no id." and has 70,727 notes. It was reblogged on March 22nd, 2021 /END ID]

another example of conflating radfems to things that, while wrong, have little to nothing to do with them because being a radfem, again, is something very specific that has all to do with transfem oppression.

Emotional manipulation

Lucifer has done nothing but block, break boundaries, spread lies and vague about people, some of which were even mutuals with them knowing they would see the posts. when confronted about it Lucifer's only answer was "just say you hate me and block me" but they actually ended up blocking everyone first, making it impossible for anyone to set some boundaries with them or even just to calmly confront them about anything.

[proof: Io(popncourse) and Lucifer had a disagreement in a shared discord server, which prompted Lucifer to vague Io in a vent post. Io confronted them, as being vagued is one of buns triggers, to which Lucifer initially agreed to delete the vent post, but then proceeded to victimize themself and immediatly blocked Io. later on, Jude(malewifedeckard) was confronted by Lucifer, then after Jude told them “I’m worried that you’ll vague me just like you did with Io” they proceeded to block Jude and vagued about him too. when Io made a post (which was not a callout, it was just bun setting buns boundaries) explaining what Lucifer did, Lucifer immediatly jumped to victimize themself, acting like they were being called out and straight-up lying, even going so far as to say that no one tried to hear them out, which is a blatant lie if you consider the aforementioned Io and Jude’s attempts at doing so, with Lucifer immediatly blocking and cutting ties with the both of them. ] 

(screenshots taken by @popncourse and @malewifedeckard)

as seen in the proof above Lucifer’s behaviour is not ok because they don’t accept any kind of confrontation and immediatly jump to blocking, and after blocking, they'd immediatly go and vague about the people who confronted them pacificly, spreading more lies and painting themself as the victim and even arriving to say “no one hears me out at all” which is simply not something you can say when you block people who are trying to hear you out in the first place.

this is by no means an invitation to go and harass them, send them hate or anything like that. i absolutely don’t want anything even remotely hateful or negative to be sent their way after this post. 

this post was only made because:

1. as an ace person who fully supports the inclusion of aspec identities in the lgbt+ community i don’t want to support an enviroment that costantly downplays transmisogynistic oppression in order to be taken seriously. there are hundreds of ways to make aspec activism without acting like we(as in TME aspecs)are the victims of a system that seeks for the annihilation of transfemenine people in real life everyday. i especially don’t want to support TME individuals who act transfem-friendly but then block any transfem who tries to speak on transmisogyny without a second thought.

2. Lucifer’s behaviour has hurt two friends of mine and i don’t want to associate with someone who actively breaks people’s boundaries without taking accountability when messing up.

3. i cannot associate with someone who spreads lies about me accusing me of sympathizing with exclusionists all while having me blocked so that i can’t see it nor defend me. they complain about people not hearing them out but they’re the very first person who does not try to hear people out, and instead jumps to spread baseless rumors. this is not someone i can nor want to associate with. 

(image descriptions provided by @malewifedeckard)

#genderfluidlucifer #transmisogyny tw #terfs tw #ask to tag #txt #long post #ok to rb

[willow-salix]

Thunderfam Appreciation Post

I see a lot of posts asking people about their favourite boys or about their fics or to blow their own horns, but do we see any appreciation posts for others in the fandom? Well I'm starting one. Reblog and tag those who inspire you, keep you going and who you want to see answer the questions.

Your favourite writer of your favourite boy.

The person who's stories you will always read.

Who wrote the first fic you read in this fandom.

Person you can talk to for the longest without a break.

Person you can't be trusted to be left alone with.

Person who's fic made you cry the most.

Person who's fic made you laugh the most.

Person who's fic made you think the most.

Person you have laughed with the most.

Your comfort fic that you'll go back and read again on a bad day.

Favourite piece of fan art.

Who have you known the longest in the fandom.

Favourite OC.

Person who supports your work the most.

Person who's progress you are the most proud of.

Person who's story you think is underrated and should be read by more people.

Something you think people would say about you.

Silliest 'thing' you do with someone.

Favourite pairing you now Stan because of someone's fic.

Favourite headcanon from someone's fic.

My answers:

1- I love the way @misssquidtracy writes John as just completely and utterly done with everything and everyone. He's such a damn mood.

2- I will always read a story by @inertplanetary, wifey does the best little baby ficlets, sometimes cute, sometimes poignant and painful but always perfectly done.

3- One by @gumnut-logic that had been posted/linked on Pinterest. I was looking for stuff as I usually do, trawling for stuff of the boys and bam.

4- @misssquidtracy definitely, 3am bedtimes are the norm for our phone calls.

5-@olliepig never trust us alone, that's how our weekly chat nights became known as Danger Wednesday. We're dangerous.

6- I honestly can't think of one because I try not to read too much whumpy stuff, but I know I shed a few tears with "Flannel" by @gumnut-logic

7- Most recently "You Stink" by @womble1

8- Probably "High Expectations" by @hedwigstalons, not only because the concept was brilliant but because we've had soooo many plotting deep conversations about it.

9- @misssquidtracy and @olliepig, Danger Wednesday baby! And out of the thunderfam by @endellionaeternus and our crazy and spontaneous roleplays, one of which Squiddy witnessed.

10- @misssquidtracy Taste of a Tracy.

11- without a doubt its the confinement hair picture that @myladykayo did for my Isolation updates. Alan's baby man bun is still a delight in my life.

12- @inertplanetary and @myladykayo

13- Toss up between Catriona George, Celery and @fallenfurther version of Scott's son.

14- I can't pick just one... @olliepig, @myladykayo, @misssquidtracy, @hedwigstalons and the person who triggered the creation of Selene @inertplanetary. This is my squad, my cheerleaders and my support.

15- I'd have to say @olliepig for creating an OC and running with it. And @hedwigstalons for stepping out of her comfort zone a bit with Bad Jeff.

16- "A question of curiosity" by @fallenfurther and "Scales" by @myladykayo... I'm a sucker for John stuff obvs. Series I think more people should read, "Waiting in the Wings" by @olliepig and @misssquidtracy's "Taste of a Tracy"

17- Always worry and never trust her when she starts a conversation or messages you with "I've been thinking..." "I had an idea..." "Uh oh..."

18- The goodbye wave with @olliepig

19- Why did I put such tough questions? Scott/Cat and Blue/Scarlet OCS and Blue/Green NCS. SpaceBears! And lowkey Stan Virg/Mike sometimes too. Sooo many.

20- Favourite headcanon.... Gotta be @soniabigcheese WereVirgil. I've always run with the boys having gifts so I love Nuttys Marks and Wings too, and CatJohn, being a paranormal romance author I'm all for this shit!

Sooo, on with the tags. Let's do it.

Tagging those I think will join in (and probably missing tons) , so please join in reblog and do your own.

@hedwigstalons @ak47stylegirl @godsliltippy @eirabach @hodgehegposts @dreamycloud @womble1 @seathesilverlinings @avengedbiologist @myladykayo @olliepig @jbarkerstargazer @janetm74

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds 2015 #thunderbirds fanfiction #thunderfam

[dayseternal-blog]

If you ever finish answering all of yours awaiting asks...

45 questions for you 👀

https://myaekingheart.tumblr.com/post/650107314353897472/fic-writer-ask-game

Lolllll BADLUCKBREBIS, you are so funny.

Inspiration and Reading Asks:

1. How long ago did you start reading fanfiction? Writing fanfiction?

It looks like I started writing in 2017. I've been reflecting recently on how there are so many regularly active writers now compared to in 2017-2018. It was the tail-end of some of my fave writer's activity within fandom. Utsus was posting less and less. The Tumblr NaruHina fandom seemed to disappear, a whole community of writers left for other things (matchaball, nekomamoru, magmawrites, cherryjutsu, spyder-m, tenney-shoes, eliphya, among others). 2018 was a very quiet year, but! I avidly read katarinahime and bunnyhoodlum's works! In 2019, quirrrky restarted things with NaruHina Week!

2. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

Recently I’m primarily a reader!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because there's so many writers now!!!!!!!!

3. Are there any fics that inspired you to write what you do?

Yeah, let’s list them.  “A Special Friend” by agitosgirl inspired “Nightdreams.  “Medicine” by @grimmjowkurosakidrake​ inspired “White Lilies.  “Torch Song” by @mmmbuttery inspired “About You.”  The language in “Unless the World Were to End” by @bunny-hoodlum​ inspired the language in “That was the plan.”  “In Between Drinks” by @peppercornpress inspired “In Between Drinks NH.”

4. Link your three favorite fics right now.

“Operation: Bring Home Naruto” by Dragonwannabe - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Complete. Hinata's been assigned the mission of getting Naruto back home safely after his last dangerous assignment. But can she handle the undercover identity as his girlfriend that she’d been given without revealing her true feelings for him?

“The Mission” by Lunawraythe - Rated M, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Ongoing. It wasn't that Hinata never expected to work with Naruto, just never on a mission quite like this.

“The Loving Type” by @peppercornpresses - Rated M, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Ongoing. A few years have passed since the Fourth Shinobi War, in which...Rookie Nine steadily advances in rank. Naruto gets engaged. Hinata leaves Konoha. And Kakashi schemes for days.

5. What are your fanfic pet peeves? Do they have a huge effect on whether or not you decide to read something?

ahhh.  I do have quite a few pet peeves.  If the fic is Canon-Compliant or Canon-Divergent, I expect Naruto and Hinata to behave like Japanese people.  Say what you want, but the Naruto Universe is definitely Japanese in my book.  So that means no shoes in the house.  Nothing rattles me more than reading Hinata taking her sandals off before climbing into bed.  Like, what?  she was wearing her outdoor shoes indoors this whole time??

mmm... another pet peeve is when the writer describes Hinata in a kimono, but it sounds like an American Halloween costume, like the slutty version, instead of an actual kimono.

mmm... and the other big pet peeve I have is when it’s Hinata’s first time eating ramen because Naruto is showing her the wonders of ramen.  lol.  why.  how.  in what world would a Japanese person make it to their teenage years without ever eating ramen.

I have a bunch of other little pet peeves regarding Japanese culture in fanfics.  But in general, it doesn’t stop me from reading the fic if I'm already in the middle of it.  I’ll continue reading it and will probably recommend it to other people anyway. If I can tell based on the summary, then it's not for me, and I don't read it. If this makes anyone feel nervous about writing fanfiction, that's not my intention! I would also be happy to be a sensitivity reader if necessary.

6. How do you find new fic to read? Where do you primarily read fanfiction?

I primarily read fanfics on AO3 and ffnet.  I find new ones by constantly checking the Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto tag on AO3 or looking into a writer’s favorites list on ffnet.

7. Do you prefer to read short fics or long fics?

Short fics.

8. How often do you reblog/comment on fics that you like?

I reblog pretty often. I don't comment as often as I used to😕 I used to comment on every fic I liked.

9. Tag 3 fic writers you think are underrated/unknown in the fandom/fanfiction community.

Uhh?? Idk. I think recently the writing group here is pretty tight, everyone seems to know everyone.

10. What’s your favorite fandom, pairing, or character to read fic for?

Naruto fandom and NaruHina.

Fanfiction Writing Asks:

11. How do you come up with your fic titles?

I usually take it from words used in the story or from the prompt.

12. Tell the author your favorite fic title of theirs (not the fic, strictly title). Author: what’s your favorite title you’ve come up with and why?

I think...maybe "Tell Me of Forevers" or "Nightdreams." I like those because they aren't taken word-for-word directly from the story, but touch on a theme in the story.

13. Do you outline your fics? How much of a headache would someone get if they just looked at an outline of yours without reading the fic?

Yes, I outline. They wouldn't get a headache, I think. It's usually just a summary.

14. Do you have a personal word minimum that you hold yourself too? Why or why not?

Nope. I didn't know people do that.

15. Tell the author your favorite fic of theirs. What’s your (the author’s) favorite fic you’ve written?

My favorite fic continues to be "It's No Secret."

16. Do you research for your fics? If so, how deep of a rabbit hole have you gone down by accident when researching?

Yes, I do. I've done historical and folktale research for "Little Samurai." I did area/location research for "Last Chance." I did historical research for "About You." I did fairy tale research for "Catskin." I did a ton of astronomy research for "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl." And I did lighting research for "Inspo." I go pretty deep.

17. How obsessively do you sit and stare at your fic after you’ve just posted and wait for feedback?

I don't. I usually have something else I need to do or I go to bed.

18. Do you have a WIP that you keep telling yourself you’ll eventually get back to, but deep down you know that’s probably a lie?

I actually think I can finish all of mine if I just try.

19. Do you edit your fics after you write them, or do you prefer to just hit post and run (because it’s someone else’s problem now)?

I always edit before posting to AO3. Anything I post directly on Tumblr might not be edited.

20. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

Posting!

21. What’s your least favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

Starting a new chapter.

22. Do you take fic requests? If so, for what characters and why?

On occasion. If someone sends me a request, I'll think about writing it. Sometimes I do write and post it, sometimes I leave them in my drafts for a better day.

23. What’s your absolute favorite trope to write?

From what I already have posted, probably friends-to-lovers, secret relationship/forbidden love, or high school au. I don't think I have an intentional favorite.

24. What’s a trope that you’d like to never hear about as long as you live, let alone write?

Public humiliation / public degradation.

25. Do you listen to music as you write? If possible, link your writing playlist.

No, not usually.

26. What’s your biggest distraction when writing?

Tumblr feed, all the pictures to scroll through mindlessly.

27. Do you like to give your readers some warning of what might be coming or just slap them in the face with content at random?

lol, whatever is fine.

28. How do you deal with writing pressure (ie: pressure to update, negative comments, deadlines, etc)?

Well, pressure to update is not a big deal to me. I do this for fun, so I don't think I unnecessarily pressure myself too much. With negative comments, I don't get too many of those, and I think I do my best to avoid situations where I might get negative feedback.

29. Have you ever written for an exchange or event of some kind? Which one(s)? Did you enjoy it?

Yeah, I like the events. My favorite was NH2020, the year-long one last year. I also enjoyed the Secret Santa last year since @badluckbrebis was my giftee.

30. Post a snippet from your current WIP without context - no more than 300 words.

haha😈

Ecstasy slides through his veins, blooming over his mind, cocooning him in pleasant sensations, cum shooting out in eager twitches against hot, milking flesh.

31. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

Naruto Uzumaki, always.

32. Copy and paste your top three favorite lines/jokes/sentences you’ve ever written. What fics do they come from?

Top 3 faves in order:

That was the plan: "She shifts in his arms, and cloth and cleavage come pillowing up to his face, and he’s certain that she’s scooped from the same puffy stuff his adolescent daydreams were made of."

Tell Me of Forevers: "What he wouldn’t do to inspire every blush, every smile of hers for an eternity when such moments already only speak “forever” to him."

White Lilies: "Whether at his feet, in his eyes, ears, mind, if not reaching his heart, she never landed anywhere. (It’s okay.)"

I consider "White Lilies" to have my technically best writing, so it was kind of hard to choose just one line from that fic! But I decided that one's my favorite line from the whole story.

33. What do you like writing better: one shots or multi-chapter stuff?

One-shots.

34. How much of yourself and your life experiences do you put into your writing? What do you think your readers’ image of you is?

A lot of my life experiences are in my writing. Hmm, I think readers probably think I'm...hmm...either empathetic or really perverted?

35. How much has writing fic changed your life?

I spend a lot less time on real-life social media than before.

36. Are there any fics or fandoms you’re embarrassed to have written or been part of?

I'm kind of embarrassed of "Honeymoon at the Hot Springs" lol. It's fine.

37. Give an update on your current WIP - if you don’t have one, give a sneak peek to a title or idea that you have and would like to write.

My current WIP is that A/B/O fic I started for February Smut Month Prompts: Sweet as Candy or Love Bites. I'm going to title it "Sweet As," and it'll be about how Naruto and Hinata become Alpha/Omega mates. It's really kinky, really smutty, and totally what I would want to read.

38. What does your writing process look like? How chaotic is it on a scale of 1 (very tame) to 10 (you can’t handle this kind of chaos)?

uhh???? a 1?? I've never once thought of my writing process as chaotic. Ahh, then I think of bunnyhoodlum's multiple drafts for the same chapter, and I realize that there exist types of writing processes that I would not be able to handle...

39. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

My smut.

40. How did you come up with the idea for [x fic]?

41. What’s your most popular fic (with the most notes on tumblr, most hits/kudos on ao3)?

Idk about Tumblr,,, maybe White Lilies got the most attention here. My most popular fic is Nightdreams on AO3.

42. Asker: pick three of the author’s works. Author: rank them 1 (the best) - 3 (the worst) based on whatever criteria you want - this could be something totally random that isn’t quality related (like simply ranking fics based on how many trains appear in them) - have fun!

43. Talk about a positive experience with fanfiction or the fanfiction community that you will always remember.

I will always remember how people congratulated me for finishing White Lilies😭 Also, when peppercornpresses made that FIRST art of my story, I just, I just stared at it all day.

44. Rant about something writing related.

hmmm, I don't feel like ranting about anything. I just recently ranted about my pet peeves above.

45. Fic specific questions - if you have any weird questions about specific works, here’s your shot to ask them!

I did them all! Nice questions.

#anon #*anon* #fic writer ask game #i will send these questions right back at you

[thejudgingtrash]

Now hold up I would personally love to hear a full rant on this supposed adaptation I have never heard of until now. Like, legitimately, I wanna know what you have to say about this cause you seem to be one of the most valid PJO blogs

Uhhh what??? Me one of the most valid PJO blogs??? What kinda crack have you been smoking WHAT afahsgjskdh.

But still thank you 😊🥺🙈

Alright, you wanted a rant. You got a rant. Fuck the positives let’s just straight up jump into my aggression.

WARNING: Massive rant with a lot of swear words. If you can’t handle the heat, feel free to ignore this. I personally haven’t worked in Hollyweird, but I had some behind the scenes stuff here in Europe going on for a short period and also the trusty words of my college professors. So here will be a lot of prediction and speculation involved. Yes, I know that I’m a huge hypocrite for voicing my opinions based on stuff that hasn’t been pushed through in months and that I could be easily proven wrong in a few weeks/months. Still thank you should you actually take the time to read through this tomfuckery.

If things are wrong, please DO correct me!

Links to further reads will be included partially.

TL;DR: Keep your hopes to a low, stop harassing people online and mAnAgE yOuR eXpEcTaTiOnS!!111!!

Okay. First things first:

DISNEY

DOESN’T

GIVE

A

SINGLE

FUCK

ABOUT

YOU

Disney is a fucking multi-billion dollar corporation with many, many, many studios, stations, brands and franchises worldwide. The Percy Jackson franchise is a dime in a dozen. Disney doesn’t give a single fuck about the PJO fandom in general.

Disney doesn’t give a fuck about you 20-something year old with your 9 year old blog discussing which toilet paper brand Percy uses. And Disney also doesn’t give a fuck about you 16 year old, writing the worst fucking Solangelo fanfic I’ve read so far on this hellsite. Like goddamn.

Trust me, they know you are interested. They know they got you hooked. They see the numbers, they see the like/reblog ratio, they see the Twitter engagement. They see you with #disneyadaptpercyjackson. They see the petitions, they see how excited you were for the musical. You don’t get to be a gigantic conglomerate like Disney with playing stupid.

Also to you fuckfarts saying oH nO I wOn’T wAtCh It I dOn’T cArE aBoUt NeW sTuFf. Congrats dipshit. You are STILL alerting followers and people about what’s happening and creating more buzz, giving more awareness and adding to the transaction costs. You really cheated the system, you little edgelord. Again:

You are nothing but a number. You are a fucking walking dollar bill. You are a consumer waiting for a new shiny product to fill the void in your life for 45 minutes weekly or by two hours at some point.

The PJO movies 1. & 2 happened for a reason. Because Fox saw a popular book series á la Harry Potter, Twilight (and The Hunger Games) and wanted a piece of that action. They wanted your fucking money. Them entirely fucking up and ignoring Riordan’s advice is on them of course. But still. The movies happened. (And also saw people saying they were flops. Reception wise: hell yes. They are awful adaptations (not per se awful movies, there’s a difference). But money wise?? They made together over 245 million dollars in profit. Of course, that isn’t today’s Marvel level but it’s still fairly decent. Also don’t forget that the second movie still got greenlit. Interest was still there despite part one. You disliking something doesn’t turn it into a flop)).

Again, Disney doesn’t care about you. THIS is what Disney cares about:

1. MONEY

2. PROFIT

3. ENGAGEMENT

4. TOTAL GROSS

5. CONVERSION RATES

11. …. “Artistry“

So in terms of money, we gotta speak about the on-going woke culture. You know, lgbtqia+ stuff, poc representation and all the good shit we want and need in our life, right?

Well, I got bad news for ya. Disney being money hungry has its massive downsides. Because where is the money? In the east. Well and what happens if we include the woke stuff? Possible censorships (even retroactively! You know Gravity Falls went through that), bans, etc.

So all of you talking about representation and artistic vision and being bold and brave and blablabla… Throw that into the fucking trash. We can probably be glad if we get Grover back as the token black kid and a few other minorities sprinkled here and there. Open gay Nico? Doubt it. Your afro-latino Percy head canon? Definitely keep that but unlikely to be realized. And also, if you think that Annabeth wouldn’t get turned into the blandest whitest “I dOn’T nEeD nO mAn“ radfem, I got some bad news for ya…

The likelihood of everything being dumbed down, toned down with the exception of a few adult jokes or being even partially censored (depending on certain regions) is very, very high.

Also what makes you think we’re even getting close to the Heroes of Olympus and Trials of Apollo saga? I doubt you will see The Seven for a long time unless Riordan really says fuck it and throws his final ace card into Disney’s filthy greedy mouth.

So if Disney doesn’t have the fandom’s interest at heart, what are they interested in? Well… MONEY. Also NEW engagement. They know your funky ass is going to tune in. They know people will pirate the shit (Me waving like a maniac), they all KNOW that. Again, they aren’t stupid.

So: MORE engagement. MORE money. How do we get even more engagement? By luring new people into the fandom. Who is most likely going to get lured into a family friendly show/movie series because let’s not forget that we’re talking about Disney+? The targeted audience of the books. Who is the targeted audience of the books? MIDDLE SCHOOLERS. 11 to 14 year olds. Disney wants those kids’ (well their parents’ hard earned) money. They want to sell products, in that case books + Disney Plus subscriptions + possible merch. There you also have the likely future rating for the fucking show. Sorry to disappoint everyone that was hoping for gritty Game of Thrones filled with 12 year olds (like seriously wtf?).

Now that that’s settled, let’s talk about the outlook on the show/movie and Riordan’s influence that you people clearly overestimate.

How much power or say does Rick Riordan actually have?

ZERO. ABSOLUTELY NONE.

He’s in the worst fucking lose-lose-situation you could imagine.

Disney owns the books and Fox owns the movie rights. Wait. Fox got bought. By whom you ask? DISNEY, what a coincidence! In Rick Riordan’s own words:

Disney has him by his fucking balls and could crush them at any minute. And if you think, that Disney is letting go of that sweet sweet intellectual property you are fucking mistaken. Riordan isn’t a J.K. Rowling who OWNS the Wizarding World. You have no idea what Disney are capable of with massive lobbying that goes so far to influence copyright laws in the States (LINK)

So you can stop harassing him about a fucking Netflix adaptation as well! Or petitions that do nothing but annoy people.

These negotiations take up YEARS to get the simplest stuff done. No need to shit your pants whenever Riordan’s tweeting stuff.

Still: would Disney be fucking mad to do this without him? Absolutely!

Should Disney involve him to prevent a PJO movie 2.0 scenario?

Yes, they definitely should!

But CAN Disney do this without him?

OF COURSE THEY CAN! THEY OWN EVERYTHING.

In Riordan’s own words:

Read carefully what he has written. He doesn’t say he’s going to halter productions, he’s saying HE WON’T BE A PART OF IT. This also makes me curious about WHO approached WHO in the first place (my guess Disney tried to make some amendments because Fox ain’t shit and trying to alienate the author again would be a goddamn stupid move). Disney has the fucking film rights. Of course they can pump out shit without involving him. They could pull a Fantastic Four (the awful 2015 version) just to keep the rights and for the fuck of it.

There are the following possibilities with Riordan’s involvement:

1. Riordan as a producer: Dude’s gotta be loaded. We know that. But backing the production costs many, many, many millions and I don’t know if he’s THAT loaded. Also film producing isn’t his forte.

2. Riordan as a screenplay writer: Now we’re getting closer to something. Yes, many productions these days have authors directly involved which is great! But also can go the other way around (J.K. Rowling and her Grindelwald fiasco. Author’s do NEED to learn when to stop intermeddling with their franchises, just saying) Book writing and screenplay writing are two very DIFFERENT disciplines. You don’t have the liberties of book writing when it comes to film. The screenplay is the guide for the entire production, the visuals, the set design, the whole atmosphere of the product, the very first thing that needs to be done so that directors, designers and lastly the casted actors know what they have to do. Everything has to come to a point in a very short time and there are many, many, many versions of a screenplay before a final raw draft gets handed out. If that isn’t in Riordan’s interest (which I can completely understand) then that’s simply not happening

3. Riordan as a guide: Directors, screenplay writers, etc. sit down with Riordan on a regular basis to show him the written screenplay, which actors they have in mind, the whole vision and he has a mini veto right.

If you ask me, a mix of scenario 2 and 3 is the most likely to be the most successful. That means, that Riordan needs to have a good faithful team, that sticks closely to the source material. That isn’t guaranteed! Again: look at the PJO movies. But of course, we don’t know the internals of these meetings.

So… now the final part. The whole fucking “Animation vs. Live action“ debate. Well, both sides have their pro’s and con’s. And both sides are filled with a bunch of fucking morons. I won’t try to get you to either side.

But to those that want are begging for a live action version with age-appropriate actors I have the following to say:

FUCK

YOU

IN

PARTICULAR!

WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU WANT CHILDREN TO GO THROUGH THE HELL THAT IS DISNEY AND THE SHADY SHIT GOING ON THERE SO THAT YOU CAN BE ENTERTAINED FOR SOME MERE MINUTES?!

Oh my god…. You people REALLY really want a fourth wave Me Too movement in 15-20 years. Not every Hollyweird kid has a helicopter parent hovering around them on set and many do get abused/robbed by their parents. And the people involved in the production! Of course, animation has still a chance of this happening but the risk is somewhat lower when it just comes to voice acting.

Tbh, I actually wouldn’t mind an aged-up cast again just to prevent this as best as possible. Unfortunately, child actors will always be needed.

I have nothing much to add to this, I’ll just drop a link to an old small post from me about that right here (LINK)

Personally I lean more towards animation but in the big picture I won’t care. (Also the whole animation is for kids and dumbs down the whole narrative for PJO is fucking stupid, boo boo the fool. You being in your late teens/twenties and grown out of the targeted audience is the cause of nature. Animation can be mature or would you show Attack on Titan or South Park to your 8 year old cousin?)

I’ll be just tuning in to see if this is as messy as I’d expect it to be or to be pleasantly surprised.

Also again: this process is a long one. It’s going to be exhausting, depressing, demanding, pushing.

From the meetings now that will take a very long time, to a screenplay, which can take YEARS in finalizing, to hiring staff, location hunting and set design (should they go the live action route), to casting, to costume design, to rehearsing/production, to filming, to dispersing, to editing, to fx, to finishing, to marketing, to publishing, NOTHING IS SET IN STONE! This is a very, very, very, wanky process despite contracts and everything on paper. Let’s not forget, Disney can afford some good lawyers.

And even if everything goes as smoothly as possible. Higher up people could see the final edit of everything with editors having scenes close to the books in an a/b/c/d cut and some producer says NO! I want an c/a/b/d version that again fucks up the dynamics of the books. Or something terrible: everything is shot and done and THEN it get’s postponed. Or even fucking worse: SHELVED to be NEVER RELEASED. Aka Henry Selick’s career after Coraline (Coraline from 2009 is STILL his latest release because of his fucked up Disney contract and them cancelling his shit). Millions of dollars wasted and we won’t get to see ANYTHING. This is all very possible and happens constantly in the film business AND at Disney. This is nothing new.

And there’s nothing we can do about it. No one cares about Riordan, no one cares about the books, no one cares about the fandom.

DISNEY holds the cards. DISNEY gets to decide. Neither Riordan, nor you nor me hold ANY power in this.

So kids… what have we learned today? In conclusion:

Keep your hopes to a low, stop harassing people online and mAnAgE yOuR eXpEcTaTiOnS!!111!!

That’s it. That’s all I wanted to say.

WHEW.

#percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #percy jackson movie #percy jackson #percy jackson adaptation #disney #disney adapt percy jackson #annabeth chase #grover underwood #nico di angelo #rick riordan #riordanverse #my rants

[regentcorpse]

Added after I wrote this, I know my grammar is a mess in this. This post is 2223 words, longer than most high school essays which averaged 1500 words. If you don’t want to read all of this it has been separated into paragraphs and most of the conversation points are in the last three paragraphs. This sentence was added in after word count, the original post was on Facebook which is why the link in this does point to my own blog: My sentence structures are not correct, and this is Facebook and I don’t give a crap about that here. I did try to do my best to make it somewhat understandable with several ideas and conversations all in this. Also I didn’t originally separate it into paragraphs. If a sentence seems out of place at the start or end of a paragraph, my bad. But please read, comment opinions, not angry but constructive to build a conversation. I also don’t know how but this became more like an info blog post, but valid points and openings for conversations are made.

These newish Apple features like the Memoji, like it’s aight but still lacking in so many hair styles and facial depth, forehead, chins, and noses. Hopefully the will add a lot more features to be able to make it more like you, in a cartoon version. I’m about to check out the full bitmoji app to see what all they have, but I feel like apple should of used bitmoji, and since Apple has a version, I know android does. How is their version in your experience? (Please reply even if you don’t know me, I want to have decent conversations with people, but I hardly have anyone to talk to about random stuff like this.) Also the fact that Apple has Memoji in their database of words and not Bitmoji, is extremely weird, and pointless not to have it.

I don’t know how I feel overall about Apples decisions on these updates. They seem to be trying to almost build a legit social media around their platforms, I wouldn’t be surprised if they make something like Google+, which will most likely fail all together as a product, not because it will be awful but because we already have the social media giants that control most people’s lives, work, and reputation.

Facebook is for memes mostly and socializing with like minded people with their pages and groups. Not to mention that so many people use their marketplace now as well, which did shock me that it took of with other apps offering the same thing before Facebook did. To those who didn’t know, yes, Facebook stole that idea from OfferUp and LetGo(I think there was another around before the marketplace.)

You have Snapchat, the goofy fun social media where you can have personalized stories, private or public, and I may be wrong but they are also the ones that introduced the idea(maybe didn’t originally have the idea, but did introduce it, I think. Let me know if I am wrong please, I would like to know.) Next, the thing that made Snapchat big originally was the disappearing pictures after 10 seconds, which you couldn’t edit when the app first came out, the initial release didn’t even have filters or all the extra stuff they have now, it was so basic and simple and blew up. Another thing that made Snapchat big in the same way, disappearing photos meant disappearing nudes for both male and female, only that at first they could be screenshots, that didn’t notify you. In a future version, they disabled screenshoting photos from the default system buttons, but of course people found ways and made apps to get around it. Snapchat then started to block accounts for using those apps, then came the solution of notifying users of screenshots and then recordings when Apple released that feature. I know Snapchat probably wasn’t the first to make the goofy photo filters, but they did make it so much easier and almost more advanced with their simple facial mapping(yes it is simple since it’s meant to work with phones without facial recognition and all the other fancy face features.). Now Snapchat is a place to socialize in groups, or privately with friends through photos, messages, and video. Another big use now is the porn industry, where I think it’s safe to say only females succeed at making a lot of money with. It also seems to avoid spam bots and stuff. I’ve never received anything from a fake user or bot, besides their built in Snapchat bot, so that is honestly impressive and I applaud them for trying to keep it safe and friendly, except for the usual douchebag guys that send dick picks and stalk girls no matter their age. Danger lurks at all corners of the internet, and making friends is easier now, and just an add and a message away sometimes. But be careful who you add and honestly block anyone who harasses you or sends you unwanted images. And report them, help improve internet society and safety. This goes for all social media platforms.

Instagram is built solely around the personal sharing of photos to a feed and nothing else really. I know everyone was shocked that it became as big as it did, considering you can do the same thing in Facebook, and easily share other peoples photos to your friends. Although it is just photos, the people on there that are successful, actually do influence people and promote sponsors and their products. Some use it to get money, for their more explicit content. It followed Snapchat in adding stories, then filters, and has been successful in its endeavors. You can find everything legal on their as well as some illegal content such as drug use. As mentioned above, yes bots and fake accounts exist, be weary in who you talk to and exchange messages and photos with on here as well.

Twitter has been around for a long time and honestly, I see it being the first to die, due to overall lack of community and now with all the user interface updates and whatnot, it can be difficult to understand how the social environment of it works. Basically you get I think 140 characters to insert into the status prompt or whatever you/they want to call it. I personally don’t use it much, I get on there to see any updates from game companies and some of my favorite authors and music artists. I do this maybe once a week or two. I honestly don’t understand the point in twitter nor how getting followers and conversations started on there, if you have any suggestions for me please let me know if you are still somehow reading this.

Tumblr, ye olde blogging platform, one of the best until the pornography bam that yahoo added once their app was removed from the Apple store after I think being reported for child pornography. A lot of people lost their blogs and thousands of followers and countless hours of work. Many others had a lot of their content censored by a community guidelines photo or by being completely removed. So yes we can all agree that it’s a good thing they are trying to do what they can to combat child pornography of Tumblr, but a lot of people saw this as a complete change of environment for tumblr, whether being used for art, music, porn, pizza, cats etc.. Another big complaint that caused this change is how easy it was to lie about your age and turn off the content filter that got rid of the majority of inappropriate content. It was literally just a search option, then they tried moving it to your phone settings to the app setting in there to turn it off, which was still too easy. I can say you will still see pornographic content on Tumblr, mostly by accident, but there are people still posting getting around their image search algorithms. Past that to summarize, it’s basically a bigger version of Twitter, allowing for blog posts of most media types now, they have a reblog button to repost on your own page(these also get their own sub domains where it follows such as mine regentcorpse.tumblr.com. This is not for promotion, just an easy example(it’s a new blog with only like one blog post, but yes is my personal blog.) You can use your own domain if you own the address and route it to tumblrs name-servers, which most domain hosts have guides available to help you understand the process and set it up. They follow Wordpress in allowing themes which are only visible in a web browser and not the Tumblr mobile app, but on mobile you can edit the color scheme and fonts to what they have stock. To be like twitter with the features of Wordpress except custom plugins, it is a phenomenal platform still where you can truly be yourself and no one actually has to know who you are, you just post the content you love, the content you create(except for the porn content that a lot of people now went to Snapchat and Twitter for, and probably some private instagrams). You can find almost everything you heart desires within lawful reasons, I mean honestly you could probably find someone to buy illegal stuff from like guns, drugs, etc but I’ve never looked for that type of stuff on there. I love cyberpunk culture and there are so much content around it on tumblr. It also has pretty decent privacy setting for a blog, which can be password locked I believe and you can set permissions for it to be only people you follow or follow you, or no one or everyone can message you, ask questions(which can be anonymous), and submit content to your blog(also can be anonymous). The tumblr community can be toxic but also so helpful and beautiful seeing some of the ways people come together on there. It can range from legit bugs to books and quotes to programming and even professional use.

There is also LinkedIn, which is a very professional platform where you can add your professional resume and skills and may get recruited to jobs. I remember something like this tried to launch on Facebook but I do believe it failed out, as I haven’t seen anything about it or a link since they probably removed it.

So this leads me to ask What would an Apple Social Media Platform consist of? How would they try to outdo the others, and how would they make it appealing enough for people to use/switch to. Yes Apple is a big name, but so was google which failed at social media. They had good ideas but went about it completely wrong.

I feel like Apple would attempt to make a platform around creativity and art of all types. I feel like it would be a platform that would combine GarageBand, IMessages, Memoji, and all their other great apps into one. If they added collaboration on projects a lot easier in that aspect, and didn’t force themselves into everyone(Yes, Google that’s a shot at you.), they could make a truly great platform where we could see great things made by groups, communities, artists, and I could see them adding some sort of collaboration for web developers and programmers, which I would like to see knowing that Facebook, the corporation not social network, owns Oculus, and they already have a lot of resources for developers. Do you think Apple might be working on a social media platform, or do you think they will just keep adding out of place features? Do you think they would succeed in it or absolutely fail? Do you think Apple would stand a chance against the other giants that have been around and built up their user base? Also another issue is how exclusive Apple is with everything, just the fact you can log into Apple TV and watch it on a Windows Pc is a miracle. Do you think Apple will make it exclusive or would they put in the effort of being their media platform to everyone no matter their device? Remember everyone had a MySpace, now you never even hear about it, Facebook was a surprising switch with it having limited functionality and basically no customization options for your profile like MySpace and some other media’s had.

I want to hear your thoughts, opinions, and speculations about this, let’s start an open and friendly conversation, no hate or trolls, I don’t want all of that and your comments will be deleted and I may even block you from seeing posts like this on your feed and my page. This is at an end because my thumbs are tired and my phones dying and Facebook is lagging from how much I just put on here, but seriously comment, let me know what’s running in your mind, even what you would like to see change in social media in general or even in specific ones. I hope you all do open a nice and positive and informative conversation, I want to see that on Facebook more and I want to make friends I can talk about this type of stuff with in depth or even as broad as mostly common knowledge.

#facebook #instagram #apple #android #tech #future #social media #tumblr #art #music #books #community #programming #mobile #desktop #google

[incarnateirony]

Terms, uses, and semantics

So, I’ve noticed a lot of terms get used in one wing, and interpreted differently by another wing. And then wing 2 bounces back wing 1 and it swings like an ever increasing, extremized pendulum. I figured I’d put down a couple of points I (personally) hold about these terms, such as:

“Toxic Codependency” and my feelings on it, when it’s misused, and when the word is reflexively adopted in “defense” by another party that isn’t necessarily an extremist,

“Performer Dean”, potential overapplication, and defensive reactions I’ve seen people take in occasionally misunderstanding the general idea *most* people are trying to get at with it,

“Canon,” “Romance,” and maybe a few others. If any of these words have ever triggered you, even quietly, when I’ve crossed paths with them, I’d like to clearly emphasize my personal intent with these, and a few points I think the whole “road to hell with best intentions” has flared up with others based on serial misunderstandings and reactions.

So, let’s start.

Toxic Codependency

We all know the term. Most of us hate the concept of it; followers of a ship in a certain wing praise it. Sometimes it doesn’t have the “toxic” applied but, by nature of “codependency,” it is in fact a toxic form of relationship. However, I do find that this swings into extremes.

Yes, there are periods - large ones - where Sam and Dean’s brotherhood was toxically codependent. There’s times they stepped back from that as well. People who support the brother bond have seem to adapt “I’d like to see a permanent end of codependency” to “I’d like to see an end to the brother bond,” which generally isn’t the intent.

On the other hand, I find that people are so reactive that at times, they have a difficult time discerning between “honest loving sacrifice in a horrific life” and “codependent decisions,” and this word has become so THICKLY adapted into discussion that it seems to rear its head almost any time a decision between the brothers is made.

An example of this is season 13; season 12-13 made a due point to give them everything, then take everything away, and show Dean was not okay just being there for Sam anymore nor did he feel suited to play the caretaker anymore. Season 13 became a mad dash to restore everything, to get everyone back, to have more than just each other. Both brothers featured this: Sam’s familial dream, Dean’s need for Cas and outright desperation to get Mary back; the mutual Team Free Will adoption of Jack. They need and want more. 

But people wary of the codependency started panicking at “if we die, we die together,” and simultaneously at Dean sacrificing himself (ergo not “together” but we’ll just slip away from that) as a sign of “them restoring the toxic codependency,” and I think this level of extremism really strips our ability to discuss the evolution of their relationships without crossing our arms in some sort of Ward Against Evil for impact from someone that’s going to get upset about the need for/hate of codependency.

Because that wasn’t codependency; he had Sam - and Jack; Dean’s mind didn’t singlehandedly whittle itself down to Sam. It saw big picture; Dean didn’t do much but nod numbly at Sam’s fateful line (that he ultimately refused the concept of with his decision), maybe with that token sardonic, reserved near-smirk he does when you know he’s turning over something darkly in his head (and generally about to do something radical - that smirk told me Dean had no intention of letting them die together, in the instant). This was a choice for not even just his brother, but his family (and, beneath that, the world.)

But the use of this phrase seems to be strapped on to so many aspects of the brothers’ relationships that it’s almost inescapable.

Yes, there are lots of toxic, codependent aspects they’ve waxed and waned into and out of over time and yes, from the view of someone who wants these characters to find happiness, I’d like them to grow past that. But not everything they do at any moment makes a toxic codependent theme. Two moments (that CLASHED with each other) don’t disrupt two years of cohesion. Sometimes, codependent or not, we make sacrifices, and that certainly wasn’t a single-minded purchase into it. Pressured, and rushed due to plot accordion, but-

That’s just the most recent example at the top of my head. Personally, my use of “toxic codependency” tends to be in extreme reservation, and more often than not, you’ll find me sifting down why I don’t feel something is that.

On the other hand, there’s the argument from one wing that it’s the premise of the show, and that’s deadass wrong. And I hold no bars in saying that. The brother bond is the premise of the show (and now extending into Found Family). These things do not demand the dependency. They break out of it eventually, ESPECIALLY with the Found Family evolution, the gained stability of the bunker as a home, and more. 

But I think the fandom pendulum has become so strong in that, for example, One wing says they hate the codependency that hurts them; an extreme opposite wing says it defines the show; the first wing says no, it doesn’t, and they can break out of it; the opposite wing extremizes one way, the first wing does the opposite, until both ends are reading toxic codependency into the first fart in a room, when the real question is “At what point is this healthy support and loyalty, and what point is it toxically codependent?” 

Mind: some meta authors etc in the fandom *do* approach it from this angle so it’s not a unilateral statement of “screw everybody,” but I felt the need to put that out there for anyone reading my stuff.

“Performer Dean” IS NOT AN INSULT. 

It does not “minimize” any part of Dean. Each and every one of us has performer attributes in the real world, some of us more than others. Performer Dean simply identifies the difference between his surface personalities and hidden enjoyments. This is something the show gave to us only a few episodes into season one. 

It’s a safety wall he’s built - and yes, he needs that - but the point of people generally talking about the sublimation of Performer!Dean is that they want Dean to eventually be able to grow to a place where he doesn’t feel the need to perform to his closest companions. It’s similar to growing past codependency.

Dean liked the vegetable water, despite gruffing at it. Something something manly. Dean scoffed and refused shorts, but there he was showing them off later. Illusions of who he needs to be, both for his little brother and the world, are a literal part of canon and discussing this is not necessarily an insult.

HOWEVER,

There’s likely some people that take it a little too far - maybe in wanting Dean to completely drop the points they’ve personally decided are his toxic masculine lines, rather than his personal repressions. And in a world of people with varying opinions, this is an infinite rabbithole of potential overstep. By and LARGE, not many people want to woobify Dean though. I’m of the brand where I’m happy with most of Dean’s current aspects, a few repressions and walls I’d like him to drop over time, but I actually enjoy his masculine attributes as part *of* why I like him as a Bi!Dean stan - because he’s not your “gay man stereotype,” he’s just like a lot of bi/gay dudes around the world are, that are left to throw up walls on the things that make them cautious about being too... well, “not manly.” You know, the over-reactive dudebro that doth protest too much... and then later you find him Doing The Thing.

Because that’s Dean, and that’s what a lot of people talk about with Performer!Dean. If anyone takes it too far, my apologies; but the concept of discussing performer Dean, and repressions of things that are too kiddish/feminine/whatever, are actually substanced in canon, and many meta authors want to see positive progress into happiness for a character rather than stagnance or, worse, regression.

These two major points minded,

despite my occasional use of terms like “toxic codependency” and “performer Dean,” or maybe *because* of them, my ultimate end hope for Dean is a man who’s comfortable to be who he is, with the people he cares about, without surviving on reactive desperation and clinging to “the one thing he has left”, but rather, in support of a growing family unit as he seems to yearn for, without fear of being judged for them - be it over shorts, vegetable water, Elsa, or maybe - depending on your read - who he’s attracted to and what that means to him and his “manliness.” It’s a release of the “toxic” edge of masculinity that just leaves... self-comfortable masculinity.

Supporting bi!Dean and Performer!Dean is in no way intended from me to ever be denigrating to his manliness (and frankly, I find the direct correlation of these ideas to be queerblind at least, lowkey phobic at worst); rather, wanting him to understand that there is no threat to that if he enjoys these things, and that he’s still a powerful individual and as masculine as he wants to be, even if that’s in friggin’ gym or car-washing shorts.

Canon, Romance, Subtext

Okay, so, I’ve gone into this at length in another post before, but I feel the need to do the ELI5 repeat while on a “how I talk and what I mean” post in case anyone missed it:

I adhere to the literary standard of what defines fictional canon (including subtext with authorial intent), and the dictionary definition of romance; to both of these I will always apply pillarings of existing examples, sometimes even from intertext used in SPN like On The Road, sometimes just in basic literary discussion. So if you see me using these words, understand it’s by the definitions in the link (or this shorthand version).

According to basic literary theory, Destiel is canonically romantic; this is different from canonically consummated or being an established, existing, metaphorically betrothed couple. If anyone reblogs or comments on this just to argue with me, I’m going to deadass ignore you, because you’re arguing with the dictionary and pretty much the entire literary field. Spamming an old gif running on two years outdated won’t fix that.

And yes, I would love to see that get a happily-ever-after too, just like the above points for codependency and performer attributes.

UNDERSTAND, HOWEVER,

That this is *not* to be conflated with the concept of representation/LGBT/etc. I understand everybody’s exhausted of the “hide your gays” thing. I personally understand that. I also speak about that as a problem. That does not, however, necessarily attach to any of the above-dressed issues. It is a separate, equally valid issue - distinct and separate, because social biases are a different beast. Just because I hold to “The dictionary and literary field defines X as Y,” does not mean I'm saying, “People who enjoy Y should settle only for X value,” and if you want to pursue Z (better on screen rep/completion/don’t Hide The Gay), that’s great. Doorkicking into any literary discussions I’m having with this blatant conflation and, frankly, sea lion, doesn’t really add to discussion integrity. When I’m talking about issues with “Hiding the Gay”, I invite you to related discourse; if I am holding discussions about literature through the ages, and intertext parallels, please reserve that for the appropriate conversation. If you insist on conflating all problems into one central problem, we just end up with 99 problems that are indiscernible from each other. And that’s just... I ain’t gonna humor that.

I have plenty of discussions out there about the problems with the Hide Your Gays in modern media; I’m not saying it doesn’t matter to me - as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it does in fact matter to me. But rather than us having a trash-heap of 1,000 problems, I’d like to be able to sort and approach them individually.

More on canon, “fair interpretation”, and even “Death of the Author,”

So I’ve read things like “I have this idea and this reading out of this scene but I’m a realistic viewer and know the authors are probably going to go this direction with this, which is different than what I read/want.”

This is fine as long as we recognize you’re building an alternative canon. The first idea of canon structures is listings of books (or in our case, episodes/incidents) that build a complete work (or genre for review.) If you have habitually “missed the mark” on what the authors have been doing with the show, and where they’re going, you are free to continue to build your own interpretations and try to apply concepts like “Death of the Author” (although like I’ve gone on a tear about before, people generally do that wrong.)

That does not, however, contend with the application of authorial intent WRT subtext and thematics in central canon. You are free to build your own. If you are aware your own is not adhering to what the authors are doing in still-living progression, if you’re at peace with that - that’s fine. On the other hand, if Meta Author B has a habit of nail-on-the-head-ing projections well in advance while your expectations lend the other way, you pretty much have zero room to try to drop a Deuce on Meta Author B. 

Literature and entertainment is all interpretation, but if one interpretation continues to hold true to the test of time, and you recognize your interpretation or projection is not holding water to what the authors are doing, well - that kind of says it all? And you’re free to build new canon constructs and interpretations, but if we’re about to line up what authorial-intent-subtext we consider canon, The Way This Works is that the people who are generally right... are generally right, until they’re wrong, and the next applicable lit theory that resonates with existing author statements is the strongest front runner.

Cuz That’s How This Works.

And it definitely doesn’t work by screaming “OOC” at whatever points You Individually Don’t Agree With. Especially if, rather than a single fluke of dishinged ideas, you’re deleting entire recurring ideas or thematics or other expositions. 

In short: You’re free your own interpretations and rearranged canons, as long as you’re individually aware and own the fact that That’s What That Is. If you have to delete scenes, content, episodes, decisions, or creative-capacity statements, you are now operating outside of the range of actual authorial canon (and, by nature, the things you see/read/expect/want probably get shattered progressively more often until you adapt). You are free to enjoy your canon. You are free to build as many branches of that as you want. But trying to take a fractured side-canon to joust against consecutively more routinely accurate canon-analysis is just a recipe for a lot of butthurt, so just don’t, in that case?

#supernatural #terminology #what I mean when I say certain words #cuz I've been reading a lot of talk people have about these words #and this is eating at me

[eleanor-devil]

Naruto Fanfic - Boruto: Sacrifices - Chap.21, The Bitter Truth

IMPORTANT: It would be very very appreciated if you reblogged it and left a comment. We get lots of likes/favs but almost no comments, so please everyone, leave a comment, it encourages us to continue.

Written by my friend @mirage-05

Cover by @eleanor-devil

prologue, chap.1, chap.2, chap.3, chap.4, chap.5, chap.6, chap.7, chap.8, chap.9, chap.10, chap.11, chap.12, chap.13, chap.14, chap.15, chap.16, chap.17, chap.18, chap.19, chap.20, chap.21, chap.22

For more Sacrifices stuff, click on this link

Chapter 21 - The Bitter Truth

"No." "No? What do you mean by that?" Kabuto sighed, adjusting his glasses, a serious look on his face. "You know very well what it means. I'm sorry but I can't help you." "Kabuto..." the black haired man said through gritted teeth, his patience waning. "I told you, I have nothing to do with that attack-" "And I believe you." the younger man cut in, but the faithful phrase was still delivered in that same unrelenting tone. "But it doesn't change my mind. Forgive me for saying this, Orochimaru-sama, but I built a respectable reputation in this village after all that happened, and I don't want to ruin it. I can't afford to get my name involved with yours once again." In any other time, in the past... this would've ended up in blood. Honestly, the sannin never understood where this new-found patience of his was coming from. "You wouldn't do that even for Mitsuki then?" That was the first time his old disciple's face actually betrayed his emotions. The pained expression that etched the lines of his face was genuine. "I would do anything in my power. I'm saddened to hear about the incident-" "Then help me!" There was a brief pause during which Kabuto regarded the sannin carefully, apparently calculating something in his head. "Alright." he said finally. "I'm gonna help you... without getting my hands dirty."

...

Orochimaru sighed and brought a hand to his forehead to swipe it across his hair, looking at the plans in front of him, trying to focus. Which was his biggest problem. He couldn't concentrate on the break-in plan - which he should. It had been too long already. Eight days. Eight days and four hours. Eight days, four hours and twenty-seven minutes to be exact. Sighing once more, the sannin dragged his weary gaze back down on the piece of paper that was standing in front of him on the kitchen table. That was the length to which Kabuto was willing to go, to provide him with the means to enter the stronghold that is Konoha's prison. It was no easy feat, but there was one tiny, fragile spot... Fragile... Mitsuki was in such a fragile condition right now, and how he wished he could do something more than just tearing that one bastard piece to piece... Considering that the medics talked about a possible heart condition, he could've started looking for some cure, this was what he was best at after all... But there were two problems with that plan; one, he didn't know exactly what kind of heart condition they could face and two... he didn't even know if Mitsuki was going to... Letting out an angry snarl, Orochimaru swiped everything on the table, along with the plans, to the floor in one quick motion and brought his hands to his head again, looking like he was just about to pull his hair off... There was a knock on the door. Caught unprepared, his head shot up. Who would come...? Only the Hokage and Sasuke knew about his presence here... He was even more unprepared to find out who there were. "What is the meaning of this?" Sasuke said through gritted teeth, his tone tense, glaring daggers... although it was nothing compared to how furious his oldest son looked, who was being held by his kimono's collar by the Uchiha. Behind them Team Taka stood, gazing at the scene with worry. "Let me go at once, Uchiha!" "You will see that you have no authority here." the black haired man told the younger, clearly thin on patience. Then he looked back at the sannin. "I had no idea you had another son." "He is not my father." Log mumbled in protest. "What are you doing here?" Orochimaru asked, he was NOT in the mood to deal with Log now. That was apparently the one quite wrong thing to say. "What are we... are you fucking KIDDING me?!" the young man snapped, breaking free of Sasuke's hold and rounding up on the sannin. "How DARE you keep this from us for so long?! What have you been DOING for the past damn week?!" "Watch your tone." despite the fact that his voice was calm enough, a dangerous frown had etched itself on the sannin's face. "You keep an eye on your..." the Uchiha looked back at Log. "...whoever he is, I don't want any problems." he then turned to look at the Taka, especially Juugo. "I will notify the hospital staff so you won't be in any trouble when you visit him. I'll contact you again." "And how will you stop me if I decide to go now?" Log asked through gritted teeth. "With your... identical look to the child, you will only cause trouble. And if you cause trouble..." the threat was nothing light. "You'll answer to me." Seeing that his son was yet again to answer, Orochimaru immediately intervened. "Cut it." He then turned his icy gaze to his old disciple. "Anything else?" "Keep up the low profile. Remember, your presence in Konoha is a secret." "You can show yourself to the door." It seemed like Sasuke didn't have anything else to say anyway. But he still paused for a minute as he reached the door. "Yamato is also here. He will report anything suspicious." With that, he was out. Log rounded on the sannin once again. "I will never forget that you kept this from us." "Well, now you're here, aren't you?" "No thanks to you!" "Log..." Orochimaru was trying to keep his calm, he honestly didn't need his son's outburst right now. "Unlike you, I tended to a very important matter." That caught the young man off guard, and he gritted his teeth as his hands turned into fists and he had to look away. "We learned about everything thanks to Juugo's birds," Karin put in helpfully, trying to cover for the sudden silence. "Orochimaru-sama... if there's anything we can do..." "Don't even think about it." Suigetsu immediately interjected, which made Karin look at him with a slight frown. "I can manage. Just for a little..." "No." the white haired man wasn't relenting. "I care for Mitsuki and I want to see him in good condition too, but there are limits. Do you think he would've wanted you to put yourself at risk in your condition?" "Well, he's not here to say it!" "Karin, I'm not gonna let you do this." "And since when did I ask your permission about something?!" "Karin..." Juugo intervened. "Suigetsu is right, this can be too dangerous for you." "But-" "Save it for when you're allowed to visit him." the sannin cut in, his tone exasperated. "For now, I need your help." ... Hearing a knock on his door, Konohamaru looked up. "Come in." It took him by surprise, the boy who entered. "Excuse me, Konohamaru-sensei... I would like to have a word if you have time." The jounin snapped out of his surprise and a serious look adorned his face. "Of course, Beika." Silent as a cat, the genin walked inside and closed the door behind him. Konohamaru noticed how... nervous he looked, which piqued his interest. "What brought you here?" he asked in a matter-of-fact tone. "I..." the blond started, looking at his hands. "I came because..." he then straightened his back and raised his head. "I wanted to apologize for my behavior in the mission." Konohamaru sighed. "Look, Beika... I talked to your sensei. The way Boruto treated you wasn't right and I understand you reacted like that because of the bullying you endured in the past, but..." "I know... it wasn't, in any case, right to talk behind someone who is hospitalized in such a critic condition." "I'm glad you at least understood you were wrong." the jounin couldn't help as his thoughts drifted to his most recent student. "Some just don't want to see it." "That's part of the reason why I'm here." Beika sighed. "When I came back to Konoha, before our mission that is... There were many rumors spreading around... about Mitsuki." Something about the way he said it made Konohamaru frown slightly, it apparently wasn't any good. "Care to explain a bit?" "There are various rumors, honestly, you will be surprised just how much people are bending his story over and over... But as you can guess, none of them were good." The boy looked up at him again. "Mainly what they are going on about this is... how Mitsuki initially wanted to betray the village, how everything is a giant set-up... That he had been a spy on his father's behalf from the very beginning..." "And did you come here to ask me about the truth?" Beika didn't say anything for a moment. "Well... no. I might have acted like a jerk back there but... I never really believed those rumors, especially after hearing that many versions." Konohamaru let a small smile shown, if nothing, this boy seemed to be sincere right now... both about his apology and when he said he didn't believe the rumors. "That's good... because the truth couldn't be farther away." ... "Karin, I must tell you... it will come as a shock, seeing Mitsuki like this..." Sakura glanced at the grown belly of the redhead. "I'm worried for the baby..." Karin's smile was fleeting. "It's okay Sakura, I'll be fine..." She had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Mitsuki is practically my child too... I raised him, I know all about him, down to the smallest mood change..." She let out a shaky breath, wrapping her arms around herself. "Right now he needs me... I can't afford to be anywhere else but beside him." Sakura sighed herself, the redhead's devotion and love... indeed, it was nothing short of a mother's. And it wasn't hard to relate to her... "Please..." she turned to her friend, making her come to a stop, too, and put her hands on top of hers. "Promise me you won't do anything rash." She gave her a knowing look. Karin actually laughed at that. "And welcome Suigetsu number two." She jokingly rammed her elbow into her boyfriend's side as he came near her. "As if he would let me do anything." "Keeping my girlfriend from over-exhaustion is part of my job." the white haired man countered with a small smirk, putting one of his arms around her shoulder. "So what, am I a job to you now?" "It is in the contract, ma'am." When that prompted another elbow trust, the pink haired medic couldn't help but chuckle. "Wow... you two... who would've thought...?" "Oh well," Karin mused, putting her hand on Suigetsu's. "Things can change... people can change..." and then her eyes were serious. "Let's get going, shall we?" ...

"Nee, Karin-kaa-chan... What is it that you wanted to show me?" "Mitsuki, I want you to pay close attention. This technique I'm gonna teach you might be a little advanced, but it's gonna help you protect yourself when you're in need." "Oooh, is it a cool technique?" Karin laughed at that. "Yes, it is. You wanted to impress tou-chan, didn't you? I can guarantee you that you will grab his attention with this." "Then let's start! Let's start!"

...

Karin was just gaping at Mitsuki from behind the glass, one hand covering her mouth, her voice having left her... Beside her, her teammates and Log were standing motionless too, none of them knowing what to do or say... Gulping for a couple of times to try and gain at least a bit of her control, the redhead found herself whispering. "O-oh my god... M-my baby..." "Karin, maybe we should..." Suigetsu began. "No..." The redhead gulped once again and her voice came out more clearly. "I just... want to talk to him in private..." Her boyfriend squeezed her hand slightly. "I will be right here." Karin gulped and nodded, grateful for his presence. She then looked sideways at Log, maybe he wanted to go in first...? But the older brother just gave a simple, silent nod. And then she was sliding in through the door, and she was alone... The woman had to stand where she was as she took in the scene in more details. During her lifetime she had seen many wounded, she had healed many wounded, adults and children alike, she was used to it. But seeing a child she came to regard as her own... Trying to take in deep breaths to calm herself down, she finally walked in and took the seat beside the bed. A tear rolled down her cheek as she leaned forward to put her hand on Mitsuki's cheek, caressing it gently. "Do you remember," she whispered finally and a small smile showed on her face. "...there was this one day you were really sick... so much so that you couldn't even get up from your bed. You..." she hesitated when her voice became thick. "You even had the nerve to ask me whether you were going to die..." Her hand stopped for a moment, still on the boy's cheek. "And I told you that as long as you didn't dream of a river bank you would be just fine, because then Jizo, the protector of the dead children wouldn't bother you." She chuckled silently. "You kept awake that whole night and refused to see Juugo until the next morning..." The memories brought fresh tears rolling down, and Karin continued gazing fondly at the child. "Now... even if you see Jizo, I need you to turn him down, Mitsuki." she leaned forward to place a kiss on the boy's hand, and then gently brought it to her belly. "Because don't forget... your little sister is waiting for you too..." Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she leaned forward once again to kiss Mitsuki on the forehead. "Just don't worry, baby... I'm here and I'm not going anywhere until you get better. You're gonna make it." Slowly she got up, as much as she wanted to stay a little more, she knew that Log was getting impatient, too. It had already been uncharacteristically nice of him to allow her in first. And indeed, as soon as the redhead got out, Log rushed past her. The young man didn't hesitate as he took the seat that was vacated by Karin, but looking up at his injured brother this close... he practically sagged, putting his arms on the side of the bed and hiding his face between his hands. "I guess seeing you like this is my punishment for being at the very wrong place at the very wrong time..." he whispered in disgust, and then raised his head to look at the younger boy once again. "I'm sorry baby brother... I let you down... I should've been here that day as planned, I should've fought those bastards, I should've protected you...!" he dropped his face in his palms, shaking his head. "Orochimaru was right... I AM a disgrace..." His voice was strained by the time, but the older clone knew better than shedding a tear, no matter how close to it he felt. He stayed in silence for a while, just... existing beside Mitsuki. "When you wake up, I... don't expect you to forgive me easily... or at all." he sighed as he moved his gaze up once more. "But regardless... even if to just kick my ass, find your way back." A humorless smirk came across his lips. "I'll even let you do it this time." The young man brushed his hand on his brother's fingers in form of a goodbye before silently heading out. ... Naruto huffed out angrily, pinching his nose between his two fingers. "This is getting ridiculous... I had believed we were over this bullshit..." "I'm afraid not," Konohamaru said seriously. "There are still rumors about Mitsuki, lord seventh, and pretty bad ones." He sighed. "I'm just concerned of Boruto and Sarada finding out about all these... They are not gonna take it lightly." Naruto nodded, he knew only too well what Boruto's reaction would be... He honestly wasn't looking forward for another outburst. He sighed. "Alright... Leave it to me, I'm gonna deal with it myself." Konohamaru bowed. "Thank you, lord seventh." As soon as he was out, Naruto called. "Shizune." The woman was there in a second. "Yes?" "Contact the TV station manager for me." ... "Hey... can I sit here?" Sarada was genuinely surprised to hear the voice, but her face didn't betray her emotions as she turned around to face the person who just spoke. "Why? You came to mock us again?" She wondered if that was guilt in his brown eyes, which shone with determination. "No. I only wanted to speak for a bit." The Uchiha turned her head away from him. "Well, I'm not in the mood for a chat." Beika sighed as he sat next to the girl... who didn't openly object to it. "Even if I say I'm here to apologize?" When Sarada just snorted humorlessly, he insisted. "I am. Look... I know what I did was wrong-" "It's a little too late for that," she cut in. "Please, Sarada..." the blond sighed again, he didn't want to end things like this. "It's... no excuse for my actions but... I have been constantly bullied back in the academy because of my origins... I've been told multiple times that I, a..." a humorless smile came across his lips. "baker, as my name and family job suggested... wasn't cut out to be a ninja. That my efforts were futile, that I should just quit." "Oh, and so you thought it was only fair to do the same to a person in a similar condition?" "No, not at all. I have nothing against Mitsuki. I told you, I wasn't even here when the attacks happened or when he was harassed." When the girl looked at him doubtfully, he added. "I heard all about it from my teammates and your sensei. But you see, when Boruto just... acted like that... it was as if all that bullying came back to me... And I... learned to be harsh when I need to be..." He paused for a moment. "I'm really, honestly sorry about saying such inconsiderate words about your friend..." Sarada sighed herself, when he put it like that... it was getting harder to stay mad at this boy. Still... "It doesn't matter right now... does it? Not until he wakes up... Because if anyone has to forgive... that's Mitsuki." The blond's look turned sad. "I'm sorry... I don't know exactly how bad it is, but... I hope he'll make a full recovery and wake up soon." "Thank you." Sarada whispered softly, facing Beika again and finally showing the ghost of a smile. ... The setting sun found Boruto and his friends returning from another visit to the hospital. None of them were in the mood to speak much. True, that wasn't their first time, but it wasn't getting easier no matter how many times they visited their injured friend... None of them had any experiences that would match before. Shikadai looked sideways at Boruto. His friend did seem more composed in the past few days, but they had all heard about the recent incident. Although he was being careful not to show it, the Nara was worried about him. "Hey, what do you say about stopping by my house? Shikayo was saying something about making Genmaicha..." It was not just kind of a traditional drink for the Nara, the whole gang really liked it and would drop from time to time to their house especially for this. He had expected to get a reaction from Boruto. But before the blond could say anything... they were stopped by a voice coming from behind them. "Tell me... banana... is your girlfriend getting any better?" Boruto tensed visibly before slowly turning around. His friends immediately surrounded him in a semi-circle, dislike on their expressions as they stared at the small group, especially at Ichiro, who, of course, was in the lead. He looked at Boruto's friends with a raised eyebrow. "Never noticed you were going around with bodyguards now." He smirked. "What, you're afraid to go one on one with me now?" "Look who's talking," Inojin said between gritted teeth, frowning at the older boy. "Why don't you kindly buzz off with your cronies, Sarutobi?" "After all the trouble they have caused? Disgracing my grandfather and seeing that he was replaced by their sensei?" Although he didn't even say Konohamaru's name, there was distinctive hatred in the boy's voice. "Oh, no. He's not getting away with this." "Guys... step aside." Boruto said finally in a tight whisper. "Boruto... let's just go okay?" the Yamanaka's voice showed clearly how concerned he was. " No... if they want to keep badmouthing Mitsuki, then he's right, they will have to face me." "So what, your little snake friend was weak? That's why he is dying!" one of the other kids said, and some of the group actually snickered. "Tch... you should be the one in his place... certainly no one would miss you..." the blond was looking directly in Ichiro's eyes. "I would like to see you going up against five jounins with stronger elements than yours... you wouldn't even look back, saving your own ass!" "They're not worth it, just let it go..." Metal said, almost helplessly. "He got what he deserved!" one of the other kids shouted, and knowing what would happen next... Metal and Inojin blocked Boruto's way before he could jump forward to the kid. "I dare you to say that again!" "Why won't you losers just shut your mouths?" Shikadai pretty much growled, thin on patience. "Don't talk about things that you don't know of." "Oh, and you know, Nara?" "Why do you side with him, Nara?" Ichiro said, mocking. "Or are you looking to get a good job by his side when he becomes Hokage, like your father?" Boruto's eyes widened when he heard that... remembering all the many times Mitsuki said this very same thing... "...you..." he mumbled, and as the last bond of his composure got torn up, he lunged forward, trying to get free of his friends' hold. "...you little piece of shit!!" "Whoa, whoa, calm down!" Inojin glared at the Sarutobi and his friends. "For once, keep your big mouth shut!" "Haven't you done enough?!" Metal asked angrily before looking back at his friend. "Come on Boruto... let's go..." "No! They need to know! They have to know that the person they so criticize right now, even when he isn't here to defend himself, actually saved their asses!" the blond yelled, angrier than he could put in words... if it wasn't for his friends holding him back... "What are you talking about?" Ichiro asked. "Bullshit!" Before any of them could answer, the huge screens in the center of the village changed images from their usual campaigns and publicity to the reporter's program. "Today we interrupt our usual show for a special interview: The investigation of the attack at the orphanage." she said while looking at the screen, then she turned her face to her side. "With us we have the honorable presence of our Hokage, who accepted to advance us the information about the investigation. Lord Seventh, welcome." she bowed. "Thank you." The Hokage said plain out, his voice sounded tired and grave. It had been a rare sight for the people of the village - usually, the Hokage always wore a smile on his face whenever he addressed the public, it was his nature. "Aside from giving information about the interrogation data..." he continued. "I would also like to inform everyone about the following attack which aimed the village and myself, and... its consequences, as it reached my attention that there has been some misunderstandings." "We have heard a few rumors about this so called attack but there is a lack of information. Care to extend the information about it? Is it related to the attack to the orphanage?" Her questions held no hesitation, almost no emotion, just the pure and simple seriousness of her job. Naruto took a breath before answering. "Yes, both attacks are related to each other." The next question was quick. "Was it Orochimaru behind the attacks?" Naruto's eyes hardened "No." He saw the look in the woman's eyes change momentarily to surprise before she immediately got a hold of herself again. "I believe it was revealed that the orphanage attack was indeed linked to the sannin?" "That was a mistake on our part." the Hokage continued. "Orochimaru had been behind neither the orphanage nor the second attacks. The interrogations in regard of this second attack made us come to the conclusion that he was framed." "Then who are the culprits behind both attacks?" she asked. "Both of them were held by a group of rogue ninjas." he answered and the reporter noticed how sure of himself he sounded. "And the snakes?" "The snakes might be Orochimaru's mark but I assure you that anyone..." He made sure to freeze that last word. "...can make a contract with a summoning snake." "So are you saying, Lord Seventh, that the attackers tried to both take your life and frame Orochimaru? Why would they do it?" "Disrupting the peace, ensuring chaos... We know from our past experiences that chaos calls for a change in power, a dictatorship in extreme cases." He stopped for a moment, and then moved on. "Three out of the five attackers were from the  survivors of the Oto village, the village found by Orochimaru himself, which was destroyed when he fell. Joining forces with two strong cloud missing ninjas, they sought revenge and a perfect chaotic environment, assassinating the person many saw as the harbinger of peace." "You said there had been more consequences other than the death of the children in the orphanage." "Yes..." The pain in Naruto's face returned as he looked away from the camera for a moment before looking again. Boruto knew that he was finally going to talk about the most important matter... well at least it was to him... "Because of the news that claimed Orochimaru as the culprit behind the first attack, someone else was unfairly caught in the crossfire." "Are you talking about Orochimaru's offspring?" "Yes. His name is Mitsuki." He was firm in his words. "And although he was constantly harassed and driven out of the village, feeling unwanted... he still protected the village, protected me... with his life." There was a moment of silence. "There have been a lot of rumors circling the child's involvement," the reports woman said carefully, it was only too clear that the Hokage was touched by the subject. "Care to enlighten us more on this?" Naruto took a deep breath and then looked directly in the camera, so that he was looking into the eyes of everyone who was watching this interview right now. "When he left the village that night... Mitsuki came across the rogue ninjas just out of our eastern border, talking about their plans for attacking the village. And even when there were five ninjas, all of them jounins with stronger techniques than him... He engaged them in battle, protecting us with all he had before we could reach him in the appropriate time." "But if the attack was so close to the border, then why didn't anyone come to help the child?" Naruto sighed. "One of the ninjas had the ability of rising a sound barrier which allowed a fight to stay inside that bubble and to not be heard from the outside." He explained, and paused for a second. "I am truly saddened to have heard so many rumors antagonizing this child who did nothing but protect the village. Even when he had no reasons to do it. That is why I am here to clear his name. Mitsuki is not the one to blame here. In fact... he is currently in a deep coma after he was badly injured in that fight. Nobody knows if he will ever wake up." The reports woman was apparently trying to gather her thoughts - her professionalism aside, the revelations were indeed shocking. "Lord seventh... I think all of us yearn to solve just one piece of the puzzle. There are more than capable jounins in the village. Konoha could easily have driven those ninjas out. Why... why would this child take such a risk?" "Those ninjas did not randomly made a squad. Their abilities did indeed make them a formidable, effective ambush squad." The Hokage again paused for a minute. "There is no telling how many ninjas, how many families they would have destroyed before they reached me. Mitsuki, one child of barely twelve years old, made sure that wouldn't be the case... and that nearly cost him his life. He... in his very own words... protected his family." The woman was clearly getting emotional over the Hokage's words, Naruto couldn't tell if it was simply because of the heaviness of the words or if they made her think of a child of her family, her own child perhaps... "Thank you for your words and presence, Lord Seventh. Is there anything else you would like to add?" "Just to ask the people in Konoha to no longer spread rumors about this child. What I just said is the whole truth and Mitsuki is the hero here. Thank you." The screen went off the moment the Hokage rose from the chair. The whole village was in deep silence... they didn't know what to say and even when they slowly returned to their daily affairs, their faces were still like they had just come from a burial. Boruto faced the kids with whom he had been fighting a few minutes ago. "Got anything else to say?" he asked, his voice tight. "Go on..." Only silence greeted him, none of the children being able to say anything else... "Come on, Boruto..." Inojin said in a sad mumble. "Let's go..." ... The young woman with bright red hair was absent-mindedly stirring her cup of tea for what felt like the hundredth time. The trip to Konoha had been tiring, to say the least, and she wasn't set to see her friend until tomorrow afternoon, so she had plenty of time to rest, but for some reason, sleep was evading her. She had hoped that maybe a cup of calming tea would ease her tension... She looked up when the waitress put a plate of cookies in front of her. "Nee, Ayaka, I'm trying to get sleepy, you know." she said jokingly. "A full stomach is not gonna help me much." "Heh. Knowing you, you should be running around half-starved all the way from Kiri." the woman said with a smirk of her own. "Ah, gimme a break. It has been ages since I left that stupid diet program." "You mean to say when you finally left that loser, Satoru?" They both laughed at that. It didn't go amiss by the redhead that her friend's laughter was short-lived, though, as a sad look came across her features. "Hey, is there something wrong?" she asked lightly. "Huh?" her friend seemed startled. "It's... just that..." she sighed, and her eyes drifted to the door of the cafeteria. "I keep wishing that he would just walk in..." The woman was almost gonna tease her about a possible boyfriend, like the other did with her ex... but her instinct told her not to. "Who are you talking about?" "This boy... he's a genin I know ever since the academy... One of the kindest of them, too, always with a smile... He used to come here every morning in the weekends, he loves scrambled eggs, but... he had been in an incident... he is hospitalized now..." She sighed as she made to go. "I just miss the happy look in his golden eyes whenever he thanked for the breakfast..." Something clicked on the woman's mind when she heard those words. "Wait, does... this boy also have tossled blue-white hair?" Of course there could be many golden eyed boys but... her gut feeling told her otherwise. Her friend seemed confused by that. "What, do you know him?" "Mitsuki..." the woman whispered as her eyes widened a little. "Yes, that's his... Izumi?" the waitress called as she watched her friend take out some coins and left them on the table. "Where are you going?" "I'll see you later, Ayaka." Izumi replied, already at the door. "I need to go visit a friend of mine."

#naruto #boruto #mitsuki #orochimaru #karin #suigetsu #juugo #sasuke #sacrifices #fanfic #oc #naruto oc

[copperpearl]

You used to be anti "A Long Way from Home". What happened to change that?

The extended explanation, which I strongly encourage everyone to read(YES, EVEN IF YOU’RE DEFINITELY NEVER READING THE FIC), but scroll to the bottom bolded part if you must:

First, it’s important to understand my initial introduction to the fic and why my reaction was so severe: Someone who will not be named, who I am no longer in contact with, recommended it to me. This was knowing I deeply identified with Pearl, knowing I was an assault victim, and knowing that I was using jaspearl with Pearl being a survivor to help cope with that. I wasn’t warned about the contents, just told that it was a good jaspearl story, and given the illustrated version to read.

Being easily triggered by graphic images, this did not end well. Without knowing anything else about the story, and the initial assault scene very nicely mirroring my own experiences, AND it involving the rape of a character I identified with by a character I was shipping her with to heal that pain, I was, as you said, VERY against the fic. I was under the immediate impression that it was rape-as-entertainment porn. I got nauseous every time I saw the title, or even mention of the author’s name. NONE of this is her fault, and it’s important to remember that. I know a lot of people say things about her, and they really aren’t fair, because I know for a fact that reactions such as mine are not something she wishes on anyone, because she’s said just that to me. I’m only mentioning them again to show how significant and sincere the rest of the story is.

I was(and still am!) in a discord chat centered on an SU character, one of the first people who were in it, and I became a regular voice in it. Around mid/late October, Butts got added to it. I immediately got upset and worried, and I went to the creator of the discord chat for help. I knew it was rude of me to be so upset, since she seemed nice and others were excited about her being there. I had the idea to try and talk to her. Maybe knowing why she wrote what she did, and what the purpose of it was, and an affirmation that it wasn’t “rape is hawt lol” junk, would help stop my irrational fear of her. But since I wasn’t sure what she was like or how the rest of the VERY long fic outside of that first chapter progressed(plus a few snippets of the early chapters that were also sent to me to mess me up), I was way too nervous to do that. Thankfully, the chat mod had read it, and assured me that it was all about survival and subversion, and NOT what I had been led to believe it was. Still something I was sure I’d never want to read, but I still wanted to talk to her.

And I am very, VERY glad I did. She immediately apologized. Yes, apologized for the fact that someone else made their own choice to use her content to hurt me. After a bit of conversation she said this, which I’m putting copied from that convo since I couldn’t say it better myself(with her permission):

“ No, it makes sense. I understand coming into it and not expecting it must have been jarring. The first 6-7 chapters have some very difficult, hard-to-swallow content. There are themes there that point out and enunciate every ugly, demeaning trope that we have become normalized to. And it’s on purpose. Because I wanted to explore the characters in the context of a society that condones that behavior. I want Homeworld’s culture and flaws to reflect ours in an acute, unmistakable way. Building up these issues and the society that breeds them in the first ~7 Chapters or so is only for the explicit purpose of later tearing it down from the inside out. I wanted to show Jasper unravel herself from the Homeworld mindset and I wanted Pearl to come into her own through the experience as well. I’m currently in Act II of a three-act fic, so it’s quite a long game I’m playing. And yes, it’s not always pretty. It’s a hard fic to read and stomach for some. I won’t deny that. But it’s the fic I needed to write for myself as an artist and a creator to deconstruct some of these themes.I apologize–I know hearing about it might upset you. But I also hope it will help explain some of the choices made from my perspective. Know not every fic I write as those themes.  But when I do write about them, I write them for a purpose.I’ll be honest, it can be a little upsetting that there are a lot of conclusions draw about me and my writing before I’ve finished it. I’ve had people call it “that fancy rape fic” and other such things that really make me uncomfortable. Yes, there is non-con in the fic, but that’s not what it’s ABOUT. Not to me.”

There was much more to our conversation, but that’s the bit that helped take away the majority of my fears. And even after accepting and thanking her for her explanation, she not only told me to let her know if she ever did anything else to make me uncomfortable, but offered right there to excuse herself from the server if I felt her presence would be too much for me. That wasn’t something she had to do. She could have just given her explanation and left it at that, and I wouldn’t have blamed her for doing so! But she still offered. I declined, and we’re still both in the server.

It would have ended there, except for two things:

1. A friend of mine who also didn’t want to read the fic or hear about any of the darker parts, but did think Butts had a lovely art style, mentioned looking at the later chapters for the pretty art.

2. I was still getting much milder but still irritating reactions when I came across mentions of the fic or looked in the art tag of tumblrs that reblogged some of the earlier art and stumbled across it. Not to mention, tumblr savior and blacklist are just plain shitty sometimes, and people also just don’t feel like tagging their reblogs either.

Because of that, I decided maybe some mild exposure therapy would help, on my own terms. If I looked just at the later chapter art, and saw the pretty things my friend liked, which I knew wouldn’t be triggering because she was avoiding the fic itself for similar reasons, maybe I’d be able to associate content and talk about it with things that weren’t immediately disturbing.

And of course, I made the mistake of not asking to clarify WHICH chapter art that friend thought was pretty, or going to Butts herself or any other fans for direction to which illustrations would be safe for me to view. So I looked a liiiittle too early, and saw things like Pearl in her cell/the nursery Pearl(”Hello”) next to her, and the three Pearls in the brothel. These weren’t enough to be triggering or that upsetting, but I didn’t like them at first and was annoyed that this time I didn’t take the right precautions to avoid them.

But I’m glad I messed up, because it got me intrigued. From those pictures(and some others) plus snippets of sentences I caught while scrolling, I got the feeling this wasn’t just a fic that subverted awful tropes and handled the idea of a society that has no concept of sexual assault well. It was one which also had themes and worldbuilding elements around that main concept that I, specifically, would enjoy and appreciate. Remember, I’m currently working on two projects involving Pearls that are sexually abused and either healing from or fighting to escape said abuse, though all of the assault happens off-screen. Take all the written/drawn instances of it out, and replace Jasper with an OC since I don’t like thinking of canon characters as assailants, and you have something I might write myself!

I thought, ok, what if I try reading part of the fic? I remembered that Butts had said it was the earlier chapters that had all of the especially hard to swallow things before the subversion and tearing down of tropes started. It wasn’t a guarantee, but if the world she’d made was as captivating as I thought it might be, that could help with my lingering issues. With the few snippets I saw, I really, REALLY wanted to try. After some debate, I decided to go to Butts for advice on where I should start. She was the person with the most information on how badly the earlier versions had triggered me + an extra intimate knowledge of where certain themes were.

And hoooly shit am I glad I went to her. I explained that I’d seen snippets of middle/later chapters, both from being linked to earlier/middle stuff and from looking at middle/later stuff myself. I wanted to try reading the fic, just for the exploration into the Homeworld she created. I had a lot of questions. I wanted to know if it was possible to read from a later point, and if she would be ok with just telling me important plot bits of the earlier chapters, and if she would be ok with me asking questions while I read if I was confused about anything.

She did that, and WAY more. This wasn’t long ago, just over a week; looking at our convo shows my questions about reading started on the 9th. We talked for hours about the things I was intrigued by, the concerns I had, and what scenes exactly would be hard or impossible for me to read. We literally talked for HOURS about the themes she had, what her intentions were with them, worldbuilding stuff that other fans had never asked but I was curious about, seeing if I was understanding the mindset of the characters properly, etc. I even spoke a lot about the similarities/differences between her headcanon for Gem reproduction and mine, and a lot of my own original ideas in general.

She suggested I start at a specific point in chapter 7, gave me a phrase to ctrl + f to start from, and EXPLICITLY warned me of some future things that may have been upsetting, since she wasn’t sure what other things I was triggered by. This resulted in, from mid-chapter 7 to chapter 13, over several days, my reading what I could in short bursts and stopping both when I needed a break and when I was confused/had questions.

And Butts happily and enthusiastically answered every. Single. One.She was very attentive to my concerns, and even gave me a spoiler for something I was very worried about and said I would have to mentally prepare myself if handled a certain way(No, I’m not saying what it was or whether it’ll be handled that certain way or not, don’t bug her about it either, it was a personal issue for me). My questions even prompted the idea of a chapter-by-chapter reading guide for those who like me would enjoy the plot but needed to be careful about certain scenes! No guarantee on that, just bringing it up as that is the kind of genuine concern and thoughtfulness Butts has about these things.

It got to the point where I was pausing in my reading not because I had to or I was confused, but because the way something was being handled or something a character did had me very excited due to how WELL it was done, and I just had to fangirl over it to her directly. I even did a “liveblog” to her of my reading the latest chapter(14) via private messaging, again because I was just so damn excited(hence my partial analysis of the chapter). There are still rough themes, still things I have trouble reading, but now it’s all done with the knowledge that the author truly understands the gravity of these things, and how serious they are, and how delicately they ought to be handled.

That said, it’s still a very dark, very heavy fic. A lot of people won’t like it, and just plain won’t be able to read any of it. That’s fine! But I want to assure everyone that no, Butts does not write rape as entertainment. She doesn’t treat sexual assault lightly. She doesn’t want anyone to be hurt by her writing, and knows the importance of taking harmful tropes associated with assault and tearing them down. And, in the eyes of someone who once had full-blown panic attacks at just the words “A Long Way From Home”, she’s doing it EXTREMELY well.

In short: Yes, by no fault of the author, ALWFH once hurt me terribly, due in part to the noncon elements and how they are at first portrayed. Now, after just a week of careful guidance from Butts, those same exact elements are helping me to heal.

#angie babbles #a long way from home #Anonymous #alwfh

[nitroxylin]

A Collection of (Not So) Nitoral Opinions and Questions regarding dungeonmemester’s TOF

DISCLAIMER: Opinions from this collection might not match those of yours. I’m in no way a game designer, I just read rulebooks and sometimes play and run games of roleplaying variety.

Not that I’m doing RPG reviews, and not that I know how to make them right, but here’s a curious example that’s being posted as teasers and musings: Project TOF by @dungeonmemester, also known as @wearenecromancers. A homebrew project? On my dash? My reaction is more likely than you think, and so I present this set of opinions on various parts of this project, organized by posts I react to.

GENERAL GOALS (the post)

[THAT POST IS DEEMED OUTDATED BY ITS AUTHOR. OPINIONS AND QUESTIONS ABOUT IT MIGHT BE OUTDATED AS WELL]

Good old attempts to fix D&D once more.

High degree of character customization that rewards players for taking the time to learn more about the system

This one is definitely going to be tricky (you can accidentally repeat the ivory tower design of 3.pf with options designed to be bad), especially if you’re also listing this:

Easy to play in practice, not just on paper 

Given that the project is based on 3.pf and 5e, it should be noted that these systems definitely are not easy to play with their inconsistent mechanics and lots of stuff to be aware of.

Individual characters are not good at everything, and probably have flaws/things they’re bad at - not just things they’re good at and thing’s they’re average at

I’d like to dispute that, but I’m afraid that I don’t have enough knowledge and experience to explain my position. I can presume that this point is aimed first and foremost at almighty casters and similar archetypes – correct me if I’m wrong here.

Don’t hide all the cool stuff behind irl years worth of play time, let the game be cool now - things where made to be enjoyed

Now this one is absolutely right, and I fully support that notion. If a player wants to play a char who can do A Thing, that char should be able to do That Thing from the get-go (yes, this includes level 1, if we imply level-based progression). An example - magic-wielding knights are not an uncommon archetype, yet in 5e you need at least two (if multiclassing) or three (if taking the Eldritch Knight route) levels for that. This obviously reduces variety.

Make medieval fantasy less Euro-centric 

I don’t oppose de-eurocentrizing fantasy, but I have concerns whether it’s truly medieval in anything but outward appearance; however, I might be unable to explain that position further, especially given that this point and its subpoints are less about system design and more about worldbuilding.

Challenge the Tolkienesque norms of contemporary medieval fantasy 

(another unexplainable opinion of mine: it’s far more D&Desque than it is Tolkienesque; again, this is worldbuilding and thus not directly tied to systems, but I should probably note that just taking species known from D&D and rebuilding them into versions specific for your game’s default setting isn’t exactly challenging the norms - especially if we take gnomes, who were made kinda popular with D&D; you’re just replacing one set of assumptions with another set)

Make a transparent system that is easy to add balanced new content to, as the ins-and-outs are readily available to DMs who want to make new classes, creatures, spells, etc. 

This might seem like a solution to inadequate variety... if you’re used to classes and other prepackaged character building blocks. While class-based systems have some advantages in form of players being able to skim their options and just pick a package of abilities, be it class, race, or anything else, they often cannot support concepts that aren’t prewritten as classes (or anything else) – and this issue should be taken into consideration. You can make guidelines for making new stuff, but going away from strict 3.pf/5e-style classes might help even better, like Stars Without Number (Revised)-style broad classes or charbuilding of generic systems without classes and levels.

[OUTDATED PORTION ENDS]

HIGH FANTASY AND ITS POWER LEVELS (the post)

A repost of an interesting observation by @prokopetz that hopefully represents the TOF’s designer’s views too. Going equally big whether the char in question casts magic spells openly, forges weapons, or is just very, very good at fighting is a thing I can get behind. (And yes, 4e tried to fix that (not without results), and people were angry enough to spawn Pathfinder - maybe some of those who play 3.pf play it not despite this issue, but because of it?) ASKING FOR OPINIONS ON 3.PF and 5E (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/163834841809/project-tof-dd-edition-reviews; for some reason, Tumblr doesn’t allow me to embed this link)

Asking people about their experience with systems the developers are trying to fix is definitely good. That said, I should probably respond to this post with a separate reblog.

KAIJU CREATURE TYPE (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/164012592174/i-cant-believe-i-didnt-think-to-add-a-kaiju; same as above - seems like Tumblr has a limit on embedded links)

Is that type really needed though? Fantasy has its own giant monsters of various sorts, it has dragons. Tarrasques as some weird singular unkillable creatures surely seem like a D&D invention.

ON SPECIES AND DIVERSITY, pt. 2 (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/164200250854/why-diversity-is-good-for-dd-from-a-mechanical)

I’m singling this one out for its mechanical considerations. Having characteristics not set in stone (”all X are like this, no exceptions”) is definitely better than the approach of 3.pf (and 5e, to a lesser degree). Some of the listed elven features, however, are still based on D&D stereotypes, but I hope this would be fixed.

ON SPECIES AND DIVERSITY, pt. 3 (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/164203248404/why-diversity-is-good-for-dd-from-a-mechanical)

In a class-based game with significant reliance on characteristics (which D&D is), being able to combine any class with any species and not be penalized for that choice is definitely good, but there is one more thing to consider: minmaxers are still going to pick the best species for their class statwise, and being best for them is having bonuses to that class’ core characteristic, be it Int for wizards or anything else; not having penalties is good for them, but not good enough as having bonuses.

With such ties of required characteristics and classes that make use of them, I present an option that might seem insane: drop any stat modifications from species; instead of that, just give classes the exact stats they need.

ON CULTURAL DIFFERENCES (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/164807722979/more-on-writing-the-sentient-creatures-of-your)

This post (which, for some reasons, doesn’t come up by tag in its author’s blog) raises a completely valid point, which I’m not arguing with, and also further defines the project’s approach as “species are for biological traits, culture comes separately“. That said, it’s weird to see an optional species trait of longbow proficiency (doesn’t sound as a biological trait, does it?) in the writeup for elves. I hope this would be fixed as well.

Looking outside D&D would certainly help; Stars Without Number (especially its Revised version) treats background as a thing completely separate from your biology, which can give you stat-ups and skills that might directly help your role or become useful secondary abilities - and I’m not even suggesting classless and levelless generic systems!

ON ALIGNMENT (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/164320489559/re-working-alignment-for-project-tof-is-getting)

Given the eternal wars around D&D alignments, I would like to see your reasoning on keeping it as a concept in general (also, alignments and other cosmic forces of similar scale definitely are setting assumptions).

ON ENCOUNTERS PER DAY (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/164641801274/encounters-per-day)

“Recent statistics show that more and more DM’s are running story-driven campaigns with only one or two of what Matthew Colville aptly describes as “set-piece battles” per day. His Reddit post aligns with a lot of my own thoughts around the rise of narrative-driven entertainment and the consequential fall of old-school, combat-driven D&D.” (Tumblr seems to have a limit on certain tags per post. Hmm.)

This looks like something I would like to discuss further, but not with my current knowledge and experience. However, this point...

“This will most likely involve re-working how magic and spells-per-day work. I’d also like to avoid the pitfall that 4th edition D&D fell into, where the classes where balanced simply because they were basically all just re-skinned wizards. While mechanical balance across a variety of games is important to me, it is also important that each class be unique.”

...raises a question from me; what do you mean by saying that all classes of 4e were wizards? Because of activated abilities for everyone? Because of limiting their daily use (again, nobody calls 3.pf barbarians with their rage X times per day wizards, not does anyone call 5e battlemasters wizards, although their superiority dice are limited too)? And what makes you think that classes of 4e are not unique?

ON TOOLS OF VIOLENCE (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/165206628533/weapons-damage-balance)

This approach is simplistic and definitely viable, but if you’d like to hear about alternatives, OGL-based Legend RPG has absolutely every weapon set deal the same baseline damage; the differences come from qualities (and players definitely can pick enough qualities for their chars’ weapons) and pure flavor (the rulebook explicitly says that your char can be fighting with a sword... or with two swords... or with twenty swords at once - just pick qualities that represent your view on how it works).

ON WHAT GAMEPLAY TOF IS FOR (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/165214104839/gameplay)

The aim to make the system fitting for story-driven games is understandable, given that nearly everyone tries to fit some plot, but D&D has perhaps too many assumptions that inevitably inject combat and dungeon crawling in games on it (and if you somehow end up without it, why even play D&D? there are other systems that do stuff besides combat and dungeon crawling far better). If you’re going to base your system on D&D (and you seem to be going to), please, take this into consideration. For more examples, you can check Fate (Core or Accelerated) and/or other narrative-focused systems (which FFG SW RPGs are not, even though they have a somewhat bigger narrative focus than D&D has and mechanics to support on-the-fly story progression and twists), if you haven’t done so already. And yes, people try to make D&D do stuff that isn’t supported by it; this means that they need to be shown other systems that might suit their needs better - for many, D&D is THE RPG with no alternatives imaginable.

ON LIFESPANS AND MEASUREMENTS (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/165214307634/hey-when-its-not-past-midnight-on-a-sunday-night)

Regarding lifespans - have you ever experienced a D&D-based game (a module, a campaign, any length) where lifespans mattered as a gameplay factor? If so, please specify; in most cases, lifespans aren’t a balancing factor in any way and are just a flavor feature.

Regarding measurements - if you’re speaking tradition, then you can’t truly ask hobbyists to switch to anything (the lonely grave of 4e.jpg); an episode of their unwillingness to switch resulted in Pathfinder, and its upcoming second edition might become a victim to the same doom. Also, imperial measurements are widespread in tabletop gaming because of a single major reason: authors and publishers of the field’s cornerstone games (D&D and Warhammer) were American and British respectively. Feel free to write your game on metric, most of the world uses it.

ON ASSUMPTIONS (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/165230006029/gameplay)

and

ON TYPES OF MAGIC (http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/171399156842/magic-in-project-tof)

and

ON GNOMES AND ASSUMPTIONS

(http://dungeonmemester.tumblr.com/post/172633204994/wearenecromancers-i-can-think-of-a-few-gniches)

Yes, I’m still concerned. The project seems to take out one set of assumptions... to replace it with another set, and this sounds like a problem. You say that you want to make less setting assumptions, yet you write halflings as rabbit-based three-eyed creatures (I’ve seen something like that in your blog, correct me if I’m wrong), plan to have cosmic force-style alignments, and your definitions of rangers’ and paladins’ and warlocks’ and other classes’ abilities and flavor seem identical to (or very closely based on) those of D&D - that’s already a lot of assumptions about a given TOF-based campaign setting a GM could use, and more restrictive ones at that. Checking some systems that are less constrained in charbuilding blocks than D&D (especially the generic ones, where you can easily build your own elves and halflings) might help.

If any opinion or passage from this post seems unnecessarily aggressive, please comment and explain why. Feel free to comment anything else, I’ve started this post specially for civil discussions.

P.S. Holy gosh. Tumblr really can’t digest large posts.